Mannequin Two: On the Move

Mannequin Two: On the Move is a 1991 romantic comedy film and a sequel to the 1987 film Mannequin. The film stars Kristy Swanson as a mannequin who was frozen one thousand years ago by an evil sorcerer using a magic necklace. She remains frozen until the necklace is removed and can remain permanently unfrozen if she receives a kiss from her true love. The original film's theme song "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" by Starship, written by Diane Warren and Albert Hammond, was featured in this film. The original music score was composed by David McHugh.

Mannequin Two: On the Move
Original movie poster
Directed byStewart Raffill
Produced byEdward Rugoff
Written by
Starring
Music byDavid McHugh
CinematographyLarry Pizer
Edited by
  • John Rosenberg
  • Joan E. Chapman
Production
company
Gladden Entertainment
Distributed by20th Century Fox[1]
Release date
  • May 17, 1991 (1991-05-17)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$13 million[1]
Box office$3.8 million[1]

Plot

A thousand years ago in the kingdom of Hauptmann-Koenig, the dashing Prince William fell in love with a lovely peasant girl, Jessie. However, his royal mother was less than thrilled with their romance and plotted with her court magician to destroy this. Together, they deceived William into giving Jessie a cursed necklace. The necklace transforms Jessie into a wooden statue for a thousand years or until her true love from another land could remove the necklace; whatever came first.

A thousand years later, Jessie has become a cultural icon as the Enchanted Peasant Girl in Hauptmann-Koenig (now a village in Germany). In a vain attempt to boost tourism in their country, the royal family has sent their mannequin of the Enchanted Peasant Girl to the United States to tour at the Prince & Company department store in Philadelphia's Center City. Secretly, Count Gunther Spretzle, the present-day descendant of the court magician is plotting to take the medieval girl once the thousand year curse is over and she becomes alive as his bride; along with the royal jewels being loaned to Prince & Company to fund his retirement to Bermuda.

As a public relations move, the flamboyant and newly promoted Hollywood Montrose is assigned the task of conducting an artistic presentation celebrating Hauptmann-Koenig. Prince & Company's fussbudget manager, Mr. James has assigned a new intern, Jason Williamson to help as Hollywood's assistant. A hopeless romantic, Jason falls in love with a promotional picture of the beautiful mannequin. Shortly afterwards, he and Hollywood learn that the delivery truck with the artifacts shipped from Hauptmann-Koenig has been in an accident. Driving out of the scene, Jason sees a female figure falling into the Schuylkill River form the truck and impulsively jumps in to save her only to belatedly discover that it was merely the mannequin.

Taking the Enchanted Peasant Girl back to Prince & Company, Jason tries to clean it up and by chance removes the necklace which breaks the spell and restores Jessie back to life. Jessie immediately fixates on Jason who is the reincarnation of Prince William and they began a whirlwind overnight romance on the streets of the city. Unfortunately, the next morning, Jessie redons the necklace which transforms her back into a mannequin leaving Jason heartbroken and unaware of how she returned to life, much less how to bring her back. Unsure of what to do, Jason takes the mannequin Jessie back to Prince & Company where Count Spretzle arrives to take charge of security.

Hollywood sends off Jason to do some errands and admiring Jessie's necklace, takes it off and tries it on himself which turns him into a mannequin. Restored back to life, Jessie tours the department store in an attempt to find Jason. Meanwhile, Count Spretzle's three henchmen have come to guard the girl and find only the statue of Hollywood with the necklace and removes it to reprimand him. However, Hollywood remains too bewildered and confused afterwards by his transformation to understand what just happened. The trio belatedly realize that the mannequin is missing and rush out to find her. The three henchmen stumble across the alive Jessie who recognizes them and runs away to their stunned amazement. Meanwhile, Jason finds Hollywood who he proceeds to confess about Jessie coming to life and his and Jessie's date last night. Much to his surprise, Hollywood believes him having experienced this before and they immediately find her.

Spretzle is dismayed when his henchmen inform him that the girl is not only alive but someone has removed the necklace. Spotting Jason, he recognizes him as a reborn Prince William and attempts to have his nemesis eliminated. Pursued by his henchmen, Jessie is forced to escape and takes refuge at Jason's home where unfortunately Spretzle has tracked her down and forces the necklace back on her, turning her back into a mannequin. Afterwards, Spretzle accuses Jason of trying to steal his country property and when Jason tries to defend himself, his claims of Jessie coming to life is immediately dismissed by the police who arrest him. However, he sees the necklace back on Jessie and realizes that this is the source of the curse but is unable to convince anyone to remove the necklace.

