Le royaume des fées

There's a lot of Gilliam and Kubrick to be found in Georges Melies fifteen minute phantasmagoria epic A Kingdom of the Faires made 30 an 40 years before they were born. Melies pulls out all the stops with this wildly color tinted happily ever after nightmare featuring hallucinogenic compositions and early experimentation with miniatures and fish tanks between camera and set.

A King insults a witch who exacts revenge by abducting the princess to a far off lair. The Prince pursues, has to undergo a series of challenges including a stop in Atlantis but ultimately vanquishes the witch with enormous assistance from the good fairy Aurora by drowning her.

Melies moves everything but the camera in this multi set-up (backdrop) picaresque struggle between good and evil lush in opulent design and color; epitomized in the stunning turn of the century pop-out book finale. Despite its creaky look Kingdom is filled with wildly etched compositions of audacity and comedy all from the mind and eye of the neglected pioneer Melies.

This is a great old short. The backgrounds are very intricate, fun and colorful. This is a perfect double feature with A Trip to the Moon (1903), especially if you're the kind of person that likes watching these extremely old films on youtube, like me.

This is the most beautiful production I've seen from Melies. The visuals will have you mesmerized - simply stunning!

It's about a princess that is taken away from her home by and evil witch... a prince and his men will journey to rescue her.

Yes this film is worth the 15 minutes or so to watch!

9/10

Georges Méliès was a marvelous filmmaker who brought movies many innovations and tricks. However, over time his films have become mostly forgotten and many seem very outdated and quaint today. But, if you are patient, they are most enjoyable when you realize how different and innovative they were for the turn of the century. And, a few, like "Fairyland" are true classics.

When the story begins, some prince (Georges Méliès) becomes engaged to a princess. But an evil witch sneaks into the palace with her imps and kidnaps the woman. So it's up to the prince to go on a grand adventure to find his betrothed and teach the wicked witch a lesson. To help him are some fairies and even King Neptune!

This is a cute and clever movie...made better by some gorgeous hand-painted cels. The overall effect is really nice and the 17 minute story seems more like a full-length movie (which it was back in 1903) than a quick short film. Well worth seeing and among the filmmaker's best.

"Kingdom of the Fairies" is undoubtedly one of Georges Méliès's best féeries, or fairy films, alongside other such ones as "Blubeard" (1901) and, if you want to consider it as part of the genre, "Le Voyage dans la lune" (1902). It is also one of his best films in general. Its narrative follows the abduction of a princess by a wicked fairy/witch, and her subsequent rescue by the prince (played by Méliès)--an adventure which takes the prince and his men to the depths of the sea, where they meet the kingdom of the fairies, ride inside a whale to shore, and to the eventual rescue of the damsel from a burning castle. This was one of the most elaborate Star Film productions, with 20 some changes of scenery, a requirement of many costumes, and a runtime nearing 20 minutes.

Méliès consistently produced the best movie set designs of his era, but the ones in this film especially stand out, including the undersea design and the burning and collapsing castle. Even the miniature model scene of the ship sinking works, because, after all, it's fantasy. The aspect, however, that I particularly appreciate in these fairytale films is their frequent use of the fairy as a narrator, or manipulator of the characters and plot. Another good example of this can be seen in "Bluebeard", as well as in films by others, such as "The Magic Sword" (1901) and "Jack and the Beanstalk" (1902). One scene in "Kingdom of the Fairies" is especially remarkable: it's a vision scene projected by the wicked fairy to the prince and involves the changing of the scenery from the castle room to the vision and back to the castle room.

(EDIT: The hand-colored print now available on home video makes this film look even better.)