By If you grew up in the 90s, you likely remember the gem of an animated classic that is The Swan Princess. 2019 marks its 25th anniversary (feel old yet?) and to celebrate this important milestone, the film is getting released for the first time ever on Blu-ray and 4K Digital HDR. It’s also getting the “pink carpet” treatment by returning to the big screen for a premiere in Hollywood later this month.
What makes The Swan Princess so unique is that it was one of the last films to hit theaters in the United States that used handpainted CEL animation. In 1995 it was nominated for a Golden Globe and became the number one home video title in the United States.
The film’s origins were taken from the classic “Swan Lake” and the result, we were given a film that is something truly magical. Seldon Yong, creator of the series of Swan Princess films, reflected on the past quarter-century of The Swan Princess through a recent press release. He also comments on how they breathed fresh life into the film for a 2019 audience.
How has the legacy of our original THE SWAN PRINCESS film continued for 25 years? asks Yong who can often be seen in his native Utah and at fan conventions around the world in a custom, pink argyle suit, dotted with images of the beloved Swan Princess characters. It’s all because of the fans, and now we’re so excited to share this beautifully restored version with them and a new generation to come! For the restoration and remastering process, we retrived the vintage, vaulted negatives, and set to work using the amazing advances in HID conversion technology, to create an even more vivid and stunning film than ever before.
The Swan Princess 25th Anniversary Release will be available on Oct 29th and comes with a new feature, “A Look Back Tease Ahead.” It also includes a ton of archival features. As someone who loved this film when it originally came out, I can not wait to see it remastered.
