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| - The film begins with an aging king named William (Dakin Matthews) who has a baby daughter named Odette and a friend of Queen Uberta (Sandy Duncan). While King William's newborn daughter Odette and Queen Uberta's toddler-aged son Derek get acquainted, evil was afoot. Rothbart (Jack Palance) is an evil enchanter who desires King William's kingdom for himself. Before he can go ahead with his plot, his tower is attacked by King William's men. Before he was banished from the kingdom, Rothbart vowed that one day, everything King William owned and loved will be his. When Odette and Derek are children, King William and Queen Uberta decide to have Odette (Adrian Zahiri) and the Queen's son, Prince Derek (Adam Wylie), meet every summer with hopes they'll fall in love so as to unite their kingdoms. At first, while Odette and Derek are still children, this fails miserably, but as years pass and the two reach young adulthood, they finally begin to strongly fall madly in love. However, during a royal ball, Derek (Howard McGillin) expresses his wish to marry Odette (Michelle Nicastro) just for her beauty, which upsets her into rejecting him again. She leaves the next day with her father, but they are intercepted en route by Rothbart who transforms into a "Great Animal" (a hybrid monster with the head of a wolf, the body of a bat, the feet of an eagle, and the tail of a lizard). He kidnaps Odette and fatally injures William. King William's captain returns to Queen Uberta's castle and informs everyone present that they were attacked by a Great Animal. Derek arrives on the scene where William tells him with his dying breath that they were attacked by a Great Animal that is "not what it seems". Despite Uberta's efforts to find another princess for her son to marry, Derek becomes fiercely determined to find Odette. He and his best friend Bromley (Joel McKinnon Miller) practice hunting each day to hopefully kill the Great Animal and save Odette. Elsewhere, Rothbart has taken Odette to his castle lair at Swan Lake and cast a transformational spell on her that makes her turn into a swan during the day and a human again during the night. The spell can only be broken by a vow of everlasting romantic love. He asks her to marry him every night so he can rule William's kingdom legally, as taking it by force is too much trouble, but she always refuses. During her captivity, she befriends an old turtle named Speed (Steven Wright), a frog named Jean-Bob (John Cleese), and Puffin (Steve Vinovich), a puffin bird. Puffin, after learning about the workings of Rothbart's evil spell, devises a plan to reunite Odette with Derek. Together with Puffin, Odette finds Derek, who has gone searching for her with Bromley; however, he mistakes her for the Great Animal and tries to kill her. The ensuing chase leads Derek to Swan Lake, where he witnesses Odette change from swan to human. The two share a happy loving reunion, but almost immediately, Rothbart comes calling. At Odette's insistence, Derek leaves with the hopes of meeting her at a ball being held by Uberta the following night. Unfortunately, Rothbart finds Derek's bow (which Derek left behind), tells Odette that there will be no moon the next night, and has her, in swan form, imprisoned within the castle dungeon along with Bromley. He then plans to send his hag sidekick Bridget, disguised as Odette, to the ball instead. Odette's friends free her, but when she reaches the ball, she sees that she has been replaced and tries to warn Derek; she fails, partly due to Bridget's attempts to keep Derek from seeing her, and Derek makes the vow to Bridget. Rothbart arrives and reveals that Derek's vow, given to the wrong woman, will cause his spell to kill Odette. She flies back to Swan Lake as Rothbart's curse drains her life force while Derek, desperate to save her, races after; he arrives too late, and she dies in his arms, but not before she tells him she loves him. A furious Derek confronts Rothbart, demanding that he not allow Odette to die. To Derek's surprise, Rothbart transforms into the Great Animal and an intense battle ensues with Rothbart overpowering Derek and nearly killing him. Fortunately, Odette's animal friends return Derek's longbow to him, and Bromley, who has escaped the dungeon, provides Derek with a single arrow; Derek catches it and fires the arrow straight-and-true into Rothbart's heart as he explodes upon crashing into the lake. With Rothbart's defeat, his spell on Odette is broken and she returns to life to hear Derek say that he truly does love her for her courage and kindness and always had. The two are soon married and live happily ever after.
- Ex-Disney animation director Richard Rich made this animated feature in 1994, which adapts the plot (though not the music) of the ballet Swan Lake. Odette and Derek are betrothed royalty of neighboring kingdoms, though it isn't until they're grown that they actually fall in love. Too bad that first, Derek doesn't know what he loves about her besides her beauty, which upsets her, and second, the evil Rothbart — banished from her kingdom years ago for practicing the "Forbidden Arts" — kidnaps her. When she refuses to marry Rothbart and make him king, he curses her to become a swan during daylight hours and moonless nights. The remorseful Derek seeks and finds her, but with Rothbart staying one step ahead of the lovers — and One-Winged Angel, too — invoking the Curse Escape Clause is not easy, even with Talking Animal friends helping them out. While no blockbuster, it did spawn two sequels: The Swan Princess II: Escape from Castle Mountain (1997) and The Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdom (1998). The first pits them against Rothbart's old partner Clavius, the second against his mentor Zelda, and poor Odette keeps getting turned into a swan and back again the whole way.
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