Princess Bluerose, the daughter of the Blue Gnome King, must overcome her overwhelming fears in order to save the life of her beloved father and rescue the world from eternal darkness. From her home deep in the Norwegian mountains, she sets out on a remarkable journey with a young companion, conquers her timidity, and learns the essential lesson “When you take away, in exchange, you must always give something back”.
– Magic Silver DVD Description
Magic Silver, also called Julenatt i Blåfjell (Christmas Night on Blue Mountain) is a 2009 Norwegian film. It is based two television series: Julenatt i Blåfjell and (Christmas on Moon Peak), acting as a prequel to both shows. Magic Silver was directed by Katarina Launing and Roar Uthang. North American audiences would be most familiar with Uthang’s directorial work on the 2018 Tomb Raider reboot.
Some thoughts from me (Potential spoilers below…)
Right off the bat, I’ll mention that Magic Silver is yet another “Actually pretty good” movie. I discovered it in my hunt for more international princess films, and based on the trailer alone I figured it would be halfway decent. While it wasn’t an instant favourite, I did find myself enjoying the film quite a bit.
Bluebell is a very timid blue gnome who struggles with being brave. She’s never set foot outside the cave, fearful of the outside world (Which is kinda understandable given that spending too long outside the mountain spells death for blue gnomes!). One day she learns that her father has started getting ‘grey vision’, which is an indicator that he is nearing the end of his life. Seeking a cure, Bluebell is relayed a story by an ancient gnome who once overheard some humans talking about how they could’ve saved their sick loved one if they only had one thing: Money. Assuming that money is some sort of human cure-all, Bluebell is motivated to leave the mountain for the very first time in her life, setting in motion a domino effect that ends up threatening the entire world.
Therein lies a fairly sizeable sticking point with this film: there’s a fair amount of time spent in this movie where you’re watching terrible thing after terrible thing pile up on Princess Bluebell. First her attempt to heal her Father draws the attention of the human farmer onto a group of Red Gnomes who, now homeless thanks to Bluebell, turn to her for help. Then by bringing the Red Gnomes back to the Blue Mountain she draws the ire of her kin… THEN it turns out that the farmer has followed them up the mountain and makes off with a part of the titular Magic Silver, which the Blue Gnomes use to bring light into the world. Without it, all humanity will be plunged into eternal darkness! As a result of all this, Bluebell is told she is banished from Blue Mountain. In any other circumstances this would be bad enough as it is, but as previously mentioned for a Blue Gnome this means certain death as they can’t exist outside of their mountain home beyond a designated hour of the day.
Due to all of the above, for a while this film felt like a bit of a bummer. Similar to Princess Arete, you spent a good chunk of the film worrying about Bluebell and feeling bad for her. Thankfully she proves herself to be extremely resourceful, so the day is saved, but the emotional catharsis of her success is definitely offset by how much emotional turmoil witnessed.
So all in all, I’d recommend this one as a decent watch. I’ll note, I got my copy of Magic Silver from Ingebretsen’s, a store in Minnesota that celebrates Scandinavian culture. They have an online store, which is the only place where I’ve been able to find a region 1 DVD of Magic Silver. I’d definitely recommend ordering from them if you’re interested in checking this film out!
Bad Princess Movies 
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