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Rothbart
Rothbart-001 2 copy large
Name Rothbart
Gender Male
Relatives King William (older brother)
Personality Mysterious, shadowy, vengeful, brainy, black-hearted, prideful, greedy, selfish, industrious, evil, vile, vain, regal, sneaky, murderous, insane, soft-spoken, intimidating, abusive, calculating, gothic, crazy, arrogant, vicious, larger-than-life, blasphemous, aggressive, mean, persuasive, destructive, powerful, manipulative, cold-blooded, wicked, devious, deceitful, dark, elegant, efficient, cruel, egotistical, hot-headed, commanding, authoritative, influential, ruthless, determined, sorrowless
Appearance Slender, red eyes, fair skin, half bald head, orange colored hair and sideburns growing from each side of his face, thick orange eyebrows, orange mustache, black cowl hooded cloak cape with a plum lining, mustard dagged edge neck collar with all the yellow pearls over a blue long kurta tunic shirt, dark tan gauntlet gloves, black belt with a golden buckle on a black belt around his waist on a blue long kurta tunic shirt, dark gray pants and black boots with all the dark beige dagged edge folded cuffs and all the mustard pearls over black boots, golden king crown on his head
Status Deceased
Alignment Bad
Friends Bridget (formerly), Clavius (formerly), Zelda (formerly)
Enemies OdetteDerek, Puffin, Speed, Jean-Bob, King William, Bromley, Queen Uberta, Lord Rogers, Bridget
Voiced by Jack Palance (movie 1), Sean Wright (movies 3 & 4)
First Appearance The Swan Princess

Rothbart is the central antagonist of The Swan Princess. He is an evil sorcerer, who is 49, and he mastered the Forbidden Arts twice and he always dreams of marrying Odette so that he can conquer King William's kingdom and he's the brother of king William

He mastered the Forbidden Arts twice, with the help of the magician, Clavius, and his sorceress consort, Zelda. He betrayed both of them once they had outlived their usefulness. With these powers, he could create anything, shapeshift himself into anything, and destroy anything with a powerful blast of red energy. He wanted King William's kingdom, but he was never able to take over it because his power was not enough for him to keep the kingdom.

Movie roles[]

The Swan Princess[]

Rothbart was not pleased with Odette's birth and he was captured when King William found out about his evil plan and he was sentenced to banishment. Before he leaves, he makes a vow that he will take everything that William loves and owns one day. After saying those words, he leaves 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, assassinating William in the process.

Rothbart imprisons Odette by casting a spell on her that transforms her into a swan during the day and he says he will only let her go if she agrees to marry him, which she refuses to do. When Rothbart finds out about the ball, he disguises Bridget as Odette and sends her to the ball so that Derek will accidentally make a vow of everlasting love to her because he will think she is Odette because he has fallen in love with her. But making a vow of everlasting love to a fake Odette will cause the real Odette to die, so Rothbart does this to kill the real Odette. But Derek unfortunately falls for the trick and he makes the vow of everlasting love to Bridget. After Derek makes the vow of everlasting love to Bridget, 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 he saw Derek weeping over Odette's death. Enraged, Derek forces Rothbart to bring her back to life but he refuses and he only agrees to save her if Derek successfully kills him and he transforms into the Great Animal. A battle ensues Rothbart nearly killing Derek. However, 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: A Royal Family Tale

During the Prologue of A Royal Family Tale, before he was banished, The Forbidden Arts sensed Rothbart and made a deal with him that he'd have Odette's kingdom if he'd destroy her.

Later in the film, Rothbart is seen in a flashback as the Great Animal where he kidnapped Odette after assassinating King William.


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, to destroy the Christmas spirit of the kingdom, the only thing more powerful than the magic of the 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 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. 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 goodwill breaks the spell 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 he 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 casts a spell on Odette again, changing her back into a swan and he 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 he was overpowered by Rothbart. Odette starts singing "Seasons of Love" which weakens Rothbart until he eventually bursts into flames and vanishes while Odette returns back to her human form again.

Appearance[]

Rothbart is a slender man with red eyes, and he has fair skin and he has a half-bald head with orange-colored hair and he has two orange-colored sideburns growing from each side of his face. He has thick orange eyebrows, and a big, orange mustache. He wears a black cloak cape with a plum lining. He has a mustard edge neck collar with all the yellow pearls over a blue long tunic. He has a blue long kurta tunic shirt. He has dark tan gauntlet gloves. He has a black belt with a golden buckle on a black belt around his waist. Sometimes, he wears a golden king crown on his head.

Quotes[]

  • "Everything You Own, Everything You Love Will Be Mine"
  • "No more Mr. Nice Guy. No siree." - Rothbart entering Derek's castle at the ball.
  • "Once you steal something, you spend your whole life fighting to keep it."
  • "If you hurry, little prince, I'll let you see her one last time..." - Rothbart talking as Derek sprints on horseback to reach Odette.
  • "No need to shout." - Rothbart talking to Derek as Derek weeps for Odette's death at Swan Lake.
  • "On the first day of Christmas Prince Derek gave to me a way back to Earth." - Rothbart emerging as a ghost.
  • "I can't cast a spell on Derek or Odette. They got too much Christmas spirit."
  • "Only if you defeat me." His last and final words before he turns and transforms into the great animal.
  • "He's Back and He's In The Flesh"

Trivia[]

  • Even though he dies, he appears in a few other films in the franchise where he has a key role. The only ones he doesn't appear in are the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth films.
  • In the original ballet, his full name was Von Rothbart.
  • He also had a daughter named Odile, who resembled Odette and shared some of his magical powers. However, in some productions, she is identified as Odette's evil twin sister or simply a magically created doppelgänger.
  • When he shape-shifted, he took on the form of a giant owl or a grotesque reptilian humanoid, not a bat-like wyvern as depicted in the film franchise.
  • It is also worth mentioning that his reasoning for kidnapping Odette is different than that of the movies. His purpose is never specified, but the films dictate that he kidnapped Odette in order to force her to marry him.
  • It is also mentioned in the ballet that he had kidnapped numerous maidens and placed them under similar curses. These "swan maidens" treated Odette as their queen while in Rothbart's captivity.
  • In some adaptations of the ballet - namely the original - Rothbart triumphs and Derek (known as Siegfried in the ballet) and Odette perish, having failed in their attempt to break the curse. Other variations would have him killed in a battle against Derek (which is the ending of the film) or simply rendered powerless after the couple breaks the spell. In one adaptation, Rothbart kills Derek and elopes with Odette, while another would have both him and Derek killed in combat, leaving Odette alone and grief-stricken, still trapped in swan form.
  • The bonus features from the original film feature a 'read along' version of the movie. In the storybook read-a-long, Rothbart is referred to as Odette's uncle. So this would imply incest if Rothbart's goal was to marry Odette.
  • Rothbart is the first Swan Princess character to come back as a ghost. The second character is Scully at the end of The Swan Princess: A Royal Family Tale, Princess Tomorrow Pirate Today, A Royal MyZtery, Kingdom Of Music and A Royal Wedding .

Gallery[]

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