The 10th Kingdom Review

Minor Plot Details
In New York, we meet Virgina, a 20-something who lives with her dad.  In another land far away, a prison escape is in the works! A Troll has come to rescue his sons and ends up helping an evil queen escape. Prince Wendell shows up just in time for her magic to work so that he changes places with a dog. She plans to rule the 9 fairy-tale kingdoms using the now dog-brained Prince as her puppet. However, the Prince-brained dog runs away and she must stop him before he finds a way to tell her secret.

The trolls are put to work to hunt down the dog, and she frees another prisoner, Wolf, to hunt for the dog as well. During the escape the dog, trolls and Wolf all end up going through a magic mirror and arriving in New York... a place they refer to as the 10th Kingdom.

The dog happens upon Virgina and her father, Tony. Through magic, Tony is able to understand the dog and listens as the dog-prince tells them they must leave now. They find the magic mirror that leads them back to the other 9 Kingdoms and the adventure has only just begun.

The rest is for you to watch and discover and just enjoy!

The Stars
Kimberly Williams .... Virginia is your everyday girl who doesn't have a very adventurous life. Kimberly is most well known for her role as the sister, Dana, in "According to Jim" which I watch often. In According to Jim she's a sarcastic, crazy, fun-loving chick. In this movie she takes on a completely different type of role - shy, pushed around, regular. You can tell she's a great actress since I have seen her in both and I never saw the resemblance.

Virginia: I've gone crazy. How can I be talking to a dog?
Prince Wendell: Bark! Bark!
Virginia: Yes, I have. Don't try to reassure me.

Scott Cohen .... Wolf is my favorite character. He is a human but besides his physical appearance he is a wolf. The only other thing I've seen Scott in was Gilmore Girls where he played Rory's teacher and Lorelai's boyfriend. Once again, his character in this movie is so different! In Gilmore Girls, he's just a teacher - nothing special. In this movie, he's passionate, sarcastic, conniving, and lots of fun. He's able to act like a human and have some very wolf like characteristics at the same time.

Wolf: No, no! "Rare" implies dangerously cooked. When I say rare I mean just let it look at the oven in terror, then bring it out to me.

You will meet many more fun characters throughout this 7 hour series.

Why You Should Watch This!!
You've heard many fairy tales in your lifetime, but have you ever wondered how long Happily Ever After lasted for the characters?? You will see familiar characters throughout and learn things that happened to them that were never written in the books. There are many of your old favorites referenced as well as some brand new and interesting ones. It's awesome how they linked all these fairy-tales together as if they all happened in the same world.

The scenery looked incredible no matter where they were. The costumes also added a lot to the fairy tale aspect. If a character was not supposed to be human, you could barely tell they were. One great example of costumes was when it came to the ball - everyone had on a very beautifully fairy-tale gown making it all look even more authentic.

This is not an action movie but there was some to keep you from being bored. It's more of a dramatic fantasy movie. A lot of fairy-tale movies are about Happily Ever After, the Prince saving the Princess, and things of that nature. Although some of the characters (such as the Evil Queen) still fit their fairy-tale alter-egos, many things happen that you wouldn't expect that break the rules of your everyday fairy-tale.

For Who?
I think the mini-series is for adults. The plot might be confusing for young kids to follow, and somewhat scary at points. 13 and over might get it, but I really see this as an Adult Fairy-Tale and adults should be able to relate much better.

There is one more criteria - you must like fairytales and you must remember at least a few of the stories in order to fully catch all the references and characters thrown into the movie.

And they all lived happily ever after... or did they??
If you've ever dreamed of visiting a fairy-tale land, now is your chance. This movie is funny, dramatic, engaging, and just plain entertaining. Enjoy the 10th Kingdom, and next time you look into a mirror, remember it could happen...