The Princess and the Pied Piper

The Princess and the Pied Piper is a 2006 American computer-animated musical fantasy film directed by Kelly Asbury from a screenplay by Joe Stillman, Tab Murphy, and Philip LaZebnik, and stars the voices of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott, Allison Janney, Martin Short, Laura Dern, Jeffrey Tambor, Albert Brooks, and Christine Baranski. The film follows a young princess named Claire, who encounters a piper named Pete with a magical pipe during the night outside of her home, and the two develop a close relationship as Claire becomes interested in Pete's pipe but chaos occurs in the kingdom when Pete's pipe becomes more powerful that it could damage most of the kingdom and Claire must stop the disaster before it is too late.

The Princess and the Pied Piper was loosely inspired by the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Produced by Frenzy Animation and animated by IDT Entertainment, the film was released to theaters by Universal Pictures on November 22, 2006 in the United States and received generally positive reviews from critics. It grossed $247 million worldwide against its $45 million budget. A video game for multiple platforms was released to promote the film.

Plot
Taking place in a peaceful kingdom during ancient times, a woman named Agatha steals a magical pipe from a cave and raises Pete to be a great piper. Meanwhile, Queen Olivia and King Victor's daughter Claire grows up to be a proper princess and lives with her parents in their castle.

One night, Claire encounters Pete with the pipe outside of her bedroom on the castle, and the two develop a close bond frequently. Soon, Claire invites Pete for dinner with her parents, but suddenly, his pipe starts to become dangerous which causes to destroy stuff in the castle. This results in Pete getting exiled from the kingdom. Later that night, Pete then sneaks back to the castle where he convinces Claire to sneak out of her castle and out of her kingdom to see the world. Outside of the kingdom, Claire, along with her pet talkative pig Pinky Pig, and Pete spend time together in the forest while Pete makes music with the piper. They later spend the night in the forest as Pete tells to Claire the secret of the pipe and its magic. The next day, the two encounter Agatha as they talk to her. Agatha then tries to control the pipe and it starts to become increasingly stronger and more dangerous where it attacks the two and later knocks Claire unconscious into a large river, where Pete believes that she is dead.

As Pete is kidnapped by Agatha where she threatens to break the pipe in front of him, an injured Claire washes onto the shores of a small farm field, where a former farmer named Jack and her wife Hilda, take care of Claire by letting her stay in their home and have her rest on their bed, where Claire is saddened about Pete. She then becomes determined and decides to find Pete herself to save him, where Pete and Agatha are located in the same cave where Agatha found the magical pipe from. At the cave, Claire tries to protect Pete, but Agatha uses the dangerous pipe to trap the two under huge rocks, where Agatha explains about her evil plan to actually use the pipe to destroy the entire castle and kill Claire's parents, which she will rule the kingdom herself and have the kingdom's townspeople as her new slaves. Fortunately, Pinky Pig attacks Agatha where she accidentally throws the pipe to Pete, where he frees himself and Claire from the trapped rocks.

However, Agatha steals back the pipe and uses it to make the cave collapse, leading Claire, Pete, and Pinky Pig to escape, but Agatha then captures Pete again and before she can could kill him, Pete then uses the pipe with all his might to completely destroy the cave, leaving Agatha getting crushed to her death, where the trio successfully escaped out the collapsed cave. A weakened Pete dies in Claire's arms as the pipe is broken to pieces after rocks crushed it. Claire tearfully professes her love to Pete as the pipe unleashes its magic to Pete's heart, where he is revived. The trio return to the kingdom and Claire reunites with her parents, where both Claire and Pete would eventually be married.

Voice cast

 * Sarah Michelle Gellar as Princess Claire, the princess of the kingdom.
 * AnnaSophia Robb as a young Claire
 * Seann William Scott as Pete the Pied Piper, a mysterious piper.
 * Daniel Tay as a young Pete
 * Allison Janney as Agatha, Pete's adopted mother who threatens to destroy the kingdom with Pete's magical pipe.
 * Martin Short as Pinky Pig, Claire's talkative pet pig.
 * Laura Dern as Queen Olivia, the queen of the kingdom and Claire's mother.
 * Jeffrey Tambor as King Victor, the king of the kingdom and Claire's father.
 * Albert Brooks as Jack, a farmer.
 * Christine Baranski as Hilda, Jack's wife.

Additional Voices

 * Doug Burch
 * Catherine Cavadini
 * Lanai Chapman
 * Will Collyer
 * Judi Durand
 * John DeMita
 * Willow Geer
 * Barbara Iley
 * Carlyle King
 * Daamen J. Krall
 * Marsha Kramer
 * Jeremy Maxwell
 * David Michie
 * Paige Pollack
 * David Randolph
 * Noreen Reardon
 * Nancy Truman
 * Andreana Weiner
 * Ruth Zalduondo

Production
In 2000, while working on Shrek, writer Joe Stillman pitched a script for an animated adaptation of the Pied Piper of Hamelin to DreamWorks Animation, but they turned it down. It was subsequently pitched to producer Steve O'Connell in 2001 in which he launched Frenzy Animation the next year. On March 31, 2004, Frenzy Animation announced the beginning of the production on its first animated film, titled The Princess and the Pied Piper. In late 2004, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott and Allison Janney were announced in the film's leading voice cast.

The main animation was done at IDT Entertainment with additional animation services handled by Reel FX Creative Studios.

Release
The Princess and the Pied Piper was originally scheduled for theatrical release on December 20, 2006, but by February 2006, the release date was pushed forward to November 22, 2006 to avoid competition with 20th Century Fox's Night at the Museum. The film was accompanied by the Ace of All Trades short film The Missing Birthday of Some Kind in theaters.

Marketing
On February 3, 2006, an teaser trailer was released online, and was later attached to Curious George a week later. On June 26, 2006, the film's first full trailer was released in front of Puppet Pals. The second and final full trailer was released on September 24, 2006 and was attached into Open Season.

Home media
The Princess and the Pied Piper was released on DVD and HD DVD by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on March 20, 2007, followed by a Blu-ray release on July 22, 2008. It was later re-released on Blu-ray on June 5, 2012 as part of the Universal 100th Anniversary lineup. An 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray from Shout! Factory under license from Universal was released on December 6, 2022.

Box office
During its opening weekend, The Princess and the Pied Piper grossed $23.7 million at the box office, ranking third behind Casino Royale and Happy Feet. The film closed on April 5, 2007, grossing $118.9 million in the United States and Canada and $128.3 million in other territories with a worldwide total of $247.2 million against its $45 million.

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 71% based on 159 reviews. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 62 out of 100 based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Accolades
Coming soon!

Video game
A video game based on the film was released on November 28, 2006, for PlayStation 2, Wii, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, and Microsoft Windows.