The Adventures of Princess Chloe and Honey Horse

***The Adventures of Princess Chloe and Honey Horse*** is the first (and so far only) feature film based on the hit preschool series *Bluey*. It is an extended version/combination of the episodes “The Adventure”, “Typewriter” and to an extent “Easter” (all of which were written by series creator Joe Brumm), with a revised screenplay being written by Tom Baker and David Odell, and directed by series director Tim Lagasse (in his feature directorial debut). The film stars Baker as the Greedy Witch (real identity Charles Claw) and Sylvester McCoy as Burke Boulder along with the series’ regular voice cast; however, the voice acting is instead directed by the late Gordon Hunt, while Michael Bell did assistant voice directing. Despite being based on a preschool property and still having a “G” rating, the film has been noted to include comically bleeped-out swearing from the Greedy Witch/Charles Claw and having some frightening imagery along with intense action scenes.

Premiering at the BFI London Film Festival on 16 October 2022 and then being released worldwide on the 23rd, the film received positive reception from critics. It was also a commercial success, having grossed over $543 million worldwide, making it the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2022 and the highest-grossing film based on a preschool property, with 2019’s *Dora and the Lost City of Gold* (based on Nick Jr.’s *Dora the Explorer*) coming in second at over $120 million.

## Synopsis

Once upon a time, there was a family who lived on a farm with their horses. The daughter, Chloe, loved playing with the blue foal Honey while the farmer and his wife grew several fruits and vegetables and even helped out with taking care of the animals. But then, one windy day, the Greedy Witch froze the land and the animals. The farmer and his wife tried to protect their daughter and Honey, but it was too late; the Witch froze them both (spelling their death in a snap), put Chloe and Honey in a sack and took off to her icy palace! She then opened the sack to potentially turn them into ice cream… but just like that, they vanished; furious, the Witch sent her snowy owls to find the kidnapped, but they were nowhere to be found. No matter, for the Witch had bigger plans in mind: taking over the Kindly Kingdom and filling it with cold, heartless greed!

Many years later, the Kindly Queen has many children, but unfortunately not enough food to feed them. So with no other choice when all the guards are doing other things for the kingdom, she calls upon her eldest daughter, Princess Chloe, and tasks her with finding more food; however, the princess is afraid of the outside world due to the tales she was told of the Greedy Witch, but the Queen assures her she will be fine, telling her that her heart is as kindly as her mother’s and as heroic as the Knights of the Round Table. Still unconvinced, the Queen gives her a magic tennis ball and tells her that with the tennis ball, she will for sure be safe from the Witch’s tricks. Now ready to go on her grand journey, the princess begins packing equipment in her bindle, including her magic tennis ball. Her best friend Honey Horse joins her on the adventure, and so they set off to the farm where they were born. At the meantime, though, the Witch (now more masculine since she didn't want to be called a hag anymore) has found them with her telescope, furious that the Kindly Queen, her arch nemesis, managed to not only adopt the two, but have them be part of her royalty! Not letting the two get to the farm while it’s now unfrozen, she sends three skunks to block them while she refreezes the farm and nearby village. As she gets into her concocting spirit by making her staff its most frozen, music is added to set the mood (“Mrs. Greedy”) and even make her dance, unknowingly breaking some potions and even having her butler join her in a bit of a ballroom scenario... until she realizes what’s going on and punishes him by making him clean up her mess (typical witch behavior). Back to Princess Chloe and Honey Horse, the pair encounter the skunks, who spray their very nasty smell and state boys are stronger than girls. Princess Chloe stands up to them by stating the complete opposite, and proves her statement by dominating the skunks in several challenges (“Girls Just Want to Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper). Defeated, the skunks pledge their loyalty and allow the pair to pass. On their way, the pair find a little tree standing by himself. The princess asks what’s wrong, to which the tree responds that he’s tired of standing around in the same spot waiting to become a big tree like his brethren and wants to go around the world… but he’s worried he might fall over at the same time and cause destruction. Remembering what her mother said, the princess decides to help the tree find his courage by teaching him to walk, run and stop among other directional exercises. The tree thanks the pair for their help and decides to join them on their quest for more food for the Kindly Kingdom.

The trio find themselves at a bridge leading to the farm, but there’s one problem: a sobbing giant is blocking the way. The princess asks what’s wrong, and the giant explains that everyone he’s so far met runs away from him because of the reputation of his giant friends. To them, giants are big, mean, scary creatures who eat Englishmen and keep geese hostage for their golden eggs; the princess calls that nonsense, because she read stories of bad giants and nice giants, and she sings the many ways he fits into the latter (“Size Isn’t Personality”). The giant then offers the trio a ride to where they’re heading, and the quartet set off to the farm… only to find that the whole farm has turned into a winter wonderland, complete with snowy owls, Arctic foxes and snowshoe hares. Grandma Fairy arrives to tell Princess Chloe that the Greedy Witch is responsible, with her reasoning that her palace melted in a nasty fire and now she wants revenge! She goes on to say that the Princess’ parents died in one of the Witch's ice attacks, resulting in her being adopted by the Kindly Queen, and that she must defeat her. Princess Chloe is too scared to face her, though, but before she is able to run away, she, Grandma Fairy, the tree and the giant notice Honey Horse is missing. It’s revealed that Honey Horse is in the forest behind the barn, picking fruits for the Queen and her babies. Unfortunately, though, the Greedy Witch notices her and freezes the poor horse into a block of ice. Princess Chloe and her new friends return to find their horse friend frozen and vow to find and defeat the Greedy Witch. But first, Grandma Fairy must take care of the farm and protect it and the forest from the Witch’s cold, heartless greed. Off the trio go!

