Your Highness

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
One of the heroes even wears the penis of a minotaur on a string around his neck. I hate it when that happens.

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.

Tropes used in Your Highness include:

Leezar: I'm just not attracted to you!

  • 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: Isabel's chastity belt, first shown during the Outdoor Bath Peeping scene.
    • 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.

Thadeous: Courtney, hold my dick.
*Hands Courtney his "trophy" taken from the Minotaur.*

Leezar: Magic...Motherfucker.

  • 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. He's not quite as successful as Ahnold, however. 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.
  • 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.