My Sweet Monster (2021)

Directed by: Viktor Glukhushin, Maksim Volkov | 99 minutes | animation, family | Dutch voice cast: Stefan Rokebrand, Nandi van Beurden, Birgit Schuurman

In the shadow of the large (mostly American) animation studios, many other production houses are working hard on their own cartoon empire. Almost every country with a lively film industry nowadays also has its own animation studio, but by no means all films produced there reach the screens in the Netherlands and Belgium. Fortunately, there are more and more of these ‘exotics’ showing in our cinemas. For example, the animation film ‘My Sweet Monster’ (2021) reached Dutch and Belgian cinemas from Russia. ‘My Sweet Monster’ comes from CTB Film Company, a huge player in the Russian market that is also doing well elsewhere in Eastern Europe and Asia and is moving the beacons further and further west. Founded by producer Sergey Selyanov, this film studio has been producing films, TV series, animated films and series and documentaries for thirty years. In total, CTB has already delivered about 165 (co-)productions that have already won almost three hundred awards, including four Academy Award nominations. Thanks to distributor Dutch Filmworks, ‘My Sweet Monster’ can now also be viewed by children in the Benelux.

The studio prides itself on exclusively publishing original stories, but if you browse through CTB’s online catalog you will soon discover that the Russians also use elements that have already been reviewed in previous fairy tales and film adaptations. There is also a lot of recognition in ‘My Sweet Monster’, but luckily directors Vikro Glukhushin and Maxim Volkov know how to give it their own smooth twist. Barbara is a rebellious princess of the type Disney has patented these days. She is also dreamy; she prefers to curl up in a quiet corner with a book about her prince charming, Edward. Or with one of the letters she got from him. Her father, King Elias, can hardly believe that his little girl is already sixteen years old. He is quite patronizing towards Barbara and the princess does not like that. The party for her sixteenth birthday turns into a drama. Not just because Barbara rips her late mother’s dress to shreds because it’s distressing her, but mostly because the cunning postman Billy has invaded the palace and is pressuring the king to let him marry his daughter. Distraught, Barbara flees into the dark forest where, according to legend, lives a life-threatening monster called the Bogeyman. When she meets him, he turns out not to be such a bad guy at all. In fact, she develops a special and precious friendship with him and his buddy, a talking rabbit. Together they travel through the dark forest to find their way to Prince Edward’s castle. But the nefarious Billy is now on their tails and has found his own way to track down Barbara.

‘My Sweet Monster’ offers a lot of recognition; Besides the rebellious princess and the oppressive father, there are of course the villainous intruder, the funny sidekicks, the three ladies-in-waiting whose names keep getting confused, the Prince Charming and the monster that turns out to be far from monstrous. We can tick it all off here, but this Russian film also has a face all its own. For example, King Elias turns out to be an inventor who has discovered an elixir of life with which he has brought his creations – Steampunk-like robots – to life and those robots now work as servants in the palace. His own sidekicks are flying light bulbs that are most reminiscent of Lampje, Willie Wortel’s sidekick from the Donald Duck comics. One of those lights goes on an adventure with Barbara and can therefore also play a heroic role. The animations are decent, but not exceptionally detailed, droll or charming. It is a good copy of what we already know. The musical intermezzos we are treated to are a poor imitation of the better Disney work. What is very nice about ‘My Sweet Monster’ is that the film suddenly comes with a surprising twist at three quarters, which deviates from what you would expect in films like this one and which weaves today’s greedy society into the story in a very inventive way. Because you can also expect a Disney-like life lesson in this Russian animation film. ‘My Sweet Monster’ opposes the healing power of nature, the power of friendships and the respect we should have for Mother Earth, in direct opposition to the consumer society of ever more. A good lesson for the young target group (children aged 6 and older): what is it really about in life?

The individual elements from ‘My Sweet Monster’ are far from original and the animation is not of the high level that we are used to these days. The songs might as well have been left out. Nevertheless, the makers of this Russian animation film manage to put all those different parts together in such a quirky way that the whole is still very enjoyable. So that you, just like your children, at a certain moment close the characters in your heart and you forgive the less beautifully developed aspects of the film.