Prince Ruby & Prince Sapphire

Prince Ruby & Prince Sapphire is a 1998 Direct To Video children's fantasy-musical VHS created and directed by Dutch-Australian children's entertainer and musician Franciscus Henri. It starred John Hasler, Nigel Pilkington, Justine Clarke, Monica Trapaga and Franciscus Henri. The video had a long history of being forgotten and hidden from the media and the full video was lost for a period of time until 2019 when it was uploaded to the Internet Archive by someone who owned one of the only existing VHS's of the video left.

SYNOPSIS
When two twin sisters named Elisa and Emily finish reading their favourite stories in their golden Storybook named "The Great Land Of Fairytales" and settle down for bed at night, out magically pops two princes named Prince Ruby and Prince Sapphire. When they teleport to the human world, they are in charge of gifting the girls magical and happy dreams and sometimes gift them wonderful items from their world. But when they go back to the kingdoms inside the storybook, they have royal, fun-filled, magical adventures together with all their other friends, including the wise and caring Queen Diane, the strict and overwhelming but thoughtful Octavius the advisor, the innovative and imaginative Princess Emerald and her talking mouse companion Amy. One day is a day of excitement when everyone wants to make a very special and magical present for the twins as a way to show how happy they are that the two never forget about them and are always believing in them. But the question is what can they make for the twins that will be everlasting and can they do it before the next sunrise and the two wake up? Every day in the storybook is a day of magic and surprise with lots of singing and dancing!

CAST AND CHARACTERS
John Hasler as Prince Ruby: The prince of all shades of red, Rubies and the day. He is more calm, cautious, orderly and intelligent.

Nigel Pilkington as Prince Sapphire: The prince of all shades of blue, Sapphires and the night. He is more energetic, rambunctious, optimistic and adventurous.

Justine Clarke as Princess Emerald: The princess of all shades of green, Emeralds and art. She is an inventor and artist with a huge imagination and always has an idea up her sleeve whether they are new inventions and art pieces or a solution to a problem. Clarke also provides the voice of Amy, Emerald's puppet mouse companion who is cheerful, snarky and feisty.

Monica Trapaga as Queen Diane: The Queen of all things that glitter, Diamonds and the main ruler of the kingdom. She is a very wise and caring ruler who always supports those around her and never lets anyone down.

Franciscus Henri as Octavius the Advisor: Queen Diane's royal advisor. Octavius is always the one to stop things from getting too silly, always has a set of rules and can get too overwhelmed and worried whenever things go wrong. But he's still a very supportive, kind-hearted and reliable advisor who's always lending a hand.

Caitlin Stasey and Indiana Evans as Elisa and Emily: Two twin sisters from the human world who own the storybook that the princes live in. Every night before they go to bed they always read a story from the book and love to make their own fairytales up and use their imaginations. They do not know the princes exist or that the storybook is magical, but they still believe.

SOUNDTRACK

 * 1) Magic Dreams (Vocals: John Hasler)
 * 2) Ruby And Sapphire (Vocals: John Hasler/Nigel Pilkington)
 * 3) Tell Me A Story (Vocals: John Hasler/Nigel Pilkington)
 * 4) My Beautiful Brilliant Kingdom (Vocals: Monica Trapaga)
 * 5) Outstanding (Vocals: Franciscus Henri)
 * 6) A Gift For The Twins (Vocals: John Hasler/Nigel Pilkington/Monica Trapaga/Franciscus Henri)
 * 7) This Is The Way We Sing This Song (Vocals: Nigel Pilkington)
 * 8) Create With Me (Vocals: Justine Clarke)
 * 9) Der Glumph (Vocals: Justine Clarke/John Hasler/Nigel Pilkington)
 * 10) My Favourite Things (Vocals: Monica Trapaga/Franciscus Henri)
 * 11) I Saw A Ship A Sailing (Vocals: John Hasler)
 * 12) Squeak Squeak (Vocals: Justine Clarke)
 * 13) Peekaboo (Vocals: Justine Clarke/John Hasler/Nigel Pilkington)
 * 14) Altogether (Vocals: Monica Trapaga/John Hasler/Nigel Pilkington/Justine Clarke/Franciscus Henri)
 * 15) To Elisa And Emily (Vocals: John Hasler/Nigel Pilkington)
 * 16) Happily Ever After (Vocals: John Hasler/Nigel Pilkington/Justine Clarke/Monica Trapaga/Franciscus Henri)

HISTORY
Towards the end of 1997, Polygram Filmed Entertainment Australia was looking to commission a new line of Children's media for the Australian Broadcasting Corproation, both as an attempt to expand the amount of children's media for the turn of the millennium in the country as well as to transition to new companies of their medium given that they were on the brink of bankruptcy. As a result, Polygram partnered with Carlton Home Entertainment to host a "Commission Round" where they would invite 2 different production teams to make their own hour long video targeted towards young children, specifically preschoolers. They were given until the end of 1998 to create an idea, find a production team and cast and finish development. Once the videos were finished, they would be sent to the Australian and British market via VHS and the video with the most profit would have it green-lit into a full-fledged medium with more videos being produced courtesy of ABC video as well as their respective distributors.

Prince Ruby & Prince Sapphire would be in development through out 1998 and would be filmed at one of Film Victoria's studios in Melbourne. Almost all of production including filming, effects, choreography and props were done by hand by a small team which included Henri himself. Henri would bring along a small set of actors from around Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane who would have prior experience to children's entertainment. This included Justine Clarke, being one of her first roles in children's entertainment before signing onto long-running and widely acclaimed Australian children's program Play School as well as veteran Play School presenter Monica Trapaga. The team would also debut younger actors to play twins Elisa and Emily, being Caitlin Stasey and Indiana Evans who at the time of filming were only 7 - 8 years of age. Because they couldn't find anyone in the area to play the main princes, the team opted to contact foreign actors who also had experience in children's entertainment to ask if they could act in the roles. One of them being British actor John Hasler, who had prior experience when he was younger as a major actor in 1980s British children's series T-Bag. Hasler would also come into contact with British actor, screenwriter and former lawyer Nigel Pilkington, who was looking for a job in acting around this time. The two got acquainted, and Pilkington was eager to sign on. This would be his first role in acting. The two would fly to the studio in Melbourne after signing on and filming would begin. The intro to the video would also feature 2D Animation courtesy of Catflap Animation Studios in Sydney. Production would be completed in the same year, just in time to submit the video.

Prince Ruby & Prince Sapphire's video would be placed onto VHS and sold to stores alongside The Fairies created by Jenifer Watts. The Fairies was also commissioned and distributed by Polygram and Carlton for the Commission Round. The Prince Ruby and & Prince Sapphire video would also feature a bonus blooper reel and bonus karaoke video of one of the songs. Unfortunately, Prince Ruby & Prince Sapphire would lose the round and The Fairies was ultimately green-lit and sent to ABC Video. However, the VHS would still be sold for a period of time and would also see a soundtrack from Sully Studios in 1999, which was comprised of all the songs in the video. The cast still remembers taking part in the video and has fond memories of it.

AVAILABILITY
At some point in the early to mid 2000s, the VHS stopped appearing on store shelves officially and mysteriously disappeared from ABC's online store, who for a short period of time was able to own the rights for the video. For a while after this, theories went around about what happened, with some saying that ABC lost the rights to selling the VHS while others thought copies of the VHS went missing and as a result marketing halted. A 2008 article from the ABC shop eventually confirmed that the VHS had sold out and there weren't anymore copies remaining, however they were looking to remake more so it could continue selling. Unfortunately, that never happened.