Back at the Kindly Kingdom, the Queen is worried about Princess Chloe and calls upon Grandma Fairy with her crystal ball; she’s relieved that the princess is alright and has already made some new friends, but horrified by what the Greedy Witch did to Honey Horse and the farm. Her nightmares get even worse when she hears the Witch is going to freeze the village… and frozen it is; the trio find the village Chloe once went to school at has been turned into an icy village with snowmen as the inhabitants. The Witch herself comes out and tells them that they're next, only for the three to notice her more manly appearance. The last straw is when the tree notices the Witch has blue teeth, thus resulting in the latter to take offense and start shooting ice balls from her staff towards him and the princess. The giant decides to fight back, while the princess hides behind a rock; luckily, the skunks arrive with their nasty smell to distract the Queen and unfreeze the village. Princess Chloe escapes down the hill, but the Greedy Witch refreezes the village (giant and skunks included) after being called a hag once more. She then flies on her broom and summons a portal under the Princess - leading her to fall to the canopy of a tropical rainforest. As she climbs down to the rainforest floor and traverses her way through the rainforest, she finds a nearby laboratory belonging to a native scientist and asks if she can stay for a while. The scientist agrees and shows her around her laboratory; once they reach the orrery, the princess explains her situation and why she’s in the rainforest. The scientist, understandably, is frightened, especially knowing the Greedy Witch’s powers and what they could do to her pet jaguars and the other animals! The princess, for as kind as her heart is, asks if there’s a way to defeat the witch once and for all; the scientist does have an idea, but she asks for the magic tennis ball. At first, the princess is hesitant, but soon realizes that she’s almost being greedy by keeping the ball to herself… so she hands over the ball, and the scientist turns it into a magic wand for her to use against the witch. But as the princess is about to escape, a brutal elephant by the name Burke Boulder appears, kidnaps the princess and takes her to the volcanic area that was once the Greedy Witch's ice palace, where they are greeted by the Witch herself. Princess Chloe demands the Witch turn Honey Horse back to normal or she'll freeze her; the Witch laughs this off, and tells Burke to lock her up in the cage above the lava pit of death.

But the princess does not take this lightly, as she uses her wand to escape the cage and find the Burke is being mind-controlled by the Witch; so she secretly uses her wand to break him free from the control… and unfreeze Honey Horse. Now reunited with her best friend, the princess then talks Burke into unfreezing the entire village while she and Honey Horse take care of the Witch, to which he immediately sets off to correct his wrongdoings. As Burke begins unfreezing everything and everyone that has been frozen, Princess Chloe and Honey Horse fight against the Witch in a huge life-or-death battle, with plenty of ice bombs and balls from the Witch's staff, jumping off ledges, and even avoiding the lava. While that’s happening, Burke leads the tree, the giant, the skunks and Grandma Fairy to the battle, which has evolved into also including lightning bolts and bats of many elements summoned by the Witch… all now on a tilting plaform above the entire area, leaving both Princess Chloe and Honey Horse only surviving barely. The Witch tells the two to give up, for it’s all an awkward imagination they’re having if they think they’ll win in this state… Burke says he agrees, but it’s the Witch who will lose, as he brought with him all of the friends Princess Chloe made to help win the fight. Now with their help, Princess Chloe and Honey Horse are now able to properly defeat the Greedy Witch and teach her the hard way that greed gets you nowhere in life; sharing with friends, however, gets you friends who will help you! As a final blow, Burke takes the disintegrating Witch, whom demands Burke to let her live, and throws her into a volcano resulting in her death (which looks something like this)... but at the cost of him becoming severely damaged from the blast. But even if he took a nasty hit from the Witch’s death, the important thing is that Burke redeemed himself, and Princess Chloe finally found the heroic heart inside her. They along with the princess’ friends all head back to the castle for a huge feast, singing a tune on the way (a cover of “Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead” from *The Wizard of Oz*) as the woodland creatures and villagers celebrate. At the castle, the Kindly Queen congratulates her daughter finding her heroic heart, and Burke Boulder for redeeming himself and killing the Witch; as the feast continues, the castle transforms back to its previous state (Calypso’s school), though Calypso and the others are still in their costumes, ending the film as the words “the end” appear on the screen.

## Cast

* Tom Baker as the Greedy Witch
* Sylvester McCoy as Burke Boulder
	+ Jim Cummings as the vocal effects Burke and the bats
* Brook Jenell Slack as Bingo / Chloe / Winton / bats / additional voices
* Karen Prell as Bluey / Dark Gray Terrier / bats / additional voices
* E.G. Daily as Bluey’s vocal effects / Honey / additional voices
* Amelie Bea Smith as Missy
* Melanie Zanetti as Indy / additional voices
* Brian Hull, Richard Steven Horvitz and Kevin Schon as the Kindly Queen’s Guards
	+ Hull also voices some of the bats
	+ Horvitz also voice Grandel, the Greedy Witch’s personal butler
* Nancy Cartwright as Mackenzie
* Nika Futterman as Snickers
* Monica Ray and Francesca Marie Smith as the other Terriers
* Ozzy Osbourne as the lead singer of “Mrs. Greedy”
* Elton John as the lead singer of “Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead”
* David Barber, Joff Bush, Helena Czajka, Jazz D’Arcy and David McCormack as the backing vocals for “Mrs. Greedy” and “Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead”
* Betty White as Calypso
* Irene Bedard as Indy’s Mum
* Rupert Degas, Robert Irwin, Emily Taheny, Myf Warhurst, Megan Washington and Frank Welker as additional voices
* Ringo Starr as the Storyteller