Charming is the story of Prince Phillipe, heir to one of the Four Kingdoms, who was supposed to be given a blessing of charm at his birth. Unfortunately, the blessing was hijacked by his father's former lover who wanted revenge on him (and the concept of love itself). The blessing turned curse means that any woman who looks into Phillipe's eyes will fall madly in love with him, whether he likes it or not... and he most certainly does not.
Cue the expected quest and race against the clock to find the meaning of love before Phillipe's 21st birthday when the curse will be made permanent.
This film was released on April 20th, 2018 and was produced by Vanguard Animation, the same folks who produced Happily N'Ever After.
Charming provides examples of:
- Adaptational Job Change: In this movie, Cinderella's a princess from birth rather than being a commoner who married into royalty (like in the original fairytale along with the Disney version).
- Babies Ever After: In the movie's epilogue, it's revealed that Lenore's now pregnant with her and her husband's first child.
- Big Bad: Nemeny Neverwish's curse causes the movie's conflict.
- Blessed with Suck: The fully acknowledged reality of being Prince Charming. Being seen as so handsome by every woman alive means that everyone else suffers and Phillipe doesn't even have any concept of what real romantic love is.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty respectively.
- Bouquet Toss: Phillippe and Lenore get married in the end (because they genuinely love each other) and when Lenore tosses the bouquet at her and Phillippe's wedding, his three ex-fiancées end up fighting with each other to catch the bouquet.
- Boxed Crook: At first, Lenore only accepted to help Phillipe because his father offered her a pardon and a treasure.
- Captain Ersatz: Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are clearly based largely off of their Disney-counterparts, design-wise at least — Sleeping Beauty also mentions being reared by fairies, which only applies to the Disney-version and not the original fairy tale.
- The Charmer: Played with. Thanks to the Big Bad hijacking his gift of charm at birth, Phillipe now possesses so much natural charm that all he has to do to get a girl to fall head over heels is simply look at them.
- Description Cut: Every time Phillipe describes one of the three Princesses to Lenore, we see a scene where said Princess proves him wrong while posing for a painting.
- When describing Cinderella as she likes to take her time, we see that she is extremely impatient wanting to get her painting done as quickly as possible
- When Phillipe admired Sleeping Beauty for her energy, she is actually a narcoleptic Sleepyhead as we see her leaned back on her chair snoring away as her portrait was being painted.
- According to Phillipe, Snow White never stopped trusting people even after she was fed a poisoned apple. We see that it's the exact opposite. She is paranoid Nervous Wreck and freaks out at the apple the artist wanted to use as a prop.
- Disney Acid Sequence: While marinating in the cooking pot, the Half-Oracle gives vague (and half-true) premonitions to Lenore about her love-life (or lack thereof), complete with a trippy song sequence to the song "Balladino" sung by the Half Oracle (played by Sia).
- Gold Digger: Princesses Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, as stated in their song Trophy Boy
. - Green-Eyed Monster: Nemeny Neverwish, with the "monster" part taken to literal extremes. After King Charming married another, she took revenge by mastering dark magic and placing a curse on his newborn son in her mission to kill all romantic love.
- Groin Attack: Lenore knees Charming in the crown jewels when they meet and he tells her that he's seeing three women
- Heroic Sacrifice: Phillipe attempts to this twice during the climax.
- When he's seemingly unable to pass the Gauntlet, due to Lenore apparently not returning his feelings, Phillipe comes to the decision that his death is the only remaining option to avert the curse and he willingly arranges his own execution, though Lenore is able to put a stop to this.
- During the final showdown, Phillipe jumps in the way to shield Lenore from a blast of magic and is fatally wounded, but through this he unknowingly accomplishes the final task of the Gauntlet.
- I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Philipe immediately falls in love with Lenore, the only woman not affected by the curse and for that immune against Philipe's charm.
- Impossible Thief: Lenore, who in two of her first three scenes robs both a royal treasure transport and strips Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty of all their valuables without them even noticing.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Also Lenore, who demonstrates she can, as per usual for the trope, hit anything she aims at, fire multiple arrows at once, etc.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: Lenore. She can't so much as be in the same room as anything gold and shiny without trying to steal it. She even steals a mustache.
- Lampshade Hanging: The ridiculousness of fairy tale logic is both acknowledged and remarked upon more than once by most of the main characters.
- Love at First Sight:
- Deconstructed hard through the lens of the curse. Every lady who sees Phillipe thinks that's what she feels, but it's just essentially hypnosis.
- Ironically, a genuine case of this happens to Phillipe upon seeing Lenore for the first time, right before getting kneed in the crotch by her.
- Missing Mom: The movie never explains what happened to Phillipe's mother, just that she died sometime before the events of this movie. Although the idea of Nemeny Neverwish murdering his mother is a distinct possibility, for obvious reasons.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The trailers all presented Phillipe in a very unsympathetic light, more of a playboy who takes advantage of his curse. See Nice Guy below for the reality of the situation.
- Nice Guy:
- Phillipe. He never wanted any of the women who chase him to be stuck in the state they're in. He just wanted every girl to feel like a princess.
- The executioner. He says it's just his job and he's willing to slow the countdown to give time for someone to rescue Phillipe. It allows Lenore to arrive on time.
- No-Sell: Phillipe's charm, magical or otherwise, does not work on Lenny.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Lenore pretends to be a male bounty hunter named Lenny while accompanying Phillipe on his journey. Her disguise consists of a fake moustache with a hat and a tight-fitting shirt — without even trying to
hide her feminine curves — and her attempt at a more masculine-sounding voice still clearly sounds like her own. Despite this — and the fact that he's already met Lenore less than a day earlier — Phillipe is completely fooled, and he never once suspects Lenny's secret until she removes her disguise near the end of the film. - Pink Means Feminine: Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are dressed in pink.
- Play-Along Prisoner: By the time Lenore and the King agree on a deal to help Phillipe in exchange for her freedom and a treasure, she had already stolen the keys.
- Simple Solution Won't Work: The idea fo having Cinderella's Fairy Godmother try to undo Phillipe's curse is brought up, only for her to explain that the magics involved are more powerful than hers.
- Snoring Beauty: Sleeping Beauty snores in her sleep several times while having her portrait painted.
- True Blue Femininity: Cinderella dresses in blue.
- Undead Author: When Phillipe and Lenore first meet the cannibals, Lenore says they're so dangerous nobody met them and lived to tell the tale, prompting Phillipe to ask how she knows about them. She admits it doesn't make sense.
- Woman Scorned: Nemeny Neverwish was once King Charming’s most trusted knight and friend. But when he chose another woman over her, she became consumed with jealousy and sought to destroy all romantic love, starting by cursing her former love’s newborn son to unintentionally seduce every woman he met, something that gets him hunted down by all the rejected men.