Preminger

Preminger is the main antagonist of Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper. He is voiced by Martin Short. His aim is to rule the kingdom by marrying a royal. Preminger has a dog named Midas that antagonises Serafina and Wolfie.

Story
Preminger is the son of a peasant who became the royal advisor to Queen Genevieve. His main goal is to become the king of her kingdom. To do this, he has his minions, Nick and Nack, steal the kingdom's gold supply. His plan is to show the stolen gold to Genevieve and pass it off as something he "discovered" while away on a journey. Then, Princess Anneliese would marry him to save the kingdom and he would be crowned king.

Unfortunately for Preminger, Queen Genevieve has already arranged a marriage between her daughter and King Dominick, since Dominick is very wealthy. Preminger then concots a new scheme and puts it into action. He has Nick and Nack capture Anneliese and leaves a fake note on her desk, claiming she has run away to escape the arranged marriage. After the wedding to Dominick is canceled, Preminger plans to "rescue" the princess and get engaged to her by her grateful mother. Julian suspects that the note is a fake and has Erika pose as the princess so that the wedding won't be canceled and so Julian can find the real Princess.

Preminger gets suspicious when Erika apologizes to the queen for running away, instead of telling the truth about being kidnapped. He goes to the cabin and finds that the princess really has escaped, but still is suspicious about Erika. He catches Julian spying and him and imprisons him in the mine.

Preminger gets even more suspicious when he discovers that Serafina has disappeared and Wolfie lives in the palace. One night, he finds Serafina at the castle with Anneliese's ring attached to her collar, as well as a label from Madame Carp's Dress Emporium. Preminger goes to the dress shop and finds Anneliese. He pretends to take her to the castle, but he takes her to the mine instead. He traps her in the mine with Julian and has Nick and Nack collapse it.



Back at the castle, he exposes Erika as a fake and makes up a story about how she and Julian collapsed the mine and killed Anneliese. To make sure Genevieve believes him, he tells her that he tried to save Anneliese but could only find her ring.

He shows Genevieve the stolen gold and proposes to her, promising to save the kingdom with the gold on the condition that he becomes king. Genevieve reluctantly agrees. As she is about to marry him, Anneliese appears and exposes Preminger as a schemer. He tries to get away, but his horse turns on him. He lands in the wedding cake and is arrested.

Trivia

 * Preminger's voice actor, Martin Short, and character designer, Jean Gillmore, were nominated for the 2005 DVDX award: Best Animated Character Performance (Voice and Animation in a DVD Premiere Movie) for their work on Preminger.
 * He is a lot like Seymour Crider from Barbie: The Princess & The Popstar as they both aimed to take over the kingdom by stealing something very valuable (Preminger steals the kingdom's gold/money supply. Seymour steals and tries to get away with the Gardania) and marrying a royal.
 * Preminger was voted for the best Barbie villian.