The Moon Princess and the Secret of the White Horse – The Secret of Moonacre (2008)

Directed by: Gabor Csupo | 103 minutes | adventure, family, romance, fantasy | Actors: Dakota Blue Richards, Ioan Gruffudd, Tim Curry, Natascha McElhone, Juliet Stevenson, Augustus Prew, Andy Linden, Michael Webber, Zoltán Barabás Kis, George Mendel, Sandor Istvan Nagy, Oliver Simor, Ferenc Vizes

Hungarian Gabor Csupo made a convincing Hollywood debut in 2007 with ‘Bridge to Terabithia’. Based on a classic children’s novel, this family film mixed realism with fantasy and didn’t shy away from heavy themes. The sequel to this successful film is called ‘The Moon Princess and the Secret of the White Horse’ (‘The Secret of Moonacre’) and is again based on a well-known youth novel. And let that juvenile novel be JK Rowling’s favorite book.

“The Secret of Moonacre” is about the girl Maria Merryweather who is taken into the household of her Uncle Benjamin after the death of her parents. He lives on a remote estate, where all kinds of strange things happen. For example, every morning when Maria wakes up, she finds a glass of milk, cookies and an old dress in her locked attic room. She is also served the most delicious meals every day, while there is no cook or kitchen in the whole house. And why does the moon get bigger and bigger every night?

Somewhere in the conversion from novel to screenplay something must have gone terribly wrong, because ‘The Moon Princess and the Secret of the White Horse’ never gives the impression of being based on a classic work. The story has a large number of ingredients (pearls, ancient curse, white horses, black lions, moon crashing, family feuds, invisible males) but they all have the same specific gravity and never form a coherent story. Even for an adult viewer it is difficult to make chocolate from all those separate ingredients, let alone for the young audience for whom this film is intended. Because of that lack of coherence, the film lacks tension, making the 103 minutes a very long session.

What makes it even more difficult is the lack of sympathetic characters. Even the intended heroine Maria Merryweather is a pale and meaningless character. But her governess, who is constantly farming, her uncle and his servants also remain flat and not very heart-warming characters.

Add to that the lack of humor, the cheap CGI, the solemn dialogues, the inconsistent dubbing and the overly bombastic finale, and you can safely say that this film disappoints. All the more unfortunate, because deeply hidden in the screenplay the shadows of “Ronja the Robber’s Daughter” and “Romeo and Juliet” are visible. But those are titles that you should forget as soon as possible in connection with this lifeless film.