Movie Review: The Princess Switch 👸🏻

The Princess Switch proves that holiday movies are cliché at best.

Vanessa Hudgens stars as a Chicago baker Stacy De Novo (left) and Lady Margaret (right) in The Princess Switch. CREDIT: Netflix

This post for The Princess Switch contains spoilers.

It seems like Netflix has ran out of ideas for holiday movies, or perhaps most holiday movies are cliché. As the title of the movie suggests, The Princess Switch (2018, directed by Mike Rohl) is about a princess being switched out of her royal position with a doppelgänger (both played by Vanessa Hudgens), where both ladies fall in love with the men in one another’s life.

Halfway through The Princess Switch, I came to the realisation that I was watching a complete knockoff of The Parent Trap, as well as The Lizzie McGuire Movie. The way it copies The Parent Trap is obvious from the very beginning. Twin looking strangers? A secret handshake? Hello? What am I watching? Where’s Lindsay Lohan? With that being said, if you have watched both Disney Channel original movies before, then you will know what The Princess Switch is going to be like.

Much of the writing in The Princess Switch just doesn’t make any sense. The writing is straightforward and really predictable; if guessing what happens next is a test, I will most probably get full marks.

Hudgens playing a princess and a talented baker is believable; her posh European accent for her princess character was probably the highlight of this movie for me. But when the princess has to pretend to be the baker, it just didn’t make sense how easy it was for a princess to pull off the American accent, and that to me is one of the many inconsistencies of this movie.

There was also no need for that weird old fairy godfather to be appearing in the movie at all. It feels like the writers wanted to associate some sort of magical element into this holiday movie. And at some point, because of this “magical element” I was confusing this movie with the other recent Netflix holiday movie titled The Holiday Calendar.

It was also so totally subtle of Netflix to promote their upcoming A Christmas Prince sequel in this movie too. I honestly won’t be surprised if The Princess Switch gets a sequel for the 2019 holiday season; it feels like they can continue the movie with the princess’ engagement with Kevin (Nick Sagar).

Just remember that when you are watching The Princess Switch, you have to go into it with low expectations, and know that ultimately this is one of the many feel-good movies that Netflix has to offer.

Rating: 2/5