The Grim Dystopia of A Christmas Prince

so I barely resisted covering a Christmas Prince when it debuted last Christmas time but I felt like it was a little lean I felt like I needed something more that could really sink my teeth into and as soon as Netflix announced a Christmas Prince to the Royal Wedding I knew I would be revisiting the franchise and that day has come because now a Christmas Prince is a cinematic universe now there's a Christmas Prince Canon and the sequel delivered just on every possible level it was bigger it was crazier and that wasn't even the best part a christmas Prince too tickled my whatever the foreboding version of a funny bone is we all thought Christmas prince was Netflix doing a Hallmark Christmas movie but we were wrong it was Netflix doing a dark dystopian franchise movie first let's cover the basics a Christmas Prince is about a journalist named amber who travels to Aldo via to cover the coronation of the new king his royal hotness is due back this weekend but just in case he abdicates I need somebody there to capture the fireworks she talks her way into the castle by posing as the new tutor for the princess you must be the new American cute of a princess Emily yes and while she is snooping around she bonds with the royal family and falls in love with the prince also it's Christmas time if you think that all sounds very fluffy and happy and harmless then you are as blinded by your arrogance as the Christmas Prince himself the clever filmmakers have sprinkled little clues all throughout both movies that the kingdom of Aldo via is not as merry as it appears and I have organized all of those things into a numbered list number one an entire Christmas country aldo via is a country whose entire identity is centered around christmas it's snowing fresh snow christmas is now debian sign of good fortune there coronations happen on christmas their weddings happen on christmas the prince plays the piano but only christmas music [Music] you because he loves Christmas he ends an important political address by announcing the lighting of the Royal Christmas tree to celebrate with the lighting of the Royal Christmas tree the late king hides important political documents in a Christmas ornament even this inexplicably gorgeous dive bar on what we're told is the wrong side of town is fully decked out for the holiday the Christmas in this movie is off the charts the characters can't do anything that's not at least a little Christmassy there's a scene where our gang is investigating a shadowy puppet corporation that's been embezzling funds from the country and driving them to bankruptcy but while they're doing it they're on a laptop that's like set on a table in front of a beautiful Christmas tree and then on the table around them are like cozy mugs of hot cocoa to investigate with by the second film we still have no glimpse into how Aldo via functions outside of the Christmastime and that's when you realize that it doesn't aldo via is the nation trapped in the purgatory of a perpetual Christmas that sounds implausible but not when you realize these films are set in an alternate universe and they are the first clue of that comes at the very beginning of the very first movie [Music] it's our favorite time we open with a Christmas montage set to what isn't and yet clearly is rocking around the Christmas tree [Music] last is here and the stars belong show this is delightful and it's also our first hint at one of our themes of the series which is deception and facades here we have the superficial appearance of a Christmas classic that we know well but when we look closer there's something off about it I will be examining this theme further as we move down the list to the line of succession the plot of the first Christmas prints movie centers around Prince Richard ascending to the throne at the beginning of the film Prince Richard is uncertain as to whether he even wants to take the throne and we're told in the time before the movie he's been jet-setting all around the world partying and living it up and he kind of has this reputation as like an irresponsible playboy Prince his younger sister Emily explains that should Richard choose not to take the throne the next in line is his cousin Simon nice to meet you Simon you shall address me as Lord Duxbury Simon apparently has always been jealous of Richard and wants the throne out of spite or jealousy we don't know and then Amber's like but Emily as Princess why aren't you next in line for the throne Simon is next in line for the throne not you male bloodline it's totally unfair and Emily's just like I can't because I'm a girl and she kind of rolls her eyes like oh brother you know how it is and it's never addressed on a deeper level like how messed up it is that that's still the law in the books in 2018 and like how much that would devalue her as a person in her family in her country that she is officially and legally less than her male counterparts but anyway that's the last we hear of that so I guess it's fine it's totally on that no kidding then in a late-game twist amber finds out that richard is not in line for the throne at all it turns out that the Queen was not able to have children and it's not because they waited too long it turns out that this is just how she's always been and apparently they found out a month after the wedding a month after we were married I was told I couldn't have children good thing Royals aren't really invasive people who run severe physicals before they get married for exactly this purpose so they adopted a son and you would think as king you could then change the law so that he can be in line for the throne even though he's adopted or I thought Kings could just name their successors and it wasn't like that big of a deal like that that's within their power to do but they don't do that instead they pretend that Richard is the real son and it's a huge secret that nobody ever finds out he's got