Princess Emmy – Princess Emmy (2019)

Directed by: Piet De Rycker | 78 minutes | animation, family | Dutch voice cast: Ricardo Blei, Noa Swan, Manou Jue Cardoso, Sem van der Horst, Peggy Vrijens, Jannemien Cnossen, Joost Claes, Hein van Beem, Hymke de Vries

His name has been on the list of richest Flemish people for over ten years: Gert Verhulst. With his Studio 100 empire, he is rightfully the Walt Disney of the low countries. Verhulst started his career in 1987 as an announcer at the BRT and only became a well-known Flemish three years later when he got his own children’s program alongside the talking plush sheepdoes Samson, which was also broadcast on Dutch television. Anyone growing up in the 1990s will undoubtedly remember the well-known phrase ‘Yes, I had to knock because the bell doesn’t work’ and the hairdresser/opera singer Albertó (with the emphasis on the o) Vermicelli who always talked about his ‘mamaaa’ at who he still lived in. The success of ‘Samson and Gert’ sparked the foundation of Studio 100; the BRT could no longer handle the success of ‘Samson and Gert’, with all the merchandise, theater shows, CDs and DVDs, and Verhulst and his companions Hans Bourlon and Danny Verbiest wanted to operate independently of a broadcaster. Voila: production house Studio 100 was a fact. From that tube, more ideas were launched, including the enormously popular Kabouter Plop (which resulted in its own indoor and outdoor theme parks Plopsaland in Belgium and the Netherlands), K3, Het Huis Anubis, Piet Piraat and Mega Mindy. With the acquisition of the German EM Entertainment, titles such as ‘Maya de Bij’, ‘Wickie de Viking’ and ‘Heidi’ also came into the hands of Studio 100. Since 2008, new cartoons and series have been developed from a new animation studio in Paris. The German Made4Eintertainment (including ‘Tip de Muis’ and ‘Lizzie McGuire’) and the American Little Airplane Productions (‘Super Wings’ and various toddler programs) have now been wholly or partly incorporated by Studio 100.

The animation film ‘Princess Emmy’ (2019) also comes from the stable of Studio 100 Animation and was directed by the Belgian Piet De Rycker, who operates mainly from Germany, who was previously responsible for the modest, family-friendly animation films ‘The little polar bear’ (2001 ) and ‘Laura’s Star’ (2004). The screenplay is by Sergio Casci, who has a rather diverse oeuvre that includes not only children’s series (‘Katie Morag’) but also horror films such as ‘The Caller’ (2011) and ‘The Lodge’ (2019). In ‘Princess Emmy’ he comes straight to the point: the title character is a young princess with a special gift: she can talk to horses. And that’s handy if you have no fewer than 26 noble tubers (each with a name with a different letter of the alphabet) in the stable. She draws her strength from a special book that once belonged to her great-great-grandmother, and which she guards with her life, because if she loses it, she also loses her gift. In addition, she must prove that she is worthy of her special talent. While Emmy wants nothing more than to be with her animals, she is also expected to behave like a princess. Especially now that the annual princess ball is approaching; if she meets all the requirements, she can go there for the first time. Emmy has ten days to learn everything and is taught by the best (and also the most boring) teachers in the country. And then she also gets serious competition from her niece Gizana, who also wants to go to the princess ball and with whom she regularly quarrels.

Piet De Rycker’s work particularly appeals to the youngest viewers. With ‘Princess Emmy’ he mainly focuses on girls of about six years old; they will quickly like movies with lots of pink, princesses, horses and magic and will also enjoy this. The tension is limited to the infighting between Emmy and her niece Gizana, who is (obviously) less evil than she appears to be. That makes the film hardly adventurous for anyone above eight years old, but it is all just exciting enough for the intended target group. The characters Emmy and Gizana are nicely developed, and Emmy easily wins our sympathy, but the other characters are rather one-dimensional. For example, the cocky teacher who has to teach the girls good manners isn’t as funny as the movie would have us believe and his accent in the Dutch version is a curious mix of German and Russian, when he really should be from Italy. Better successful than the castle ghost, which doesn’t add much to the storyline but does make a nice contribution to the whole. It’s a shame that we only get to see a dubbed version in the Netherlands, because the original English version features the voices of interesting actors including John Hannah, Tim McInnerny, Franka Potente, Bella Ramsey (“Game of Thrones”) and Ruby Barnhill, the orphaned girl from ‘The BFG’ (2016). In the Dutch version, the voices of Ricardo Blei, Noa Swan, Manou Jue Cardoso, Peggy Vrijens and Hein van Beem can be heard. Conclusion: ‘Princess Emmy’ is a bit predictable and boring, but thanks to an endearing heroine, an alphabet of horses and a touch of magic, success is assured for girls of six.