I found the first fifteen minutes or so of this movie painful to watch; flat clunky animation of not much happening set against clumsy 3D backgrounds. I have nothing against slow, thoughtful movies, or less-than-state-of-the-art animation. But this was lacking any kind of spark. There was no life in it. It was like watching someone else wandering around in Second Life doing nothing in particular. The character of the father was particularly awful (the flat, "I am delivering a line" voice-over in the English version didn't help - not that the actor could have really done anything with the lines he was given, they were real: "I am going to advance the plot now!" stuff.) He wasn't even a TWO dimensional character.
However, after this overly long set up, and once the action moves to the unnamed Arabian country, the movie picks up and becomes a lot more interesting, both visually and narratively and by the end, though I was not entirely blown away (the protracted 'dilemma' ending was far too long) I was happily satisfied. But then I'm not really the target audience. So, over to the target audience....
My daughter Holly (aged 7) says: "I thought this film was really good when Azur had two keys and threw them into the two cavern door when they needed it. It was a bit scary when he didn't have the key for the slashing irons but his brother did and he used it. It was fun. The wee girl as the princess was good. It was one of the most enjoyable movies I've ever watched!"
However, after this overly long set up, and once the action moves to the unnamed Arabian country, the movie picks up and becomes a lot more interesting, both visually and narratively and by the end, though I was not entirely blown away (the protracted 'dilemma' ending was far too long) I was happily satisfied. But then I'm not really the target audience. So, over to the target audience....
My daughter Holly (aged 7) says: "I thought this film was really good when Azur had two keys and threw them into the two cavern door when they needed it. It was a bit scary when he didn't have the key for the slashing irons but his brother did and he used it. It was fun. The wee girl as the princess was good. It was one of the most enjoyable movies I've ever watched!"