A beautiful princess, a lavish castle and a three-headed dragon aren’t exactly things you’d find in Ithaca, N.Y., but that didn’t stop ABC Family from using our little college town as the setting of its newest original movie, “Princess.” Staff Writer Andy Swift takes a critical eye to the film, particularly noting the hilarious differences between the real Ithaca and the one onscreen.

The opening shot finds a sad princess (Nora Zehetner) looking out longingly from a window in her outlandish stone castle — that’s your first clue that very little research went into choosing the setting — and as the camera moves away from the castle, we see a bustling metropolitan city just beyond the treetops. Again: what?

We eventually learn the young woman in the castle is an eccentric local legend named Princess Ithaca, a title she came up with herself. Entertainment Weekly poked fun at the name in its April 18 issue, describing the film as “the modern fairy tale of Princess Ithaca. They’d have named her Princess Utica, but that just sounds dumb.”

Speaking of things that sound dumb, the princess hosts a black tie charity ball — because those are apparently commonplace in ABC Family’s Ithaca. The princess does, however, meet a struggling artist named

William (Kip Pardue), so at least the film has one similarity to Ithaca.

William discovers the princess is a “healer” and is responsible for the safety of the mythological creatures that live at her castle. Absurdity and bad CGI effects ensue.

Obviously this is completely ridiculous, but it makes you wonder: How would a fairytale in Ithaca actually play out? Perhaps it would be the story of a beautiful Princess who finds her kingdom in danger after the arrival of an army of conservative Republicans. In order to gain enough power to save Ithaca from certain doom, she must journey to the evil fortress known as Wal-Mart and drink deeply from the magical Jug of Cortaca.

It wouldn’t exactly be an instant classic, but you know you’d watch it.

Encore presentations of “Princess” will be shown at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Saturday on ABC Family.