Here we go again - in 2020, Margaret, Stacey and co returned with The Princess Switch: Switched Again. Since last we met, Stacey and Edward are happily married but there's trouble in paradise. Harried by the weight of their royal responsibilities, they're struggling to find time for each other. Meanwhile, Kevin and Margaret are"on a break" for suitably daft reasons, while Margaret is being forced to take the nation of Montenaro(?)'s throne following the sad passing of her father. As established in party one, the royal life isn't really for her and she's not into it. Stacey convinces wallowing Kev to visit Montenaro for the Christmas coronation to try and win her back.
Margaret weirdly has no problem with inviting her ex into her massive palace and the two make puppy eyes while hanging fabulously ornate Christmas decorations. The lookalikes again scheme to 'switch' so that Margaret can sneak away from royal business to see if she can get things back on track with Kevin.
So far, so dull. However, in a stroke of total genius the film introduces a hitherto unmentioned third lookalike - Margaret's total bitch, Cruella De Vil meets Paris Hilton cousin Fiona (also Hugdens). This allows Hudgens to shake things up with an uproarious performance as the blonde-haired, spoiled, arrogant party animal socialite who's blitzed her way through her inheritance and now has her eyes on Margaret's fortune. Fiona's the type of fabulously nasty cow who puts everyone down while calling them "darling!" and has her own 'switch' planned, scheming to replace her cousin just in time to be crowned queen. She ends up princess-napping Stacey by accident, resulting in a three-way switch that confuses and delights in equal measure.
There's some added 'oh you bastard' intrigue with royal aide Antonio (Lachlan Nieboer) catching on to Fiona's wicked scheme but choosing to let her away with it, all because Margaret knocked him back once, the scoundrel. British telly actors Florence Hall and Ricky Norwood also bring some laughs as Fiona's ultra-camp, stylish but bumbling henchmen.
Fascinatingly, this one is also a 'Christmas Princess' crossover movie, as King Richard and Queen Amber from the Christmas Prince movies make a cameo. Fans of these films have always maintained that there's some sort of self-contained 'Netflix Christmas Cinematic Universe' and this moment had them frothing at the mouth. I feel disturbed that I've now turned into the sort of person who would notice and be excited by such a revelation.
The opulent palace decorations in this one are particularly eye-catching and get me excited about catching a glimpse of the festive window displays in big stores like John Lewis. Due to that damned virus, last year we didn't get to see much of anything. I guess you don't realise how much something like that brightens the dark Winter days until you have to go without it. This film captures something marvellous that Christmas can do - those lights and window dressing really do add a little extra sugar and spice to the world, making it that bit more lovely - kind of like Hugdens herself who lights up the screen.
Oh my God. Unexpectedly, I've become a Princess Switch fan. What's worse, I'm gutted that the franchise's third instalment, due out in time for Christmas 2021 hasn't yet been released at the time of writing this. I'll have to wait another week to catch it, but there's no way I'm missing it.
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