The Princess Switch: Switched Again Review

Do you really think we can pull it off? Again?
Duchess Margaret Delacourt of Montenaro

No. No you can’t. Not even with a third Vanessa Hudgens. Not that I’m complaining, because heaven knows you can’t have too many Vanessa Hudgenses (Hudgensi? Hudgensees?), but really, no.

The idea behind The Princess Switch: Switched Again is so simple it’s almost stupid. Netflix have already adapted that Mark Twain classic and thrown in a princess twist, but why stop there? Because you know what’s better than two lookalikes? That’s right. Three! It’s called escalation people. James Cameron did it with Aliens and Terminator 2. Irvin Kershner did it with The Empire Strikes Back. And Mike Rohl is doing it with The Princess Switch: Switched Again.

You’ve already seen The Princess and the Patissier, now brace yourself for The Princess, the Patissier, and the Party Girl? Yes, that’s pretty much it.

So, we’re back in ~~Genovia~~, ~~Aldovia~~, Belgravia, and Stacy (Vanessa Hudgens), by way of a voice over, fills us in on everything that’s been going on since we last saw them in 2018. (Last year, she switched things up to cavort with a medieval knight instead.)

While life seems to be going rather well for Stacy and Edward, it’s Margaret (also Vanessa Hudgens) that’s found herself in something of a pickle. Not only has she unexpectedly inherited the throne to her home country of Montenaro, she’s also going through quite the rough patch with the love of her life, Kevin. The pressures that come with a royal ascendancy were apparently too much for their relationship to bear.

Now, as the lot of them head to Montenaro for Margaret’s coronation, Stacy and Kevin’s daughter, Olivia, decide to play cupid and Parent Trap the two muddled ex-lovers.

Enter Fiona (that’s Vanessa Hudgens #3 for those of you keeping count), Margaret’s party girl cousin, who no one seems to realise looks exactly like her… and Stacy… only blonde. (*Insert Shoulder Shrug Emoji*) Fiona, for reasons unexplained, seems to live on a massive estate, but is completely and utterly broke. So she comes up with a cunning plan to kidnap Margaret and become queen herself. Why? Because money.

By now, you’ve already figured out what happens next. And if you haven’t, because you’re actually seven (or have the mental capacity of someone who is seven), then this movie might actually be surprising to you. For the rest of us, however, The Princess Switch: Switched Again is an utterly lifeless work of staggering mediocrity.

The dialogue is clumsy and dull. There is barely any chemistry between any of our leads. And the paint-by-numbers plot twists, if we can even call them that, are so painfully predictable that there is no tension whatsoever throughout this movie.

None.

I have no idea who the target demographic is for movies like this. Children? Cat ladies? Actual cats? Christmas movies are supposed to be frothy, and fun and yes, even ridiculous. They are supposed to make you feel something. Anything. The only thing this movie will leave you with is a sense of hollow indifference.

But hey, you and I both know that this is far from over. In fact, you and I both know where all of this is heading.

In The Princess Switch 3: Switched at Birth, the three ladies are shocked to discover that Margaret has a long lost older sister, Beatrice, who returns to Montenaro with her son, the rightful heir to the throne!

In 2022’s The Princess Switch 4: Switcheroo, Margaret, Stacy, Fiona, and Beatrice go to Australia where they run into yet another lookalike, Shardonné, who is convinced that there is a conspiracy brewing at her local Outback Steakhouse. The Princess Switch 5: Switchblade sees the franchise take a dark and gritty turn as Fiona is brutally murdered by another lookalike, Miss Demeanor, who steals her identity and attempts to ingratiate herself into the girl gang.

The following year, after a stinging boycott from the fans over the death of Fiona, the franchise returns to its roots with The Princess Switch 6: Switchback, a reboot of sorts in which we find out that ~~Han~~ Fiona is actually alive, but has been suffering from amnesia.

The 6 ladies finally head to space in PS7 where they meet the moon princess Chang’e (also Vanessa Hudgens) and encourage each other to appreciate the love that’s all around them.

All of this is pretty much going down the route of the 1996 Michael Keaton comedy classic Multiplicity, where each and every consecutive movie becomes a paler, dumber, imitation of the first. Which, God knows, was already pretty dumb to begin with.

Whatever happens, wherever Netflix decides to take this, the only certainty here is that it’s all Vanessa Hudgens, all the way down.

The Princess Switch: Switched Again
Netflix
96 minutes
Director: Mike Rohl
Writers: Robin Bernheim and Megan Metzger
Cast: Vanessa Hudgens, Sam Palladio, Nick Sagar, Mark Fleischmann, Suanne Braun, and Lachlan Nieboer