Your Highness



"One of the heroes even wears the penis of a minotaur on a string around his neck. I hate it when that happens."

- Roger Ebert's review

Your Highness is a 2011 adventure comedy film directed by David Gordon Green of Pineapple Express fame that could best be described as a tongue in cheek take on the sword and sorcery genre.

The film centers on Prince Fabious (James Franco) and Prince Thadeous (Danny McBride), who are of the bold/valiant and slovenly/slacker variety, respectively (and Courtney.) Fabious' bride to be, Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel), is spirited away by an evil wizard, and her fate rests in the hands of the two princes, who embark on the journey of journeys to rescue her. Joining their quest is Isabel (Natalie Portman), a female warrior skilled in the art of deadly combat with her own personal agenda for stopping the wizard. Together, the trio faces a variety of deadly and at times hilarious dangers, from witches and knights to minotaurs and hydras.

This film contains examples of:
" I'm just not attracted to you!"
 * Action Girl: Isabel, who's also the The Archer.
 * Actor Allusion: Isabel has moves worthy of Darth Maul. One of her weapons is even a staff with two blades! For added points, she first shows up in an arena with a monster in it.
 * Affirmative Action Girl: Isabel, in order to allow Belladonna to be a Distressed Damsel.
 * And the Adventure Continues...: The movie ends with Isabel coming to Thadeous with his next quest.
 * Armored Closet Gay: Given the large amount of Ho Yay in the film,

"Thadeous: Courtney, hold my dick.
 * Barbie Doll Anatomy: Julie. No explanation is given, though it's likely it's simply that he's a neuter homunculus.
 * Black Comedy Rape: The entire plot centers on the impending (less commonly played for laughs male-on-female) rape of Belladonna. But also...
 * Courtney and the minotaur.
 * Fabious and the Wise Wizard.
 * Blood Knight: Isabel. It kind of creeps Thadeous and the others out.
 * Booby Trap: One of these quickly kills The Barbarian.
 * Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Many examples, but one stands out: Thadeus' servant Courtney is skilled at pickpocketing because he grew up as a sex slave for gypsies. This helps them reclaim a MacGuffin and is never mentioned before or after explaining that.
 * Butt Monkey: Courtney.
 * Chekhov's Gun:
 * Also, Isabel's arm band.
 * Cluster F-Bomb
 * A Date with Rosie Palms: Several jokes rely on it; mostly on the part of Thadeous and Leezar.
 * Hands Courtney his "trophy" taken from the Minotaur.*"

"Leezar: Magic...Motherfucker."
 * Also the line from Thadeous: "Isabel, I was just about to finish thinking about you."
 * Death Trap: Julie hooks Fabious up to one of these.
 * Digging Yourself Deeper: Thadeous's attempt to explain his encounter with the Dwarf queen.
 * Dirty Old Man: The Wise Wizard, very much so.
 * Distressed Damsel: Belladonna.
 * Evil Overlord: Leezar fits this trope to a T.
 * Evil Tower of Ominousness
 * Face Heel Turn:
 * Fake Brit: Basically the whole of the cast, but Word of God says it's more or less a takeoff on all those sword and sorcery epics with actors attempting to replicate British accents and not always succeeding.
 * Averted however with Toby Jones and Damian Lewis.
 * Fetish Retardant: Invoked. The three witches cast a sex spell on Belladonna that winds up giving her an The Exorcist-possessed voice.
 * Gladiator Games: Marteetee's arena.
 * Here We Go Again: Gotta get rid of that
 * High Fantasy
 * Hypnotize the Princess: Apparently of the possession variety. It backfires.
 * I Have You Now, My Pretty: Lazar's entire plan revolves around raping Belladonna to produce a dragon during the joining of the two moons. He also licks her cheek when he kidnaps her from the wedding.
 * Karmic Death: In the space of ten minutes,
 * Killed Mid-Sentence:
 * Large and In Charge: Marteetee.
 * Lecherous Licking: Lazar licks the face of Belladonna when he abducts her from her wedding to Fabious.
 * The Load: Thadeous.
 * Lovable Coward: Also Thadeous.
 * Love At First Note: Fabious fell in love with Belladonna before he even saw her from hearing her sing.
 * Meaningful Name: Belladonna is Italian for "beautiful woman".
 * Of course it is. Incidentally, it's also Latin for Deadly Nightshade.
 * Medieval European Fantasy: All of The Middle Ages are blended together, along with elements of indigenous tribal, Roman and Far Eastern cultures. Oh yes, and Simon, the sentient clockwork bird.
 * Money, Dear Boy: Natalie Portman admitted she only did this movie because there was some uncertainty if Black Swan would get greenlit by a major studio. She signed on to this film for a paycheck and use it to help finance Black Swan herself, should the need have ever risen. However, Black Swan got greenlit and went underway fairly easily, and Natalie got stuck doing this film having already signed on.
 * Mysterious Woman: Isabel, before she reveals her backstory to the heroes.
 * New Powers as the Plot Demands: Apparently Isabel's arm band is able to repel magic lightning. Who knew?
 * It's vaguely hinted by observation. In the opening scene we have her knight ancestors blocking the magic with their armor and Isabel later claimed that her armband was made from her brothers' shields, assuming to be of the same make of the armor of their ancestors.
 * Nigh Invulnerability: Leezar.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Soul of the Maze that totally isn't Sean Connery.
 * No Ontological Inertia: The sex spell on Belladonna ends as soon as Leezar's mothers are killed.
 * No Social Skills: Being locked in a tower since she was a young girl, Belladonna has no real clue about many social conventions, such as forks and choreographed dancing.
 * Outdoor Bath Peeping: Shortly after the group meets Isabel.
 * Precision F-Strike: Leezar


