In 2020, a certain pandemic shut down the world. Many conventions and festivals, for their sake and for their fans, experimented with online-only events, at drastically reduced prices. The same was true for "Annecy," the world's largest animation film festival, held in France every Summer. They presented (most of) their 2020 selection online, all accessible with an "online pass" at about $30 USD, the price of perhaps two in-person films in normally sold-out theaters. I still hope to visit the real event one day, as a pilgrimage any animation fan should take as a tourist, but this online version is a great alternative that I hope remains.One of the feature films available was a Russian family film, called "Ginger's Tale."Set in a small medival town, the Queen lives alone in a castle at the edge, her only companion being "Oops," the clever but bumbling scientist who serves her. The Queen has a long-kep secret: a flintstone that magically gives her endless wealth and eternal youth. When her greed goes too far one day, the stone is lost in the river during a chaotic fire, and the Queen and her servant spend years searching for it. Cut to the village, and we have Ginger, an excitable and clumsy red-headed girl with a heart of a hero, and her childhood friend (and current-day boyfriend) Potter, who makes clay pots for a living. They dream of opening a fashion store together and with their friends (three, who respectively make hats, suits and shoes), and finishing the town's fountain, started by Potter's famous grandfather. But with one accident after another, the townspeople have little faith in them, and Potter himself is full of self-doubt. Things change when he finds a mysterious stone washed up from the river, giving him enough wealth to buy anything he couldn't make himself... Deep down, there's a decent fairy tale in "Ginger's Tale." It makes for a fun family musical you can share with children. Yes, the Russian-language film has full songs in it, although I only counted three... the songs are quite good too, but the movie seems to forget it's a musical until time comes to squeeze one in. Clearly, the movie is inspired by classic Disney films of yester-decade, and the animation quality represents that passion, with accessible character designs and character animation that srives for that high level. It comes close, although it's more like watching the portfolio of a very talented (but inexperienced) animation student, like a television film from the 90's rather than something that could rival theatrical American animation. It's hard to put my finger on it, but I think it's pacing between keyframes that's consistently the issue. Speaking of pacing, the movie feels much longer than it should: I thought it was almost over, and was surprised to see we were only 20 minutes in the story!
The bigger issue is the lack of "creative" ambition. You probably caught that from the character names, each one describing the character's job title, a cute but lazy decision. The relationship and story-purpose for both Ginger and Potter could be critized too. Ginger is reminiscent of a peppy "Pippi-Longstocking," running around in her overalls as an adult, and her spirit and story arc poises her to be the town's hero. But she's also adorably in love with Potter, a character who increasingly becomes the villain as he gives into greed, as the Queen plots to steal back the magic flintstone from him. The climatic scenes involve Ginger risking her life as a literal "damsel in the tower," for Potter to come to his senses and tear open a jail-cell like door, shirt ripped to show his muscles. The two things conflict, being awkwardly forward and backward at the same time, both in a disappointing manner that American films also struggled with, but mostly solved, 20 years prior. I haven't yet mentioned the nature of the magic flintstone: sparking a fire from it summons a robotic dog, that runs around in circles for a moment, pooping gold coins before disappearing again. In addition to cash, the greed caused by the cursed stone eventually brings the victim to eating the coins whole, the source of the Queen's youth. Naturally, playing with fire is dangerous, so overusing the thing causes a lot of accidents. Somehow, the manifestation of this plot-device seems absurdidly stupid, but maybe that's just me? Finally, the film's title is, at best, an afterthought. Why not call it "Curse of the Flintstone" or "A Fairy Tale of Fire?" This is a personal peeve, but the title matters, dang it!I'm being very critical of a foreign kid's movie that does have a lot of charm in it. "Ginger's Tale" is a fun little musical that showcases a lot of potential for the studio's animation skills. Within Russia, this could be part of a long legacy of titles that their children grow up on.