The 10th Kingdom (2000)

From talking mirrors to magic beans, werewolves, wishing wells, and troll dust, The 10th Kingdom is an experience you’ll never forget. With an all-star cast, incredible special effects by Artisan and a truly unique premise, this modern-day fairy tale will cast a spell over the entire family. It involves laughter, tears, many valuable lessons, and a shocking plot twist. This modern blend between The Princess Bride and Snow White hasn’t been successfully done until now… but Hallmark pulls it off.

Perky Virginia (Kimberly Williams) lives on the edge of Central Park within biking distance of her workplace, a half-rate diner where she spends most of her time. Her father Anthony (John Larroquette), once a successful entrepreneur, is now an underpaid, overworked and abused janitor at their apartment building. The two share a boring existence, barely standing one another and each desiring for a more exciting life. Virginia has resigned herself to feeling stuck. Little does she know the adventure that is about to envelop them all in mystery, magic, and danger. The Nine Kingdoms have lived in peace since the imprisonment of the Evil Queen, Prince Wendell White’s stepmother. But with the young and selfish prince’s coronation forthcoming, he is making the rounds of his province, including a routine visit to the prison. The Queen (Dianne Wiest) has awaited this moment and has a daring plan with the aid of the Troll King.

She murders Wendell’s manservant and strips the prince of his rights and his voice by imprisoning him in the body of a dog. In his place, the Queen places an imposter… her doggy friend (Daniel Lapaine). But her plans go terribly wrong when the dog escapes into the cellars, and from there through a magic mirror into modern-day New York. She sends the troll king’s children, Burley, Blabberwort, and Bluebell, after him, along with one of the prison inmates, a werewolf imprisoned for ‘sheep worrying’ (played by Scott Cohen). Prince leaps out of the mirror into Central Park at the precise moment Virginia speeds by on her bike. After a violent collision, she takes the dog with her to work, little knowing that a pack of strange magical creatures will soon be on her trail. After that point, strange things happen to Virginia… from a dog that seems to want to tell her something to three trolls who invade her home, terrorize her father, and steal her shoes, and an insane guy who breaks into her grandma’s apartment and tries to cook her.  

Through a series of comical and unexplainable events, Virginia, Tony, and Prince flee through the mirror into the Nine Kingdoms where nothing is as it seems… talking mushrooms, wishing wells, invisibility shoes, poisoned apples, talking birds, evil huntsmen, and fairy-tale creatures run rampant, from a two-hundred-year-old Cinderella to the Tooth Fairy. Unknown to all, the Queen has continued with her plans to overthrow the kingdom, seizing the magic mirrors that once belonged to Snow White’s evil stepmother. Through them, she can rule the world and continue where her predecessor left off by destroying the House of White. All Virginia wants to do is return to her normal life in New York, but each step takes them further from the mirror and deeper into this imperial intrigue. Although she and Tony may believe their only duty is to locate the mirror once more, their destiny ties them to Prince Wendell and his evil stepmother…

Magic, mayhem, and mystery abound in this eight-hour television epic. The story is alive with myth, humor, and two-dimensional characters while packing every gag, fairy tale character, and pun ever invented into a hilarious story with a dynamic climax. If you can’t see the humor in the werewolves, elves, fairies, trolls, dwarves and blind woodsmen, you won’t understand the messages that the film also offers about family, friendship, loving compassion, and forgiveness.

I liked the production for more than amazing special effects, a dozen laughs a minute, and memorable characters. The premise appealed to me for the psychological struggle in each of the characters. For Virginia, it’s a painful loss from her childhood. Tony? Realizing where he failed at being a father. For Wolf, it’s choosing the path of right or wrong. Prince learns the true meaning of leadership and responsibility. Even the Queen has a few things to face. The humor lightens what a deep, emotional drama. It’s a captivating and entertaining saga of mystery, magic, and romance that leaves you with something to think about. Hidden beneath the silliness are true lessons about learning to trust yourself and others, forgiveness, not fleeing from your problems, and being courageous even when the stakes are down. Now that’s magic.

Sexual Content:

Innuendos, a suggestive shepherdess, and a scene handled delicately in the woods where two characters tousle. They giggle, nip, and roll around before the camera cuts out, returning to find them straggling into camp disheveled and exhausted. (Later one implies they'll have to get married to give their child a proper upbringing.)  

Language:

Language is mild but does include minor abuses of deity.

Violence:

Many scenes involving a huntsman whose arrows never fail to pierce the heart of a living creature. People are killed by arrows, knifed, attacked by trolls, physically abused with punches and kicks, and poisoned. There are several instances where violence is hinted at but not seen. One chilling instance of a character's past is revealed in which a parent attempted to purposely drown them as a child; this may arouse further caution in wary viewers, since it pits child against parent, which in turn involves some emotionally-intense scenes and pieces of dialogue.

Other: