I wonder how Hallmark Channel Executives will feel about The Princess Switch. Releasing over 70 Christmas movies this year, you’d think getting Vanessa Hudgens playing twins in an adorable European town trying to woo a prince would have fit right into their wheelhouse, right? Instead, Netflix beat them to it, and found another perfect film for their viewers, because The Princess Switch does everything, both good and bad, that you expect a Christmas movie to do. Hallmark will NOT be sending Netflix any Christmas cards this season…
We open in beautiful, magical Chicago (sorry, I had to) where Stacy De Novo (Vanessa Hudgens), the hard working, rigid bakery owner has just been selected with her sous chef Kevin (Nick Sagar) to participate in a baking competition in the country of Belgravia. In order to get over her ex, Paul, Stacy reluctantly agrees and her, Kevin and Kevin’s daughter Olivia (Alexa Andeosun) depart for Belgravia. Also in Belgravia, Prince Edward (Sam Palladio), a dispassionate royal, is busy planning his upcoming wedding to Lady Margaret (also Hudgens), a lone royal to some other country. Fate, in the literal form of a strange old man (Robin Soans), brings Lady Margaret and Stacy together, where Margaret convinces Stacy to switch places so she can get to know the commoners.
The only way I can think of writing this review is in the form of a Stefon sketch on Saturday Night Live. Located in real Chicago and made up country Belgravia, this Hallmark knockoff basically takes place in a generic studio that magically stops snowing when characters talk so they don’t get snow in their faces. This movie has everything. Cultural Diversity. CGI’ed Vanessa Hudgens. Royals with accents. Baking Competitions. Funny hats. Mistletoes. Gazebos. Horseback riding. Toy Stores. Snowball fights. Orphanages. Piano playing forgery. Devious butlers. Shameless Netflix cross-selling. A Royal Ball. Grandmother pickup lines. And Bippity Boppity Bros. What’s a Bippity Boppity Bro you ask? It’s that thing, where a small, British man with funny teeth magically fairy godmother’s your plot holes with scotch tape by showing up at the exact right moment and telling the main characters what to think and do. You know, that old chestnut. Wait….THAT should have been his name, Old Chestnut! Missed Opportunity!
I could tell you this story is completely preposterous, or that Lady Margaret also rules a country and simply chooses to abandon her post to live like a normal person, or how there are zero paparazzi following this clearly important people around, but I know none of that will matter. Those issues are part of the charming simplicity of these stories: this is pure princess Christmas fantasy. If that’s what you’re looking for, The Princess Switch has a gingerbread cookie, some warm cocoa, and a Netflix movie ready on the couch for you to enjoy!