User reviews

This movie looks like a knock off of the Disney films. I know it was actually based off of a REAL story, but good god, Golden Films did a lousy job with this film!! No sign of who voices who?? What's worse is that they hired a REAL animation studio to do the animation. Yeah, Hong Ying Animation, the same studio that did great shows like Clifford the Big Red Dog, Hey Arnold!, and Chowder, and they have also done a lot of shows for DIC ENTERTAINMENT!!!! And this isn't the only one they did for Golden films, they also did Anastasia, Camelot, Hercules, The Legend of Su-Ling, The Night Before Christmas, The Princess Castle, Tom Thumb Meets Thumbelina, and not the GOOD VERSIONS OF THOSE STORIES!!!!!!! It looks like a disaster. The voice acting makes no sense, the characters are not well written, the animation looks like crap compared to shows from DiC Entertainment, and the songs are just there. "Happy Happy Joy Joy" sounds like something from Ren & Stimpy. If you hate knock off films, don't watch this movie, ever!!

The Red Shoes is not among Golden Films' best(Thumbelina, The Little Mermaid, Pinocchio) but it's not among their worst either(Tarzan of the Apes, Hercules, The Jungle King). I for one though still find it charming in many ways. The animation is above average, some of the character designs are a tad rough-around-the-edges but not in a distractingly bad way. The colours though look lovely and the background art is simple but clean. The music is also great, the beginning theme is very gypsy-dance like and the music accompanying the ballet dancing is beautiful, taking me back when I saw my first ballet when I was 6. The dancing is a little simpler than it is in real life(of course), but is every bit as graceful and elegant to look at and matches with the music just as well. The story is sweet and has a lot of heart, while the dialogue has the right balance of not too childish and not too sophisticated. The characters move the story along nicely, Shari is a very engaging protagonist, and the voice acting is decent. To conclude, charming and well worth looking out for. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Oh my God this movie! I recently remembered it existed and it just brought back so many memories! This is the most nostalgic thing ever, honestly, love it!