The Princess and the Goblin

It's great for a low budget animation. But any time I watched it, I got serious nightmares for a few days. And I wasn't even that young, I was like 11-12... I found it really scary, I felt more horror than any horror movie since then. But since I didn't find any review of that sorts, maybe I'm the only one who felt this way, although my brother felt similar that time.

I remember constantly watching this movie as a kid. I even remember where I got it from. Avon, since my Grandma sells it and still does. Out of all the animated movies I don't know why I loved this one so much as a kid. Re-watching it now I still don't. What do I think of it now?

Well, it's OK. I've definitely re-watched worse old animated films. This one actually even had some pretty decent songs. The story was simple but good overall. There are some things I noticed about it now that I know I would have never caught as a kid. But then that's why for the most part that I do re-watch things that I watched as a kid. That and to see how they hold up now. One things for sure, I can see why kids would like it. It will always have a lasting impression on my mind also, no matter how faint. :)

Maybe I'm just used to sound effects and music making scenes seem more dramatic, but this cartoon felt unfinished. There is very little music in any scenes to help set the mood. The sound effects are also missing a lot, like one scene a boy stomps the ground and it makes no sound. This is not a musical (hence there being no music), but one song appears about 5 times, like one of the writers were smart enough to think up one song and wanted to brag by playing it over and over again. The animation is also lacking quite a bit. Some cool tricks, like putting layers between the characters and foreground are used, but the actual animation is pretty bad. It almost looks like a good looking anime cartoon, or a bad looking Disney knock-off. These are the little things, that made this movie a step down in it's rating.

Princess Irene escapes one day from her nanny, gets lost in the forest, and meets many of the horrible pets of the goblins who live in the area. A young miner boy, Curdie, finds her and scares off the animals by singing the only song in the movie. When Irene goes back to the castle, she meets her dead grandmother who tells her some odd secrets about the castle and the goblins. Curdie follows the goblins to their area of work, and chaos ensues.

The best scenes in the movie are the ones featuring the goblins, and there are way too few of those. This movie is around 80 minutes, and the goblins have maybe, 10 to 15 minutes of screen time, but it seems longer because they're such interesting characters. Scenes with Irene in the castle can get quite boring, and what's strange is Irene's nanny Looti is actually a much more interesting character than Irene. Scenes with Curdie can be annoying, because he tends to think out loud, which just adds up to bad writing and inexpressive animation.

Overall, this a fun movie, and it's somewhat cute and funny, but it's nothing special.

My rating: ** 1/2 out of ****. 80 mins. G.

For anyone who has seen this movie, they know what I'm talking about. This movie is pretty good although there is exaggeration in some parts. Personally, I like the song. It has a nice beat, very medieval and it gives hope. It was made in Hungary and it won a prize. YES! When I first got this movie, people who came to my house always wanted to watch it and I got sick of it. Now I just watched for the first time in 3 years and it was good. Watch it! You'll like it! If you've seen it already, you must really think the goblin cat is the most hilarious thing in the movie.

I loved this movie when I was a child. It was just so fantastical and lovely, and the main song just sticks in your head for days upon days. When I watched this movie recently (as in 10 years later), I saw how fine the animation was designed to be, and how well it was done in some areas. It's old, and the animation dosen't really compare to the computer graphics we have today, but it's CLASSIC. And although someof the actions are exaggerated in the movie, it's like opening my Hans Christian Anderson book, and seeing stories come to life.

So if you're a lover of fairy tales, or enjoy telling stories, this movie was MADE for you.