"Der Prinz im Bärenfell" or "The Prince in the Bear's Fur" or just "Bearskin Prince" is a German movie from 2015, which means it has its 5th anniversary this holiday season, and this makes it one of the more recent fairytale adaptations for German television. I am usually pretty critical when it comes to German small screen releases (especially romance and this is an aspect here as well) but these fairytale movies I frequently like and this is certainly one of those that are among the better I think. It shows that director Fürneisen and writer Ungureit are experienced enough and have worked on others like these as well. It's a good watch overall. I still wonder why the original writer Hans Christian Andersen is not credited here. Anyway, like many other times, they did not cast big names for the two lovebird protagonist (or younger characters in general), but these are unknown even to big German film buffs like myself. It's frequently the case for these fairytale films that the older characters are played by more known and experienced actors and this is true here as well. The king is played by Tatort's Miroslav Nemec and the main antagonist is portrayed by Wilfried Hochholdinger, who has worked with Tarantino before. Maybe Inga Busch is also not a nobody. Still overall I'd say that the cast is a bit less famous than it is usually for these fairytale films. They tend to attract bigger names frequently and maybe the reason here is that the tale is also not too famous or that it is not by the Brothers Grimm.
Anyway, this one here runs for pretty much exactly an hour as they usually do and that is the perfect duration. No need to stretch this to 90 minutes as it is fine the way it is. I also liked the visual component here. With that I mostly mean the costumes and sets that are exactly the way they should be, be it the women's dresses or shacks filled with hay. It felt real. And to a lesser extent maybe also the effects. The human-bear transformation as well as the one the other way around towards the end looked fine. We have to keep in mind that this is not big budget or anything. Still I must say the night sky with these shooting stars looked pretty poor and fake and that hurt the movie a bit because it was supposed to elevate the romance this very moment. With the title of my review I mean basically the stuff you find in every movie in terms of fantastic aspects (magic), animals royalties, romance etc. It's all pretty decent without truly blowing me away, but I have seen inferior fairytale films for sure. One special mention to Hochholdinger here as he does not only look way younger than he was when this was made, but he was also a true scene stealer and you could see how he is really experienced and a talented actor because he found the perfect rhythm and making his sorcerer character seem interesting in an exaggerated manner (the way it should be for many fairytale characters) without ever crossing the bridge in a way that he felt ham or over the top. Good job. Aside from the visual side, his portrayal is perhaps what makes the film most interesting. The younger actors are alright too, also because of the way they were written. Maybe one final criticism because it is linked so closely to the story that it is even mentioned in the title: The bear (prince in bear form) honestly looked more like Bigfoot, which was a bit distracting and telling us he smells like a bear (how do they even know?) does not change that. Bit I shall forgive them for that. It is definitely pretty difficult to come up with a great costume for this animal if you're going for it without animation. All in all, this film gets a thumbs-up and positive recommendation from me. Go watch. Fantasy is not necessaril my favorite genre, but these films I tend to enjoy quite a bit.
Anyway, this one here runs for pretty much exactly an hour as they usually do and that is the perfect duration. No need to stretch this to 90 minutes as it is fine the way it is. I also liked the visual component here. With that I mostly mean the costumes and sets that are exactly the way they should be, be it the women's dresses or shacks filled with hay. It felt real. And to a lesser extent maybe also the effects. The human-bear transformation as well as the one the other way around towards the end looked fine. We have to keep in mind that this is not big budget or anything. Still I must say the night sky with these shooting stars looked pretty poor and fake and that hurt the movie a bit because it was supposed to elevate the romance this very moment. With the title of my review I mean basically the stuff you find in every movie in terms of fantastic aspects (magic), animals royalties, romance etc. It's all pretty decent without truly blowing me away, but I have seen inferior fairytale films for sure. One special mention to Hochholdinger here as he does not only look way younger than he was when this was made, but he was also a true scene stealer and you could see how he is really experienced and a talented actor because he found the perfect rhythm and making his sorcerer character seem interesting in an exaggerated manner (the way it should be for many fairytale characters) without ever crossing the bridge in a way that he felt ham or over the top. Good job. Aside from the visual side, his portrayal is perhaps what makes the film most interesting. The younger actors are alright too, also because of the way they were written. Maybe one final criticism because it is linked so closely to the story that it is even mentioned in the title: The bear (prince in bear form) honestly looked more like Bigfoot, which was a bit distracting and telling us he smells like a bear (how do they even know?) does not change that. Bit I shall forgive them for that. It is definitely pretty difficult to come up with a great costume for this animal if you're going for it without animation. All in all, this film gets a thumbs-up and positive recommendation from me. Go watch. Fantasy is not necessaril my favorite genre, but these films I tend to enjoy quite a bit.
