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Sir Rothbart (known as Lord Rothbart or King Rothbart or better known Rothbart for short) is the central antagonist of The Swan Princess franchise, serving as the main antagonist of The Swan Princess. He is an evil enchanter who kidnapped and changed Odette into a swan. Rothbart was voiced by the late Jack Palance in the first film and by Sean Wright in the third film and two CGI sequels.





Background[]

Personality[]

Rothbart is a vile, evil, villainous, ruthless and greedy court enchanter and magic user who plans to steal the kingdom of Princess Odette's father, King William, whom Rothbart later assassinated. While being a cruel and selfish villain, he is also shown to be calm and intelligent, but he is short-tempered (prone to losing his temper once) only in the first film.

Appearance[]

Rothbart is a slender man with red eyes, and he has a fair skin, a half bald head with ginger hair and orange sideburns growing from each side of his face, thick orange eyebrows and a big orange horseshoe mustache. He wears an x2l long black cowl hooded cloak cape with a plum satin lining, a light yellow dragged mantle with all the tan pearls, a blue long sleeved tunic shirt, dark tan long leather arm cuffed gauntlet gloves, a leather black belt with a golden square shaped buckle on a black leather belt around his waist on his tunic shirt, dark gray jogger pants and black leather boots with all the light brown dragged folded cuffs with all the yellow pearls over black leather boots. Sometimes, he wears a golden King crown on his head.

Film roles[]

The Swan Princess[]

Sir Rothbart was not pleased with Odette's birth and was captured when King William knows his evil plan and was sentenced to banishment. Before he leaves, he makes a vow that he will take everything that King William loves and owns. William banishes his former chancellor for quite a long time before making an appearance again as the "Great Animal" when Odette and King William are heading back to their kingdom. In the process, he assassinated William and captured Odette.

He imprisons Odette by casting her a spell that allows her to be a swan by day and a human by night and only releases her if she agreed to marry him (which Odette refuses to do so). When Rothbart finds out about the ball, he disguises his sidekick Bridget as Odette and sends her to the ball so that Derek can make a vow of everlasting love to the false Odette. After saying the vow, Rothbart appears in Derek's castle and reveals that the fake Odette was actually Bridget in disguise and the real Odette is dying as the spell drains her life away.

He arrives at Swan Lake and saw Derek weeping over Odette's death. Derek forces Rothbart to bring her back to life but he refuses and only agree to do so if Derek successfully kills him and transforms into the Great Animal. To Derek's horror, Sir Rothbart transforms himself into the Great Animal and a battle ensues with Rothbart overpowering Derek, nearly killing him. Thanks to Lord Rogers's Catch and Fire technique that Derek and Bromley practiced, Derek shot Rothbart in the heart with an arrow, destroying him and reviving Odette.

The Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdom[]

Many years later, he returned, having gotten his power back. It's revealed that his other ally, Zelda, helped him regain his power and he betrayed her afterward, similar to what he did with his other former friend who was the evil magician, Sir Clavius.

The Swan Princess Christmas[]

Rothbart returns again as a ghost and this time, he has a plan to return from the dead, enlisting a black cat named, Number 9, to help him by promising him extra lives. Number 9 succeeds in luring Derek to the cellar of Queen Uberta's castle, where he opens a chest with the initials, R on it. There is nothing inside at first but when Derek leaves, Rothbart emerges from the chest as a ghost. From there, he moves to the next portion of his plan, that is to destroy the Christmas spirit of the kingdom, the only thing more powerful than the magic of Forbidden Arts, which will give him the power to be revived once again but in physical form.

He casts small spells that causes people to fight, which he does this to Queen Uberta and Lord Rogers before spreading it to the villagers. Derek and Odette learned about his return when the wind chimes are playing a song, "Far Longer than Forever", making him visible and holds him. They set up the chimes all around the castle but Rothbart eventually re-enlists the help of Bridget, his former minion from the first film who had turned away from his influences, and she helps to remove the wind chimes for him.

Odette invites the orphans to perform "Christmas is the Reason", which weakens Rothbart's power over Queen Uberta and Lord Rogers. Odette later invites Queen Uberta and Lord Rogers to give gifts and food to the poor. The good will breaks the spell was cast on the whole kingdom and Rothbart becomes powerless. His last chance to ruin Christmas is to sabotage the royal Christmas tree by sending Number 9 to steal one of the Christmas lights from the tree and he casts a spell on it that will destroy the tree. Derek learns the plan thanks to Bridget who has double-crossed Rothbart and traps him inside a giant chime.

Derek rushes back to the Christmas Eve party to prevent the tree from being lit but was too late. Rothbart, in his physical form, takes Queen Uberta's crown and kidnaps Odette once more, taking her back to Swan Lake. He cast a spell on Odette again, changing her back into a swan again and traps her inside a cage made of roots. He then casts a spell on the moonlight and when it touches Odette's wings, she will turn into a golden, swan-shaped Christmas ornament forever. Derek arrives and battles with Rothbart, who turned into the Great Animal, once more but was overpowered by Rothbart. Odette starts singing "Seasons of Love" which weakens Rothbart until he eventually bursts into flames and banishes while Odette returns back to her human form again.

The Swan Princess: Odile's Revenge[]

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • Terence Stamp, Jeffery Tambor, Alec Baldwin, J.K. Simmons, Chris O'Dowd, Jeff Bridges, Tim Curry, Kelsey Grammer, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, John Goodman, Ian McKellen, Jim Carrey, Willem Dafoe, John Lithgow, Terrence Mann And Michael Keaton were all considered for the role of Rothbart before Jack Palace was cast.
  • Rothbart is similar to Jafar from Disney's Aladdin. Both are evil sorcerers, skilled in black magic, seek to be rulers of their respective homelands, imprison the heroines (Odette, Jasmine), hold a grudge against the heroes (Derek, Aladdin) and transform into gigantic montrosities (Great Animal, Snake).
v - e - d
The Swan Princess - Transparent Logo
Media
Traditionally Animated: The Swan Princess (Album)Escape from Castle MountainThe Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdom

CGI Animated: The Swan Princess ChristmasA Royal Family TalePrincess Tomorrow, Pirate TodayRoyally UndercoverA Royal MyzteryKingdom of MusicA Royal WeddingA Fairytale is BornFar Longer than Forever

Characters
Original: Princess OdettePrince DerekRothbart (Great Animal) • Jean-BobSpeedPuffinQueen UbertaKing WilliamLord RogersBromleyChamberlain

Escape from Castle Mountain: ClaviusKnuckles
The Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdom: ZeldaWhizzer
A Royal Family Tale: AliseJojoCutterBrodieFerdinandMangler
Princess Tomorrow, Pirate Today: LucasKittleNumsRufusGibbyChunkRunt
Royally Undercover: Count AntonioKing Sebastian of Borromeo

Songs
Original: This Is My IdeaPractice, Practice, PracticeFar Longer Than ForeverNo FearNo More Mr. Nice GuyPrincesses on ParadeEternity

Escape from Castle Mountain: The Magic of LoveThat's What You Do For a FriendYou Gotta Love It
The Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdom: It Doesn't Get Any Better Than ThisBecause I Love HerShe's GoneBad Days AheadThe Right Side
The Swan Princess Christmas: Season of LoveChristmas is the Reason
A Royal Family Tale: We Wanna Hear from YouGet the Job Done!Always with YouRight Where I Belong
Princess Tomorrow, Pirate Today: We Want MeatA Pirate TodayGreen ThingStanding on My OwnI'll Be Your Star
Royally Undercover We Are OneHome to MeBorn to Be Me

Objects
The Forbidden ArtsGlowing Stone
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