Future Princess

***Future Princess*** is a 1998 American animated science-fiction musical comedy-drama film produced by Paramount Feature Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is the 41st feature film produced by the studio. The film was directed by Nadia Hanson, from a screenplay by Hanson, J. David Stem, David N. Weiss, Irene Mecchi, and Thomas Lennon and a story by Hanson. It stars the voices of Jodi Benson, Scott Wolf, David Spade, Molly Shannon and Dan Aykroyd. Set in a future, The film follows a 19-years-old girl named Starla, who lives in a futuristic castle called Comet Kingdom. After a wicked queen taking over the kingdom, Starla fall into surface where she meets a 21-years-old engineer named Walter to fall in love with him. With Walter's help, the two try to find the way home to save the future and fight the queen.

The film was originally conceived by Hanson in the 1980s while working on *Liche's Wish* at Viacom Animation. With its original draft being completely different from its final version, *Future Princess* initially began development in 1992 at Viacom during the production of *The Children of California*, also directed by Hanson. It was later converted into the Paramount Feature Animation division following Viacom's acquisition of Paramount Communications in 1994 during the production of *The Sunshine* a year later, with the script being rewritten. The film's original songs were written by Hanson and lyricist Tim Rice, with a score by John Debney. *Future Princess* parodies other animated Disney films, primarily princess films.

*Future Princess* was released on September 14, 1998 to positive reviews from critics, who praised its animation, characters, music, and performances, although some compared it unfavorably to the animated musicals of the Disney Renaissance era. It was a success at the box office, earning over $263 million worldwide on its $55 million budget, making it the fifth highest-grossing animated film of 1998. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song ("What I'll Do for My Kingdom" by Jodi Benson), tied with "When You Believe" from DreamWorks Animation's *The Prince of Egypt*. A television series based on the film aired from 2000 to 2005.

## Cast

* Jodi Benson as Princess Starla, a kind and outgoing 19-year-old princess of Comet Kingdom. Starla's supervising animator was William Jennings.
* Scott Wolf as Walter, a 21-years-old engineer who is Starla's love interest. Walter's supervising animators were Alexander Bates and Tom McGrath. Roger Bart provides Walter's singing voice.
* David Spade as Ghux
* Molly Shannon as Queen Bellatrix, a wicked queen who wanted to take over Comet Kingdom. Dave Madson was the supervising animator for Queen Bellatrix.
* Dan Aykroyd as Techer, Bellatrix's loyal henchman who always follow her order, especially taking down Starla and Walter.
* Jim Belushi as Whacker, Bellatrix's henchman who is Techer's oafish right hand man.
* Rob Paulsen as Dicing, Bellatrix's henchman who is somewhat crazy.
* Jason Marsden as Yup, Bellatrix's henchman who is always anxious and clumsy.
* Dennis Hopper as Mech, Bellatrix's buffed henchman who is ready to take down Starla and Walter.
* Patrick Stewart as King Solar, Starla's father and the king of Comet Kingdom.
* Patricia Arquette as Queen Luna, Starla's overprotecting mother and the queen of Comet Kingdom.
* Hugh Laurie as Vincent Hugh Rexword, who is the kingdom's invertor and created Ghux and the other robot animals.
* TBD as [robot animal]
* TBD as [robot animal]
* TBD as [robot animal]
* TBD as [robot animal]
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* TBD as [alien]
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## Production

### Development

*Future Princess* was originally conceived by Nadia Hanson in the late 1980s following the success of Disney's *The Little Mermaid* while working on *Liche's Wish* at Viacom Animation in Studio City. She then came up with the story of the film, which was about a princess who accidently sent to the future. During the production of Viacom's *The Children of California* in 1992, Hanson began working on the original treatment of *Future Princess*, which was completely different from the final version of the film. In the draft, Princess Starla was named Martha and lives in medieval times. Later, Martha was sent to the future by the wicked queen where she meet her future self, so they teams up to get the former back to her times. Martha is the only main character in the original draft who made it to the final version as Princess Starla. Some of the characters in the draft later became Starla's royal family and friends in the final film.

Zaiden Fischer, then-head of Viacom Animation, approved of the film's script, and pre-production for *Future Princess* started soon after. The studio then looked for actors to be cast in the film. Linda Larkin, known for his role as Princess Jasmine in Disney's *Aladdin*, was also being reportedly considered for the role of Martha. Fischer's choices for the other characters included Helen Hunt, Jim Carrey, Bill Murray, and Kate Winslet.

