Die Schwanenprinzessin und das verzauberte Königreich

The very thin plot is a rehash of the previous film, involving another betrayed accomplice of the original villain, Rothbart - this time, a witch named Zelda - trying to get at some magic left in Rothbart's old castle...which our heroes are inexplicably living in.

The original three animal sidekicks are still the closest this series has to memorable characters. Speed the turtle and Puffin the puffin are OK, by virtue of their cool voices. Jean-Bob the would-be frog price is tolerable. Every other character in the film is annoying - bickering, whining and generally acting like jerks - except the titular princess, Odette, who can't muster enough character to be anything, including annoying.

Each film in the trilogy involves Prince Derek being wrong and having to find a way to make it up to Odette - she is, as one character states, "always right." This makes Derek an unlikable idiot and Odette dull and one-dimensional.

A bird named Whizzer joins the cast. Picture Fife from Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas on massive amounts of sugar and helium. He fills the role of "reluctant villain's accomplice" that seems to pop up a lot in these direct-to-video films. And for some reason, the whole first scene is about him.

There's a lot of fluff about a festival, including a talent show and an obstacle course. There's also a romantic subplot of sorts for Lord Rogers (or as I call him, Grimsby Cogsworth), that goes nowhere, save for killing more time with a long musical number.

The animation is passable - Rogers actually looks a little less creepy in this one - but it says something about the budget when they re-use the title card (and its fancy effects animation) from the original film.

I suppose children or adults who remember it from their own childhoods might like it. But there are much, much better animated films out there that also feature princesses in pretty dresses, animal sidekicks, scheming villains and musical numbers - and actually know what to do with them! :)

The first film will always be the best film. I personally was disappointed in Secret of the Castle, which wasn't as good as I remembered it when I was a child. The second sequel is deeply flawed, but not at all bad. In terms of quality, the animation is better than the Secret of the Catle with a better drawn Rodgers and more fluidity, though there are a number of noticeable goofs, like Odette's dress being pink then blue within 5 seconds and green to blue in It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This. I liked the incidental music, and the songs, while forgettable after a few days, are pleasant to listen to, the most memorable being Derek's solo Because I Love Her. They're also closer in tone to the first film's score than to the second. The voice acting is at least serviceable especially Michelle Nicastro, Katja Koch and Christy Landers. Brian Nissen as Derek is rather colourless though. The plot, compared to Secret of the Castle is more interesting and fast-paced with a movingly dark climax, though it is admittedly daft and predictable in an adult perspective. Zelda is much better a villain than Clavious, more tolerable and much better voiced(more evil-sounding rather than OTT), and her motives(stealing Rothbart's notes) were clearer, and didn't take such a long time unlike the first sequel to get into it. Uberta and Rogers were hilarious with lines such as "You have the timing of a busted clock" and I loved their tango. I also liked it when Speed and Jean Bob(they and Puffin are decent characters in both sequels but not as funny as in the first) started reprising "For Longer than forever". However there are many things wrong with it. For instance the blue bird Whizzer is very annoying and sometimes pointless, though it was funny when he imitated Jean Bob's voice. Also the absence of John Cleese as Jean Bob is noticeable, and is sorely missed. The dialogue is not always involving, particularly when Derek says "I'm not going to lose Odette." And like the Secret of the Castle, the overall film is too short, and not helped by the silly romance between Rogers and Zelda. In conclusion, a flawed but much better second sequel. 6/10 Bethany Cox.

1st watched 3/29/2005-6 out of 10(Dir-Richard Rich): The 3rd entry in this series is a good story with pretty good songs despite a weak villainess who uses a goofy disguise to lure herself into the Prince's castle. Pretty much like the first two, this movie doesn't blow you away with anything great, but just is there as a good piece of entertainment. The main characters are developed well but the biggest flaw is a silly romance thrown in between the evil sorceress disguised as a Swedish maiden in distress, and a servant of the castle who is at his hammiest. There is romance and many hints of good character versus bad that is displayed for the young ones which is also a plus. All in all this was an enjoyable and well made piece of animation that will probably close out the series.

I had to rent a couple of movies for my little cousin for New Year's and she picked out The Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdom and The Little Mermaid 2 and we just watched both films, while she's sleeping, I figured I could get a couple comments in. :) While this is a very cheesy cartoon, it really wasn't that bad. You have to admit that for children, these plots are new to them and it could be a great introduction of these stories to them.

Odette finds out that Derek has been secretly keeping the magic secrets of Rosthoe and she tells Derek to destroy them immediately, but him being a guy, typically he does not do so and tells her that no on could achieve the magics without his help. When a witch named Zelda gets her hands on them, she finds out that Derek tore off the last words of a spell she wants to use to destroy everything, and she kidnaps Odette in order to retrieve this information.

The Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdom is silly and predictable, but for the kids I would honestly say it's a go. It's so rare we have these clean cut cartoons now a days, so I'm going to cut the film some slack. It was just weird seeing all the voices change all of a sudden, I grew up with the first one, so I guess it was just stuck in my head.

4/10

Also titled--> The Magical Castle--> This one is a stretch. Why bother? Why create another rockbart and then add another story line that has nearly nothing to do with the play nor swan lake. Only some girlfriend of rockbart, the stolen book of forbidden arts and the original characters (not voices remain). Stripped to to its bares this is a continuation by a thread. Next thing you know some bird will have memorized the "forbidden arts" and Swan Princess 4: the magical bird will be born. Thankfully though the chapters are supposedly closed and this will beginning but bad ended trilogy will come to a close.