Cassandra Bellingham

A competent adaptation of a much loved book. R,W&RB gets much right. It is inevitably a slimmed down version with many much loved characters cut from the narrative completely, which I imagine will get some backlash from its die-hard fans. There is a hint of the wit and humour, although a little too polished away at time and some added scenes to contextualise the lack of internal dialogue which made the book such a firm favourite . A few scenes were missed. My personal gripe being the cutting of Alex’s “breakdown” scene which I felt was a real loss. The falling away of all of the political /royal narrative to the impact of a forced outing on a young man, and the immediate rallying of his family made the book for me. I missed its presence and really don’t understand why it was cut? All in all a nice addition to the Romance playlist, and hopefully one of many Queer stories to join the genre now the money folks are getting past their hesitation of broadening the romance narrative.

The nostalgia element alone made this a worthwhile trip to the cinema this evening. The lead roles are well performed with the live action element allowing the characters to be developed more fully. This was particularly noticeable with Prince Eric and the palace staff. I thoroughly enjoyed the added Skuttlebutt song. My only criticism is that the beautiful graphics were often impossible to see. The camera movement and panning so fast it was a bit like being on a fast moving train where you can’t focus in time to see anything. This may be something that is not an issue if you see in 3D but in 2D several of us had to keep looking away to avoid motion sickness. The only scene I could truly enjoy the graphics in was the Kiss the Girl Lagoon section. So I recommend sitting at the very back of the cinema to mitigate this (we were half way back).