The Sunshine Princess (partially found Italian animated film; 1999)

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Sunshineprincess.jpg

The cover image used on the film's webpage.

Status: Partially Found

The Sunshine Princess (original title: La Principessa del Sole) is an Italian animated film that was released in 1999, directed by Zlata Potancokova Belli.

It is the third entry in a trilogy of similarly rare animated films directed by Belli, following Ali Baba (1996) and Ali Baba and the Pirates (1997). The original film was loosely based on the tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, with the notable change of Ali Baba marrying a princess, Alia, daughter of a sultan. The sequel was an original story reprising these characters. The Sunshine Princess can be assumed to focus on Alia.

Unlike its predecessors, home video releases of the The Sunshine Princess are either rare or non-existent in any language, though a trailer featured on the film's webpage seems to indicate an English dub was possibly completed.[1] This is further supported by an English Dub of Ali Baba (1996) existing, with it being released publicly on YouTube in 2022.[2] It is possible the film may have been released on VHS by Alliance Video in Canada, who distributed the previous two films in that format.

Plot

The plot is about a wizard named Kumaz who needs to marry the sunshine princess, Alia, to be young again. She, however, refuses his proposal and Kumaz takes revenge by turning her into an ugly and bad-tempered child. Her husband Ali Baba and his sidekick Misery the Donkey help her to regain her beauty and defeat Kumaz.

Preservation

In 2014, a trailer for the film would be released alongside trailers for the previous two films by YouTube channel FilmexportGroup, which according to their bio, is the oldest worldsales company for feature films. An alternate version of this trailer would be uploaded in 2017 by YouTube channel Fanmultimedia, which is supposedly, is a creative agency that offers cartoons and services for digital businesses.[3] By both of these channels being established businesses, it could mean they have their own copies of the full film in their archives. Additionally, FilmexportGroup has a dedicated page to The Sunshine Princess (alongside the previous two films in the franchise) on their site, featuring multiple stills from the film.[4] Unusually, the pages for the previous two films also feature stills from The Sunshine Princess.[5][6] The easiest way to tell these stills are not from the previous films is Alia's clothing, in the previous films they are purple, but by The Sunshine Princess, they are orange, matching Alia's clothing in the stills.

Gallery

The film's main trailer, featuring an English song.

An alternative trailer, with instrumental music and one additional shot at the end.

Reference