dromasca When 'Waltz with Bashir' almost got the Oscar prize for best foreign-language movie this year I did not know that it has a precursor in using animation to pass a very serious message. 'Princess' reminds from many points of view the Israeli movie, and even has some very similar looks. In a mix of animation and amateur movies filmed with hand-held camera it tells a story that would be too disturbing to be made with actors. A five year girl is orphaned by the death by overdose of her mother, a porn actress. Her uncle takes her under his protection, only to find out that she was abused by her mother's entourage. They engage in a violent voyage of revenge that ends in tragedy.The combination of animation - the cinema genre associated with the wonderful innocent world of childhood faeries - and documentary footage gives style to this otherwise disturbing story of a traumatic childhood and of violent revenge. Although the film is a little bit too simple in its approach and some of its details it leaves a strong impression exactly because of its apparent minimalism. It's like 'Kill Bill' meeting Disney on the very shaky and dangerous ground of a tragica story of revenge for a stolen childhood.

Rapeman Anders Morgenthaler's animated film Princess tells the disturbing tale of corrupted innocence and the bloody revenge taken by a missionary priest intent on taking down Denmark's porn industry.After his porn star sister Christina (aka The Princess) dies from a drug overdose, August, a priest previously doing missionary work on the other side of the world, returns to his homeland Denmark to take custody of his sisters five-year-old daughter, Mia. The longer he lives with Mia, the more August realizes how much the sexual, physical & mental abuse she has been subjected to while being dragged along through the sleazy underbelly of the porn industry with her mother has indefinitely warped her young mind. For instance, while August is bathing Mia she deftly unzips his fly while looking seductively (as much as a child can) up at him or, while joining in a game of "Mommies & Daddies" with some other children, she volunteers to be "the whore" because they don't have one of them yet. After the game she takes the boys to a secluded spot where she drops her panties and one of them attempts to anally penetrate her with a stick.All the while August is plotting ways to rid the world of all traces of his sister porn career and the man responsible for it, the illusive Charlie. At first he sends threats then not long after he violently fulfills them, sometimes with Mia's help (in one scene we see her gleefully sinking a crowbar into one producers genitals). On his mission of vengeance we see August set alight many distribution warehouses, gorily slaughter producers and managers, then eventually blow up a mansion "built on porn". Also sprinkled throughout the film are candid glimpses of Christina which we see via home video footage shot by August when they were teenagers - it seems he obsessively recorded everything - this footage is all live-action and adds a powerful sense of reality to the proceedings.All in all I was highly impressed by Princess, I don't think I've ever felt such strong emotion from an animated film before - it's portrayal of a timid priest who slowly transforms himself into a focused killing machine and the loss of innocence / sexualisation of a child are all depicted in an unflinching fashion, and yet while this is structured like a basic revenge flick, it is also anti-revenge because we see the damage August's revenge eventually inflicts on him and the people he loves. Although the film is obviously anti-porn, (in it's opening scenes we see a shocked August dressed in full priest attire accidentally witness his heavily pregnant sister being f@cked by two men on film, and when we see Christina's tombstone it is like an altar to porn flanked by four towering marble cocks and littered with dildo's and vibrators left by adoring fans) it isn't pushed too didactically which is a definite plus. The live-action sequences really enhance the film and give it more dimension as we witness Christina gradually getting more & more into her drugs and porn career while forgetting about her daughter as August looks on, helpless to do anything.

David Eastman The BBC series Monkey Dust used animation to portray fairly adult themes. In fact, there were many motifs that seem to come directly from that show, as well as the animation style. I suspect the film has either copied this style directly, or their is a shared artistic connection.The film covers the porn industry and its fallout. It is put together quite skilfully, but has no consistent mood and ends rather sentimentally. The spine is an almost Kill Bill style revenge plot, around which the sharp edges of the real world intrude. The film has heart but no gravity; it weaves a spell around itself but not the audience. So in the end the whole is considerably less than the sum of its well put together parts.

thorwl Princess is a visually stunning piece of adult animation. It takes a swing at the porno and sex industry in a pretty rough way, and I think the director Anders Morgenthaler truly wanted to tell his audience something with this flick. The combination of real film and animation works amazingly well and adds some extra debt to the characters. Somehow it feels more realistic when you get to see the voice behind the character, which you do in this film. (That was my spoiler I suppose) Go see Princess for extraordinary entertainment, sex, blood and violence and a statement that hits you in the face. I think we can expect great things from Anders Morgenthaler in the future, this being his first movie to go to the movie theaters.