to be in his 30s and nobody knows Richard being adopted is such a big secret that the late King keeps his original birth certificate his new forged birth certificate and his legal adoption papers all in one convenient folder and he keeps that folder in a hidden drawer instead of keeping it in the fire yeah it's a dangerous paper trail to keep around the what if you want to make a scrapbook someday if your reaction when I said all that was wait legal certificate of adoption why was this done legally if you want to be a royal family and adopt a baby without anyone knowing you're gonna have to buy that baby on the black market who signed the papers wasn't this filed in a courthouse how has nobody found out isn't this a huge plot hole it's not a plot hole this has never explained but I just assume that the royal family had everyone involved killed as soon as it was done so tracks covered anyway this means Richard is ineligible for the throne which is announced by the villains at his Christmas coronation we also get the title drop under the best circumstances possible this fraudulent Christmas Prince is not the blood of the late king I always liked that after this revelation Richard storms out of the party and as he's going down the steps we see a couple who's just now on their way in like they are in for a surprise with Richard not actually the prince and it turns out not even originally actually named Richard we see the return of our theme of deceptions and facades so was this plot element the point of that theme not quite we'll get there immediately when this plot twists happened I thought of Emily they'd have that earlier scene setting up that she wasn't considered eligible because she's a girl I thought that was gonna come back it's totally on that emily is focused determined she's intelligent she's a crack shot at archery she's apparently a master computer hacker if I can create a network interface that catches the traffic to the legitimate cezzah I come back to all the access and we find out she is actually the naturally born daughter of the king and queen family assume Erika and although she said she was ineligible she never expressed disinterest in the throne so I thought the twist ending would be that they would find a loophole or change the law and put Emily in line for the throne instead of Richard but then it turns out that prior to his death the late king did write an official order amending the law so that Richard could be king for some reason even though this is within his power he didn't just openly adopt the child and change the law years ago and instead of telling his wife about this and getting it on the books early to protect his family in the event of his death he instead decided to fold up the Royal Decree and hide it inside a Christmas ornament I found this one stashed away often where was it no oh your father had put it in a secret hiding place but he wasn't very good at keeping secrets and then write a cryptic Christmas poem alluding to its existence they just before he died from a seed and acorns gift henceforth the truth will flow darkness such a secret Bears and a love far greater than that I would say this was recklessly irresponsible but I can't deny that it does put me in the Christmas spirit three everybody in this universe is weathered and Haggard at all times here we carry on with that sense of wrongness I mentioned when I was talking about the alternate universe theory as with all happy holiday romances a christmas prince features characters who are fully made up and styled all the time the fact that it's not super realistic to see a woman with this budget with these kind of clothes or with fully styles here all the time when she's always on the go or lying in bed with a full face of makeup it doesn't really matter because those are the expectations of the genre this is all par for the course it's all good the problem with a Christmas Prince is the characters are always in makeup but it's never fresh makeup their faces always look like they have a fine sheen of sweat and close-ups you can see that their foundation has kind of settled onto their face too long and it's like getting into the fine lines this is kind of just a thing you see in daily life because people don't really make up all the time but in movies you don't usually see that maybe this is the fault of an inexperienced makeup artist or maybe the lighting is really bad or maybe I'm just used to seeing too many movies with that automatic skin smoothening software they tend to apply to the actors faces but I think what it really is is just overly long shoot days or just overly exhausting ones it's not just the makeup amber has those big styled curls but they hang loose and limp in every scene the entire cast perpetually looks tired with dark pronounced circles under their eyes when amber and Richard are on their idyllic horse-drawn sleigh ride through the snowy countryside you aren't thinking about the magic of Christmas you're thinking oh my god they probably had to get out here at like 5:00 in the morning to get a few good hours of sunlight they're probably tired and freezing throughout the entire movie we're getting subtle unconscious clues that they aren't having a good time and now the bright snowy landscape doesn't feel charming the light feels harsh and unforgiving the fields of snow a barren wasteland I was left wondering how does this kind of oversight happened like these people have all worked on movies before was the budget really just that low and then I realized no it's to tie back to our theme of facades for what is makeup if not a facade the subtle hints at a more hostile environment than we would initially expect is also a brilliant use of foreshadowing number for the bracelet there is a key seen in the first film where princess Emily gives amber a gift I don't have anything for you you'd give me a lot you told me that everything's going to be okay even if my father's gone