101 reviews
In a country where people are very image focused and put major importance on just appearance. It's fantastic this movie points out the flaws in judgment just on appearance. Now it has fantastic animation and it shows you alot of themes that you don't see in a typical fairytale movie . But the soundtrack is awful , well the english one .
I have mixed feelings about the movie , but it's a new take on Snow white that I actually like. It's a movie more people should take a chance on . Because its ironic how this movie was judged by its appearance , so people either ranted about it being fatphopic instead of watching the movie and seeing that the message is really about loving the true you and loving how you look naturally. I look forward to what the Animation Company will become in the future , cause this movie was better then the Entire collection of Illumination movies . 7/10 , Would watch again but Invest in better music .
- Theonewhoanswers
- Apr 2, 2020
- Permalink
- lisafordeay
- Dec 14, 2019
- Permalink
It took me forever to be able to watch this, but watch it I did. I saw trailers for this movie about 3 years ago, right about the time of the marketing fiasco for this movie. The older trailers and taglines really do not do this movie justice.
The twist, Snow White is not a drop dead goregous hottie that princesses are protrayed as these days. She takes after her father. She's an adorbale pudgy princess. The dwarves are green and under a curse because of a *ahem* terrible misconception that is held in Fairytale Land.
Long story short- it is a tale, told with humor and a pinch of cringiness, about accepting yourself for who you are no matter your appearance, and learning to grow from your own misconceptions on what beauty is and is not.
My only con is the pop music. It takes away from it BUT that is my opinion.
- black_star_dragoon
- Mar 14, 2020
- Permalink
The marketing for this was appalling, and I feel so bad for the people who made this movie, they should be proud of it, yet it tanked due to the fatphobic marketing. I really enjoyed it and the marketing was so off base that it actually portrayed the opposite message of what the movie was actually about. The animation was great, the characters were decent, the soundtrack was okay, and the story was simple, but decent. I hope people will give this movie a go, I am sure that most will enjoy it, and very few will be offended by it, I thought it had a lovely message without feeling contrived and/or preachy.
- taracarnegie
- Mar 8, 2023
- Permalink
On Fairytale Island, celebrated heroes, the Fearless Seven, defeat a witch who turns out to be a fairy princess. The fairy curses the heroes turning them into adorable trolls. Meanwhile, a real witch has married the king and twisting the kingdom to achieve her goal of magical beauty. Princess Snow White fears for her missing father and manages to steal a magical pair of red shoes from the witch. The shoes turn her into a beautiful girl and she finds help from the seven adorably cursed trolls.
The movie rushes a ton of exposition early on. It really needs more time to breathe especially the Fearless Seven. Quite frankly, the movie could have started with an exciting action sequence. It could introduce the vain Merlin and the rest of the gang in a more naturalistic manner. I do love the central theme of inner beauty but Merlin's vanity should be highlighted much more from the start and the trolls should not be so adorable. The point is that Merlin is an ugly vain pretty boy who learns that beauty is not just skin deep. It needs more careful planning and better writing. The adorable trolls don't help the theme either. That brings up the premise with respect to Snow White. In this movie, ugling her up means fattening her up. It co-mingles with the earlier problem of skimming over Merlin's vanity. If Merlin has an early scene of ridiculing a fat girl, it would make the whole premise run so much more smoother. Then the premise would be a damnation of fat shaming. Instead, the premise gets a bit muddy due to the muddled story presentation.
Overall, the general idea of reworking Snow White with an inner beauty premise holds some good promise. The Korean animation is basically Ice Age level. It looks good enough. The writing is where the movie falters. I'm not sure if it's the cultural differences but they need to hire a veteran western writing group to go over this movie a few more times. There are a few obvious mistakes and some questionable turns that need fixing.
