More Than a Peacock Princess |
|
|---|---|
 | |
| Information | |
| Released |
September 4, 2007 |
| Directed by |
David Block |
| Produced by |
Kurt Albrecht, Douglas Segal |
| Written by |
Shirley Pierce |
| Music by |
Jeff Danna, Amy Powers, Russ De Salvo, Denise Gruska, Shirley, Pierce |
| Studio |
Disneytoon Studios |
| Distributed by |
Walt Disney Home Entertainment |
| Budget |
Unknown |
| Production | |
| Next |
None (cancelled) |
Summary[]
More Than a Peacock Princess features characters from Aladdin. Princess Jasmine (Linda Larkin) is tired and bored of her usual princess duties. She is no longer satisfied with overseeing shop openings and assisting in the sale of a camel at the local market place. While having her portrait painted as a "Peacock Princess," Jasmine loses patience and says she wants more responsibility. The Sultan (Jeff Bennett) gives her the job of "Royal Assistant Educator" at the Royal Academy. Jasmine is thrilled until she meets her pupils. They misbehave, draw on the walls, pillow fight, and throw books. She calls her pet tiger Rajah (Frank Welker) to scare the children into behaving, but they ignore him first and then chase Jasmine and Rajah into the mud and up a tree. Jasmine gives up. Later that night, her lady-in-waiting tells her that she needs patience and perseverance and that with these tools, she can do anything she wants. The next day, Hakeem (Zack Shada), the stable boy, seeks Jasmine's help. The Sultan's prized horse, Sahara, is missing from the stables and if he isn't located, Hakeem will lose his job. Jasmine takes it upon herself, with Carpet, Abu (Frank Welker), and Iago's (Gilbert Gottfried) help, to find Sahara and return him to the Palace.
Plot[]
Characters[]
- Abu
- Aladdin (Mentioned by Jasmine)
- Aneesa
- Genie (Mentioned by Jasmine)
- Hakeem
- Iago
- Jasmine
- Magic Carpet
- Sahara
- Sharma
- The Sultan
- The Sultana (mentioned)
Song Numbers[]
- Peacock Princess - Words and Music by Amy Powers and Russ DeSalvo, Performed by Lea Salonga and Gilbert Gottfried
- I've Got My Eyes On You - Words and Music by Amy Powers and Russ DeSalvo, Performed by Lea Salonga
Production[]
This film was originally intended to be the first of a series of spinoffs "in which short stories about the various princesses from the Disney canon were paired according to some thematic overlap".[2] Originally, the first film in the series, was to be titled A Kingdom of Kindness and feature a completely different Aurora story as well as a story about Belle of Beauty and the Beast rather than Jasmine. Trailers were released for this installment on various Disney DVDs, but it was never released. The second film in the series, referred to simply as Disney Princess Enchanted Tales in previews on various Disney Princess related DVDs, was originally scheduled for a 2008 release. It was to have a new Cinderella story as well as a new Mulan story. It also was never released, due to poor sales of Follow Your Dreams.[1] The fan blog Antagony & Ecstasy speculates that this specific project was the catalyst for newly appointed Chief Creative Officer for Disney animated projects John Lasseter shutting down and halting all DisneyToon Studios sequel projects that weren't too far into production.[2]
Critical Reception[]
Common Sense Media assessed that the film had "perseverance lessons for princess fans ages 3-6" and gave it a rating of 2 out of 5 stars. It noted the prevalent themes of "follow your dreams and never give up", the "plucky, brave and determined" role model nature of the princess protagonists, and the notion that "as a Disney property, this film inevitably works as brand reinforcement for the Disney Princess line of products."[3] CineMagazine gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5 stars, noting: "It is unfortunate that the two stories have such varying quality. If it had been a little more balanced then [the film could have] become a great movie. Now it remains weak due to the Sleeping Beauty segment being entirely mediocre and barely worthy of Disney". It concluded that this project was focused on turning a profit than upholding artistic integrity".[4] Antagony & Ecstasy described it as "the first in an aborted attempt to create a new series of cheap-even-by-the-standards-of-cheapquels videos", and concluded "I cannot entirely hate this dreadful little cast-off. It's too short; it's too ebulliently random; and it might very well be the reason that the Disney sequels were finally strangled to death."[2] AnimatedReviews said "This is Disney Product with a capital P"[5] and "I thought Disney had turned a corner in getting away from this low-level quality, but this is just poor, poor, poor".[6] It added "Personally, I’d like to see this kind of thing where it belongs" which is on a television show called "Disney Princesses, with a new episode with a different Princess every time", as opposed to dressing up things like this, Cinderella II, and Belle’s Magical World as movies.[5]
DVDizzy said "It is hard to praise a pairing of two half-hour "movies", created with standards not much higher than those of a Saturday morning cartoon, that are being marketed as a full-length movie"[7] In a review of the DVD, InsidePulse said "The special features with the games are aimed at girls and Lord knows you won’t enjoy them unless you’re under the age of...6 years."[8] It added that it "does provide a modicum in fun in that it lets us see these winning characters again and more of their lives. But in contrast to the excitement and entertainment of their big screen outings, their lives here are a bit boring and didactic."[9]
Mary Costa, the original voice of Aurora, was not fond of the new film and felt that it did not work.[10]
Goofs[]
- After Iago says "Not quite" to Jasmine when she's singing More Than A Peacock Princess, she takes off her costume. However, if you look at the balcony during the scene where the magic carpet flies down towards Jasmine and Iago, Jasmine's costume isn't there, and when Jasmine is shown flying away from the balcony, her costume is still not there.
Continuity[]
- It is obvious that Keys to the Kingdom is set after the events of Sleeping Beauty. For More Than A Peacock Princess, Jasmine mentions that she can name all Forty Thieves, implying that it takes place after "Aladdin and the King of Thieves" and "Hercules and the Arabian Night", when Iago has returned after traveling with Cassim.
Other notes[]
- As of currently, the film hasn't gotten a release on Disney+ yet, hence marking the only Disney Princess film to date to remain unavailable on Disney+.
- For the first time since the original "Aladdin", the Magic Carpet's fully-detailed patterned design has been restored in the segment More Than A Peacock Princess, as opposed to the simpler patterns used in the character's prior 2D-animated appearances in "The Return of Jafar", Aladdin and the King of Thieves, the "Aladdin (TV series)" and in various other traditionally-animated TV spin-offs such as the Hercules episode "Hercules and the Arabian Night" and in House of Mouse, likely due to being animated in CGI instead of traditional 2D animation, as well as the higher production budgets used in this film. Carpet would also be animated in full detail again this way in the Sofia the First episode "Two to Tangu", as well as in the movie Ralph Breaks the Internet and the short film Once Upon a Studio, all via CGI animation.
- This film marks the final Disney production to feature Gilbert Gottfried as the voice of Iago, 15 years before his death in 2022.
- This is the only movie to be released on DVD to have the 2007-2014 Disney DVD logo at the start after the Walt Disney Home Entertainment logo due to the DVD menu actually being the start to the movie.
- This DVD was originally not going to be enhanced with Disney's FastPlay.