I found this movie on DVD from my public library. It is a story conceived by George Lucas, no doubt influenced by stories he grew up with, and as he says, made just for fun.
It features characters of the small world, fairies, elves, and various monstrous-looking creatures. The animation and sound are superb.
The core story involves two fantasy kingdoms adjacent to each other, one is bright and pretty with pretty characters, the other is dark and gloomy with hideous-looking characters. At the border grows flowers that can be made into love potions. After all, everyone deserves to be loved.
And that is the core message, you can't judge a thing or person by how it looks, a pretty girl might actually find her true love in a hideous-looking creature.
The voice actors who also sing are excellent across the cast. This is a musical presentation, with some spoken dialog and many songs drawn from what was popular when Lucas was growing up, mainly the 1960s. Nice songs, many of them love songs, and actually sung by the cast.
Alan Cumming voices the hideous Bog King and shows us an appropriate singing voice. Evan Rachel Wood voices the pretty fairy Marianne and she too displays a very pleasant singing style.
The only one I was put off by is British actor Sam Palladio adopting a southern country voice as Roland. To me that just doesn't fit with the images of the magic fairy tale world.
And then there is Kristin Chenoweth as the Sugar Plum Fairy. She has been overexposed a bit in recent years and I have come to dread her acting antics. But here she is perfect and in the closing credits she sings beautifully in a soaring version of 'Love is Strange'. It is so well-sung that I had to rewind and listen to it a second time. She really has a remarkable singing ability.
So, did I enjoy it? I enjoyed parts of it. It seems a bit long and drawn out and the girl fairies are portrayed as shallow and only wanting to find a guy to love them. But it is so well made and most of the characters interesting that overall I give it a positive rating.
It features characters of the small world, fairies, elves, and various monstrous-looking creatures. The animation and sound are superb.
The core story involves two fantasy kingdoms adjacent to each other, one is bright and pretty with pretty characters, the other is dark and gloomy with hideous-looking characters. At the border grows flowers that can be made into love potions. After all, everyone deserves to be loved.
And that is the core message, you can't judge a thing or person by how it looks, a pretty girl might actually find her true love in a hideous-looking creature.
The voice actors who also sing are excellent across the cast. This is a musical presentation, with some spoken dialog and many songs drawn from what was popular when Lucas was growing up, mainly the 1960s. Nice songs, many of them love songs, and actually sung by the cast.
Alan Cumming voices the hideous Bog King and shows us an appropriate singing voice. Evan Rachel Wood voices the pretty fairy Marianne and she too displays a very pleasant singing style.
The only one I was put off by is British actor Sam Palladio adopting a southern country voice as Roland. To me that just doesn't fit with the images of the magic fairy tale world.
And then there is Kristin Chenoweth as the Sugar Plum Fairy. She has been overexposed a bit in recent years and I have come to dread her acting antics. But here she is perfect and in the closing credits she sings beautifully in a soaring version of 'Love is Strange'. It is so well-sung that I had to rewind and listen to it a second time. She really has a remarkable singing ability.
So, did I enjoy it? I enjoyed parts of it. It seems a bit long and drawn out and the girl fairies are portrayed as shallow and only wanting to find a guy to love them. But it is so well made and most of the characters interesting that overall I give it a positive rating.