Spellbound Releases Its First Trailer!

Spellbound is quickly becoming the most anticipated princess movie of the winter season. With its all-star cast, convenient streaming format, and apolitical plot structure, this movie is a lovely throwback to animated musicals of the past. Its nostalgic score is composed by Alan Menken, the musical pioneer of the Disney Renaissance. Until today, there were only a few clips of the movie available online along with a brief summary. As of this morning, is a complete trailer available to give us a better idea of what to expect when the movie launches on Netflix on November 22nd. Unfortunately, the trailer does not contain any clips of the anticipated musical numbers, but it does give a solid preview of the animation, plot, and characters that we can expect to see in Spellbound. Make your own judgements by watching it below.

The first thing I noticed about the trailer is that this movie is extremely aware of how much star power it has, possibly to its own detriment. Instead of trying to pull its audience in with a strong hook, it starts out by name-dropping all the classic Disney and Dreamworks films that its team worked on in the past. Since Skydance Animation is still a fairly new studio, they need to bank off the experience of their talent rather than their own established works. Considering Disney's current reputation, they may have something to gain from rounding up the skilled artists that worked on their great films of the past. Don Bluth did something similar when Disney was in another slump prior to their Renaissance era. Spellbound stars the controversial Rachel Zegler as its leading princess, who has unfortunately come to represent some of Disney's more questionable decisions. Despite this, Rachel is a talented performer, so her casting does not necessarily mean that Spellbound will be a bad movie.

The trailer does a good job of revealing the plot, which was revealed previously the initial press release. Princess Ellian summons two creatures to the castle to help her with a problem her parents are suffering from. They have mysteriously turned into monsters after a trip into a magical forest. The trailer proceeds to unleash a series of gags that may come up as a result of this situation, such as the kingdom's bravest knights trying to attack the monsters without realizing they are the queen and king and Ellian switching gears as a parental figure to get her parents to behave in their new monstrous forms. Many of the themes that I was hoping to see from this movie are there, including the strong bond between family, a princess who is more focused on love than independence, and the overall wholesome vibe of animated movies of old.

Some things that were notably missing from the trailer include the new Alan Menken songs, which it forgoes in favor of the old classic, "Don't Stop Believing" from Journey. It's hard to say if Ellian will follow the modern Disney Princess trope as she is portrayed mainly in situations where she is forced to act a certain way due to the circumstances, giving us few opportunities to see her true personality. When she summons the two creatures to the palace, she wears a traditional princess gown with comedically large pocket hoops that only flare out on the sides, giving her skirt the appearance of a curtain rod. She is portrayed later in more comfortable adventure ensembles but isn't shown fighting aside from when she uses a magical tool that she isn't familiar with to get a group of soldiers to drop their weapons. Overall, she seems far more motivated by helping her parents than to claim her independence or strength.

The trailer for Spellbound has finally arrived, offering a glimpse into the highly anticipated princess movie. While it may rely heavily on the star power of its cast and crew, the film's apolitical plot, stunning animation, and focus on family bonds and wholesome themes hint at a charming throwback to classic animated musicals. With the talented Rachel Zegler at the helm and Alan Menken's iconic compositions to come, Spellbound has the potential to captivate audiences of all ages. As we await its release on Netflix on November 22nd, one thing is clear – this movie is poised to cast a spell of delight on viewers everywhere.