Review: A Fairy Tale After All

There aren't many arthouse movies that incorporate fairy tale or princess themes since Disney holds the monopoly on most of them. When one of my readers recommended A Fairy Tale After All, a film that was released by Premiere Entertainment Group, I was curious what an original fairy tale-inspired indie flick might look like. This movie stands apart from the 2018 indie adaptation of The Little Mermaid and its spiritual sequel, Anastasia Once Upon a Time, because it tells an original story using different creative mediums including animation, puppets, and music. The overall quality is on par with other indie attempts at adapting fairy tales, but I appreciate that the filmmakers tried to do something different with commonly used princess tropes. The story has an important message about grief and accepting loss.

Sky is an imaginative teenage girl suffering from the loss of her father and struggling to fit in at school. To cope with these struggles, she escapes to a fantasy world called the "Dreamension" where she is a princess in a fairy tale on a quest to rescue children from the wicked Madame Mizrabel and reunite with her father. Most of the movie takes place in this world and only spends time in the real world to let the audience know that the story exists in her imagination. It has some scathing reviews due to the convoluted plot and endless expository dialogue about the history of the fantasy kingdom. Although I can understand where these reviews are coming from, the world's backstory doesn't need to make sense considering that it takes place in the imagination of a grieving teen. The concept of using fantasy to deal with grief has been done in movies like Bridge to Terrabithia and the WandaVision series, and A Fairy Tale After All is upfront with the audience about its intent.

The story, acting, and cinematography are messy, but the film still has its redeeming qualities. There was a lot of effort put into combining various visual styles to create a dream-like feel. The live-action imagery makes full use of costumes, makeup, and Jim Henson-like puppetry to capture its viewers' imaginations. It switches to different mediums throughout the film including storybook illustrations, Flash animation, and black-and-white filmography. My favorite aspect is its soundtrack. Unfortunately, the poor audio mixing made the songs difficult to enjoy to their fullest potential. The songs were written and performed by Australian-based artist Chelsi Hardcastle. She is very talented and has an ear for musical theater with songs that give off strong Dear Evan Hansen vibes, so I place full blame on the audio mixers for all the songs sounding like they were coming out of a tin can.

With a 72-minute runtime, A Fale Tale After All is a quick watch even for viewers who don't enjoy it. It could benefit from some extra time showing Sky in the real world and how the "Dreamension" scenes parallel her life. Near the beginning of the movie, Sky goes to an empty school theater to try on costumes and is shown doing ballet in between the fantasy sequences, but it isn't clear if her character is actually a performer or if she likes to imagine herself as one. One way to fix the story issues would be to make the fantasy world part of a school play that Sky was performing in, and due to her grief over her father, she gets so lost in the story that she thinks it's real. With the way the movie is presented, it's difficult to tell what her life is like at all in the real world aside from the loss of her father. However, the power of escapism is a relatable plot when it comes to princess fans.

A Fairy Tale After All is an original indie movie that attempts to breathe new life into the fairy tale genre. Despite its messy plot, acting, and cinematography, the film has its redeeming qualities, such as its creative use of various visual styles and beautiful original songs. While it may not be a perfect movie, its exploration of grief, loss, and escapism makes it a relatable watch for fans of princess movies. If you're looking for a unique, arthouse take on the fairy tale genre, A Fairy Tale After All is available to stream on Amazon Prime. Just be prepared for a convoluted plot and some audio mixing issues. With a 72-minute runtime, it's a quick watch that might leave you appreciating the filmmakers' efforts to do something different with commonly used princess tropes.