The movie rushes a ton of exposition early on. It really needs more time to breathe especially the Fearless Seven. Quite frankly, the movie could have started with an exciting action sequence. It could introduce the vain Merlin and the rest of the gang in a more naturalistic manner. I do love the central theme of inner beauty but Merlin's vanity should be highlighted much more from the start and the trolls should not be so adorable. The point is that Merlin is an ugly vain pretty boy who learns that beauty is not just skin deep. It needs more careful planning and better writing. The adorable trolls don't help the theme either. That brings up the premise with respect to Snow White. In this movie, ugling her up means fattening her up. It co-mingles with the earlier problem of skimming over Merlin's vanity. If Merlin has an early scene of ridiculing a fat girl, it would make the whole premise run so much more smoother. Then the premise would be a damnation of fat shaming. Instead, the premise gets a bit muddy due to the muddled story presentation.
Overall, the general idea of reworking Snow White with an inner beauty premise holds some good promise. The Korean animation is basically Ice Age level. It looks good enough. The writing is where the movie falters. I'm not sure if it's the cultural differences but they need to hire a veteran western writing group to go over this movie a few more times. There are a few obvious mistakes and some questionable turns that need fixing.
- SnoopyStyle
- Jun 4, 2020
- Permalink
Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs feels a bit like Shrek, in that it had a lot of jokes and cheesy adventure, but it is also a story of how looks and appearance are only skin deep. A heavy focus on the film's protagonists is about their looks and breaking a curse that makes them seem ugly - with Snow White being an obese shutin-turned-babe with magic apple shoes.
It's a nice watch and has a fairly predictable ending and it does follow much of the Disney tropes, but I still recommend giving it a once over.
It's a nice watch and has a fairly predictable ending and it does follow much of the Disney tropes, but I still recommend giving it a once over.
- balthesaur
- Dec 16, 2021
- Permalink
The whole "fat-shaming" thing is a LIE,
watch before you judge!
This film teaches how to love the INNER person, regardless of appearance,
JUST BECAUSE the poster showed Snow with the shoes on, next to the real Snow,
ppl can't HANDLE what they IMAGINE the film to be preaching!
I hate this postmodern culture so quick to judge and sensitive af.
If you were triggered by the poster, that's your own heart set in the wrong place.
You're judging your own misconception.
- rachael_chen
- Jun 8, 2020
- Permalink
This movie is adorable! The story is beautiful and made me smile a lot. It had a great message to send out to the kids. The voice acting was good. The romance side of it was a nice touch that I enjoyed. And the animation was wonderful to look at.
Now, to the bad parts of the film. The story could be dull at times which was disappointing. Chloe as the lead was perfect but the other leads just didn't fit. The romance could have been worked on more along with the villain.
Overall, this movie is just a feel good movie that I would only watch probably only one time.
- brookeN-98054
- Jun 25, 2020
- Permalink
Telling kids that your outer appearance doesn't matter by actually saying it does at first by how everyone reacted to her "Beauty" being skinny.
- DanyDanyShopper
- Nov 20, 2020
- Permalink
This was a very cute movie. It is loosely based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, but has a heartwarming moral message throughout. The whole premise is about not judging a book by its cover and that you should judge people through their characteristics and not their looks.
The movie had a bit of everything for everyone, with some good humour and fun characters. It was nice and clean and not at all scary for younger children. It was just a good sweet movie !
The music was cheerful and fit the animation well, and the animation was very well done. The Koreans excel at computer graphic and CGI work so that is to be expected !
The movie had a bit of everything for everyone, with some good humour and fun characters. It was nice and clean and not at all scary for younger children. It was just a good sweet movie !
The music was cheerful and fit the animation well, and the animation was very well done. The Koreans excel at computer graphic and CGI work so that is to be expected !
- arbitonandson
- Mar 28, 2020
- Permalink
I have to admit I did not expect this to be as good as it ultimately was. Not that it reaches Pixar level of awesomeness, but it is quite the good movie. Having said that, there are issues with how it deals with optics - or what we would call beauty standards. It deals with those as good as it can, but I do imagine that some may have problems with that.
But this is aimed at kids and I do not think this will lead any kid down the wrong road. Again, I am not a psychologist and you may feel different, but then again there are many other movies who have similar issues - even those for adults. So try not to overthink and enjoy with the little ones if you can.
