Ever since Doug Walker did his review of The cygne Princess, I've noticed plus and plus people around the internet accuse this movie of being "Disney-lite," "a Disney knock-off," etc.

Problem is, the reasons they give are either something that almost EVERY animated movie has done since Snow White (singing, princesses, animal companions, etc) ou it was already in the original fairy tale-inspired ballet written and composed par Tchaikovsky decades before Disney ever got into animation.

Quick Backstory: The cygne Princess is based on the ballet link, again, written and composed par Tchaikovsky. And it's a very faithful adaptation too. I've read plot summaries and watched the ballet proper, and The cygne Princess actually doesn't change too much plot-wise.

The only real changes they made are that Odette and Prince Siegfried (renamed Derek) grew up knowing each other, were arranged to marry, then broke up right before Odette got kidnapped and Il était une fois par the sorcerer Von Rothbart (just plain "Rothbart" in the movie). In the original ballet, the prince and princess meet for the first time AFTER the prince hunts her cygne form, follows her to the titular cygne Lake, then she lands on the lake and transforms into a beautiful maiden before him. In the movie, he's hunting the Great Animal that kidnapped her to try to find and rescue her. (Very stupidly, I'll admit, since he shoots literally anything that moves). So it's not like the prince tries to kill a helpless cygne and then decides to marry the girl she transforms into right afterwards because now she's hot. (Also, in the ballet cygne Lake is filled with dozens of swans that Von Rothbart presumably also kidnapped and enchanted, his female henchwoman is actually his daughter Odile, and Odette and Siegfried die at the end, while in the film they both live.)

So anyway, onto the accusations of Disney knock-off and explanation of where they ACTUALLY CAME FROM.

Sorry Sk8er_girl, but your grievances against the film are extremely similar to many other people's. So, I'll address them. (Please note I'm not singling toi out, I'm just addressing most people's vues of it, and the Critic's.)

"Odette and Derek's dance in the beginning where they float in to the sky, looked way to familiar to Sleeping beauty's ending."

Admittedly yes, it looks similar. I'll give toi that one.

"When Rothbart turns his henchwomen into Odette, I felt it was so blindly ripping off The little mermaid where Ursula transforms into Eric's 'dream girl"

Actually, that was from the original ballet. Have toi seen the movie Black Swan? It discusses it there. In the ballet, Von Rothbart (yes, his name is Rothbart in the ballet) has a daughter named Odile whom he disguises as Odette to fool the prince into declaring his l’amour for her, knowing it'll cause him to be unfaithful to Odette and thus keep her trapped as a cygne forever. In fact, there's a practical ballet purpose for it, since the same prima ballerina that plays Odette (dressed in white) often plays Odile (dressed in black), where she does plus sensual dances.

"Rothbart kidnapping Odette so he can marry her was just like Aladin where Jafar kidnaps jasmin so he can marry her, and both their motives are mainly money."

Nope. Sorry, that was from the original ballet again. Well, at least he kidnaps and curses her in the original version, though it's never fully explained why. He kidnapped and Il était une fois dozens of other women to be swans as well. Odette is just the highest born, and thus the most beautiful and graceful (of course) and so they named her their cygne Queen.

However, there is a link that changes it so that Rothbart wanted to marry her, so he killed her family, a volé, étole her away, put her under the "swan par day" spell, and refuses to lift the spell until she agrees to marry him. Every night he asks for her hand, and every night she tells him to shove off. So The cygne Princess borrowed from that version plus from Disney.

However, before anyone jumps down The cygne Princess' throat, Disney did the exact same thing for The Little Mermaid. If toi watch the link, toi can see where Disney heavily borrowed from it as opposed to link.

So, yeah. The cygne Princess didn't rip off from Disney there.

"A prince confessing their l’amour for the princess breaking the spell is their harmless way of ripping off Disney's true l’amour kiss."

Again, that was from the ballet. And again, it's an important plot point because the only way to free Odette from the spell is if she falls in l’amour with and retains the cœur, coeur of a man who remains faithful to her. So, of course, Von Rothbart sends his daughter and tricks the prince into declaring his l’amour for her, knowing it'll keep Odette under his thumb forever.

"The ending is just like Sleeping beauty's ending, he fights the beast for his l’amour and in one dramatic shot kills it, Confesses his l’amour "True loves kiss" and she's back up.

Admittedly, yes. It is similar.

HOWEVER... In the original ballet, Odette and Siegfried DIE. After he makes a vow of l’amour to the wrong girl, Odette realizes she'll be trapped as a cygne forever, and out of grief decides to kill herself to escape the curse. Siegfried also realizes his mistake, and decides to commit suicide with her, symbolically montrer that they'll defy Von Rothbart and be together in death as they couldn't be in life.

Obviously, The cygne Princess can't keep that ending. Fairy tale animated musical adaptations CAN'T have the main characters that we've been rooting for all film fail in their endeavor and kill themselves at the end; it'll upset the kiddies too much.



From a story perspective though, it would be really anti-climactic if she just got up and said, "Okay, I'm fine now," and the sorcerer (who literally killed her family and kidnapped her to get to her, kept her imprisoned, enchanted, and under his thumb for so long, and went to the trouble of sending his daughter to the prince to trick him into declaring his l’amour for the wrong girl) just suddenly decided to let her go.

However, again, the animé version changed it so that Siegfried accidentally confessing to the wrong girl causes Odette to slowly die, and he has to fight the sorcerer to save his life. So The cygne Princess borrows from a précédant cygne Lake adaptation rather than Disney. Which itself is not that unusual since film climaxes often have to be plus action-packed than ballet endings. Most film adaptations to most fairy tales give the climax plus tension, suspense, drama, and action.

If anything, I thought The cygne Princess's ending was a brilliant way to increase the drama and the emotional stakes, emballage, wrap up loose ends, and make a climactic ending.

Odette doesn't kill herself out of grief, she's dying from a spell. (Which helps the "strong heroine" department.) Derek doesn't realize his mistake and decide to drown himself beside her, he rushes to save her. The spiteful sorcerer who'd rather kill her than let her be with someone else isn't overcome and destroyed when the power of their l’amour and double-suicide defies him. The prince demands he save her, the sorcerer pretty much says, "Over my dead body. I'll let her live only if toi kill me." And the prince does just that!







That's a much better ending than a double-suicide.

There are probably plus rip-off accusations, but I can't think of any right now. If anyone wants to bring them up, I'll be happy to refute them.