Disclaimer: I’m a blind film critic. This indie animation does not have audio description.

Stop me if you’ve heard the story of a Princess whose marriage is expected to save a kingdom, but instead of being married to a pompous prince, we follow a lowly common man whose destiny is to save the princess, and save the world. I did walk into Proud Princess with eternal optimism. Often I just need something to fight for, something to make me go to bat for and say watch it, give it a chance, or if it comes your way you could do much worse. the last is probably true, as even though I didn’t like Proud Princess, it also isn’t offensively stupid, or a travesty that your kids will hate.

It’s also a movie aimed at kids, which makes it always a bit harder for adult critics to gauge since most kid flicks are distractions anyway. I acknowledge that a kid could be entertained by this, I also just feel like the majority won’t be. the films premise feels like it is so derivative of better things your kids would rather watch. the Princess here is grating, even if she is under a spell, I needed to fall in love with her before she turned into a mean girl, and that really isn’t the priority. Instead, there’s just a typical story about the King’s advisors overstepping, stealing, and bamboozling. It’s up to our Aladdin-esque hero to sing the right song to save the Princess.

The songs aren’t dreadful, as I’ve certainly heard worse. They also aren’t earworms, and I forgot all of them nearly immediately after hearing them. There’s some scoring done, though I wanted more. our surrogate Aladdin is not nearly as interesting as any character like him in other iterations. The Princess is dialed up to eleven on the entitlement scale, and I don’t know why anyone would have wanted her, Prince or otherwise. Her father, the King, is underutilized, especially considering how adorable they made the Sultan in Aladdin. A missed opportunity at comic relief. The bad guys? they are not Jafar.

Proud Princess is like Aladdin with no Genie. Nothing here is worth fighting for, but I also didn’t dislike it enough to spend forever convincing you to not see it either. In the world of kids animation, I’m just afraid this one is destined to disappear and be forgotten. It needed something. it needed a spark somewhere, with something creatively strong enough, or different enough, to make it not feel like a poor man’s Aladdin.

It’s a tough sell to watch this seemingly basic film, with a nice enough guy, who puts up with so many tantrums. I wish, in a film dancing with magic, it just had a little more.

Rotten: 5.7/10