The family-friendly story of a girl with a gift for speaking to her equine friends lacks even minimal levels of peril and adventure
This well-meaning, eat-your-broccoli kids’ animation from
Germany steers clear of simpering princess stereotypes in its story about a young royal who’s mad about animals. She is princess Emmy, who has a secret gift – she can talk to horses. There is some nice acting here from the voice cast on the English dub, but even little kids may find Princess Emmy tame, lacking even age-appropriate levels of danger and adventure.
Ruby Barnhill voices Emmy, a full-of-beans modern princess who is told by an ancient spirit that she must pass a test to prove she’s worthy of her talking-to-horses gift. At the same time, her nemesis cousin Princess Gizana (Bella Ramsey, Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones) shows up at the castle for a ball. The films deserves points for showing the cousins’ blood-boiling anger with each other – so often in kids films girls are limited to nice sugary feelings, or bitchiness and envy.