In mid 1994, while developing the project, Viacom acquired 50.1% of Paramount Communications Inc. shares for $9.75 billion, and Nancy Farwell allowed Hanson to transfer to the Paramount Feature Animation studio in Hollywood to direct *Future Princess*. The staff brought *All Dogs Go to Heaven* and *The Lion King* writers David N. Wiess and Irene Mecchi to help rewrite their 1994 script with additional input from J. David Stem and Thomas Lennon. The film was also initially going to be released under the Paramount Family Entertainment banner, the logo which features mascot Friendly Fox as seen in the film's teaser trailer. Hanson was against this for a multitude of reasons, and eventually got confirmation that executives Sherry Lansing and William Bernstein agreed. Instead, Hanson and her team developed another version of the logo to resemble the classic studio logo in the box within a circle, famously employed in *Noveltoons* shorts. She credited Farwell and River Becker with helping her achieve her vision, noting that they were open to her opinion.

### Music

*Main article: Future Princess/Soundtrack*
The film's original soundtrack was released by Geffen Records on August 25, 1999. The songs for the film were composed by Hanson and lyricist Tim Rice, while the score was composed by John Debney.

The score for the film, composed by Debney, was released through Varèse Sarabande on September 15, 1998.

This is a list of musical numbers for the film:

## Release

In 1995, *Future Princess* was scheduled for a Christmas 1997 release, though by February 1996, it was later pushed back to a summer 1998 release. In September 1997, it was pushed back again to its current release date of September 18, 1998 to avoid competition with *Mulan* and *The X-Files* and give the production team more time to finish the film, with *Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World* taking the summer 1998 slot. The film was preceded by the *Toony Tales* short *Star Toon*.

### Marketing

The film was accompanied by a promotional campaign by Burger King, which released a set of six Kids' Meal toys as a tie-in for the film's release.

### Home media

*Future Princess* was released on VHS and DVD on January 19, 1999. The original DVD release contained no special features but an original theatrical trailer of the film.

On January 8, 2003, a 2-disc "Special Edition" was released as part of Paramount Animation Collection. The release included an audio commentary by Nadia Hanson and Julie Young, a 28-minute making-of documentary, a gallery of concept art, storyboards, test footage, deleted scenes, and DVD-ROM features. The film was released for the first time on Blu-ray on March 29, 2011. *Future Princess* was later released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on May 8, 2018.

On March 4, 2021, *Future Princess*, along with other Paramount Animation films, became available on Paramount+.

## Reception

### Critical reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 80% approval rating with an average rating of 8/10 based on 167 reviews. The site's critical consensus states: "*Future Princess* offers exactly what its title promises: a vibrant palette of family-friendly fun, elevated by high-spirited voice talents, rich animation, and plenty of catchy musical numbers." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 61 out of 100 based on 37 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Peter Travers of *Rolling Stone* gave the film three out of four stars and called it "a captivating animated musical whose artistic merit is on par with Disney's *Aladdin* and *The Lion King*." Roger Ebert of the *Chicago Sun-Times* gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "amazingly creative and outstanding with the heart and charm of other animated hits." Steven Rea of the *Philadelphia Inquirer* gave the film three out of four stars and said, "Having the familiar standards and charm of most Paramount animated films, including *Meredith's Journey*, as well as an interesting concept, *Future Princess* is a coming-of-age for Paramount Feature Animation." *USA Today*'s Susan Wloszczyna said that *Future Princess* "often entertains the family-friendly audience and keeps them joyful."

However, some critics disliked the film's similarities with the animated films of the Disney Renaissance. Mark Caro of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two and a half stars out of four and compared the film to *The Little Mermaid*, saying that it "feels like one of those shameless Disney rip-offs that have a story that sounds familiar to us." Andrew Sarris of the *New York Observer* criticized the film's characterization, and noted that the relationship between Starla and Walter was akin to "Aladdin and Jasmine all over again." On the more negative side, Christy Lemire of Associated Press called *Future Princess* "a poor man's *Aladdin*."

## Other media

### Video games

*Future Princess* has spawned four video games:

* *Future Princess* was released in 1998 and in 1999 by Paramount Digital Entertainment for PlayStation, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 64, and Game Boy Color.
* *Future Princess: Activity Center*, an educational game, was released in 1998 for Windows and Mac.
* *Future Princess: Robotic Strikes* was released in 2001 by Traveller's Tales for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube.
* *Future Princess: Starla's Quest* was released in 2003 by Paramount Digital Entertainment for the Game Boy Advance.

### Television series

*Main article: Future Princess (TV series)*
*Future Princess* is a American animated television series created by Paramount Television Animation in 2000, based on Paramount's animated feature film of the same name. The series aired on UPN Kids from March 18, 2000 to November 5, 2005, and continues the story of the 1998 film.

## Transcripts

### Main

To see the main transcript of the film, click here.

### Trailers

To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here.