“Once upon a time Princess Angela lived happily in the kingdom ruled by her father, King Ronen. All happiness in the kingdom ended the day the Princess was taken away from her castle and hidden away deep in the forest by the King’s Viceroy… Angela grew to be an astonishingly lovely young lady forgetting she was a Princess… With the help of her forest creature friends, Angela’s memories return and she must return to the castle before the Viceroy ruins Christmas forever.”
– A Fairy Tale Christmas DVD Description.
A Fairy Tale Christmas was produced by Waterfront Pictures, a Canadian production company headquartered in Vancouver, B.C. A Fairy Tale Christmas received some notoriety in 2012 when the U.K. based Brightspark Production Ltd. re-released the film with the title Braver, in an attempt to capitalize on the then recent Disney/Pixar film Brave.
Disney released the following statement regarding Braver:
“People place great trust in the quality and creativity of Disney, and when it appears that another company is causing confusion among Disney consumers we will act to protect ourselves and the consumer. Disney believes Brightspark has demonstrated a pattern of misleading consumers with numerous releases that confuse and undermine the trust those consumers have in Disney.”
Brightspark responded:
“Braver is an item for families on a budget and I very much doubt that anyone would confuse our production with the wonderful work of Disney. We are currently talking to Disney to find a mutually acceptable resolution.”
Some thoughts from me (Potential spoilers below)…
A Fairy Tale Christmas is similar to some of the 2D Video Brinquedo movies in that it appears to be animated in either Flash or Toonboom. There is a noticeable leap in quality from anything Video Brinquedo has or will ever make though. That said, A Fairy Tale Christmas still has some weird animation quirks to it. I can’t help but stare at the main character’s eyes, as every time she blinks you can see that her lower eyelashes don’t move, they just sits lifelessly on her cheek.
I don’t want to harp on the animation too much though, as I do feel like there was some genuine effort here by a smaller studio. This is yet another Bad Princess Movie that is more cheesy than bad. What’s most entertaining to me about this one is seeing a smaller studio doing their best bet to mimic the Disney format. This is one of those films that you watch more to discuss what they’re doing right or wrong, versus one that you put on expecting a laugh-a-minute. That said, I do find some of the super cheesy dialogue to be pretty hilarious.
So all that said, this one might be one that you want to preview first to see if you find it as interesting as I do. Otherwise, this one might be better suited as a fun factoid to throw out when the topic of ‘Disney knock-offs’ comes up.
Bad Princess Movies 
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