The Princess Switch - Switched Again

The Princess Switch - Switched Again (2020) - Netflix

In movies that I have seen that I imagined I would never see a sequel, The Princess Switch was probably near of the top of that list.  And the first Terminator.  Because what are they going to do, keep sending robots back in time over and over and over again to kill different versions of the same dude?  Why yes we are.  But here we are with ‘The Princess Switch: Switched Again’.  Color me intrigued, because… why is this happening?  I need to know the justification for why this is happening again!

Two years on, Stacy (Vanessa Hudgins) has married King Edward (Sam Palladio) and is firmly entrenched as the princess of Belgravia, and is doing princess stuff.  Like judging that Bakery contest from the first movie in which she awards this year’s winner, who made a Mistletoe Cake.  Mistletoe is poison and I hope nobody eats that cake.  Sadly, Princess Margaret (Vanessa Hudgins) and Stacy’s best friend Kevin (Nick Sagar) have parted ways.  As I mentioned in our discussion of the first movie, I saw that coming.  Margaret was clearly just working out some basic biological needs with Kevin and I didn’t see that union lasting.  The reason we’re given for the breakup is that Margaret has been cornered into becoming the queen of Montenero, and Kevin the simple Chicago baker just couldn’t deal.  Regardless of all of that, there is Margaret’s coronation to attend and while Kevin really doesn’t want to go, his meddlesome bestie Stacy and his intrusive daughter Oliva (Mia Lloyd) force him to go… and maybe rekindle the love?

Once in Montenero there are some issues to deal with.  The King and his princess are having some issues which seems to center around the fact that Stacy isn’t giving it to him on the regular?  Also there is a roadblock in Kevin and Margaret getting that love thing back in the form of Margaret’s super smooth assistant Antonio (Lachlan Nieboer), but that cat is way too smooth and polished NOT to be up to something.  A more pressing issue, as it will turn out, will be Margaret’s gauche cousin Fiona (Vanessa Hudgins), a third doppelganger.  The only difference between Fiona and the other two is Fiona’s ‘junk in the trunk’, and that’s not me talking, that would be Fiona’s assistant Reggie (Ricky Norwood) who said this.  If there’s a third one of these movies I hope they explain why there are so many Vanessa Hudgins running around the planet Earth. 

Fiona is broke.  So she and her assistants hatch a plan to kidnap Margaret, sub in Fiona as queen, fleece a few million then gotta fled.  And that plan was looking to be working, but Margaret and Stacy switched!  Again!  This time so the super busy Margaret could spend some alone time with Kevin and work out their issues.  There had to be a better way to do this.  Anyway, they kidnapped Stacy, pretending to be Margaret.  Shenanigans abound!  And while Margaret and Kevin completely worked out whatever it was keeping them apart and rekindled the love, Fiona as Margaret undid all of that.  Then Hijinks happen!  And Antonio is exactly who we thought he was!  Not to mention the magical old dude from the first movie even came back for a spell.  Why is any of this happening!  Why! And who is this old magical dude and why is he constantly in theses peoples business!  Why!

But of course there are no answers for these rhetorical questions as actually answering them would bring up the greater existential question ‘why does anything exist?’, and The Princess Switch 2 doesn’t deserve to have that kind of weight thrust upon it.  The Princess Switch 2 just wants to take us away for 90 or so minutes with shenanigans and hijinks.  Does it do this?  Sure it does.  Will you enjoy it?  That’s completely subjective, but I can tell you that I did not.  Please recognize that when I want to introduce the uninitiated to the Romantic Christmas Movie game, I hold up the first Princess Switch as a model, the prototype for the one they should get started with.  It’s not a great movie, heck, it’s probably not even a good movie but it checks the boxes of the things that are required in a Romantic Christmas movie like a machine, it moved swiftly enough, it made sense in its nonsensical world and also had a bonus Vanessa Hudgins.  

I’m not quite sure what this one was, and as such I don’t think I’m even worthy to deconstruct it.  Is three Vanessa’s one Vanessa too many? Maybe, but if we didn’t get that third Vanessa then we wouldn’t have gotten her comic relief assistants who were the best thing about this movie.   And just as a side-note, when Kevin got dumped by Fiona pretending to be Margaret, when fake Margaret turned and walked away from him, he should've totally noticed that extra 'junk in the trunk' and known right then that wasn't actually his woman.  Just saying.

I suppose all the stuff was there.  There was a Christmas song in the beginning, snow, a snow man making scene which was sickeningly sweet along with other stuff but this installment was just a little too busy with peripheral junk for my simple tastes.  There is a reason the overwhelming majority of these movies don’t have sequels, here we offer up exhibit A.

 

Lisa's Take

Chris asked a lot of whys about Princess Switch 2. Having watched it, I can say with definite clarity that the writers/creators of this were all about the “why not?” As in, have we ever seen someone play a third lookalike? In the Freaky Fridays and Parent Traps out there, the switch is made with two people, and they let the fun ensue. I’m sure they asked “Is adding a 3rd lookalike into the switch too much? WHY NOT?”

Now I would also simply mention that in the first movie (from what I can remember) their switching was risky, but no husbands/potential husbands were directly harmed in the switch. That isn’t the case in this movie, and of course, do they tell Stacy’s husband Edward? No. Now you may wonder (Hope? Expect?) that Edward would be able to notice someone…is not his wife. As other switch movies have informed me (thanks Switched for Christmas) THAT family quickly identified that the wrong person was in their house and simply stated “You’re twins, not clones” And Edward isn’t alone in his blindness, Kevin too was bamboozled. By the 3rd look alike. For shame Kevin! Wouldn’t you recognize that Margaret wouldn’t say those things?

But as I sat there watching this, wondering my own whys “why do I continue to watch this? Why is Edward’s driver there? He’s utterly useless! Switching places is supposed to be fun, not destroying lives left and right. They don’t look like they are having fun and that’s contagious.” Hang on, before we tar and feather Edward and Kevin, even Mrs. Donatelli when fired by the cousin posing as Margaret didn’t know about that switch. Really, these three aren’t the exact same person. Isn’t Mrs. Donatelli going to ask some questions, knowing that Stacy and Margaret switched and the trust and loyalty between herself and Margaret? You get the impression that if I’m asking myself all these questions, I’m not paying attention to the movie. And you’d be right. I would recommend one jump on the board the Christmas Prince trilogy. While you may wonder, is a trilogy necessary? And while not necessary strictly speaking, at least Christmas Prince progresses in a natural way- first movie they meet, second movie is the wedding, and the third movie is the baby (no spoilers, it’s all there in the titles.) I guess what’s really missing is Stacey, Margaret and Fiona didn’t learn anything meaningful from their switch. Isn’t one supposed to go back to your old life with newfound appreciation after the escapade ends? Certainly, they didn’t have fun (objectively being kidnapped and almost losing one’s kingdom aren’t fun activities) and really, because they were under duress, so was I.