La Rose de Versailles

Where to start with "The Rose of Versailles" from 2025? Visually, I have to admit, the film has its own elegance. The graphics are clean, the costumes are sumptuous and some scenes recreate the atmosphere of the time well. However, let's stop here with the compliments, because for the rest... a disaster waiting to happen!

The story, which was the beating heart of the manga and the old, timeless anime, has been literally massacred here. They have cut away entire narrative arcs, fundamental characters have been reduced to extras if not eliminated altogether. It almost seems as if they have taken the most beautiful and significant pages with scissors.

Those who loved the intricate dynamics between Oscar, André, Marie Antoinette and Fersen, the psychological depth of the protagonists, the political and social nuances of the French Revolution, will find here only a pale summary, hasty and superficial. The charisma of the characters has been lost along the way, their motivations appear sketchy and the emotions, which in the manga and anime tore our hearts, here leave us totally indifferent.

It's as if they wanted to make a "The Rose of Versailles" for those who have never read or seen the original, depriving it of all its richness and complexity.

There is no comparison with the old anime, which despite the technical limitations of the time, managed to convey the passion, drama and grandeur of this epic. The anime was an engaging experience, capable of making you cry, dream and reflect. This 2025 film is just an empty shell.

With barely 2 hours, it was clear that the feature film would cut many things present in the manga and the old anime from which this film is based, but the things absent are really too many.

They have sacrificed many elements in this film that are fundamental to fully understanding this work, starting with the most obvious one: having a female protagonist forced to grow up and act as a man, which is more prominently introduced here at more than 30 minutes after the incipit, but still coming across as always oversimplified in the overall. Even the other events that are more closely linked to actual history, and which should have a greater impact on Marie Antoinette's growth, are treated with extreme speed; everything is oversimplified in this film, in a decidedly negative way.

Unfortunately all expectations were confirmed: redundant, cloying film, forced musical interludes, little pathos and unfortunately the characters are without charisma.

The film was very superficial and fast-paced. It didn't give the main story and events of the revolution their due. Everything was unclear and rushed. Most of the focus was on the relationships, while the deeper, more important historical events of the story were neglected. I understood the ending because I had already watched the original anime; otherwise, the plot would have been vague.

In addition, the film made it seem as though Oscar's happiness in the end was due to her finding love, and that the entire dilemma revolved around it. This is partially true, but it's not the main reason. The deeper reason, which was ignored, is that she finally rebelled and followed her heart and freedom after being a mere scapegoat following orders her entire life. Oscar was also portrayed as a much weaker character than in the anime, breaking down and crying in front of the army! Oscar was never like that; her image was distorted and weakened greatly.

I can excuse them since it's a movie, and they're limited to a certain length, thus neglecting some aspects and events. We all know that the romantic market is strong, so it's normal to focus more on the aspects of love to ensure greater success and returns. Overall, the movie is incomparable and does not reach the level of the original work, the seventies anime, at all.

The character development is nonexistent, and they made a terrible musical. It has time jumps of years in seconds, and the story as it was told generates no interest.

The love story between the characters is incongruous.

The story of Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI is almost nonexistent; it loses all the context that the original series had and that made it interesting.

On the other hand, the songs are neither adequate nor of high quality, which causes a feeling of discomfort when you realize they've transformed the story into a musical. This, in my personal opinion, is the most negative aspect.

Don't watch it; just keep the memories of the original series.

The art is very detailed, but it doesn't make up for the poorly developed film.

I saw this movie on Netflix, overall I didn't like it.

It's a strange movie, which mixes: French history, then songs, then a love story, then you don't understand anything anymore.

I don't know how to judge this movie well but the right word is "strange".

The only decent thing is the graphics, very interesting, but the rest is really strange. There is a story with Marie Antoinette but then it moves on to Oscar, then there is a jumble of confusing things, with various boring songs, in short in the end I understood little, and it gave me the feeling of confusion and things not well developed, that's all. I don't think I'll ever see it a second time.