CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

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.

sarastro7 Stylistically, Princess is unique and innovative and extremely well made; even to the extent of being called an art movie. Contents-wise, however, it is not an art movie, but purely an outpouring of anger. The story is good and important (if quite simple), and one understands the emotion that underlies it. It is a movie that deserves a high grade simply for initiating a discussion of this sort of subject matter. The porn industry is a crucible of enormous individual tragedy for those caught in it, and it is easy to blame those who seem immediately responsible: the producers. But, of course, porn is a consequence of larger social mechanisms, and to get rid of the type of porn (which today is almost all of it) that demeans and degrades women requires larger social changes. I suspect Morgenthaler is aware of this (esp. because the culprit, Charlie, survives the protagonists), but realizes that one must crawl before being able to walk. This is his opening statement, and it doesn't penetrate to any deeper social causes of the subject treated, but later works of his might. Let's hope.We live in an era that hardly even talks about this kind of subject matter, and that is part of the problem. We cannot have a meaningful public dialog about such things until the subject has been broached in some initial, fairly simple way that makes people willing to discuss it. Once the discussion has been opened, debate on the deeper causes of the problems can be engaged in. Kudos to Morgenthaler for attempting to treat a very serious subject which hardly anybody else have tried to take a good look at before.8 out of 10.

pod-21 August is a priest who returns to Denmark from missionary work to take care of his five year old niece Mia when his sister Christina dies of a drug overdose. August has spent years trying to save others through his work but was powerless to help Christina, whose life was a downward spiral since achieving fame in life as the titular "Princess"- a porn star. His feelings of guilt turn to anger when he realizes that his sister wasn't the only victim of this seedy underworld, but that little Mia has a long documented history of sexual and physical abuse. He directs his rage towards the men behind the camera that used and abused his sister and her daughter to line their own pockets. Thus begins a bloody tale of vengeance as August, with Mia as his side, resolves to wipe his sisters porn legacy from the face of the planet, while all the time trying to reach his prize- Charlie- the man who was Christina's lover, and who first brought her fame as the Princess.To say that the film is good is to do it a disservice. The film is simply put a work of art. The animation, while always limited, achieves something in its simplicity that all the millions of costly pixels (-seemingly employed by everyone and their third cousin twice removed these days) simply cannot. Honesty. August's journey is a cautionary tale- making no bones about the fact that the first victim of revenge (no matter how good the case for revenge may be) is always the one who seeks it. This is a complex film which challenges the viewer in that it makes us understand and indeed root for August but, as the body count rises, literally destroys any good in him in the process. What starts out as wish fulfillment fantasy ala Kill Bill, turns decidedly nasty as Morgenthaler never lets you forget that the lives lost to August's cause are not always deserving, or if indeed they are, they are only deserving seen from a certain point of view. There are no universal rights or wrongs, no innocents. Just people. I would love to write more on this point, but firmly believe that it would spoil the journey for anyone coming into the film fresh.Morgenthaler is in a league that few can claim. I was constantly and happily reminded of Scorsese ala "Mean streets" and "Taxi Driver", of Towne and Polanski ala "Chinatown". There is a fierce directness to this work that is staggering and his decisions are constantly surprising. The film is inter-cut with live action footage, taken by August in his youth when he was a camera nut. This lays out the back story of their lives and charts how all this came to pass. I was wary of this concept going into the film as I have rarely thought that mixing these two media was successful. With one exception he pulls it off, the shaky home video feel adds credence to the animated world (not to mention the porn, which with the exception of the opening sequence is always shown live action), plus providing us with a third reel whammy that will knock you for six.The star of the film though is Mia. She is the ultimate in innocence corrupted. Where as in "Perfect Blue" we watched as a childlike young woman is tortured by a sexual predator, here we have an actual child who has experienced much worse, but is too young to have any idea of the psychological consequences. She is hurt, frightened, tragically sad, but only seen from our point of view. She was raised in this world, and that's all she really knows. Playing house for her is something entirely different then for other children. It is played for laughs at times, but Morgenthaler chokes that laugh in your throat by never letting you forget the sheer horror of what it is you are watching. It leaves a lasting mark on you that is hard to shake.I cannot recommend this film highly enough.