Watch a video of Seldon here
Hello to everyone talking about The Swan Princess!
Thank you to all of you, regardless of your opinion of the brand, for your engagement and the feedback. A special thanks to our fans for their undying support.
The original Swan Princess was a huge project, but a dream come true for our little company. It was our first feature film and we poured our hearts into it, overcoming many hurdles, especially during our theatrical debut. Films are an exciting but competitive business. Without our fans we would not have great achievements like being the #1 animated, non-Disney film of the 90’s upon release to VHS.
Over the past 24 years the fans have motivated me to strive for big goals for The Swan Princess. There is a lot of work to be done in order to achieve my exciting vision. We must really push our little brand forward in todays market. This includes being relevant to children today! We have to create more content. This includes more stories, films, products, music, apps and games...more of everything!
2D versus 3D
I grew up watching Donald Duck, The Lone Ranger and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I think of this 2D, traditional, hand-drawn animation as the real deal, the authentic cartoons. Imagine my luck to be able to make them as an adult!
2D animation is a perfect example of "you don't know what you've got until its gone"! The problem we ran into by the time we endeavored to create new Swan Princess movies, 12 years after the last 2D sequel, was that the market changed. The size of talent pool to draw every cell by hand was no longer available because the artists had progressed with the industry and specialized in CGI. Transitioning to 3D animation was the only real choice we had.
This has been a huge adjustment for us. We have been learning a lot in the process. We strive to always improve the 3D animation and each film gets better.
We know that a huge part of our audience is still children and as one of our adult fans amply pointed out "I showed the original film to my little niece, she wasn't interested. Just not colorful enough". This may be unheard of to some, but it is the reality of current animation. We hope that our 3D approach will encourage our millennial fans to introduce their children to The Swan Princess.
Fortunately, we have millions of fans all over the world and it continues to build. This support and enthusiasm from the Swan Princess fans is the most important stepping stone to achieving a high definition version of the animated film and someday, a live action Swan Princess film!
Thank you again
Seldon O. Young
Producer and Owner of The Swan Princess brand.
About The Swan Princess
The Swan Princess is based upon the folk tale and ballet, Swan Lake. The story is transformed into a playfully fun adventure with exciting music, lovable forest friends, and of course, the handsome Prince Derek. The Swan Princess, Odette, has stayed true to original fairy tale princess with her kindness, grace, and loyalty.
Three reasons you should follow us on Facebook 1) Get a behind-the-scenes look as Princess Odette and Prince Derek continue their adventures 2) Be one of the first to be notified when new products are released and 3) Share your Swan Princess stories and tales with other die-hard fans.
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14 comments
I really enjoyed the original movies. The new ones are a let down, and I know quite a few 2D animators that would love a job in the film industry. You may not be able to animate each cell anymore, but the cells could be added to a computer and animated on top of still. And current Derek is the biggest let-down, going from brave and smart and daring and kind to…well, only three out of four. There is so much trying to be squeezed into the current movies that just end up feeling empty. I wouldn’t show them to any children.
As for a live action movie….
It boils down to the casting, honestly. The last names I heard in the running didn’t spark a single bit of interest for me, know that if those people had been used people would have only gone to see them, and not for the beautiful story. I dunno. It seems like a precarious task to be handled with a lot of care, and not something just jumped into simply to do it. So in all honesty, I won’t know if I would like to see a live-action version of one of my favorite movies until a trailer or two are dropped.
I really like the idea to see a live action Swan Princess movie. Swan Lake is a fairy tale that hasn’t live action movies, so it will be interesting. I think a live action movie could be more mature than animated version because live action are generally more mature, but with all the warm and the heart of the animated one (probably, I think, the animal counterpart will be reduced because it’s difficult to work with animals and if they want to create animals in CGI they need to have a very big budget). I think a live action movie needs to have a more Odette drama especially in the scene of Black Swan (in my opinion, in a live action movie, the sister of Rothbart could be more beautiful like in the original story and I’d like she will be called Odile and she could be a more tragic character). Moreover, during the scene at the royal ball, Odette could be human and see Derek ask in marriage Odile, more drama. The central scene is the royal ball and people love drama with princesses. Odette is too loved. The transformation into the swan (and from the swan form to the human form) is too beautiful so I hope it will be faithfully revived. I think a “Swan Princess” movie could be in the line of 2015 “Cinderella” remake (the best remake until today). I’ll explain: I think it will be good to see a remake with a synposis faithful to the original movie but with a little change to do more faithful to the original fairy tale (and not a sort of “Beauty and the Beast” remake because this movie, although beautiful and successful, was too a sort of ripoff of the original animated one and I think people today love to see a faithful story with little changements and the reprise of elements from original fairy tale). I’m too excited to see what the live action movie could be. I hope to see a live action movie soon, on the big screen or at least for the streaming service (in this case, I hope the movie could be exported in Europe and especially in Italy where I live). What do you think?
Please, make a Swan Princess live action movie.
For the future merchandising, I hope to see books at least from the first movie (why not a novel based on the screenplay?) and a collection of dolls about characters of the movie (Odette, Derek, etc). I remember only dolls from 90s (they were wonderful). I think you could do a limited edition 17’’ dolls about Odette, Derek, Rothbart, etc with elaborated dress. I think people will buy them.
I love the Swan Princess I growed up watching all the movies. I wish I could get the Swan Princess heart necklace. But I don’t have any money I love to this day to still watch all the Swan Princess movies even my own family.
I’m one of those children raised on the original Swan Princess. They were my favorite movies (especially the first one). But I haven’t even tried to watch the new ones. Not because I grew up but because the new animation lacks life and emotions. It feels just so artificial. It makes me sad to say that but I just don’t feel it and so I don’t even want to watch it. Maybe the old ones were less colorful but they felt real and full of this something that made them feel alive, full of emotions. Still, if I ever have children I will always show them the original movies and make sure they love them.