“We’re not so much competing with Disney, as we are competing with audience expectation,” said director Richard Rich in a 1995 interview, just after his film The Swan Princess had opened in theaters. He also added, “I think it’s wrong for one studio to have a monopoly on animation. I think as more and more studios get into the marketplace and the public learns that it’s not only Disney that can do it, it will make it easier for all of us to compete in that marketplace. It will take a little bit of time to break down that barrier that ‘only Disney can do it’. That’s what I was up against for years.” He also added, “I don’t think you can oversaturate animation. If it’s a good movie, people will go to see it, and it won’t matter if it’s animated or live action.”
When The Swan Princess debuted thirty years ago, other studios and artists were throwing their hats into the animation ring, vying for some of the box-office and popularity that Disney was experiencing during their Renaissance era that had begun in 1989 with The Little Mermaid.
One of these was Rich Animation Studios, founded by Richard Rich, who began his career at the Disney Studio, where he co-directed such films as The Fox and the Hound (1981) and The Black Cauldron (1985).
Initially, Rich Studio’s first projects were a series of videos that were animated adaptations of historical legends and stories from the Bible. When Rich Animation Studio was acquired by Nest Entertainment in 1993, they were able to make their first full-length animated feature, The Swan Princess.
Based on the ballet Swan Lake, the film centered on a young Princess named Odette, who is transformed into a swan by the evil enchanter, Rothbart who wants to take over the kingdom. Odette is ultimately saved by her true love, Prince Derek.
The Swan Princess also featured three comedic sidekicks – Jean-Bob, a frog who thinks he’s a prince, a gruff bird named Puffin, and Speed, a laid-back turtle.
Recalling how the sidekicks came about in that 1995 interview, Rich remembered, “We made the decision early on that the first thing we would do is eliminate all the ballerinas because it’s just too complicated. Then, I said, ‘What would you see in a lake?’ and I had this image of a frog sitting on the back of a turtle.”
The voices of the sidekicks were John Cleese as Jean-Bob, Steve Vinovich as Puffin, and Steven Wright as Speed. The combination of the vocal performances with the character animation made for some entertaining and memorable personalities.
The Swan Princess also featured the talents of Michelle Nicastro as Princess Odette, Howard McGillin as Prince Derek, Sandy Duncan as Queen Uberta, and Jack Palance as the villain, Sir Rothbart.
“We videotaped all of his recording sessions, and then we printed out all of [Jack Palance’s] expressions,” said Rich in 1995. “We had this board that had all these different expressions on it that the animators could use. I mean, he is so animated!”
The animators also incorporated Palance’s iconic Oscar Awards show moment from 1992, when he did one-armed pushups during his acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor in City Slickers. The character does the same in Rothbart’s big musical number in The Swan Princess.
“It’s interesting,” noted Rich in 1995, “for the people who saw the Academy Awards two years ago, that gets a huge laugh. If they don’t know much about Jack Palance, then it’s just a funny thing having a villain do a one-armed push up. It works either way, but boy, for an inside joke, that really was a huge laugh.”
Rothbart’s song, “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” was just one of the film’s songs crafted by Lex de Azevedo and lyricist David Zippel (who would go on to write the songs for Disney’s Hercules). The singing voices in the film included Liz Callaway as Odette, Adam Wylie as Derek, Jonathan Hadary as Speed, with de Azevedo as Rothbart and Zippel as Jean-Bob.
There was also the ballad “Far Longer Than Forever,” which received a Golden Globe nomination.
Released on November 18th, 1994, The Swan Princess didn’t fare well at the box office and was outgrossed by The Lion King, which Disney re-issued to theaters that November after its blockbuster performance during the summer of ’94.
“The one big thing that we have going is that animation is really big in video sales,” said Rich. “Most families will buy [videos] for their libraries at home, while a lot of the live-action stuff they won’t.”
It’s prophetic that Rich said this the year after The Swan Princess was released, as the film went on to have renewed life on home video. Not only did it perform well on VHS when it was released, it has inspired no less than eleven direct-to-video sequels.
