My problems with this movie

1st - Because they are royalty and the queen does not want any relations with a peasant. She made this clear in the movie.

2nd - Because the King is reminded of the old woman he slept with which disgusted him so. He is traumatized by this.

3rd - This movie does not adhere to reality. Also the flea was kept within his room always, it never left his room and I assume no one is allowed inside his room without permission.

4th - I was a bit unsatisfied myself but thinking about it, it did really end and all the character stories all got their endings. The Queen died because of her selfish desires and Elias is pretty much the King now(so he could probably bring back Jonah and his family back to the castle). The old woman who turned young reverted back to her old self is now to spend her entire life alone, as the king, again because of their selfish desires. And of course you know what happened to the princess.

1, 2 and 3 - Fairytale logic. The Queen doesn't want Elias spending time with Jonas because she wants the son all to herself. The redheaded woman tries to tell the King that the woman is her neighbor (I believe) or that she's nobody or that she doesn't matter but he'll have none of it. And the enormous flea is a classic fairytale element. Like the golden eggs and beanstalk that can reach the heavens and... well, ogres. These are stories of fatal flaws, not of logic and reason.

4 - I agree here though. I expected a stronger ending, but we basically got an abrupt "and they all lived happily ever after" to all of the stories in about 3-4 minutes or so.

Now my own problem with the movie was Violet's tale, which I found the strongest emotionally. I guess it just bothered me that the woman who tried to help her got repaid by being killed along with her entire family. For Violet. Talk about no good deeds going unpunished... Of course it did build that sense of "you have to do it yourself or nobody's gonna do it at all" despair. Either Violet saved herself, or nobody saved her at all. It's just the collateral damage doesn't seem fair to me.

But then again the collateral damage is in all three of the tales (Violet's just happens to be the most painful). For the Queen's child-lust the sea-creature and her husband both died. Innocently. Because of Dora, Imma either died or was mutilated for life. Realistically she would've died but this is a fairytale so goodness knows. And with Violet... well, yeah.

And that's my only beef with the film. It's not a masterpiece but it's not bad either. It feels like an afternoon reading Grimm fairytales :)

1st - The queen doesn't want her blonde son spending time with the other blonde boy - Why not? They clearly have a connection, why not tell them both they are cousins or something?

The queen grew jealous of the connection between the dragon twins. She had spent her entire life wanting a child. She wanted him all to herself and could not bear the thought of being second in his affections.

2nd - When the old woman turns into a young redhead and marries the King, why not ask if her "aunt" can live in the castle? Surely the King wouldn't refuse her this.

That's more the fault of the sister. As crones you could see how they competed with each other. Over jewelry, suitors. Fingers, even.

3rd - Fleas don't grow this big, no matter how much you feed them. And anything this big might have been seen by someone in the castle. To promise your daughters hand over something like this??

The flea was a metaphor for his hubris.

4th - the ending - or the lack of an ending. For the most part I enjoyed this movie but the ending left me feeling unsatisfied.

I totally get that because the Violet was somewhat unsympathetic by our standards. Annoying, entitled, whiny. Heck, even the ogre came off better than her. So I get that people would ask "Why should she be granted the kingdom?"











REMEMBER: Sofia Vergara =/= Vera Farmiga

1. The other boy is a peasant so she cannot stand her son associating with him. The fact that she knows the other boy is also in some ways her son's 'brother' unsettles her.

2. I too thought - why not just pretend it was her mother? However, there was clear rivalry between the sisters and though Dora invited her sister to her wedding party she clearly did not really want here to stay and spoil things for her.

3. It's a fairy tale - fleas can do what they like! And he did not promise his daughter's hand over it. He felt sure that nobody could guess the skin (if you want to pick faults - fleas don't have skin either) belonged to a flea and that would keep his daughter with him.

4. It is true that the ending did not tie up all the loose ends and explain what happened to everyone - but that is a very Hollywood style requirement. Many films do not end neatly and I do not think this was really a negative point.