Voice of Elizabeth Daily
Directed by Diane Paloma Eskanzi and Hazel Morgan
Music and Lyrics by various
While most Disney imitators stuck to adapting whatever Disney was doing at the time, Golden Films occasionally branched out into other properties. Disney had done Prince and the Pauper twice, as a live-action TV movie in 1962 with Guy Williams and a Mickey Mouse half-hour special in 1990. Golden Films went back to the source and, at least during the first half, stuck a bit more to Mark Twain's original novella. The second half...well, let's head to merry old England and see how things are different in this version...
The Story: Tom Clancy (Daily) is a poor beggar boy living in London who pretends to be a prince with his friends. He'd much rather live in a fine home than deal with his abusive father, who forces him to beg. Prince Edward (Daily) wishes he could get out and live wild and free, away from the restrictions of royal living. The two meet when Edward sees Tom being abused and lets him in the castle. They realize how identical they are, and decide to switch places, just for fun. It stops being fun when Tom's father mistakes Edward for his son and drags him away. He's rescued by Miles Henderson, a far kinder thief than most of the men Edward encounters. It's he who helps the boy regain his throne when his father dies. Meanwhile, Edward gets lessons in royal deportment when magical objects show him how to be king.
The Animation: Par for the course with Golden Films, it's very limited. There's actually a rather lovely color palette, with bright reds, golds, and greens out of a Technicolor film, but the characters have the same pale blue eyes and no expression whatsoever, and the backgrounds have little detail.
The Song and Dance: Not the best Golden did, but far from the worst. At least they went with less-obvious subject matter. The boys and their antics are relatively funny, especially Edward's attempts to convince everyone he's king. Some of the songs, while not great, are catchy as well, notably the drinking number "Drink to the King."
The Numbers: We open and close with the title song, describing the story we're about to see and how "a pauper can be a prince." The boys sing the "so bad, it's adorable" "Let's Change Places" when they're about to do just that. The enchanted objects in the castle encourage Tom to "Do Like a Prince" when they try to teach him how to behave like royalty. Tom's father and the louts in the tavern "Drink To the King" when they taunt Edward over his father's death.
What I Don't Like: The first half is a relatively straightforward adaptation of the book. The second half is where this gets weird. Did we really need the singing, talking royal jewels and objects? A servant would have worked just as well for the "Do Like a Prince" number. Other than one of them is important to the coronation in the finale, most of them are just kind of there. Tom's father disappears without explanation near the end, too, and never gets punished for treating his family so badly.
The Big Finale: Young kids may enjoy this as filler for an hour on a summer's day. Everyone else can pretty much avoid it, unless they grew up renting the Golden movies on video in the 90's.
Home Media: The DVD for this one is relatively hard to find and expensive. You're better off streaming it; it can be found for free just about everywhere, including YouTube.
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