In the land of fairy tales: Princess Halle (Emma Duchesneau) isn't exactly happy that her dad King Victor (Byron Herlong) is marrying his second wife Perscilla (Rachel Stacy) today, but she's positively shocked when right after the ceremony the palace is attacked by goblins who kill everyone who doesn't out of their way quickly enough and take the king captive. She makes it out of the castle thanks to her dexterity with bow and arrow, and thanks to young court jester Henri (Duncan Novak), who has a fast enough horse to outrun the goblins. Not sure what to do with her, Henri takes Halle back to his hometown, but since the locals there aren't exactly big fans of the royal family, feeling abandoned by their regents, he has her dress up as a drifter and treats her as one of their own rather than a princess. And Halle starts to enjoy the simple life, even if it means working on Henri's grandfather Santini's (Geoffrey Lyons) farm. And together with Henri she even manages to defeat and drive away the giant who has threatened the village for years. Meanwhile back at the palace, Perscilla has taken over the reign, has planted evidence that it was Halle that has summoned the goblns, and now sends out her knights to find her. Henri does his best to shield her from detection, but for Santini, the bounty on her head proves to be just too tempting ...

Now this film proves to be nothing if not ambitious, for a reported budget of a mere $90,000, it tries to tell an epic of Hollywood blockbuster scale - and it mostly succeeds, even. Now sure, not all the CGI is flawless - but it's invariably competent at least. And while the looks of the film are all traditional fairy tale-style, the story, despite being full of genre mainstays, most certainly isn't, as it's a character-based narrative that questions fairy tale tropes and adds a certain kind of restrained irony to the proceedingsto both fans and even those not at all into fantasy, and a pretty enjoyable watch at that.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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