The Swan Princess/YMMV

• Alternate Character Interpretation: If not for their direct interaction with Derek, one could easily assume that the odd personalities of the animals were all in Odette's head, a coping mechanism for dealing with the loss of her father, lover, and home...
• Angst? What Angst?: Odette is never seen grieving over her dead father. And no one seems to have any problem in the third movie with Odette being resurrected with necromantic black magic.
  • Alternatively, the second example is simply Derek's reward for destroying the Forbidden Arts, which wouldn't be a reason for angsting.
  • Well, she does do a lot of breaking down in the first movie, which can be assumed to be about the whole gravity of the immense situation she's in, from the death of her father to being cursed.
• Non Sequitur Scene: Rogers' "She's Gone!" musical number in the third movie.
• Complete Monster: Zelda, Vain Sorceress Big Bad of the third film, is easily the most evil villain in the series. She kidnaps a bird called Whizzer and promises to release him if she spies on Odette and Derek's kingdom for her, but breaks her promise on two separate occasions. When she obtains the forbidden arts she states that she loves is the power to destroy, and when when she finds out that Derek tore off the last word she kidnaps Odette and threatens to kill her if Derek doesn't give her the missing piece, and when she gets what she wants she vaporizes Odette out of pure sadism.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Rogers, Speed, Jean-Bob, the old woman, Wesley and Puffin
• Fridge Horror: In the third movie, Odette actually dies. As in dead! But after burning the pages, she is raised from the dead -- apparently by the power of forbidden black arts.
  • From the first movie, where does Rothbart go when he's not in the castle at daytime? hunting anything as the Great Animal of course!
• Hilarious in Hindsight: One of Odette's Talking Animal friends is Jean-Bob, a French-accented frog who wants a princess to kiss him so he can turn into a prince.
  • For that matter, John Cleese voiced Jean-Bob in the first film. 10 years later, he voiced King Harold, an actual frog prince, in the Shrek sequels.
• Idiot Plot: The third movie's antagonist Zelda uses a magical talking bird to impersonate other people and find information during the movie. Despite the fact that she is shown to have the power to transform into any character she wants and impersonate them—an ability she could also use to pry the secret location of the notes from Rogers rather than woo them from him!
• Magnificent Bastard: Despite his questionable planning skills, Rothbart tries to be this and nearly succeeds thanks to his efficiency, Jack Palance's voice, and his tendency to looks good while doing evil.
• Narm: Here and there, if you're taking the movie too seriously. See Skyward Scream, though.
• Nightmare Fuel: Derek hunting Odette, which the former mistakes the latter for the Great Animal, the reveal of the old lady being the fake Odette, even if it was seen earlier and of course The Great Animal.
• Painful Rhyme: From "No More Mr. Nice Guy": "Up 'til now I've pulled my punches/I intend to eat their lunches…"
  • Oh come on, that's not nearly as painful as "As soon as my witchcraft has zinged 'em/I'll gain control of the kingdom!"
  • "No More Mr. Nice Guy", catchy as it is, has a lot of these: "Odette won't go to the ball cause I won't bring her / So I'll conjure a date who's a real dead ringer."
    • • "As for Odette, well that's tragic/ 'Cause I'm goin' back to that old black magic!"
  • Also cringe-worthy is the line "What if Odette doesn't go for the merger?/Urge her!" from "This Is My Idea".
  • "This plan if applied'll/Be simply suicidal!" from "No Fear".
• Sequelitis: Both sequels suffer from this.
• Tastes Like Diabetes: Each movie ends with Derek and/or Odette saying something sappy, then kissing in closeup (through Stock Footage, no less). From the last movie:

Odette: Promise me, Derek. There's no more magic in the castle?
Derek: I can't do that. So long as you're here, Odette, there will always be magic.

• What an Idiot!: The first film would be shorter if the lovers didn't each hold the Idiot Ball. Odette, in her swan form, has to steal a map from inside Rothbart's castle to tell where she is when she could just fly and get an idea that way. And Derek falls for an Odette dupe who is dressed in black. (In the ballet version of this story, this is justified as the lovers have only just met, but here they've known each other for years and she usually wears white.) In the third film, he falls for an Odette dupe again. It's even lampshaded by Zelda.