Ronya, fille de brigand

As a youth I loved Astrid Lindgren novels, including Emil from Lönneberg, Pippi Longstocking and, of cause, Ronja the Robber's Daughter. One of the first adaptations of the story I watched was the 1984 movie version and later the Danish stage musical adaptation. So when I saw that there would be a new interpretation of the story, I was kinda hopeful.

However, the end result was NOT what I expected or wanted!

Don't get me wrong, it's not that the entire Netflix series is just horrible, as it has some elements I kinda liked, such as some of the characters, the setting and the new interpretation of the fantastical creatures. However, they've added so much unnecessary subplot about a village and its corrupt magistrate that I always zoned out whenever we got to a point that wasn't part of Lindgren's original story.

I'm not Swedish, I'd never heard of the stories and have never seen any of its previous adaptations. I simply gave Ronja a try on the strength of the trailer which the Netflix algorithm saw fit to show me.

Looking at some of the other reviews here, I'm glad of the above because coming into this completely fresh, I was able to appreciate the show without bias or preconception. The truth is, in contrast to Netflix's usual catalogue of bilge, this is a charming and entertaining show.

A beautiful coming of age story set amongst a gorgeous, but deadly (and often unsettlingly grotesque) sylvanian landscape, Ronja is well-acted and engaging enough for the viewer to feel suitably immersed. The jeopardy feels real enough, and as is often the case with folk-tales, there are numerous lessons to be learned along the way.

Adaptations of niche stories like this tend to attract criticism from people who view it as some sort of sacred cow, never to be touched unless you're able to achieve perfection. For the rest of us, this is well worth a watch.

This production passes the minimum requirements to be watchable, but the persisting impression is why they made it at all. A bit darker than the original movie, the tone is yet quite mild and the dialouge not far from the book.

After watching 3 episodes, I am still wondering, why am I watching this?

The darker angle, is bathing in poor acting and a sense of rushed production. Sometimes almost cliché driven with rather weak and not very well represented subplots and story arcs.

Production quality is on par with other low to mid budget fantasy shows, and is utilizing passable basic CGI and clever practical effects.

I will watch the rest of the season, but I am not looking forward to it.

This show has ups & downs. The production looks amazing, the costumes were pretty good, it was well played, had some solid music, the intro is a vibe and some good cinematography too. But its just a terrible adaptation. The show doesn't focus on Ronja at all. Instead it focuses on Mattis' story and Kappa's. Kappa is an original character with probably most of the screen time. She is not likeable she doesn't do anything, her character is nothing at all but still this her show. Why? None of these characters are likeable. Bot even Ronja. She just feels like a normal 13 year old. Ronja isn't even a supporting character in her own show. The plot is boring, stupid and full of people who don't do anything. We don't see Ronja learning on the forest. We don't see Ronja trying not to fall into the river. Instead we got Mattis who is.... there and Kappa who is..... Also there? Plus who designed the Harpies!? They're just big birds with nipples! There's nothing scary or menacing about them at all.

Im swedish and grew up in the 80s so as any other kid I saw the Ronja movie, which means alot to me. I also grew up near a forest, not too different from the one in the movie. Ronja has so many things I love in a movie, a good story, interesting characters, medieval folk music and songs. In a northern forest with mythical creatures.

This new series was touching this in a few moments, a few seconds of passion here and there. It starts out pretty alright, but eventually I lost interest.

The visuals are great, music is good, many actors does a good job even with the occasional bad dialog from the writer.

Adding the bounty hunters, village chief or the food thief, didnt bring anything to the story at all. I dont mind them adding new characters like this, but it just felt like they were forced into the story and not properly cared for. The main bounty hunter seemed to have an interesting backstory, but since we hardly know anything about her I cant care less. Instead of adding more characters, why not add more depth to the ones that matter?

I would have absolutely loved this, if it was done with heart.