- Released: December 25th, 2024
- Directed by: Mikkel Brænne Sandemose
- Running time: 1h 25min
- Rating 4/5
Synopsis
My Thoughts
I got really excited when I first saw the trailer for this one, because it just feels like such a "me" movie. 2D-animation. Heavily featuring animals and nature. Fantasy elements. A fairy tale-like story. All of these things really speak to me in a movie.
And yes, I'm glad to say that this is a very solid movie. It mostly lived up to my expectations.
One of the strongest elements of the movie really is the two main characters in my opinion. I love Liv, how curious she is and how much she admires nature. Those are traits I also have. And Valemon/White Bear is such a lovely character as well. He's pretty soft-spoken, but also a great friend once he opens up to you. His relationship with Liv throughout the movie is just really wholesome, how they keep helping each other and growing closer.
I also loved the 2D animation. Sure, it's maybe not as polished as a traditional 2D-animated Disney movie or anything, but it's still really well-animated and looks gorgeous. I also loved the backgrounds (such pretty colors) and the character designs. Particularly Valemon's design really speaks to me, I love how much he looks like a polar bear while having him emote just enough for the audience to read his expressions well. He's not overly cartoon-y or anything, he still very much looks and moves like an actual bear. But he does have that nicely expressive face. I also love the villain's design, she looks really cool.
Speaking of her...Eira, the queen-sorceress, is one of the elements of this movie I didn't vibe with as much. She's a cool villain in principle, she has a cool design and presence and a nice villain song. But her motivation (unrequited love) felt a bit eh, and I also feel that her having basically only two henchmen makes her feel less threatening than she initially seems. She's a queen, she should have an entire army at her disposal, or at least an entire kingdom of subjects she can magically transform like she does with her two main underlings. But instead she has these two dog minions and that's kinda it.
I also thought her redemption was a tad rushed. I get what they were going for, that she sees true love and realizes how much she longed it for herself all that time and all the damage she has done in order to pursue it. But the actual redemption goes a bit fast. She's not a bad character or anything, but I think she could've been written a bit stronger.
Some of the shot transitions in this movie also don't flow very well and can be a bit jarring. It doesn't happen much, but I believe at least 3-5 times so it was enough to be slightly distracting.
There's also one shot where Eira "kills" Valemon in her bear form by delivering a blow to his head, but instead of showing the blow it just cuts to Liv looking shocked with no sound of impact or anything. I don't mind them cutting away from the violence (it's a family film, after all), but to have there no sound of impact to what is supposed to be a life-ending blow just doesn't work. It kinda gave the impression that Valemon just dropped dead out of nowhere, because Eira's movement before "killing" him is very "blink and you'll miss it". If you didn't properly notice that she was about to bite him on the skull, it'd look very confusing for Valemon to drop "dead" in the next shot. There's also no injury on Valemon after this, to add to the confusion. I legit had to do a double take for a moment being like "wait, what exactly was it that killed him?" before realizing it is supposed to be Eira biting down on his skull.
Again, I don't need there to be blood or gore or too much on-screen violence, but then it should still be shown in more subtle ways what exactly "killed" Valemon, because him just dropping "dead" almost randomly feels a bit odd. If there had been a bit more anticipation to Eira's skull-bite, and an impact sound, that would've solved the issue pretty much. And maybe just show some slight signs of injury (again, nothing gory, just some scratches or bitemarks would've worked) on Valemon's head after he "dies" to show that the bite had an actual impact.
Finally, the songs. I honestly do not think that this movie had to be a musical. It could've worked well without the songs and honestly, I'd be lying if I said I really liked most of these songs. They're not bad, but they just felt so generic and mediocre. The only exception being the villain song, that one's more bombastic tone and atmosphere I really liked. But the rest felt a bit cookie-cutter for a children's fantasy film.
However, these criticisms don't mean that the movie is bad. I still really liked it. I loved the characters, like I said above, and the fantasy elements and the classic fairy tale-like feel to it. In some aspects it feels like a good, modern take on the style of older Disney fairy tale movies.
So yeah, pretty great film, even if not perfect. Do highly recommend you see this one.
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