At The Swan Princess we have been working hard to catalog all of the art inventory in our warehouse, including all of our art cels, preproduction art, backgrounds and pencil art. As we have been sorting through the incredible animation museum that is our warehouse, we have found some really incredible and unique pieces of Swan Princess history that are just too SWANderful to not share with our amazing fans! Therefore, we would like to proudly present our series:
Warehouse Finds!
If you don't know anything about the United States holiday customs, every Thanksgiving we have a big parade in New York City called the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. In 1994, when The Swan Princess was released in theaters, a float and performance featuring The Swan Princess was included in the Macy's Parade. We found the pictures in the personal collection of Seldon Young, the Producer, within the warehouse. These photos of the parade were taken by Bill Mitchell Photography.
This float in the parade is the Swan Princess Chamberg Castle decorated with a giant swan.
In the turret of the castle, some lucky little girls got to ride on the float.
This picture shows the costumes that the girls in the turrets wore. These Odette dresses were part of the 1994 merchandise released with the film.
The animal characters were there in these amazing costumes. Speed had his full turtle shell.
These are our lead characters: Derek and Odette with Chamberlain, in his very festive gold. New York during Thanksgiving is notoriously freezing, so everyone had extra layers with their costumes to try to stay warm. Odette had earmuffs and a cloak and Derek in his big boots and gloves.
Here the Prince and Princess are with their animal friends.
Here's a close-up of Chamberlain, doesn't he look just like Chamberlain?
The song performed on the parade route was Princesses on Parade. These are some of the parading princesses in beautiful pink dresses with many layers to keep them warm.
This close-up of Derek and Odette shows matching earmuffs.
A fun behind-the-scenes fact: this amazing guy who was Prince Derek in the parade, is Bernie Van de Yacht. He was the casting director for all 12 of the Swan Princess.
When the time came to perform, Odette took off her cloak to show the beautiful dress underneath. It's a little different than the dresses she wears in the film. It is missing those colored sleeves on the shoulders.
But look at Odette's original concept art. It looks just like the dress in used in the parade.
You can purchase these one-of-a-kind swan princess art pieces, or another pencil sketch or art cel by emailing odette@swanprincessseries.com