The Three Musketeers
Tags: murder, historical fiction

Plot synopsis:
In Venice, the musketeers Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, with the help of Milady de Winter, steal airship blueprints made by Leonardo da Vinci. However, they are betrayed by Milady, who incapacitates them and sells the blueprints to the Duke of Buckingham.
A year later, d'Artagnan leaves his village in Gascony for Paris in hopes of becoming a musketeer as his father was, only to learn that they were disbanded. At a rural bar, he challenges Captain Rochefort, leader of Cardinal Richelieu's guard, to a duel after being offended by him, but Rochefort merely shoots him while he's distracted. Once in Paris, d'Artagnan separately encounters Athos, Porthos and Aramis and, accidentally offending all three, schedules duels with each. Athos brings Porthos and Aramis to the duel as his seconds and d'Artagnan realizes who they are. Richelieu's guards arrive to arrest them, but, inspired by d'Artagnan, the musketeers fight together and win. All four are summoned before the young King Louis XIII and Richelieu urges him to execute them, but Queen Anne is impressed by their bravery and the king condecorates them instead.
Richelieu instructs Milady, now his accomplice, to plant false love letters among Queen Anne's possessions, steal her diamond necklace, and take it to the Tower of London in order to frame her as having an affair with Buckingham, which would force King Louis to execute her and declare war on England. At this point, the people would demand a more experienced leader: Richelieu himself. In order to secure her own position, Milady demands that Richelieu declare in a written authorization that she is working on behalf of France.
The false letters are found and given to King Louis, who is advised by Richelieu to set up a ball at which Queen Anne would be forced to wear the necklace. If she doesn't, then her affair is real, and there will be war. Queen Anne's lady-in-waiting Constance Bonacieux discovers Richelieu's plan and pleads with the musketeers to stop him. They follow Milady and Buckingham to London, while Constance is captured by Rochefort for helping the musketeers to escape from him.
In London, Milady tells Buckingham the musketeers have arrived to take revenge on him and teaches him all their tendencies in battle. D'Artagnan is captured, but turns out to be a decoy, allowing his associates to steal Buckingham's airship and rescue him. Milady's getaway coachman reveals himself as the musketeers' manservant Planchet and delivers her to his masters, who retrieve the necklace from her. Athos prepares to execute Milady for her treachery, but she leaps off the airship, apparently dying on her own terms.
The musketeers depart back to Paris, only to be intercepted by Rochefort in another airship, as Milady had given Richelieu copies of da Vinci's blueprints. Rochefort offers to exchange Constance for the necklace, but captures d'Artagnan and orders an attack as soon as he retrieves the jewels. His superior airship has the upper hand and severely damages the opposing ship, but the musketeers manage to crash both onto Notre Dame. On the roof, d'Artagnan duels and ultimately kills Rochefort. Constance is sent ahead to quietly return the necklace to Queen Anne.
The musketeers arrive at the ball and, for the sake of King Louis and his people, lie by claiming that Rochefort tried to sabotage an airship that Richelieu built for them, and that they executed him for his treason on Richelieu's permission. To convince the king, Athos presents Milady's authorization, which the former accepts. Richelieu, satisfied, offers the musketeers a place in his army, but they refuse, and Richelieu vows they will come to regret their decision.
Meanwhile, Milady is found alive at the English Channel by Buckingham, who declares his intention to exact revenge. He is then revealed to be advancing towards France with a massive fleet of battleships and airships.

Review: Well at least the Musketeers themselves were enjoyable. Just for the record I do like Burbank Films Australia animations. Wind in the Willows and Peter Pan especially of the ones I've seen on my "low-budget-animation-re-visiting" phase are wonderful. I wanted to like The Three Musketeers, I really did. Before I say why I didn't like this much, I was not expecting it to be a to-the-letter adaptation of the Dumas classic, seeing as there are adult themes of sex, adultery and murder in the book, and that this is 49-50 minutes and low-budget. But I was expecting it to be decent enough on its own terms. Sadly I didn't think it was. I just didn't care for the characters, the three musketeers themselves are actually very enjoyable, charismatic and fun and other than the rousing music are the redeeming values of this adaptation of The Three Musketeers. But I cannot say the same for Constance and D'Artagnan. Constance is pretty useless here, and incredibly vapid, while D'Artagnan doesn't seem to have any flaws at all. Duke of Buckingham and Milady don't fare much better, okay I was not expecting Milady to be completely haunting and seductive, but she could've been much sexier instead of a slightly prettier clone of for example Cruella DeVil. The animation is lacking here, Wind in the Willows and Peter Pan had colourful backgrounds especially, but everything here looks too sketchy with the colours lacking vibrancy. The script feels childish and lacking in wit and the story feels rushed.(and for anybody wondering how much resemblance it bears to the story, just in case you are fussy about changes- I actually try not to be- pretty much only the title and characters' names are intact) The ballet sequence was unneeded to me, it does nothing to enhance the story and the animation here actually looks little more than a rough sketch. The voice acting didn't enthuse me either, especially Constance whose voice is annoyingly high-pitched. In a nutshell, at least the Musketeers and music were enjoyable. Sadly, when it comes to enjoyment, this entry from Burbank Films Australia ends there. 2/10 Bethany Cox. Tries to be different and succeeds!. This is not your run of the mill version of The Three Musketeers! What did the producer and director want to achieve? To introduce the classic novel to a young teenage audience(13-17)and tell it in a way that hasn't been done before. And if the movie sparks an interest in the source material, then the objective has been achieved. So is this the greatest adaption ever made? No, but it should spark some interest! The basic plot line is kept intact, but the entire introduction of D'Artagnan has been cut. That certainly helped to speed things up in a movie that doesn't even run one hour in length! The story generally involves romance(here only hinted at), lots of swordplay(very little this time), court intrigue and power struggles(both in evidence). Novelty ideas include Milady as Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmations fame! The characters speaking to the audience, as in the Bob Hope, Bing Crosby Road movies. Add to that an artsy ballet sequence, not unlike what was done to the 1950's French version of the Little Matchgirl. If you really like the novel and have watched many of the film versions, this one is so different that you might just want to watch it twice! It has the makings of being very repeatable. On the negative side, D'Artagnan comes off as a cardboard character. The one who really shines is Milady! The women in this animated tale actually have good roles which is in direct opposition of so many male dominated classics! Their costumes are a real plus! Not really much humor, with the exception of the King, who is supposed to provide some laughs. The stylistic art work is not too elaborate, not too simple. It works. The music creates the proper mood. As for the ending, ... a bit too abrupt.