But this is aimed at kids and I do not think this will lead any kid down the wrong road. Again, I am not a psychologist and you may feel different, but then again there are many other movies who have similar issues - even those for adults. So try not to overthink and enjoy with the little ones if you can.
This is a new take on fairy tales but with a twist, where most of the characters subvert your expectations and nothing is what it seems. Sounds familiar? Yeah, Shrek did it much better (and I'm not a huge Shrek fan), but there's something tonally wrong with this movie. What Shrek did very well was build a believable fairy tale world, that, while familiar, was just a bit off. Here, with the sassy and hip dialogue, the over the top action scenes and the terrible pop songs that are played way too often, it just seems all over the place and not grounded in the world it's trying to build. Adding to that some terrible characters that we're supposed to root for just because they're our heroes, and a very in your face message, delivered with the elegance of an elephant make for a not very good experience. On the plus side, while the animation isn't amazing, it's very serviceable, but the highlight for me was some of the world and character designs which were really really good. A mixed bag of a movie that didn't do it for me.
This is a much needed spin on the original fairytale of 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'. The core message in this was that what matters the most is what's inside and that one should not be ashamed of how they look. It also promotes positive body image, something that's very lacking nowadays.
I prefer this over the original fairytale. It was absolutely beautiful.
- ananyadatta-05391
- Jan 15, 2021
- Permalink
Really enjoyable animation. I saw the trailer yesterday and I just knew I'm going to love the movie. And I did. It was every bit exactly what I imagined - very clever, very funny, a lot of pop references and as a whole, very charming experience. I see in the reviews there are some complains about fat-shaming - the movie is absolutely not doing this. Quite on the contrary, it makes fun of all the people who judge solely by the appearance. And this becomes clear in the first 5 minutes. So, I recommend it, I'm really glad I watched it. I only wished Pino, Noki and Kio had more lines, because the guys were actually very clever and very cool geek stereotypes. But honestly, the French guy was my favorite. Amazing voice actors. Seriously, the film is making fun of so many stereotypes at the same time - the superpower of the red shoes (you know, the ridiculously expensive red-laquared soles), the questionable motives of the boys (Merilin included), the geeks, the muscle, the sword, the prince Average who just wants to have fun, the french man and his face masks (loool). Really cool parody of a fairy tale, very nicely executed, a lot of fun to watch.
Getting this out of the way first because everyone who knows me is sick of me talking about this: I wish it were made in Korean. By all means use the English dub but I want a Korean movie to be made in Korean, this goes for all the other territories and their respective languages.
OK, second of all: this movie is not weight negative or body negative. This movie has problems but being in the wrong philosophically is not one of them. This movie has a message that is good enough. Don't let the bad marketing bias you too much. Are you a larger person? I think you'll like what this movie has to say.
And finally we make it to the actual movie:
At first glance, this seems like just another Shrek; those movies that you never remember having any kind of theatrical release (it didn't in any case here in Britain) but then shows up on cable or a streaming platform.
I would say this is definitely better than most of those but falls far short of the superlative quality that I see in Tangled or Mulan.
The thing itself looks excellent: the textures and character designs are totally a professional job and once you get past the generic premise, you start to really see the big company talent that was put into this. The lighting, the landscapes, just everything in the art direction is superb. The best thing in the movie might be ogling Red Shoes. She is that pulchritudinous; the kind that only an animated character can really be. She looks a bit like Marinette Dupain-Cheng; that sort of Dead-or-Alive style Eastern Mestiza.
If this movie does one thing intelligently, it is that it thinks through its own symbolism in a way that is consistent and logical. Saberspark said it better than me but the story of two characters working with curses which are inversions of each other clearly had a lot of thought put into it which I will admit elevates it above just another it's-what's-inside-that-counts narrative.
Our story of people's tendency toward physiognomy can be quite eye-rolling a lot of the time but it is the developing relationship between these two characters that makes it unique and engaging to a point where it would be unfair to peg this simply anti-lookist propaganda.
