The Prince and the Pauper (1990 film)

The Prince and the Pauper is a 1990 American animated musical adventure comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures on November 16, 1990. The 29th Disney animated feature film, the film is loosely based on the novel of the same name by Mark Twain, but uses anthropomorphic animals rather than people (similar to their previous film Robin Hood). Set in 1547, it tells the story of two young rabbits who are identical in appearance: Erika, a pauper girl who live in extemely poorless and Prince Edward, son of King Henry VIII. When they meet, they exchange identities and lifes which the villainous Captain of the Guard (a cat, whose appearance is similar to Pete's from the Mickey Mouse universe) plots to take advantage of this.

Featuring the voices of Paige O'Hara, Wayne Allwine, Bill Farmer, Rob Paulsen and Arthur Burghardt, The Prince and the Pauper was the second released during the Disney Renaissance (1989–1999) era, which had begun the year prior with The Little Mermaid.

The film was released on November 16, 1990 in a double feature along with DisneyToon Studios' The Rescuers Down Under. The two films were later released separately at the following day. The Prince and the Pauper gained largely positive reviews and was a commercial success, grossing over $325 million worldwide and becoming one of the highest-grossing releases of the era.

Plot
The film begins with a narration

Cast
This film marked one of the very few occasions that Wayne Allwine voiced another character besides Mickey Mouse.
 * Paige O'Hara as Erika
 * Wayne Allwine as Prince Edward
 * George Michael does his singing voice
 * Bill Farmer as Erika's father, the Counselor and Weasel Guard #1
 * Rob Paulsen as the Valet
 * Arthur Burghardt as the Captain of the Guard
 * Tim Curry does his singing voice
 * Charlie Adler as Weasel Guard #2, Pig Driver, Dog Peasant and Cat in Street
 * Frank Welker as Erika's mouse, the King and the Archbishop
 * Elvia Allman as a Honey Badger Mother
 * Trevor Eyster as Honey Badger Kid #1
 * Rocky Krakoff as Honey Badger Kid #2
 * Roy Dotrice as the Narrator

Songs

 * Free - sung by Erika and Edward - a song about Erika and Edward never stoping dreaming of freedom.
 * Written in Your Heart (opening) - sung by Erika (voice only) - a song about Erika thinking about her dreams.
 * Happy as a King - sung by Erika and her father - a song about Erika and her father starting to think what would be their lifes if they lived in the castle.
 * I Am Like You - sung by Erika and Edward - a song sung by Erika and Edward when they discover they are identical, apart from the birthmark Edward has on his hand and their genders.
 * That Day's Coming - sung by the Captain - a song about the Captain's plans to usurp the throne.
 * Sadness - sung by Erika and Edward (voices only) - a song sung when Edward and Erika start to know how difficult is their (changed) life.
 * Written in Your Heart (finale) - performed by the Disney Studio Choir - a choir version of the song.

Development
Writing for The Prince and the Pauper began in 1986. Following work on Oliver & Company, Peter Schneider, vice president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, asked supervising animator Mike Gabriel if he would consider directing. However, Gabriel declined the offer, stating "Well, after watching George Scribner, it doesn't look like it would be much fun", which Schneider offered Scribner to direct Prince and the Pauper, which he accepted.

During the development, Scribner made some changes to the film, such as a female pauper in order to having a both genders audience. Also, the production for The Rescuers Down Under was moved to DisneyToon Studios in favor of Prince and the Pauper. A cute little male puppy named "Angel" was going to appear in the film, but plans featuring him were scrapped during pre-production and he was replaced by Erika's pet mouse.

It was originally intended to have blood gore and be darker and edgier, but was rewritten to be a little more lighter. A whole lot of people spent months storyboarding and re-storyboarding the movie. They really didn't stay with the script form for too long. Sometimes, scenes with some of the stuff that didn't work would be on the cutting room floor.

Once the animation began production, people rushed drawing character layouts for the characters for three months. The layouts looked rushed, but the animation by comparison looks more ugly drawn than the layouts, but smoothly animated. When it was shown back to the producer, he complained about the quality of the animation looking rushed as if Disney had never done that before. It was Disney's final use of the traditional ink-and-paint and camera process, before the CAPS digital-ink-and-paint process rendered the traditional techniques and equipment obsolete.

Writting
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Release
The film was released to theatres on November 16, 1990 in both the US and Canada. It was later released in Europe on May 16, 1991 and in Japan on October 12, 1991.

Marketing
Wendy's teamed with Disney to promote the film with 5 kids' Meal toys.

Box office
The film was a box office success, grossing over $325 million worldwide and becoming one of the highest-grossing releases of the era.

Critical reception
People were praised for the animation, music, and storyline, but some criticized the quality of the character layouts not staying close to the original model sheet.

Home media
The film was released on VHS on March 8, 1991 and later released on DVD, February 14, 2001.

Soundtrack
A soundtrack for the film was released October 7, 1990, a month before the movie was released in November.

Transcript

 * The Prince and the Pauper (1990 film)/Transcript

Video games
A video game based off the movie was originally going to be for the Super Nintendo in the 90's, but plans were ultimately scrapoed.

That was until Midway Games decided to team up with Disney in 2000, and began working on the video game adaptation in 2001. A year later, the video game was completed and was finally released for the XBOX (NA, February 14, 2002. EUR, June 7, 2002.), PlayStation 2 (NA, March 5, 2002. EUR, August 22, 2002. JPN, November 18, 2002), Windows PC (NA, January 8, 2003. EUR, April 10, 2003), and Nintendo GameCube (NA, July 14, 2003. EUR, September 6, 2003. JPN, December 14, 2003)

Theme parks
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Other appearances
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