even if I'm different amber opens the box to see a Pandora brand charm bracelet it's to remind you lots bulk of right on my first viewing I found this scene very strange I was like this is an ancient royal family if they were going to give the gift of jewelry and I would not expect it to be a chain store bracelet that you can buy it any American shopping mall where or when would a foreign princess have an opportunity to shop for this at the time it seemed like poorly thought-out shameless product placement and then I realized it was a deliberate choice on the part of the storytellers Pandora bracelets are middling ly expensive charm bracelets you can get the band for $100 or less and then from there you fill it with charms which they do make more expensive ones of but usually they range from forty to sixty dollars that means that by the time you have a full bracelet you have spent way too much for how cheap and awful the end result looks but any middle-class person can afford them there are a lot of avid Pandora bracelet collectors most of them are moms and I attribute part of this to the fact that they release the charms and waves and try to encourage that collector habit but I think a large part of it is also that the Pandora stores in the mall look and operate like a much higher end jewelry store in terms of their customer service and attention its attractively decorated the staff are very attentive so you basically get the experience of buying expensive jewelry for the cost of buying cheap jewelry even if you decide you want to really break the bank on Pandora the most expense charm currently on their website is still only four hundred and twenty-five dollars and it's just as ugly as you could imagine four hundred and twenty five dollars is way too much for whatever this is but it's still much cheaper than anything you're going to get at a different jewelry store so anyway what I'm saying is that symbolically pandora represents the appearance of wealth to cover up underlying struggles I didn't realize it at the time but the Pandora bracelet was actually foreshadowing the plot of a Christmas Prince to when the Kingdom of Aldo via is struggling financially the story follows almost an alternating scene-by-scene pattern of the characters encountering political unrest and then deciding to cheer themselves up with some kind of traditional Christmas activity [Music] [Applause] the unions are calling for a nationwide strike in solidarity over unpaid wages on our work programs [Music] if all the infrastructure projects are happening in aldo via through aldo being companies how can the country be losing so much money dear Royals but I'm sure you are having a dandy Christmas at the palace the real working people of Aldo BIA are suffering how do you think of that this can be interpreted in multiple ways either it's the filmmakers trying to highlight the folly of the royal family in their Christmas cheer or it's another use of our theme of facades with the Pandora bracelet being used to cover up for darker undertones which will surface later number 5 Simon I mentioned Simon earlier he's Richard's cousin the villain of the first movie and also the best character in the franchise I think when they were casting the character of Simon the casting note said knock off Tom Hiddleston we could break in to the Hall of Records or kidnap the records keeper toss him in a dungeon and hope he gives up the past character Simon wants to seize the throne and since he's trying to seize it from Richard who is the main character that makes Simon the villain but the film never manages to address why Simon doesn't deserve to be King he's better educated I was a degree in economics from Oxford he never tries to abdicate their responsibility and unlike Richard he can move the muscles in his face to convey emotion Simon is also loyal he spends the first movie working with Richards caddy ex-girlfriend to try to ruin the coronation I thought this was a partnership mostly built on mutual greed and scheme eNOS I even kind of expected a double-cross once Simon got what he needed wouldn't know he immediately goes all out he says they're in love he declares her his queen and says they're going to rule together I humbly present myself for fair and right claim to the throne of Aldo via with ladies to fear by my side as my queen it's really kind of sweet Simon returns in the second film and he has my favorite character trope a Redemption arc give me a chance to redeem myself and by Redemption arc I mean he just he just shows up again and like inserts himself back into the group but he's a good guy now yeah he just wanders into the parlour like there they're not happy to see him but he got this far you have a guest send him in [Music] sunny hello it's a good thing security is so lacks at the royal palace simon spends most of his time in the second movie delivering quality one-liners nothing could be finer than Christmas in a diner would you like some coffee with that whiskey Simon well exactly mr. Roebuck yeah mr. slow bot you don't care for tobogganing and despite richard and the whole royal family rejecting simon's offers for help and basically bullying him the whole movie he actually ends up doing like 90% of the work to solve the financial crisis Simon deserved better but it does look like they're gonna set him up with Amber's best friend at the end so I guess it all worked out I mean he looked happy well too happy so did everyone number 6 an examination of the existential horror of the Royal Wedding fairy tale the central conflict of Christmas Prince to the Royal Wedding is that amber as she approaches her wedding is starting to feel insignificant in the face of everything that's happening around her and all of her problems are extremely petty oh blogs that's what I do for a living now that you're part of the royal family we must be careful of the image that you project oh no you mean I can't write in my blog anymore