6/10
Solid adaptation that grew on me
4 January 2020
Warning: Spoilers
"Von einem, der auszog, das Fürchten zu lernen" is probably one of the longest titles when it comes to fairytales by the Brothers Grimm, but this film is not a long one as it clocks in at around one hour. This is a relatively typical running time though for these many many new fairytale films showing here on German television for a long time now and rarely tehy went for 90 minutes over 60 minutes. The director is Tobias Wiemann and his writer is Mario Giordano. Both weren't rookies when this came out in 2014 over 5 years ago, but also they did not have gigantic experience. The latter probably had a little more and also worked on another of these fairytale films. Now as for this one here, it is once again proof that children-oriented fairytales really attract pretty big name actors. It is often the case that this does not apply to the lead actor(s) and this is true when it comes to Tim Oliver Schultz here. Not really familiar with him, but he was good enough to not ruin the film without really shining. His female co-lead (of course love interest) is played by Isolde Dychauk and she is really good, maybe the film's MVP. I can see why she won an award even, which is not too usual given the genre and the fact that this is a small screen release. Also she is a little more experienced than Schultz. But the really famous names here are found in the supporting cast: Lauterbach (shines here and there thanks to comedy and his approach), Peschel (rather forgettable), Kavanian, Kessler (playing bog bodies haha), Nickel, maybe Wilde and others too have been incredibly prolific for decades now. They mostly do not have a lot of screen time here, some of them just one scene, but still. And the name Thalbach is of course always easy to identify, even if it is not Katharina this time, but Anna. She plays a character near the end names Tiamat that I personally only know as a weapon on League of Legends, but yeah she is kinda memorable despite how she does not have too much screen time either. Her voice was really horrific after he solves the riddle, now that was unexpected, but not in a bad way, for me even in a funny way and I am sure kids today won't mind. If somebody minds, then it is their overprotective parents.

Now as for this one-hour film, it had enough fine moments for this running time. Tiamat's riddle was interesting enough and so were the scenes of the princess' other suitors going crazy at the house of horrors. Said house was also depicted accordingly in the last chapter and I could see why they went crazy. I also liked the scene when the princess acted in a way where she does not want the guy she likes go to said horror house, but she pretends it is because she is not interested in him. That was actually quite a challenge and required some range, but I think Dychauk managed to pull it off. Well done. The bog bodies I mentioned earlier already also two fun cameos we got there. And then the film brings us of course the traditional fantastic Brothers Grimm fairytale idea, this time about a guy who is never feared of things and actually it hurt him more than it helped him as we find out during early conversations, so his journey is basically one to finding out what it is like to be scared for once. Mission completed at the end obviously. I think while this is a good story, it is not among the Brothers's most famous. (They should still be credited as writers here.) Most people here in Germany have heard the title, but are not really familiar with the precise contents except what the title gives away that it is about a guy who is never scared and maybe that there is a princess involved. As always. So it is good that this film successfully manages to being back the tale and story into our minds. I enjoyed the watch and I think it worth seeing for the entire family really, well maybe not toddlers, but everybody older than that. No hesitation here for me when it comes to the question if this one deserves a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. It is the former. Go see it if you get the chance. Probably not too easy outside Germany, also because I guess there are no subtitles. So if you are lucky enough to get a hand on this, then don't be sacred and give it a go.
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