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Princess Halle and the Jester
USA 2024
produced by Christopher Lombardi, Mary Lombardi
directed by Christopher Lombardi
starring Emma Duchesneau, Duncan Novak, Geoffrey Lyons, Rachel Stacy, Donovan Kirkpatrick, Jimmy LeFlouria, Ben Winders, Sejal Mehta, Kennedy Cockerham, Byron Herlong, Justin Alexander, Jen Kovacs (voice), Silva Riganelli, Bill Yost, Dave Cordero, Will Lombardi, Johnny Melzoni, Alex Bowling, Norm Hamburger, Salvatore Lombardi, Salvatore Lombardi II, Chriss Mattingly, Peter Mattingly
written by Christopher Lombardi, creatures designed by Eduardo Porceli, CG enviroments designed and created by SubBox Studios
review by Mike Haberfelner
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In the land of fairy tales: Princess Halle (Emma Duchesneau) isn't
exactly happy that her dad King Victor (Byron Herlong) is marrying his
second wife Perscilla (Rachel Stacy) today, but she's positively shocked
when right after the ceremony the palace is attacked by goblins who kill
everyone who doesn't out of their way quickly enough and take the king
captive. She makes it out of the castle thanks to her dexterity with bow
and arrow, and thanks to young court jester Henri (Duncan Novak), who has
a fast enough horse to outrun the goblins. Not sure what to do with her,
Henri takes Halle back to his hometown, but since the locals there aren't
exactly big fans of the royal family, feeling abandoned by their regents,
he has her dress up as a drifter and treats her as one of their own rather
than a princess. And Halle starts to enjoy the simple life, even if it
means working on Henri's grandfather Santini's (Geoffrey Lyons) farm. And
together with Henri she even manages to defeat and drive away the giant
who has threatened the village for years. Meanwhile back at the palace,
Perscilla has taken over the reign, has planted evidence that it was Halle
that has summoned the goblns, and now sends out her knights to find her.
Henri does his best to shield her from detection, but for Santini, the
bounty on her head proves to be just too tempting ... Now this
film proves to be nothing if not ambitious, for a reported budget of a
mere $90,000, it tries to tell an epic of Hollywood blockbuster scale -
and it mostly succeeds, even. Now sure, not all the CGI is flawless - but
it's invariably competent at least. And while the looks of the film are
all traditional fairy tale-style, the story, despite being full of genre
mainstays, most certainly isn't, as it's a character-based narrative that
questions fairy tale tropes and adds a certain kind of restrained irony to
the proceedingsto both fans and even those not at all into fantasy, and a
pretty enjoyable watch at that.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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