Reflecting on this success months after the theatrical debut of The Swan Princess, Rich commented on the film’s universal message: “We should love each other the way that Derek and Odette did, and when you do, there’s no obstacle you can’t really overcome. Stick with your convictions. I mean, Derek was the only person who believed that Odette was alive. We can make our minds up and when those convictions and commitments are good and wholesome, then stick with them and follow them all the way through. I think that’s what the picture teaches us.”
Michael Lyons is a freelance writer, specializing in film, television, and pop culture. He is the author of the book, Drawn to Greatness: Disney’s Animation Renaissance, which chronicles the amazing growth at the Disney animation studio in the 1990s. In addition to Animation Scoop and Cartoon Research, he has contributed to Remind Magazine, Cinefantastique, Animation World Network and Disney Magazine. He also writes a blog, Screen Saver: A Retro Review of TV Shows and Movies of Yesteryear and his interviews with a number of animation legends have been featured in several volumes of the books, Walt’s People. You can visit Michael’s web site Words From Lyons at: 
I remember the fanfare that accompanied the Swan Princess in its theatrical release and I really wished the best for it then. I didn’t realize that it inspired so many sequels beyond the first one or two. Like Bluth, Rich was instrumental in developing non-Disney animation that could compete in the family-friendly market.
In the years prior to this production, Rich had been producing a series of Bible videos (remember VHS tapes?) that brought a Disney-like quality to the stories from the Bible. While skirting some of the more graphic and intense material, these animated episodes brought life to many of the Old and New Testament stories. I appreciated their animation and design of human characters, and without the cute animal sidekicks that are obligatory in every Disney production. They even gave to Jesus some very human expressions such as rolling the eyes or eyes lighting up with delight. Around the same time, Rich and his studios also brought out some “Animated Hero Classics” that spotlighted various personages from American History. One could wish that they had delved more deeply into depicting more of a variety of ethnicities, but the efforts still represent an impressive body of work. What it really proves is that animation can be used educationally and still be entertaining and engaging.
I never liked his Bible and History films. Way too literal for my tastes! I think both are poor mediums for animation. Maybe he did better with The Swan Princess; I don’t know.
*Eleven* sequels? I’d run across one or two in my bargain bin explorations, but I had no idea there were that many.
Ah, bargain bins. I love those. They’re almost like treasure chests.
Still less than the thirteen sequels of The land Before Time.
Unfortunately, the later ones use very low budget CGI.
I loved the Siskel and Ebert review of this movie:
“It’s miles better than Thumbelina for example.”
“Uh Roger, so is a still shot of you taking a shower.”
“Thank you very much, I’m sure you’ve had a lot of experience studying such-”
“No I haven’t, I’m just fantasizing.”
Richard Rich should take heart. Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” ballet was not a success at first but has gone on to become a timeless classic. The prince’s name in the ballet is not “Derek”, but Siegfried; one critic of the original production complained about the characters’ “unpronounceable” German names, which, coming from a Russian, is pretty rich.
“The Swan Princess” has a lot of great songs, on a par with any that Ashman and Mencken wrote for Disney. Lyricist David Zippel recently returned to the fairytale princess genre, collaborating with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber on a new musical version of “Cinderella”.
I have dim memories of seeing this in its original theatrical engagement. I particularly remembered the song ‘No Fear!’ and the sequence where Derek and his buddy practice their marksmanship by shooting dye-pack arrows at castle servants in various animal disguises. I understand John Cleese passed on the role of Zazu in ‘The Lion King’ in order to play Jean-Bob in this? I can certainly understand the decision, this gave Cleese a bigger role and far more to have fun with.
At the time this came out I was friends with a little girl who lived a few doors down from us and I remember seeing some of the merchandise from this film in her house. I’d certainly like to revisit it if I could access a copy in its original aspect ratio.
As for the direct-to-video sequels, I’ve seen reviews of them and while I’m impressed at their longevity, I’m clearly not missing much.