A fairy tale called How Not to Marry a Princess / Jak si nevzit princeznu
It is already a tradition that a newly filmed fairy tale is broadcast on Czech Television on Christmas Eve. The narrative of screenwriter Petr Hudsky and director Karel Janak begins when three fates come to a chateau to predict the fate of little Prince Leopold. On the way, they stop at the commander of the guards, to whom a son Hynek has just been born. The prediction is not very spectacular. Hynek is supposed to be a galoot who will think mainly of food. The Three Fates tell little Leopold that he will marry the daughter of a neighbouring king. But the prince and princess hate each other from the first moment. However, their parents insist on fulfilling the prophecy. On the day of their marriage, Leopold and Josefina discover a way to thwart it. They steal the fates' magic watch to time travel back to the time of the prince's birth to prevent the fates from uttering the prophecy. They succeed, but upon their return they find out what they have caused to themselves, and especially to the whole kingdom.
The beginning looked promising. We have a nice central couple and their nicely (not)working relationship, plus time travel as a bonus. But then nothing. The director Karel Janak created a fairy tale with sci-fi elements. But you can easily get lost in it, so you must be careful. Time travel and the creation of a parallel reality are here. Unfortunately, paradoxes are not much dealt with here. The screenwriter fulfilled the task of one or two innovative elements, and the rest was just automatic writing (the result of which very quickly ceases to make sense, so don't think about it too hard). Does every guard have to be an idiot? Does everyone really have to act like a goofy child? Does everything have to be coloured and contrasted? Why can't a fairy tale be dignified and be taken more seriously? Because otherwise costumes and locations are quite nice.
In the end, I give this fairy tale, which is really pulled by only two actors, a slightly above-average rating, considering the familiar nature of Bohemian Paradise. I enjoyed the fairy tale, unfortunately, it doesn't meet high standards as I had expected at the beginning. I didn't like that the filmmakers obviously didn't have a budget to shoot spectacular scenes, but the director tried to do it anyway ... And he didn't succeed. Christmas fairy tale from Czech Television has long reflected vanity. Too bad because the potential is there. Only if it could have been fulfilled.