when I become an actual princess I suggest that you cease from any further investigation and any activity pertaining to your blog immediately no way what kind of sadistic saw trap is this oh no the little princess can't perform in the Christmas pageant because the unpaid workers went on straight oh no you mean I can't wear this locket that I just got but I find super important to me for like 20 minutes while I take the royal portrait and then I can put it back on right after and about the halfway point I was already getting really frustrated with these tiny issues and the fact that throughout the movie they're contrasted against genuine suffering among the lower classes of aldo via just emphasizes how inconsequential they are king richard has barely slept since I got here I'm supposed to feel sorry for him I would sleep you think I've been getting but even as I was feeling fed up I was feeling bad feeling fed up the idea of firstworldproblems is already such an unconstructive way to look at the world like Amber's feelings should matter she has a right to feel happiness and express herself other people having it worse doesn't mean she shouldn't get to feel bad about her own bumps in the road but the problem is she's a princess so it's not like the royal family are just some hapless rich people who are oblivious to or ignorant about the financial crisis they're the ones who are supposed to be in charge and making things run smoothly and it appears that the current troubles are directly caused by Richard and his new political initiatives amber is accepting this role of princess which means she is willingly sacrificing her right to be an individual and has become something bigger than herself and that brings me to my next point number seven the colours of a Christmas Prince this cinematic universe makes great use of their colours it's established almost immediately that Amber's colors are bright blue and a deep cranberry red which really makes her stand out as a vibrant character among all the other characters of the royal household in a brilliant bit of visual storytelling in every scene you can see which characters are allied with or working against amber based on the colours that they're wearing when we first meet the royal family they are wearing primarily black white and grey but the more they get to know amber we see her colors creeping into their wardrobe this changes the most obvious in princess Emily who gets to know amber first and best by the time of their toboggan ride together Emily is wearing vibrant outfits completely reflecting Amber's colour scheme even our villain Simon wears a bright red cravat to foreshadow is upcoming Redemption arc in the second film but it's most important to track the evolution of these colors on amber herself at her first cocktail party in the palace when amber is still uncomfortable and trying to fit in she wears a black cocktail dress with none of her signature colors at the ball a high point when she is settled into the palace and comfortable with the family amber wears a bright blue gown and her signature cranberry red converse sneakers now let's look at amber in Christmas prints to hear her color scheme begins to shift from blue and red to blue and of very pale pink her signature outfit which she wears in multiple scenes consists of a pale pink coat a pale blue scarf and a gray hat but in a scene after scene we see the more vibrant colors leached gradually from Amber's wardrobe and the timing of this happening coincides perfectly with the rate at which Amber's sense of self is being stripped away by her multiple confrontations with the palace staff in moments of strength and especially when Amber is with her friends or family we see the red start to appear again but then it recedes one particularly haunting example falls near the midpoint of the movie we see amber wearing her pink coat and blue scarf while she is boldly offering financial advice to her husband however he rejects her and only a few scenes later we see her wearing the outfit again in a scene where Richard has to tell her that due to a workers strike he will not be able to look for the perfect Christmas tree with her even though she had been looking forward to this more than anything in the world I am more excited about this than anything in the world she is forced to put her own needs aside and please note that in this scene it is as I said the same outfit except inexplicably her blue scarf has been traded for a pale gray scarf this could have no clear in universe justification and can only be a deliberate signal to the audience that Amber is losing her sense of self-worth and personal identity with this color theory in mind the final scene of the movie takes on a much darker meaning at Amber's wedding she has convinced King Richard to take into account what she has to say and this is reflected in his garish blue sash we can also see Amber's signature colors sprinkled throughout the crowd as all of the wedding guests dance and a happy conga line but then it begs the question who are the other guests who aren't wearing Amber's collars a lot of black outfits and a lot of white a lot of white dresses which is a very curious choice for a wedding unless it's meant to tell us something so here and now the visual symbolism is at its most striking here we see amber at the end of her story dancing happily at her wedding surrounded by allies but also surrounded by an even greater number of enemy the conflict in this film comes from within the palace a disapproving House staffer trying to break up the engagement and a prime minister who is embezzling funds the last movies villains Simon and Lady Sofia were also well known to the main characters and living within the walls of the castle and there again is our theme of deception as we leave our Christmas princess she is in a nest of vipers who will be the next person close to amber to try to betray her but even then as she ascends to the