“Cursed as a child, Prince Philippe Charming compulsively proposes to every woman he encounters, leaving a trail of lovesick ladies and scorned lovers to wreak vengeful havoc on the Kingdom. Ultimately, Prince Philippe’s exasperated father, King Charming, gives the young Prince an ultimatum… Find a true, true-love before his 21st Birthday or lose all claim to the throne.”
– 3QU Media, IMDB.
Charming is a 2018 animated musical comedy produced by 3QU Media, a production company formed in part by John H. Williams (One of three producers on the 2001 Dreamworks film Shrek). The film features the voices of singer Demi Lovato and Wilmer Valderrama (Fez on That 70s Show). Lovato and Valderrama, who play the romantic leads in Charming, were dating while the film was in development, but had broken up by the time of its release.
While the film has been released throughout Europe and Africa, as of May 2019 the film has yet to see a Region 1 DVD release. 3QU Media promises on their website to “…share Charming and other family-friendly animated stories with greater audiences across the world”.
Some thoughts from me (Potential spoilers below…)
This is a film that popped up in my Youtube recommendations one day. Me being me, I eagerly anticipated the release of Charming in the hopes that it would be another suitable entry for this blog. As mentioned in the above blurb, so far Charming has yet to see a Region 1 DVD release. Generally I prefer to get Region 1 DVD’s when I can, but after a year of waiting I finally caved and ordered a Region 4 DVD from Australia. I’m glad I did, because Charming is a wonderful addition to my bad Princess movie library.
I’m sure you can imagine what the plot for this one will be: The Prince and his Lenore will slowly fall in love over the course of the film. Your assumption is correct…. except for the ‘slowly’ part. Pretty quick into their journey we already get the impression that Lenore is attracted to the Prince. It’s pretty hilarious given that it’s implied that Lenore is impervious to the Prince’s charm because her heart is so closed off to the idea of love… yet almost immediately Lenore is questioning whether or not she can trust the Prince with her heart. It’s actually makes the pace of the film feel a bit off as a result.
The dialogue in this one is so clunky. Lenore frequently monologues to herself about whether or not the Prince could be her true love. It’s a little ridiculous how we’re supposed to believe this is the same person who has hardened her heart to the idea of love. Lenore asks the Prince to meet her at a restaurant, but unfortunately when he arrives it’s filled to the brim with lovely ladies. He is of course, cursed to be irresistible to all women, so when Lenore arrives she finds him swarmed by ladies. Lenore decides to hold this against the prince, and berates him. She’s mad that he let her down, for not ‘catching’ her during her ‘leap of faith’, which feels pretty unfair given that he didn’t know she was jumping in the first place?
Overall I’d recommend this one. It’s a good mix of quality and weird story choices that make for a really entertaining watch. This is a good candidate for a “What could they have done to fix this premise” discussion following the movie.
Bad Princess Movies 
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