Princess – A Modern Fairy Tale (2008/Gaiam DVD)
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: D Telefilm: C-
In yet
another wave of new neo-Disney productions reveling in the fairy tale world
they created decades ago, we get another live-action variant with some
animation in the cable TV movie Princess
– A Modern Fairy Tale (2008) where a somewhat wealthy young man (Kip
Purdue) wins a bid to dance with and have one date with a real princess named Ithaca
(Nora Zehetner) who turns out to be more connected to a world of (white) magic
than anyone could have known.
Can he
save her? Especially when he has no idea
what is going on? Where is she
from? What is really going on? Is someone out to kill them? Well, this only runs 88 minutes and wants
things to stay mystified and cutesy to the end, so most of the questions are
never solved, many plot points are left hanging and this never adds up to much
except a barely child-safe shtick that is on the condescending side and not the
best it could have been by a longshot.
The 1.33
X 1 image is softer than it should be, despite being filmed. Lighting is substandard and it is especially
odd how Purdue is under lit and Zehetner barely lit. Even the look is confused and color is not
great either. The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo has barely any surround information and is adequate at best
for a new recording. There are no extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
