Marva
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
fandomuser
Gets three stars more on the attempt. On the paper, it sounds like a hit: Midsummer Night's Dream where people fall in love with the wrong person ("wrong" for a reason or another where there isn't necessarily magic involved) plus Beauty and the Beast (with the twist, "Where the Beast doesn't change".) with one message, "Everybody deserves love"... sounds awesome, am I right?Yeah...Disregarding Lucas' interview where he states that 'Star Wars is for 12 year old boys... this is for 12 year old girs' because I really hope that what I understood wasn't what he meant, "Strange Magic" as many have commented it... is just strange and not so magic.The beginning was 'ok'...The development of the girly and literal Princess of the Fairies into this strong and skilled warrior was because her very handsome suitor cheated on her, and we have that via a musical and a "dramatic makeover", the whole thing was superficial and the opposite of what I think the movie was aiming for, "I will no longer be this girl whose whole world revolves around the perfect man... so I will change everything, my looks, my personality, my interests... because of a man." I would have a lot more respect (for the concept) if she just refused to marry the guy (as she did... with another song, mind you) and the change was gradual, bit by bit through the movie. A single scene (read: song) with the personality change just screams teen angst ("a phase").Then we are introduced to the king of Goblins... who, by the way, doesn't look like the other Goblins, who are mostly fast, too big or too small and with no human features on sight (horns, fins, so on), instead, he is tall, with lean muscles, with a very much human face... and with wings, but they look more like an insect's than a butterfly's like the Princess' people so that counts as an "ugly" feature, I guess?From the very same second he is introduced, we can already predict where the movie is going: the scorned, heartbroken princess will fall in love "despite the ugly exterior" of the king and the rude and cruel king will fall in love with her and become gentle and kind.Predictable to the extreme.Another kick: when they meet, the princess insults the guy's looks, asking how can her sister (at the time under the effects of a love potion) fall in love with someone so ugly... not cruel nor arrogant nor rude... someone so UGLY... so much for the determination of not letting looks dicate her feelings anymore.The king's reason to be the way he is? You guess it... heartbreak.And after the climax (a fight between the king and her cheater suitor... of course), everybody lives happily ever after.If anything, it was the sidekicks (the sister and her very short and not very attractive admirer) that should get the praise for "Everybody deserves love" and etc, if that because the elf is sweet and loyal, if easy to manipulate);
Emjonezie
For a modern film, this is full of out of date stereotypes. Why is it perfectly acceptable for a beautiful princess to fall in love with a hideous man, yet there are no stories of handsome men falling for hideous women? All this feeds the stereotypes that females should be pretty, but men can be whatever they want. The only time this is reversed in the film it is used for comedy.If you don't wish for your children to be tainted by this I would avoid.
goebs-71450
My wife and I watched this movie with our 3.5 year old and we all really enjoyed it. I enjoyed all of the music and the story and my son enjoyed the small character pool and the action. He may not have fully understood the story but he sat through the whole movie (which for him rarely ever happens). I feel like it was the perfect mix of great for the kids as well as the parents type of movie. It probably all really depends on the age, but for my family this movie was excellent and I wish there were more movies like it!
EB-42
Although the beginning is a little fast paced, it's understandable since movies only have about two hours to get across the story, I still came to appreciate it. The character designs are interesting and show a lot about each character's individual personality without much need of explanation. Characters have clean cut personalities and while it does rely on a lot of character arch-types it's not necessarily bad and it ends up working out pretty well. The fact that previous events still have an effect on the plot is a refreshing change and the foreshadowing - while a bit on the nose - is not the worst I've ever seen. The editing is well done, the visuals attractive and there's nothing wrong with a legitimately strong female protagonist who actually has a personality.