After spending the night in lockup, Hollywood masquerades himself as a Marine Staff Sergeant and manages to bluff the policemen into releasing Jason into his custody so that he can be court martialed. Sneaking back into Prince & Company, into the middle of the presentation, Jason openly removes the cursed necklace, restoring Jessie back to life in front of hundreds of spectators. Enraged, Spretzle kidnaps Jessie and escapes in a hot air balloon. Jason manages to grab onto a rope attached to the basket and they struggle when Jessie picks up the necklace and inspired, puts it on Spretzle turning him into a mannequin. Both Jason and Jessie tearfully embrace and by chance knock over the statue of Spretzle out of the basket where it falls into the pavement, smashing it into pieces. Back in Hauptmann-Koenig, the badly glued together mannequin of Count Spretzle is now the centerpiece and the new cultural icon of the country. Meanwhile, the newly married couple of Jason and Jessie depart from Prince & Company on their honeymoon.

Cast

Production

The first film had been financially successful and the production company wanted a sequel. A script was written and David Begelman hired Stewart Raffill, who had made The Ice Pirates (1984) for Begelman earlier, to direct.[2] Raffill said his philosophy was "just to play the humor" and look for interesting reactions to the situations.[2] Filming took place in Philadelphia at Wanamaker's department store. Raffill said that Swanson "was a charm to work with".[2]

Soundtrack
Track list: Mannequin Two: On the Move [3]
Title: Performed by: Produced by: Courtesy of: Composed by:
"Do It For Love" Gene Miller Phil Galdston
John Van Tongeren		 John Van Tongeren
Phil Galdston
"Wake Up" Gene Miller Phil Galdston
John Van Tongeren		 John Van Tongeren
Phil Galdston
"Can't Believe My Eyes" Gene Miller Jon Lind John Bettis
Jon Lind
"Pick Up the Pieces (To My Heart)" Cindy Valentine Tony Green
for TGO Records, Ltd.		 Arista Records, Inc. Cindy Valentine
Tony Green
"Casa De Coati" Meshach Taylor
Coati Mundi		 Coati Mundi Coati Mundi
"The Sea Hawk" Erich Wolfgang Korngold
"Feel the Way I Do" Shoes Shoes Black Vinyl Records John Murphy
"That Love Thang" E.I.E.I.O. Phil Bonanno & E.I.E.I.O. Frontier Records Richard Szeluga
David Kendrick
"Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" Starship Narada Michael Walden RCA Records Albert Hammond
Diane Warren

Reception

Unlike its predecessor, it was a box office bomb, grossing just less than $4 million against its $13 million budget.[1]

On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 13% based on reviews from 23 critics.[4] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B" on scale of A+ to F.[5] This sequel was dubbed as "one of the worst follow-ups ever made."[6]

Variety gave it a negative review: "It took four writers to struggle with another idea of why a mannequin would come to life in a department store and what would happen if she did."[7] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "even more feeble than the original" and "insipid in the extreme".[8]

David Cornelius of DVD Talk called it "as woefully incompetent as its predecessor".[9]

Home media

Mannequin Two: On the Move was first released on VHS and LaserDisc in 1992 by Live Home Video. MGM Home Entertainment released the film to DVD for the first time on January 16, 2008 as part of a double feature two-disc set with the first Mannequin as the first disc.[9] Mannequin Two: On the Move was released on Blu-ray for the first time by Olive Films (under license from MGM) on September 22, 2015.[10]

References
  1. Mannequin Two: On the Move at Box Office Mojo
  2. Blake Harris (15 July 2016). "Interview with Stewart Raffill Part 2". Slashfilm.
  3. "Soundtracks for". Mannequin: On the Move. Internet Movie Database. 1991. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
  4. "Mannequin 2: On the Move (1991)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2020-05-04.
  5. "Cinemascore". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
  6. "Kim Cattrall, Andrew McCarthy's Mannequin set for remake". Zee News. 11 January 2010. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
  7. Variety Staff (1 January 1991). "Mannequin on the Move". Variety.
  8. Kevin Thomas (20 May 1991). "MOVIE REVIEWS : 'Mannequin Two' Is a Dummy Too". Los Angeles Times.
  9. David Cornelius (April 15, 2008). "Mannequin & Mannequin 2: On the Move". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2020-05-04.
  10. "Mannequin Two: On the Move". Amazon.com.
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