"Long live Sandokan!"
Hello everyone!
An oldie but a goldie, so to speak.
Every once in a while I lean into the nostalgia factor and vibes here on this blog, especially and particularly because I tend to like diving into it myself personally as well.
So that's what I did with tonight's movie choice.
I also find it incredibly pointed to be talking about a movie from the nineties that was actually really good in comparison to some modern stuff circulating nowadays, while we all talk about Nolan's upcoming Odyssey, which looks ... well, the scope sure looks epic, but the individual details aren't what reaches the OG Troy, even a little bit.
We'll see about that, eventually.
God knows what that's going to look like.
For now we're headed into the land of piracy once more, with The Princess and the Pirate!
The Princess and the Pirate tells the story of Sandokan - yes, THAT Sandokan.
The one made again interesting by Can Yaman at the tail end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026 when his adaptation series hit Netflix, but I was a fan of the pirate long before that.
See, before the Turkish actor became eye candy, I was romanced on screen by the adventures of the actual tiger doing his best to be the Robin Hood of pirates.
And then they released a movie and I am ALL here to look at it and rejoice.
The Princess and the Pirate has us meet Sandokan on his island of Mompracen, where he and Yanez, his cohort, lead the pirates against the Rajah of Sarawak, but in fact, that's Sandokan's birthright. He was born a prince, then his family's captain of the guard rebelled, and his parents were killed while he was smuggled out.
The pirates get into a fight right about that time, Sandokan is blown off the ship, and he washes up on Labuan, where Lord James and his daughter Mariana take care of him.
Mariana is the beautiful girl Sandokan falls for head over heels, and she for him, even though her father wants her to marry Baron William and be a respectable British wife, but she's all for adventure and whatnot. Sandokan's identity is eventually discovered, and he flees, but not before promising Mariana he'll come back for her.
He actually keeps his promise and takes her to Mompracen, where she's quite happy, while her father is convinced she must be wildly pining for her previous life (spoiler alert: she's really not). That's why he launches a rescue mission, colluding with the Rajah, who REALLY wants Sandokan dead (and the peace and quiet to eat a bunch of large meals, dude is HUGE).
They call up a special secret elite force, portrayed in this show by panthers, who kidnap the daughter of Sandokan's friend, forcing him to go on a rescue mission to save her before she becomes chow for the goddess Kali. In the process, they also rescue ANOTHER princess, Surama, who Yanez immediately has a soft spot for.
But upon returning to Mompracen they find Mariana gone, and Sandokan vows to get her BEFORE her father forces her to marry the Baron, so they all dress as natives and pretend to perform to get close. Mariana slips away with them, and the Baron gives chase.
He's finally defeated at sea by Sandokan, while Lord James learns that making deals with the Rajah usually ends badly when he's tied up by the natives to be burned alive.
Sandokan doesn't let that happen, however, and, finally learning about the Rajah's past and Sandokan's affairs, Lord James switches sides, convinces the Baron to do the same, and they all join together to defeat the Rajah.
With Sandokan finally restored to name and position, he marries Mariana in a double wedding (Yanez marries Surama), and it can be inferred they lived happily ever after!
Short, sweet and to the point, this is one of those animations that makes you smile no matter what, filled to the brim with little jokes that kids will giggle at but adults will also appreciate because they have a meaning only they will understand, once they know the world a little better.
For me, it's one of those movies I can never get enough of, returning me to the moments of childhood when I was enjoying watching the tiger prince perform his escapades on screen.
... but really, did the author have so little imagination that he named Mariana's father Lord James, and the Rajah James Brooke???
xx
*images and video not mine
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