The Swan Princess: Escape from Castle Mountain

The Swan Princess II: Escape from Castle Mountain (also known as The Swan Princess: The Secret of the Castle) is a 1997 animated film, the second film in the Swan Princess series, and the first sequel to The Swan Princess.

Plot[]

One year after the events of the previous film, it is Derek and Odette's anniversary, but Derek has forgotten this as he is busy setting Swan Lake Castle (which has become his and Odette's new home) up for the arrival of a royal guest, the King of Lincolnshire. The evil Knuckles sets a trap for Derek and sets the fields on fire. Derek goes to stop him while Speed, Puffin, and Jean-Bob try to slow Knuckles down; Knuckles knocks Puffin into a tree and sprains his tail, but Derek survives Knuckles's trap.

Knuckles reports to his master, an evil magician named Sir Clavius, who resides in a dormant volcano. Clavius was once Rothbart’s partner who helped him conquer the Forbidden Arts, but Rothbart betrayed him and drove him underground. Clavius intends to kill Derek so he can take the Forbidden Arts, which are hidden inside Swan Lake Castle.

To make up for forgetting Odette's anniversary, Derek plans to take Odette on a picnic, however, when Lord Rogers finds clues about Knuckles, Derek abandons both the picnic with Odette and Queen Uberta's birthday to look for him. On Uberta's birthday, she is abducted by Clavius, who sends Derek a ransom note as part of his next trap.

After ordering Knuckles to kill Derek with more traps, Clavius sneaks into Swan Lake Castle where he kidnaps Odette and locks her in a tower and goes after the orb containing the Forbidden Arts. However, Bridget, Rothbart's former accomplice who joined the side of good, takes Speed, Puffin, and Jean-Bob into the catacombs and they find the orb. When the four enter Odette's tower, Odette knows that Derek is heading into a trap. As Puffin cannot fly because of his injured tail, Odette has Bridget transform her into a swan, and she flies away to save Derek just as a furious Clavius arrives. Clavius chases after Bridget, Puffin, Speed, and Jean-Bob in an attempt to steal the orb, ending with Clavius smashing into a wall and Speed, Jean-Bob, and Puffin entering the water-filled dungeon of the castle with the orb.

Derek overcomes most of Knuckles's traps, but eventually Knuckles sends him falling into a pit of quicksand, from which he is rescued by Odette.

Clavius steals the orb from Speed, Jean-Bob, and Puffin and knocks Bridget into the dungeon, but Jean-Bob gets them out with a chain and the three animals grab onto Clavius's hot air balloon as he returns to his volcano. Upon arrival, Clavius absorbs the power of the Forbidden Arts, giving him the power to create, change, and destroy. As Derek and Odette make their way to rescue Uberta, Knuckles attacks Derek. In the fight that follows, Knuckles thinks he knocked Derek into the lava pool beneath the volcano (though Derek grabs a vine to break his fall), ties up Odette, and rides a basket towards the volcano. When Knuckles drops Odette over the edge, Derek cuts the rope holding the basket up and saves Odette while sending Knuckles falling into the lava.

Entering the volcano, Derek fights Clavius while the animals free Uberta from her prison. When Clavius is about to kill Derek, Jean-Bob jumps on his head, and Clavius kills him. Derek takes the orb, preventing Clavius from using his power on him, and intends to destroy it once he turns Odette human again. As Derek and the others fly Clavius's balloon out of the volcano, Clavius tries to stop them and take back the orb. Derek knocks him over the edge, but accidentally drops the orb, which explodes on impact with the ground, causing a volcanic eruption that kills Clavius.

With the orb gone, everyone goes to Swan Lake, where the moonlight turns Odette back to her human form and revives Jean-Bob. After they celebrate their victory and Uberta's fiftieth birthday, the King of Lincolnshire arrives, but Derek tells Rogers to take care of it while he spends the day with Odette.

Cast[]

Michelle Nicastro as Princess Odette.
Douglas Sills as Prince Derek.
Jake Williamson as Sir Clavius.
Christy Landers as Queen Uberta.
Donald Sage MacKay as Jean-Bob.
Doug Stone as Lorenzo "Speed" Trudgealong.
Steve Vinovich as Puffin.
Joey Camen as Knuckles.
Joseph Medrano as Lord Rogers.
James Arrington as Sir Chamberlain.
Owen Miller as Bromley.
Rosie Mann as Bridget.
Campbell Morton as alligators and wolf.

Transcript[]

The Swan Princess: Escape from Castle Mountain/Transcript

Musical numbers[]

Trivia[]

Chronologically, this film takes place after The Swan Princess: Christmas, since Odette mentions this as the first Christmas since her father's death.
The Japanese Title is called (スワン・プリンセス2 魔王の城 Suwan purinsesu 2 maō no shiro).
This is the last Swan Princess film to be presented in pan-and-scan full screen rather than widescreen on the Region 1 DVD (as opposed to the first and third films being treated the same way back in 2004). However, like international DVD releases of the first and third films, this film's international DVD releases do present it in widescreen.
- As such, the widescreen print on most US digital retailers is actually cropped from its pan-and-scan transfer rather than showing the missing picture from the sides. However, a widescreen print that actually shows the whole image is retained on Microsoft.
- Thus, the 12-movie collection DVD restores the film in widescreen (which is a first for a Region 1 DVD). However, it is yet to be known whether or not the original widescreen presentation with 50% more of the image might have been fully restored for that release.