5/5 Creative
  by Chizukahime (Illinois)
I watched another Michael Ocelot's animation (Prince Quest), I really loved it, then I tried this one. It's very interesting because the animation style they used. The story is well-written. My daughter and I enjoy it so much, eventhough she doesn't understand French, she likes learning a new language.

4/5 Fascinating fantasy
  by wiredweird (Earth, or somewhere nearby)
This animation represents thoroughly modern imagery and imagination. It also pays homage to the oldest extant feature-length animation, The Adventures of Prince Achmed. The silhouetted characters in this draw directly from that older movie, even if the characters and magic gadget are quite contemporary.

A half-dozen vignettes form this feature, with a little story-telling glue between them. In that outer story, a boy and girl share a fantasy. Then, with the help of the gadget, they enter into it. One of those stories has the flavor of a Japanese folktale, another shows the magic kiss gone terribly (and repeatedly) wrong, another shows a science fiction variation on the quest for the princess's hand, and so on. They're all easy to enjoy, but that tribute to animation history adds a pleasant overtone as well.

-- wiredweird

5/5 Beautiful
  by S. Grout (San Francisco, CA United States)
I loved this movie! Nice to see a clean, modern version of cut-out
style animation (like Adventures of Prince Achmed). Highly recommended.

5/5 Charming and unique...
  by Sarah (Washington)
I've wanted to see this film for a while now, being a fan of Michel Ocelot's previous work, Kirikou and the Sorceress. He has a wonderful style of animation, and a good knack for telling traditional fairy tales and folk tales. In Princes and Princesses, he does something rather unique, which I was quite excited to see: the animation is done with cutouts, using only black silhouettes and brightly colored backgrounds to tell the story. I think this technique worked wonderfully in this instance, since this is in fact 6 short fairy tales, tied together by the fact that it is a teacher and his two pupils that are thinking them up/acting out each story.

I absolutely adore fairy tales, folk tales and mythology, and each of the story here takes place in a different culture, which was quite fun. The first story is called "The Princess of Diamonds", and it is kind of a general fairy tale. The second one is called "The Fig Boy", and takes place in ancient Egypt, inspired by hieroglyphs. The third is a medieval tale called "The Sorceress". The fourth is a Japanese tale inspired by the works of Hokusai. The fifth is a Grimm Brothers-esque story with a bit of sci-fi thrown in (why not?). And the final one is a kind of parody of English tales. The nice thing about the smaller stories is also that it keeps the attention of little ones or those with short attention spans, as each is only a few minutes long.

And yes, it is only available in French with English subtitles, and some of those subtitles are not always correct or spell-checked. But my 11-year-old sister and I had no problem following the movie. All in all, I was very pleased with this little film. Definitely my cup of tea, and a wonderful addition to any fairy tale collection.

2/5 meh.
  by Bridget Niki (Georgia)
plot: there are 6 fairy tales told throughout this film. you start off with writers behind desks brainstorming about what to write about. the writers agree on something. someone is sent off to be fitted with a costume. this triangle appears. and the story starts. the story ends. wash, rinse, repeat.

the whole time, you are looking at silhouettes (like the cover of the dvd). so the film is a little dark. i honestly thought the characters on the front of the dvd cover were crickets but they are people. go figure. to me, this was offputting ... watching dark shadows instead of bright people, but some people might like this!

the stories themselves: good prevails, evil is punished; these are true fairytales. but there is a sense of the Grimm fairytale 'meanness' in it. for example, this grandmother is being touted around by this guy. he tries to steal her coat but she refuses to get off his back. and when he threatens her, she chokes him or kicks him in his knee. there's that weird vibe of - okay, who is the bad person here?

the translation. i dont know french but i do know that "oui, majesty" should not be translated as "you, majesty". i also read "tartoise" instead of "tortoise". and then, who can forget "design to accept queen, this fig". but dont let that prevent you from seeing the movie! you will understand what's going on.

this movie was not my cup of tea, but i'm sure someone would like it.

i did really like the 5th story. DETECTION, TRANSPARENCY, MEGA RADAR! but not enough to change my view of the whole film.

best random quote of the film: i love leek soup.