Snow White's Christmas Adventure (2023)

This is a low-budget live-action kid's Christmas movie released a couple years ago to very little fanfare. As is often the case with things like this, how good or bad it is largely boils down to deciding what you're comparing it against, as well as what it's trying to accomplish. There's essentially no information about the production online (or at least none I was able to locate), so what little context I have derives from what's on screen, both during the movie and in the credits.

We figured out it was filmed in Italy early on, thanks to a sign written in Italian in the background of a shot. The movie's location is one of its stronger assets - the filmmakers had access to impressive mountainous regions, as well as medieval looking buildings and streets, though I suspect some were filmed at some sort of theme park or Renaissance Fair. That aesthetic extends to the costumes and relevant props, as well - anything that looks like you'd see it worn by professional Renfaire personnel is at that quality, which is on par with what you'd expect to see in a decently budgeted movie.

What's not at that quality are holiday decorations, or even some holiday-specific outfits appearing at the end. Cheap garland and plastic ribbon are draped in various scenes, and clearly artificial Christmas trees show up a few times. We're not even talking nice artificial trees that pass for real ones at a distance: these are the budget options. You're left with an odd situation where the fantasy elements are fairly nice (at least for a movie of this budget), while the Christmas paraphernalia quite literally looks like it was sourced from a Dollar Store.

That's less a criticism than an attempt to contextualize what seems to be going on here. I lack concrete information to confirm this, but this looks exactly like something I'd expect Renfaire professionals to make in the off season, perhaps to finance a trip to Italy. Some writing and editing choices reinforce that hypothesis: the movie makes ample use of drone shots and montages to play with fantasy tropes, and at least one character is more D&D than traditional fairy tale.

The D&D stuff isn't a problem - they keep everything kid-friendly. The montage shots, such as an extended sequence in which The Prince is lost in an enchanted wood (really more a horse trail) is an issue. This is fundamentally children's entertainment, as evidenced by some zany comedy sequences, low levels of danger, and minimal stakes. Frankly, I can't imagine kids today sitting still for extended desaturated drone shots of a man on horseback riding slowly while off-brand holiday-themed Middle Earth music plays in the background. That stuff flies when you're establishing tone in grown-up fantasy movies, but grown-up fantasy doesn't include Scooby-Doo-style chase sequences.

The good news is that, were this edited down from an hour twenty to, say, a forty-five minute special, it wouldn't be all bad. Half bad, sure, but that's a respectable ratio in the genre and budget. Aside from the advantages the locations offer, this has a few other solid assets, starting with a decent mirror puppet. We're not talking Henson, obviously, but this thing feels like a solid throwback to televised fairytale productions of the 1980s.

That D&D stuff gets fun at times, too. The main new character is a Warlock (named... Warlock, actually). The actor playing him (Michael Cervantes) is essentially doing a bit lamp-shading his origins from pulp fantasy. It's all cheesy, but no one's pretending otherwise. Same goes for the Queen - actress Rayna Campbell is basically just having fun, and that fun is at times infectious.

More distracting is The Prince (this is just how the characters are credited), though it's less an acting issue than appearance. I can only assume actor Elijah Rowen had dyed his hair for a different role and was in the process of growing it back out when this was shooting. Whatever the reason, he's got blond hair with black roots and black stubble. But I suppose the clearance Christmas decorations already eliminated concerns around authenticity.

What haven't we covered? Oh, right: plot. The movie opens with The Prince out shopping for a gift for Snow White. Meanwhile, the Evil Queen, angry no one sent her a Christmas card or invited her to a holiday gathering (she namechecks a bunch of other fairy tale characters, so I guess we're in a sort of shared universe here), decides to take her revenge by ruining Snow White's Christmas.

Just so we're clear on the stakes.

She employs the help of Warlock to cast a spell trapping The Prince in an enchanted forest. Around this time, Snow White gets a visit from three friends. The movie sort of implies these are versions of the dwarves, though the performers are full-sized and the word isn't used. But while explaining why there's fewer than seven, we're shown illustrations of jobs their friends have taken elsewhere, and these certainly look closer to traditional fantasy dwarves (also, they're hanging out with goblins in the pictures). Whether they're dwarves or not, these characters are played by Italian actors, unlike the rest of the cast.

Snow White and friends are briefly inconvenienced by more evil (or at least mischievous) magic involving a butterfly puppet, a boulder, and the first of several Scooby-Doo sequences. Deciding the Queen is behind it, they break into her castle to investigate.

Actually, they break in a couple times, but let's fast-forward to them getting caught. The Prince is caught, as well, but he's held by the Warlock, who's planning to cook and eat him - one of the few times death is threatened, albeit in a fairly unthreatening manner. Instead, The Prince gives him a music box, and the Warlock becomes good. They go to find Snow White, but by then she's already taken a bite of a poisoned apple and fallen into a... you know the drill.

The Prince kisses her awake, and everyone except Snow White is ready to make a run for it. Instead, Snow White convinces them to surprise the Queen by asking her to spend Christmas with them, an act which turns her good, too.

There are a couple decent jokes in all that (two made me chuckle, both of which were in the last ten minutes). And the "Renfaire players doing a live-action direct-to-video Snow White Christmas movie" aspect was novel enough to hold my attention. Depending on your inclinations towards that angle, this may or may not cross into the "so bad it's good" region of entertainment. As for its target audience, I can't recommend it unless your four-to-six-year-old is unusually patient. Kid's media, particularly now, needs a faster pace than this delivers, and while the location shots elevate the look of this, the color pallet is far too dark and grey for young viewers.

I've seen a lot worse, and it's hard to begrudge independent filmmakers from earning a paycheck in a fun way. But there's a reason this didn't get any real attention a few years ago, and I can't recommend it to anyone other than the handful of high fantasy enthusiasts starving for any holiday entry in that genre. But if you're one of the people who watches The Christmas Dragon annually, this might be worth checking out.