The title character by the way has nothing to do with the Red-shoes of Hans Anderson. It's just Snow-white by a different name. On that note, Red Shoes is not the protagonist here. The protagonist it Merlin. Yes, RS is sweet and all and balances a lot of inner strength with girly tenderness but that doesn't change that she is a bland character, filled to bursting point with what Lauren Faust calls "old-fashioned niceness" and I can see what she means.
It's OK, though, because like I said this is really the story of Merlin and the Red Shoes as he goes on his own character arc from shallow to great personal grown from his experiences with both his own curse, his relationship with the title character and his own personal demons. He is the only really well developed character on screen.
The focus is quite distinctively on the internal growth and the emotional side. There is a cool villain (I'll get to her) but get ready for long stretches without her or any material conflict.
The pacing can feel disjointed for this reason as well as a very rushed first act. I like how all these western fairy tale characters are being depicted as a Justice League style super hero team (awesome) but I would have liked a bit more time to be introduced to the team (not one by one but still). One narrated scene really rushes the set up. They could have done a lot with this: they could have used the reason for why they are cursed to make some interesting points about unconscious prejudices and how we might profile someone for the color of their skin (I think that kind of discourse is pretty au courant) but they didn't.
The Red Shoes story line is set up poorly too. They fairy-book their way through it and gloss over any kind of political intrigue so I really feel like I am dumped into the middle of the movie and not in the fun way.
An aspect of the movie that I would like to praise is the strong sense of internal mechanics regarding the magic. This includes the nuances of the curses in which the characters don't just change appearance but are also abled differently so Red Shoes loses a lot of her strength when she is, ahem, *not conventionally attractive* and meanwhile, the 7 change based on whether someone is looking at them which means they lose a height advantage and I think it diminishes their abilities to an extent so there is this fun element in which they need to get people to look away to do their best work though this is a little wasted.
The antagonist is the step mother who is also a witch. This movie really wants to fight against lookism but is quite happy to through mixed families and religious minorities under the bus. Either way she is charismatic and scary and I love that all her powers are wood based. I'm not quite sure what the symbolism is but it enriches the world we're in. Merlin's powers all involve using pieces of paper which (thankfully) is never explained.
You could do a lot worse than this though but here are a few more things that sort of annoyed me:
-They do not recognise Large red shoes at first even though she is wearing exactly the same clothes.
-Pin, oak and Kio. Yeah...
-The little people often do not change even when clearly no one can see them, for example, when they are at the back of their own party.
-The ending is really sudden.
Ultimately, this was a mostly sort of well made movie with its heart exactly in the right place but missed an opportunity to have a message that was far more pertinent and nuanced than it could have and should have been and through small errors just annoyed a lot of people despite its great visual beauty. So I guess this is the movie equivalent of Greta Thunberg. I mean it...
You could do so much worse.
OK, second of all: this movie is not weight negative or body negative. This movie has problems but being in the wrong philosophically is not one of them. This movie has a message that is good enough. Don't let the bad marketing bias you too much. Are you a larger person? I think you'll like what this movie has to say.
And finally we make it to the actual movie:
At first glance, this seems like just another Shrek; those movies that you never remember having any kind of theatrical release (it didn't in any case here in Britain) but then shows up on cable or a streaming platform.
I would say this is definitely better than most of those but falls far short of the superlative quality that I see in Tangled or Mulan.
The thing itself looks excellent: the textures and character designs are totally a professional job and once you get past the generic premise, you start to really see the big company talent that was put into this. The lighting, the landscapes, just everything in the art direction is superb. The best thing in the movie might be ogling Red Shoes. She is that pulchritudinous; the kind that only an animated character can really be. She looks a bit like Marinette Dupain-Cheng; that sort of Dead-or-Alive style Eastern Mestiza.
If this movie does one thing intelligently, it is that it thinks through its own symbolism in a way that is consistent and logical. Saberspark said it better than me but the story of two characters working with curses which are inversions of each other clearly had a lot of thought put into it which I will admit elevates it above just another it's-what's-inside-that-counts narrative.
