Ash Lad is an inoffensive, comical take on old Nordic fairytales involving princesses, noble quests and mountain trolls. That's about it. Other reviewers on these pages comparing it favourably to The Lord of the Rings chapters are just trolling themselves and being frankly ridiculous in the process. A much better comparison is with The Princess Bride. Neither film takes itself too seriously, but Ash Lad lacks the witty script, the interesting sub-plots and the romantic chemistry between the Princess and her would-be-commoner rescuer of The Princess Bride.
What it does do which is somewhat different from the regular tropes featuring in this genre, is to have a hero, who's not that heroic and not even the sharpest tool in the shed. But he is a punter with a long-term goal, who is ready and willing to play the long game to achieve his quest, aided and abetted by his even thicker two brothers. Up against them, besides the natural and supernatural obstacles is a quartet of bumbling, stumbling villains, whose leader, Prince Frederic, gets most of the good lines.
Judged from other reviews on this page, I must have been lucky seeing an English sub-titled version of the film, as the dubbed version doesn't seem to win universal acclaim. The production looks quite good and makes great use of some spectacular location scenery, but don't expect any groundbreaking special effects in the CGI department. Again like the PB, Ash Lad is generally content to use miniatures, clever photographic angles, costumed capers and puppetry to achieve its supernatural content. The acting is sound, without being stand out and I think the production team erred a little in only having limited interactions between Princess Kristin and Esben. The script didn't really give them enough time to build up a believable rapport, before they were separated until well into the third act of the movie. It also just needed to be a little more cleverer with the dialogue which is frequently run of the mill, to be kind. A few more wickedly sexy lines like Kristen's last line in the movie regarding enjoying riding with her, would have gone down a treat with adult viewers of what is ultimately, not a lot more than a kids' film.
What it does do which is somewhat different from the regular tropes featuring in this genre, is to have a hero, who's not that heroic and not even the sharpest tool in the shed. But he is a punter with a long-term goal, who is ready and willing to play the long game to achieve his quest, aided and abetted by his even thicker two brothers. Up against them, besides the natural and supernatural obstacles is a quartet of bumbling, stumbling villains, whose leader, Prince Frederic, gets most of the good lines.
Judged from other reviews on this page, I must have been lucky seeing an English sub-titled version of the film, as the dubbed version doesn't seem to win universal acclaim. The production looks quite good and makes great use of some spectacular location scenery, but don't expect any groundbreaking special effects in the CGI department. Again like the PB, Ash Lad is generally content to use miniatures, clever photographic angles, costumed capers and puppetry to achieve its supernatural content. The acting is sound, without being stand out and I think the production team erred a little in only having limited interactions between Princess Kristin and Esben. The script didn't really give them enough time to build up a believable rapport, before they were separated until well into the third act of the movie. It also just needed to be a little more cleverer with the dialogue which is frequently run of the mill, to be kind. A few more wickedly sexy lines like Kristen's last line in the movie regarding enjoying riding with her, would have gone down a treat with adult viewers of what is ultimately, not a lot more than a kids' film.