"Prinzessin Maleen" or "Princess Maleen" (obviously!) is a German television film from 2015, the holidays 2015 in fact, so this one has its fifth anniversary this year or actually will have said anniversary during the Christmas holidays because these many modern fairytale adaptations for the small screen here from my country in recent years always ccame out at the end of the year. Like most of the others it runs for one hour exactly pretty much and of course this is a German production exclusively in the German language. However, this is not to be taken for granted 100% because the director is Austrian and the writer originates from Turkey. Said director is Matthias Steurer, who has been in the industry since the early 1990s, but sadly his body of work, especially during the 2010s, is nothing to be proud of really. Many very weak small screen releases. This film here, despite not being great at all, is still one of his better releases from the last ten years. The writer here is Su Turhan, not half as prolific as his director here, but it's not the only occasion these two collaborated, even if it does not happen frequently either. For Turhan, this is also not the only fairytale film he has been part of the crew for. As for the cast, the people you see in front of the camera, Cleo von Adelsheim plays the lead and I have never heard of her before and, most likely, you haven't either. Surprised they picked her for the central character here because she had hardly appeared in any film or series before this project. And also not a big breakthrough since then. Could be that she stops acting (if she didn't already) fairly quickly. Her male co-lead, who plays the love interest, is Peter Foyse. He has more experienced, but a body of work defined by "Rote Rosen" and "Unter Uns" is definitely nothing to be proud of. Then again, I should not be too surprised because usually with these films they pick lesser known young actors and the big names (or somewhat big names) for the older characters, antagonists etc. And this is definitely the case here too. Halmer plays the title character's father and you can argue if he is talented with all the crap he has been in too, but at least he has a familiar face and my fellow German film buffs will recoognize him, especially those who watch a lot of television. Götz Otto is in this movie too, a former Bond villain, but just early on. The second half belongs mostly to Mariella Ahrens although she is credited so far back here, but she is also a key reason why I am not too fond of this film. I don't think she really has any range or versatility whatsoever and was at best style over substance in here. I guess the disfiguration in her face was supposed to make us forget a bit about how she is not the greatest actress, but honestly make-up and costumes and sets I have seen better in these television films too.
This is a Brothers Grimm adaptation, but absolutely not one that kids in Germany know these days compared to the classics, which may explain why it took quite some time until they finally turned this one into a movie. There were many fairytale adaptations released for the holiday seasons from the years before this one here. I think it was also a bit of a missed opportunity. They could have done more with Otto and Halmer I suppose, but those are gone before the 20-minute mark or so already and don't return anymore because of plot twists that made it impossible. They are sort of the antagonists early on for reasons of shallowness and jealousy, but you quickly forget about them when the jump in time happens. And things do not get any better then. I wish they could have been in the second half too. Instead we get a story about a bitter greedy woman who wants to marry the male protagonists for reasons of money. The way things develop then is pretty ridiculous. I mean these fantasy fairytale films can always get away with less realism than drama movies, but how the protagonist ends up under the veil instead of the evil lady is pretty ridiculous and unauthentic. By the way, I felt the female lead reminded me a bit of Lucy Hale physically. Very stunning woman for sure and maybbe that is also why she got picked here. A bit mean I know, but let's say in her favor that she was not really worse than anybody else luckily despite having considerably less experience. Also, speaking of look-alikes, one minor male character reminded me a bit of Woody Harrelson. Or I should say actor. Okay, what else is there to say about this film? I felt that story-wise, in terms of the mere contents, it seemed to be a bit too much to fit into one hour. But then again, I am sure this did not go for longer, 1.5 hours or so like some of these fairytale films do as well, because it was simply not a good movie. Rather weak production values and if this is the level we are getting for these television fairytale releases now in the second half of the 2010s or even the 2020s, then maybe it is best to stop making these. There have been enough already anyway and quite a few of them were actually pretty good, certainly better than this one here, which is among the weaker, maybe even weakest, I have seen. The talking to the nettles and stairs was also not as significant as it could have been, certainly could have been depicted more memorably and I did not even feel it makes sense. Gotta say that I watched this film without having read the original and also nobody read it to me as a child or so, so cannot speak about parallels and differences between the Grimm tale and this movie in detail. Or at all. But it felt to me also as if the solution came a bit too fast and rushed in the end (probably to stay under the one-hour mark) and how the antagonist is punished and banned, also how the male protagonist realizes pretty much out of nowhere that she wants to kill him with no previous suspicion, and the good guys get married. Overall, you can check this one out if you like, but I highly recommend you to check out other fairytale films before this one. They are not as mediocre as you could think from the one we have here.
This is a Brothers Grimm adaptation, but absolutely not one that kids in Germany know these days compared to the classics, which may explain why it took quite some time until they finally turned this one into a movie. There were many fairytale adaptations released for the holiday seasons from the years before this one here. I think it was also a bit of a missed opportunity. They could have done more with Otto and Halmer I suppose, but those are gone before the 20-minute mark or so already and don't return anymore because of plot twists that made it impossible. They are sort of the antagonists early on for reasons of shallowness and jealousy, but you quickly forget about them when the jump in time happens. And things do not get any better then. I wish they could have been in the second half too. Instead we get a story about a bitter greedy woman who wants to marry the male protagonists for reasons of money. The way things develop then is pretty ridiculous. I mean these fantasy fairytale films can always get away with less realism than drama movies, but how the protagonist ends up under the veil instead of the evil lady is pretty ridiculous and unauthentic. By the way, I felt the female lead reminded me a bit of Lucy Hale physically. Very stunning woman for sure and maybbe that is also why she got picked here. A bit mean I know, but let's say in her favor that she was not really worse than anybody else luckily despite having considerably less experience. Also, speaking of look-alikes, one minor male character reminded me a bit of Woody Harrelson. Or I should say actor. Okay, what else is there to say about this film? I felt that story-wise, in terms of the mere contents, it seemed to be a bit too much to fit into one hour. But then again, I am sure this did not go for longer, 1.5 hours or so like some of these fairytale films do as well, because it was simply not a good movie. Rather weak production values and if this is the level we are getting for these television fairytale releases now in the second half of the 2010s or even the 2020s, then maybe it is best to stop making these. There have been enough already anyway and quite a few of them were actually pretty good, certainly better than this one here, which is among the weaker, maybe even weakest, I have seen. The talking to the nettles and stairs was also not as significant as it could have been, certainly could have been depicted more memorably and I did not even feel it makes sense. Gotta say that I watched this film without having read the original and also nobody read it to me as a child or so, so cannot speak about parallels and differences between the Grimm tale and this movie in detail. Or at all. But it felt to me also as if the solution came a bit too fast and rushed in the end (probably to stay under the one-hour mark) and how the antagonist is punished and banned, also how the male protagonist realizes pretty much out of nowhere that she wants to kill him with no previous suspicion, and the good guys get married. Overall, you can check this one out if you like, but I highly recommend you to check out other fairytale films before this one. They are not as mediocre as you could think from the one we have here.