Christmas throne it's worth noting that in this scene amber is wearing her pure white wedding gown and has officially been stripped entirely of the color that made her herself maybe now having made her final sacrifice amber is wiser and harder than she has ever been before maybe next time amber will be the one to betray so I can't wait to see this resolved in a Christmas Prince 3 when amber falls to the dark side and our final point number 8 this fraudulent Christmas Prince in a Christmas Prince to princess Emily performs in the annual Christmas pageant as the lead and for the record I think it's really unfair that someone who's the princess should also get to be the lead in the school play but I guess I didn't get to cast it so but anyway the play is based on an ancient Aldo vien fairy tale which is about an ogre who is transformed by magic into a handsome prince [Music] here we have facades again but we also have a very on-the-nose representation of Prince Richard himself superficially handsome and our protagonist but beneath it all dull and under-qualified of all the Royals Richard is the most to blame for the financial crisis in the second movie the Christmas Prince who I guess is the Christmas king in the second movie doesn't get to just throw his hands up in defeat when things go wrong yeah these numbers just start adding up in our financial reports but what can I do I'm just the king now who wants to go on our annual toboggan ride and hey let's not forget that the cousin he snatched the throne back from in the last movie had a degree in economics I would agree and I couldn't make some obstacle do I know we're supposed to root for Richard because he's nice and he's the main character and he loves Christmas but he's demonstrably not good at his job of the crops to flourish rain must fall likewise today's temporary hardships will soon spur on a bountiful future for all [Music] [Applause] Richard's only character traits seemed to be that he loves Christmas and he's as dumb as a pile of rocks in the first film it's not great because like it's a romance and we want to be able to root for him and their love and it doesn't help that they cast an actor who can barely move his face or register any emotion in his cold little eyes has all that talk about abdication just gossip bouncing Alice dead but by the second film it becomes extremely aggravating Richard spends the whole second film allowing himself and his wife to get bullied by a member of his own household staff to the point that it almost destroys his marriage your majesty [Music] so really Richard I'm but I'm but so amber comments about how unhappy she is right in front of him and he just stares off into space you're about to be Queen thought maybe you might have a say I'm pretty sure they'd rather treat me as an ornament myself Richard's the kind of simple man where if you tell him his wife is missing after he's had a fight with her instead of going to the logical assumption that she may have taken a cab off property and you should maybe call her or ask her friends for possible leads he just runs outside and barrels aimlessly through his hedge maze calling her name into the snow I'm are you here I'm back [Music] under king richard's care the Prime Minister siphoned off 2.5 quadrillion dollars from the national budget and he didn't even notice anything was awry until his blogger girlfriend pointed it out there's this infuriating scene in the first movie where Prince Richard is supposed to give a speech at a charity fundraiser for an orphanage when his cue comes up to walk on stage he's nowhere to be found and everyone in the crowd immediately starts murmuring like oh maybe I won't donate it oh maybe we can't trust the king amber goes to find Richard and discovers that he's actually playing with the orphans in question he's having a delightful snowball fight charge of high treason this snowman to death by firing squad I thought this meant he just lost track of time and then he like went to give the speech after and was a bit late which is already pretty irresponsible but then no we cut to the next scene and we find out that he just never gave the speech like he kept playing in the snow and they never found him and his mother is scolding him like I can't believe you missed the speech you kind of ruined everything because he did and Richard just sulks and argues back and doesn't seem to understand why he's in trouble help me understand why you shift your duty today I thought my duty was to those children he's all like I was just making the orphans happy and it's like we can I'm sure you were Richard but it's nice that they were happy in the moment but don't they need funding to live and that's what Christmas is to Aldo via and that's how King Richard is going to rule the point of the country's obsession with Christmas is that they love these surface level solutions we don't have any idea how King Richard is going to repair the damage done by his evil Prime Minister and all the funding that's been lost already but he goes on TV and says that everyone is going to get a lump sum of money to get them through the holidays Christmas bonus for every hard-working man and woman in Aldo via [Applause] it doesn't matter what comes after that because everybody cheers and everyone's happy and loves them again and Christmas is saved and this is where I'd like to bring back deception and façades there's a way that it ties in with Amber's crisis of identity and Richards secret identity and Pandora bracelets I thought the final form of this theme was deception but it's not it's self delusion Merry Christmas you I also watched the other Netflix Christmas movie a princess switch and I had my best cinematic moment of 2018 because there's a scene in that movie where two of the characters sit down and then they turn on Netflix and they go through the menu and they watch a Christmas Prince inside the movie it was amazing I I cheered a weird morning