Our story of people's tendency toward physiognomy can be quite eye-rolling a lot of the time but it is the developing relationship between these two characters that makes it unique and engaging to a point where it would be unfair to peg this simply anti-lookist propaganda.
The title character by the way has nothing to do with the Red-shoes of Hans Anderson. It's just Snow-white by a different name. On that note, Red Shoes is not the protagonist here. The protagonist it Merlin. Yes, RS is sweet and all and balances a lot of inner strength with girly tenderness but that doesn't change that she is a bland character, filled to bursting point with what Lauren Faust calls "old-fashioned niceness" and I can see what she means.
It's OK, though, because like I said this is really the story of Merlin and the Red Shoes as he goes on his own character arc from shallow to great personal grown from his experiences with both his own curse, his relationship with the title character and his own personal demons. He is the only really well developed character on screen.
The focus is quite distinctively on the internal growth and the emotional side. There is a cool villain (I'll get to her) but get ready for long stretches without her or any material conflict.
The pacing can feel disjointed for this reason as well as a very rushed first act. I like how all these western fairy tale characters are being depicted as a Justice League style super hero team (awesome) but I would have liked a bit more time to be introduced to the team (not one by one but still). One narrated scene really rushes the set up. They could have done a lot with this: they could have used the reason for why they are cursed to make some interesting points about unconscious prejudices and how we might profile someone for the color of their skin (I think that kind of discourse is pretty au courant) but they didn't.
The Red Shoes story line is set up poorly too. They fairy-book their way through it and gloss over any kind of political intrigue so I really feel like I am dumped into the middle of the movie and not in the fun way.
An aspect of the movie that I would like to praise is the strong sense of internal mechanics regarding the magic. This includes the nuances of the curses in which the characters don't just change appearance but are also abled differently so Red Shoes loses a lot of her strength when she is, ahem, *not conventionally attractive* and meanwhile, the 7 change based on whether someone is looking at them which means they lose a height advantage and I think it diminishes their abilities to an extent so there is this fun element in which they need to get people to look away to do their best work though this is a little wasted.
The antagonist is the step mother who is also a witch. This movie really wants to fight against lookism but is quite happy to through mixed families and religious minorities under the bus. Either way she is charismatic and scary and I love that all her powers are wood based. I'm not quite sure what the symbolism is but it enriches the world we're in. Merlin's powers all involve using pieces of paper which (thankfully) is never explained.
You could do a lot worse than this though but here are a few more things that sort of annoyed me:
-They do not recognise Large red shoes at first even though she is wearing exactly the same clothes.
-Pin, oak and Kio. Yeah...
-The little people often do not change even when clearly no one can see them, for example, when they are at the back of their own party.
-The ending is really sudden.
Ultimately, this was a mostly sort of well made movie with its heart exactly in the right place but missed an opportunity to have a message that was far more pertinent and nuanced than it could have and should have been and through small errors just annoyed a lot of people despite its great visual beauty. So I guess this is the movie equivalent of Greta Thunberg. I mean it...
You could do so much worse.
- GiraffeDoor
- May 16, 2021
- Permalink
This movie got cancelled by people very quickly but the movie itself was adorable, it was very body positive even though the ad campaign did a terrible job portraying that, overall it is a movie I would watch over and over again. Don't let this movie pass you by because of some a bad ad it's worth a watch
- aorton-36082
- Mar 31, 2020
- Permalink
Ever since I heard that Disney's Character Designer Jin Kim was involved with this film I was eager to see whatever he might do with a South Korean animated film. After all, I had not seen any animated film from South Korea before this, and well...
... it's sadly just an okay film, very american and I probably won't remember most of it in some days, young me would probably have liked it more, like with Hoodwinked! another film that takes a classic tale and puts a twist on it. Now, I've forgotten most things about Hoodwinked! and from what I've seen from Youtube, it doesn't look as good as I remembered it did when it came out. The same goes for this film, even if the character designs looks good for both Snow White/Red Shoes as well as the Princes, there's just something with the animation that looks odd, their movements is a bit like the humans in the Shrek films, something that always annoyed me, since Shrek's and Donkey's movements were so much better, I can explain how, but those that knows what I'm talking about will get what I mean.
