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.