 * Pun-Based Title: Your Highness features two members of royalty who in one scene get stoned together.
 * Red Shirt: The two nameless prisoners alongside our heroes in Marteetee's arena.
 * Refuge in Vulgarity: Gay jokes? Check. Sex jokes? Check. Characters unable to go a few sentences without at least one swear word? Oh so very check.
 * Scarily Competent Tracker: Manious. Also a bit creepy/squick in that he tastes the blade of grass that he states has been urinated on, rather than just smelling it.
 * Shout-Out: The barbarian the heroes meet in the bar is a clear shout-out to Conan the Barbarian. Similarly, the practice moves Thadeous goes through after he obtains the Blade of the Unicorn mirrors a scene from that movie.
 * Simon, Fabious's mechanical bird, is a reference to Bubo from Clash of the Titans.
 * The Wise Wizard is Yoda crossed with the smoking caterpillar. Leezar and his mothers even have Force Lightning.
 * The chastity belt revelation is borrowed from Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
 * To just about every fantasy movie from the eighties on, really. Much of the design and special effects resemble Willow, not least of which is the multi-headed dragon. A scene in a montage references the Gates of Argonath from The Fellowship of the Ring. The set during the Labyrinth sequence is very similar to, well, Labyrinth.
 * Belladonna, having No Social Skills due to her backstory, uses a fork as a comb before being instructed on its proper use.
 * Sophisticated As Hell: The language of the realm, pretty much.
 * Star-Derailing Role: Averted. The lead, Danny McBride, is a successful director with no interest in any acting more strenuous than cameos. He was starring in this film to payback a favour to an old friend who featured, naked, in one of his film school projects.
 * Sword of Plot Advancement: The Unicorn Sword is the only thing that can kill Leezar.
 * The Chosen One: Leezar believes he is this.
 * The Last of These Is Not Like the Others: A TV spot advertised the film as starring "Academy Award Nominee James Franco, Academy Award Winner Natalie Portman and 5th Grade Class President Danny McBride."
 * The Loins Sleep Tonight: Poor Leezar has trouble concentrating with the battle going on around him.
 * This Cannot Be!: Leezar's reaction when he sees Fabious is wielding the Unicorn Sword.
 * Threshold Guardians: The Soul of the Maze.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Thadeous
 * Total Eclipse of the Plot: Leezar's ritual must be performed during "the joining of the two moons", which appears to be an eclipse of one moon by the other, and happens once every hundred years.
 * Throw It In: Reportedly, the whole script was like this. The film's writers (one of which was also the star) had written an outline but ended up filming without a finished script and let the actors ad-lib everything.
 * Uptown Girl: Gender inversion - Thadeous is a prince and while his reputation isn't great, all indications are the kingdom is rich and important. Meanwhile Isabel is a commoner and a homeless adventuress.
 * Wacky Wayside Tribe: The Nubile Savages led by Fat Bastard Marteetee.
 * Virgin Power: Leezar's ritual will only work with a virgin.
 * X Meets Y: The 2009 Land of the Lost revival meets The Princess Bride.
 * Or Frat Row plays Dungeons and Dragons.
 * DM of the Rings: The Movie!
 * Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Mostly averted, but randomly shows up a few times for no apparent reason.
 * You Killed My Father: What motivates Isabel to get revenge on Marteetee.
 * Also what motivates her to join up with Thadeous and Fabious: Leezar's "mothers" killed her six brothers.