S For Spoilers
Netflix seems to have cracked the Christmas Romantic Comedy formula – hiring Vanessa Hudgens to play all the roles. It kind of reminds me of Eddie Murphy playing pretty much all the characters in The Nutty Professor.
What started as an innocent movie about two different characters switching places has escalated into a ridiculous Christmas heist movie by the third film.
So, before we dive into the third movie, a brief recap of the first two movies seems appropriate.
Stacy DeNovo (played by Vanessa Hudgens) is a young baker from Chicago who runs a successful pastry shop with her best friend, Kevin.
Kevin is also a single father.
As is the norm with every rom-com movie, Stacy has recently become single after breaking up with her long-term boyfriend. So, trying to distract her, Kevin enters them into a baking competition in a fictitious country called Belgravia – a tiny European kingdom where everyone has British accents.
While in Belgravia, Stacy runs into her doppelgänger, Lady Margaret Delacourt, Duchess of Montenaro (another fictional kingdom). Margaret is engaged to Prince Edward, the Crown Prince of Belgravia.
The two Vanessa Hudgens decide to switch places because Margaret wants to experience being a ‘normal girl’ and Stacy wants to be a princess for a while.
It’s no surprise when Stacy falls in love with the Prince while Margaret falls for Stacy’s best friend, Kevin.
And they lived happily ever after – until the second movie.
In part two, Stacy is living the life. She married the Prince and became a Princess. Surprise, surprise, she forgets about her baking career after marrying the Prince.
On the other hand, Margaret broke up with Kevin because her father died, and she had to ascend the throne. I guess Kevin wasn't ready to give up his old life to become the royal man-candy to the new Queen or something.
As Margaret’s Christmas coronation day comes up (apparently the best time for a coronation is during the festive period), Stacy decides to get the lovebirds back together. So, to give Margaret and Kevin time alone to talk, Stacy decides they switch places again.
Apparently being Queen meant Margaret didn't have any free time to hang out with Kevin.
Unfortunately for them, that’s when Fiona (yet another Vanessa Hudgens doppelgänger) shows up to steal the throne.
Lady Fiona Pembroke is Margaret's cousin and the family's resident black sheep. She squandered her share of her family's fortune and turned to petty theft to maintain her extravagant lifestyle.
Fiona's brilliant plan was to pretend to be Lady Margaret after kidnapping her, move up the coronation date, get crowned Queen, and then transfer a small fortune into an unknown bank account. Easy-peasy.
Fiona's plan hits a snag when she kidnaps the wrong person, and she's exposed. But, before she's sent to the dungeons like her accomplices, Fiona makes up a traumatic childhood sob story to tug at Margaret's heartstrings.
And she gets off easy after almost committing treason.
Enter the third movie.
Sidebar: Netflix should fire whoever comes up with these titles.
By now, everyone has gotten their happy ending.
Margaret became Queen and married Kevin – making him a Prince. Stacy and Prince Edward are still going strong. And I guess they all forgot their little pastry shop in Chicago.
Having wrapped up the storylines of the first two doppelgangers, it’s now Fiona’s turn. And best believe she’s getting a redemption arc too.
It's her turn for a happy ending because God forbid anyone ever stays single in these Christmas rom-coms.
After her botched attempt at stealing the throne, the royal squad sent Fiona to an orphanage to do community service – AKA mop the floors Cinderella-style.
Fiona is the most annoying of all the Vanessa Hudgens doppelgangers with her ridiculous accent and constant purrs. You'd almost think she was a cat in human form.
So, the Royal gang come together to celebrate the festive season by hosting an International Christmas festival in Montenaro (Queen Margaret’s fictional kingdom).
The Vatican loaned Queen Margaret the “Star of Peace” (a sacred relic owned by the church). And shortly after it arrives, someone steals the star.
When the police can’t find the culprit on time, Margaret and Stacy decide to seek Fiona’s help. They promise to help with her upcoming disciplinary hearing the following month.
Fiona consults her ex-boyfriend and former partner, Peter Maxwell. Peter is a former Interpol agent with connections. So if anyone can find the thief, it'd be him.
The Royal Squad finds the thief (thanks to Peter's brains and gadgets) and concocts a ridiculous plan to steal it back – Mission Impossible-style. And somewhere along the road, Fiona, Margaret, and Stacy switch places.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Princess Switch Movie without the characters switching places again.
The third movie was unnecessarily long for me. I slept off at one point and continued the next day. No one should be made to sit through 1hr 46 minutes of ridiculous doppelgänger Christmas hijinks. While the first two movies were sappy, they were still watchable. However, the third film was so over-the-top and took itself too seriously.
I half expected the third movie to introduce yet another doppelgänger. But sadly, I was disappointed. It would have been fun to see how far they could have stretched that narrative.
Maybe we'd be lucky next year and get a male doppelgänger (should be an interesting concept). See… Netflix, I can come up with ridiculous ideas too. Please hire me.
All in all, the princess switch movies just seem like an excuse for Vanessa Hudgens to make out with multiple hot dudes.
The secret to watching these kinds of movies… turn off your brain for a while and indulge in the ridiculousness. Because they don’t follow any form of logic, so don’t bother looking for any.
