"Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot" (not to be mistaken for Schneewittchen) is a German television movie from 2012, so not too long anymore until this one has its 10th anniversary. Perhaps it happened already depending on when you read this review. And even if it has nothing to do with Schneewittchen, it is still a fairytale adaptation and this one here is of course based on a story by the Brothers Grimm. It is one of many fairytale films made in the lastg almost 20 years now for German television and probably one of those where the base material is more known than for others. At least I immediately recognized the names of the two protagonists here. A look at the cast also makes obvious that these movies for kids and families always attract pretty famous actors here in Germany. Gerhardt and Fries are among the most known from the younger generation for sure (i.e. actors around the age of 30 now) and this is mostly thanks to their works in historical television series in recent years. For me, Fries was definitely the one I was more curious about as I like her (not just physically) and have never been too big on Gerhardt anyway. Still I must say the latter also did not disappoint me and the two actresses were basically on par this time. The one who always stole the show, however, was Detlev Buck, a renowned filmmaker as well, not just an actor, and he played the main antagonist in this film, a sinister dwarf in a world where dwarfs are still not exactly friendly creatures, but also not so bad that you run away when you see them. This is shown in the scene when Buck's character shows up at the girls' house when he talks to the mother and of course also by the fact that the two girls constantly help him get out of complicated situations. The rest of the cast are rather bland like Daniel Axt, who plays a love interest, or do not really have too much to work with like Jule Ronstedt (the mother) or Thomas Rühmann (the king). The latter is mostly known from "In aller Freundschaft", which is a really bad series in terms of quality, but luckily Rühmann's role in this film here is not challenging enough for him to mess things up. Still he certainly does not do justice to the big name he carries. Oh I also have to mention Volker Michalowski (or Zack). He also plays a dwarf here, even if he has just two scenes and is really unrecognizable under the thick beard, but he is an actor I always like and actually this is not the first time he plays a dwarf. I thought the same somehow with Buck, but I was wrong there. Somehow thought he was in the Otto movies, but I checked and he was not. Anyway, as for Zack, his last scene also shows that dwarfs are not exactly loyal here. Oh well, Buck's character was turned into a plant and all they care about is who is in charge of cleaning the dishes this time.
Another thing I remembered about the key story was that the prince is turned into a bear. That was alright I guess because like I said the actor who plays the prince is pretty mediocre honestly. And I liked the way how they depicted the bear. There was a similar story with the protagonist actually being turned into a bear by the main antagonist in another fairytale film I watched not too long ago (can't remember the name now), but in terms of the bear's looks, I liked the depiction much better in this one-hour film we have here. You can see the bear on the poster too. What you can see as well are the two female protagonists' costumes. They look nice. And also symbolize their colors somehow, even if I felt that these metaphors of red and white were one aspect of the movie that could have been handled more memorably. The occasional use of flowers simply isn't enough. With "they" I mean writer Mario Giordano and I find it pretty surprising to see how he was linked to closely to "Das Experiment", probably one of the most famous German films ever, and how he ended up writing fairytale screenplays here. Still his body of work is much better than the one from the director. Sebastian Grobler's filmography is haunted by garbage projects like "Sturm der Liebe" or "Katie Fforde" adaptations. Anybody who knows something about German television knows what that means. This is especially disappointing because his work here is solid and the Daniel Brühl movie he worked on was alright too. Anyway, let's get back to this one we have here: Costumes (as you can see on the photo) and sets were alright too. On some of the emotional moments they messed up though. I liked the inclusion of the title characters as kids early on (by the way, young "Rosenrot" Monique Schröder looks really stunning now around the age of 20 on her profile photo), but other than that the references about their father, especially the final talk with their mother, add almost nothing and are certainly not as impactful as they wanted them to be. One thing I personally disliked was the inclusion of the love interest for Rosenrot, who is about to take her on a camel ride. I mean the idea of her wanting to travel and see the world was a good one, also in the sense of how the two sisters are very different from that perspective, but yeah, said love interest felt nothing but rushed and for the sake of it and that was a really weak way to end the story. At least, they should have started getting to kno each other before they travel together. Very much for the sake of it, but maybe I cannot really blame the writer there because the Grimms did it this way too, but still Giordano then could have taken the liberties to make it feel at least a bit more realistic. That's all the negative criticisms I got I guess. Nonetheless, like I wrote in the title of my review, I felt there was something missing for this to be a really rewarding watch and a great movie. This becomes especially obvious in the second half when Buck is out of the film for long sequences. He was the only one close to "very good" and his absence hurt the film in the long run. But it is still an alright movie and certainly among the better, but not best, Brothers Grimm adaptations. Go watch.
Another thing I remembered about the key story was that the prince is turned into a bear. That was alright I guess because like I said the actor who plays the prince is pretty mediocre honestly. And I liked the way how they depicted the bear. There was a similar story with the protagonist actually being turned into a bear by the main antagonist in another fairytale film I watched not too long ago (can't remember the name now), but in terms of the bear's looks, I liked the depiction much better in this one-hour film we have here. You can see the bear on the poster too. What you can see as well are the two female protagonists' costumes. They look nice. And also symbolize their colors somehow, even if I felt that these metaphors of red and white were one aspect of the movie that could have been handled more memorably. The occasional use of flowers simply isn't enough. With "they" I mean writer Mario Giordano and I find it pretty surprising to see how he was linked to closely to "Das Experiment", probably one of the most famous German films ever, and how he ended up writing fairytale screenplays here. Still his body of work is much better than the one from the director. Sebastian Grobler's filmography is haunted by garbage projects like "Sturm der Liebe" or "Katie Fforde" adaptations. Anybody who knows something about German television knows what that means. This is especially disappointing because his work here is solid and the Daniel Brühl movie he worked on was alright too. Anyway, let's get back to this one we have here: Costumes (as you can see on the photo) and sets were alright too. On some of the emotional moments they messed up though. I liked the inclusion of the title characters as kids early on (by the way, young "Rosenrot" Monique Schröder looks really stunning now around the age of 20 on her profile photo), but other than that the references about their father, especially the final talk with their mother, add almost nothing and are certainly not as impactful as they wanted them to be. One thing I personally disliked was the inclusion of the love interest for Rosenrot, who is about to take her on a camel ride. I mean the idea of her wanting to travel and see the world was a good one, also in the sense of how the two sisters are very different from that perspective, but yeah, said love interest felt nothing but rushed and for the sake of it and that was a really weak way to end the story. At least, they should have started getting to kno each other before they travel together. Very much for the sake of it, but maybe I cannot really blame the writer there because the Grimms did it this way too, but still Giordano then could have taken the liberties to make it feel at least a bit more realistic. That's all the negative criticisms I got I guess. Nonetheless, like I wrote in the title of my review, I felt there was something missing for this to be a really rewarding watch and a great movie. This becomes especially obvious in the second half when Buck is out of the film for long sequences. He was the only one close to "very good" and his absence hurt the film in the long run. But it is still an alright movie and certainly among the better, but not best, Brothers Grimm adaptations. Go watch.
