Prince Charming

You pretty much know what the story will be like based on the title and you pretty much know the budget by the actors and actresses, but....

This movie works! It keeps you interested all the way through, mainly, I guess, because of its fish-out-of-water (or should I say frog-out-of-water?) charm.

In the Fifteenth Century, the Kingdom of Anwyn has been in war against the Lothian Kingdom for three hundred years. Now the womanizer Prince John of Anwyn (Sean Maguire) will marry the Lothian Princess Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate) to bring peace to the kingdoms. He rides with his clumsy wizard squire Rodney of Tudor (Martin Short) and his father King Leo (Colin Fox) to the Lothian Castle for the wedding. However, on the day of the wedding, Prince John is caught shagging a peasant woman and Lothian King Pius (David Fox) and Queen Isabel (Marcia Bennett) curse Prince John and Rodney and they are doomed to "frogging" by the wizard Whackthazar for all eternity. The spell will only be broken if a maiden kisses John and marries him.

Five hundred years later, John and Rodney are still frogs. One day, a boy catches and brings them to New York City and they escape to the Central Park. When the actress Margo (Bernadette Peters) kisses John in the park, Rodney and he become men again. John and Rodney seek Margo out to marry her and end the curse, and they meet the gorgeous Kate (Christina Applegate) that helps them. John knows that he must marry Margo but he falls in love with Kate.

"Prince Charming" is a delightful and pleasant fantasy with a sweet story of true love made for television. The cast is fantastic and Christina Applegate is very beautiful and has a great chemistry with Sean Maguire. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Príncipe Sapo" ("The Prince Frog")

You can argue this is a made-for-TV movie, say that fantasy (somewhat, family too) genre isn't for you, or that is a well know story so why bother to watch it. I can understand you, but although I had some reserves like you, I watched it and I surprised myself.

Made-for-TV movie = Low budget? More often than not, right, but here you get nice scenes (some with CGI, to animate frogs) and great middle-age costumes. Even for fantasy, the writer developed the story as real as he could, and that was the key to make myself comfortable and enjoy the movie and Martin Short good performance. In addition, if you love, like, worship Christina Applegate, this is your chance to see her in her true nature: being a princess. But if you don't, because you just consider her a Married-With-Children-bimbo, then this is your possibility to reconsider that. She's acting better and better since "Jesse." By the way, thumbs up as well to Sean Maguire (Prince 'Charming' John) and Bernadette Peters (as Margo) for their parts.

The most compelling thing about this movie is the proper timing of the director to portray the story. You watch it don't caring how much time remain and time does fly. For me, that's another sign of an enjoyable movie. So, if you want to laugh a bit, if you like fantasy or fairly tales, or if you declare yourself as a romantic, this could be a good movie for you. I give it *** of ***** (* = soup? again?, ** = better than looking at the wall, *** = within most people acceptable limits, **** = now we are talking, ***** = a dream come true.)

A fornicating prince from the 15th century and his servant are punished by being turned into frogs for all eternity, unless he can get a maiden to kiss him and marry.

Although made for TV (2001), "Prince Charming" is easily just as good as 2007's theatrically-released "Enchanted," which has a similar plot. I'm sure "Enchanted" was inspired by it.

Christina Applegate plays the New York City "maiden" who befriends the frogmen. Bernadette Peters, in a smaller role, is her usual charismatic, beautiful self.

Everything clicks for a fun, entertaining movie.

The film runs a short-but-sweet 87 minutes and was shot in Brampton, Ontario, and New York City.

GRADE: B+

I loved this movie so much. It had the fairly tale come true dust sprinkled all over it. My heart did a flip at the amazing all star cast. Martin Short is funny and wonderful as always. I love anything with Bernadette Peters in it. She is full of spunk and beauty. The actor Sean Maguire was the perfect prince charming. He had the accent, the body, the hair, and the charm all women secretly dream about. The story line was great, how all their lives and problems intertwined with each others. But as always they lived happily ever after. I loved the chase seen through the park. It was your classic damsel in distress with the hunky rescuer. The only thing missing was that Bernadette Peters didn't sing. If you love happy endings with a modern day flair then this is the movie for you. It's one lovely sweet kiss of happiness.