Channel: Jenny Nicholson

Views: 1,356,729

Rating: 4.9584727 out of 5

Keywords: netflix presents, a christmas prince, christmas prince The Royal Wedding

Id: BsHT1fYouYU

Length: 32min 52sec (1972 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 24 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/pushingdaisyadair]

ACP1 is the story of the bad guy winning and taking over the kingdom - like when Scar becomes king instead of Simba. ACP2 is about the evil king running the country into the ground - like what Scar did to Pride Rock during Simba’s exile. So it stands that ACP3 will be about the ousting of the evil king, and crowning of the rightful heir - which will restore order to the kingdom. Just like what followed Simba’s triumphant return to Pride Rock. The question is, will the rightful heir turn out to be Emily or Simon?

Oh Hang On: The old King - when he found out about the adoption - actually wanted Emily as heir. But the people in the know about the whole legal adoption thing used this information to blackmail him. So instead he wrote into bill that the other "the prince is the true heir" bill was a lie written under duress. That in fact Emily was the true and rightful heir - and he hid that bill in another Christmas ornament (which is how a bill become law in Aldovia) not to be discovered until all enemies of Aldovia had come out of hiding and stepped into the harsh light of Christmas Day.

ACP3 starts with Liv in the process of fading into obscurity as an ornament for her king - the "literal" pretender prince (LPP). Finally she must come to terms with her situation and decide who she actually originally fell in love with: LPP, the royal family, the country of Aldovia, or toboggan riding. With her supercharged journalist brain she sets out to uncover the truth and eventually (following Christmas themed clues) locates the other ornament.

LPP is forced to abdicate, handing the crown to Emily - who has Simon assigned as Regent until she comes of age. Everything is good and right again in the kingdom ...or is it? Cue the reemergence of foreboding colour themes.

Fade to sinister - with only a single Rose of hope.

Oh Hang On 2: The old King and Queen were childless - infertile. They tried everything to no avail. Then - by miracle - the Queen gives birth to a child. A girl with clear-blue eyes! That's Crimon by Edge of Sanity!

Man, in my teens I really wanted a cinematic universe based on Crimson. Of course, back then "cinematic universes" were called "Jim Henson's The Storyteller".

'Cover her eyes, they are the root of her inhuman forces. Then she's just the child you thought she were, disconnect all her sources.' They found a way to blind her and it could cost some lives. But they must seal the entry from where all evil derives.

[u/NeonSignsRain]

This was hilarious and one of my favorite of her videos. The concept is so ripe for derision.