For those that have given this film bad rating because of its body shaming haven't seen the film, it's like another user review mentioned, it's Shallow Hal in a fairy tale wrapping, inner beauty and believe in yourself, probably the only thing I'll remember in the end from it, which is good, because the message worked then. But other than that, it's sad that it looks like a weak Disney film and if someone told me this was either a Dreamworks or BlueSky production, I wouldn't be surprised at all, but for an animated film from South Korea, I sure hope we'll see something more original and less Disney-ified next time from this studio. I'll be there to watch whatever is next!
... it's sadly just an okay film, very american and I probably won't remember most of it in some days, young me would probably have liked it more, like with Hoodwinked! another film that takes a classic tale and puts a twist on it. Now, I've forgotten most things about Hoodwinked! and from what I've seen from Youtube, it doesn't look as good as I remembered it did when it came out. The same goes for this film, even if the character designs looks good for both Snow White/Red Shoes as well as the Princes, there's just something with the animation that looks odd, their movements is a bit like the humans in the Shrek films, something that always annoyed me, since Shrek's and Donkey's movements were so much better, I can explain how, but those that knows what I'm talking about will get what I mean.
For those that have given this film bad rating because of its body shaming haven't seen the film, it's like another user review mentioned, it's Shallow Hal in a fairy tale wrapping, inner beauty and believe in yourself, probably the only thing I'll remember in the end from it, which is good, because the message worked then. But other than that, it's sad that it looks like a weak Disney film and if someone told me this was either a Dreamworks or BlueSky production, I wouldn't be surprised at all, but for an animated film from South Korea, I sure hope we'll see something more original and less Disney-ified next time from this studio. I'll be there to watch whatever is next!
The 'body positivity' message came too little too late at the end of the movie, 90 percent of the time it associates fat women with worthlessness and skinny women can get whatever they want...I would never show this to my daughter as I wouldn't want her to think that her looks will determine how people treat her...
- fi23456346
- Apr 18, 2020
- Permalink
This movie is simply, beautiful. The visuals are beautiful, the story is beautiful and the lesson is.... (yes you guessed it right) beautiful.
It deviates from the modern dilemma of finding every happiness in life if you look beautiful which is completely wrong.
Furthermore, some concepts and the action sequences in the movie were unique.
In short, it's a good all-round entertainment and you will definitely enjoy it.
In short, it's a good all-round entertainment and you will definitely enjoy it.
- Picses17017
- Mar 30, 2020
- Permalink
Do yourself a favour and watch this movie... I watched it without my kids 'cause they're far too old for it now. I almost overlooked it thinking it would just be a cheap Pixar knock-off, but now I'm glad I didn't. The animation is solid, the voice acting near flawless, and the story/ character development on-point... You almost forget it's a bunch of goofy little green guys trying to punch above their weight class.
Ok it's not as good as original Shrek, but on-par if not better than the sequels, and I found my self chuckling out-loud at points, and almost tearing up at others... Good stuff... Sniff.
Hell, you might even want to let your kids watch it with ya...
- Sickpuppy365
- Oct 13, 2020
- Permalink
This was bad.
Stupid storyline.
The Music was repetitive and often off balance with the voicing.
A mish mash of fairy tales that made little sense.
Sorry for the critique but I can't allow people to waste their time with this trash.
I really like the movie, but it would be nice if we had a sequel to this movie. Maybe a series cause I would love to see more of these characters. Similar to Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure only not in 2D animation. I'm not sure if it's too late to do that. But if not, it would be great to again see more of these characters. Especially if the rest of the princes got to find their true love as well and we get to see more of Snow White and Merlin's story.
It was a fun, cool and simple movie they didn't overdo things it was just your average movie.
- risbyceonna
- May 28, 2021
- Permalink