El rey mendigo

This Dutch version of the fairy tale had an excellent musical background and some atmospheric outdoor scenes (the indoor ones did well to set the right mood, too) but other than that it was nothing special. The acting was far from outstanding (average, at best) and the story just dragged on too long. Maybe it's because I'm used to the American style of beginning-middle-end "let's move things along", rather than the "day in the life, which can sometimes be dull" way of other countries, but it just seemed like the whole story could have been told in 30 minutes instead of 90.

This is one of those films that you can skip without a regret.

König Drosselbart (or as it called in Czechoslovakia: "Kral Drozdi Brada") is based on the fairy-tale of the same name by the Grimm-brothers. The story itself is of course not as famous as some of the other Grimm-tales, but that does not make it less enjoyable. König Drosselbart is a very entertaining movie for everyone who likes old-fashioned fairy-tales. König Drosselbart is a Czech- and German production. Their approach is of course not the same as Hollywood, but that's what makes this movie somewhat special. It really is a very simple story and is very easily made. That is what I liked about this movie. I didn't want to see a big-budget version, but a very plain somewhat old-fashion approach such as this. The two leading characters, princess Anna and prince Michal are very well portrayed by the beautiful Adriana Tarabkova and Lukas Vaculik. Also the art-direction is beautiful and the medieval music is very effective. A good adaptation.