Das tapfere Schneiderlein (2008)
Poor but confident and resourceful tailor David trusts, after killing seven flies in one swat, he's a match for any challenge and sets out to prove himself in the wide world. After luck and cunning help him deal with giant Lothar, he arrives at the castle of petty king Ernst, who is ruled by constant migraine and his ambitious, manipulative court counsellor Klaus, who desires to succeed by winning brat princess Paula's hand and claims to be the only saviour who can rid the land of three supernatural dangers.
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Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike
Boring
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
"Das tapfere Schneiderlein" is a German small screen movie from 2008, so this one has its 10th anniversary next year and here we have a more recent take on the famous Brave Little Tailor story by the Brothers Grimm. This film is also part of a wave of German fairy tale films from recent years, all made for television and the names of director Theede as well as writers Bongartz (one of the rare father-daughter pairs in German film) can also be attached to some others of these fairy tale projects. Like most of the rest, it runs for almost exactly one hour and delivers in both visual aspects like sets and costumes, but also the story is kinda good here. It is sure one of the more known tales and you will see why when watching as the fantasy component is pretty impressive here. No surprise they got established German big name actors like Ullmann, Schuch, Milberg, Hoger and others to star in here. I personally am not too happy about the casting of Kostja Ullmann for the title character as I don't think he is a particularly gifted actor at all sadly, but that is just subjective. Luckily for him, these fairy tale are always more about the stories and not about individual performances and luckily for him, the fantasy aspect lets actors frequently get away with over-the-top moments and hammy performing of which Ullmann shows quite a bit. Schuch on the other hand is perfect for playing the princess as she has been among the most beautiful German acting has to offer for a long time now. And given the little she has to work with, she does a decent job and same applies to Milberg and Martens, who is the main antagonist in here. And I must say my dislike for Ullmann is strong enough that I found myself cheering for Martens' character at times. Ullmann's character is as much about make-believe as is the actor himself, so maybe he was especially right for the part, but that certainly doesn't mean I have to like him. Overall, this was a good watch, good movie, but with a more talented lead that would not be trying to grin his shortcomings away in a same fashion like Andy Samberg does, it could have been an even greater film. Overall a thumbs-up and if you like fairy-tales you should definitely check it out. The focus was also really good, almost too much happening for an hour here with these memorable unicorn sequence and many scenes with giants.