REVIEW: My Sweet Monster

My Sweet Monster is a Russian-made animation dubbed into English (American) which explains why the lip-syncing is so off. Alas, if only that was its only fault.

This confused tale about a princess who flees into the forest to escape an unwanted marriage is highly derivative, convoluted, and not particularly well animated. There’s enough colour, cinematic landscape, action and quirky characters to amuse a very young audience, but anyone old enough to want a plot will find it frustratingly lacking.

Princess Barbara (voiced by Haylie Duff) is 16 years old but still fills her head with romantic fantasies. She has also secretly been corresponding by mail with a distant prince whom she hopes to marry. That dream is thwarted when her father, King Elijah (voiced by Martin Cooke) betrothes her to Bundy (voiced by Pauly Shore), a villainous mail-sorter, under duress. Bundy, who has been snooping around the castle, discovers a large vile called The Spark. It is filled with magical water which gives life to the many robots who make up the staff and soldiers in the castle. With this precious item in his skinny-fingered hands, Bundy holds the King to ransom.

Barbara is having none of it and escapes on her trusty steed, Fireball. After some misadventure in the forest, Barbara finds herself captured by a large and apparently sweet monster named Bogey (voiced by Jon Heder) and his sidekick, a rabbit unimaginatively named Rabbit (voiced by Josh Wilson). From here, things get very chaotic while ultimately being quite predictable.

There are songs in the movie but you couldn’t justifiably call it a musical. The songs are underwhelming and are thoughtlessly thrown into the story, contributing little. This feels like a film made quickly using off-the-shelf elements haphazardly thrown together for a mainstream, undiscerning audience.

★★