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Angry, violent and disturbing, this is one Princess that doesn’t have a fairy tale ending.

It’s amazing how much you can get away with in animation.  If Princess had been a live action film, it wouldn’t attract much attention outside of the cult film crowd.  Princess is the movie that The Punisher should have been.  It’s a pure vengeance film that doesn’t pull any punches.  Director Anders Morgenthaler has some issues with pornography takes his crusade to film.

Princess opens with August (Thure Lindhardt), a Danish minister living in the U.S., walking into a house, down a hall and into a room where several men are being taped having sex with a pregnant woman.  It’s a jarring scene that has nothing to do with the rest of the film but sets the tone of what’s to come.  Anders has returned to Denmark upon learning that his sister, Christina (Stine Fischer Christensen), has died and left her five year-old daughter, Mia (Mira Hili Moller Hallund), with a local Madame.  While in the States, Christina has become a porn sensation named Princess, whose image is worth millions to a porn company called Paradise Lust started by her boyfriend Charlie.  When August learns what Christina was up to and that Mia was physically and sexually abused, he loses it and goes on a one man killing spree to erase any trace that his sister was a porn star.

Morgenthaler has issues with the porn industry and Princess is his way of showing how damaging it is.  Christina was exploited while alive and even in death, her grave is dedicated to a trashy display of phallic art.  Thanks to her mother, Mia has only known perversions in her life.  While playing house with other kids, she suggests that she is the whore.  Mia has shut down and merely walks through life a shadow.  As much as Morgenthaler decries the porn industry (and sure it does destroy some peoples lives), he has no problem suggesting that violence is the answer. The further August goes on his quest, the more violent the film becomes and even has five year-old Mia killing a man with a crowbar at one point.

Moral outcries aside, Princess is a good film and despite Morgenthaler’s heavy handedness, he does have some great ideas.  In-between the animated moments, we see live acts in old video tape of what the lives of August and Christina were like after the death of their parents in a car accident.  It fills in the back story and we learn how Christina’s life spun out of control when she met Charlie.  Through the live action flashbacks, we learn how August is complicit in his sisters demise and his quest is as much a chance to redeem himself as restore his sister’s honor.  It’s the live action sequences that add gravitas to the events and keep it from becoming another anime-esque film.

Tartan really missed a chance here to add some great extras to the DVD.  Sadly all you get is a trailer for the film.  There should have at least been a commentary track and a making-of attached. 

I really enjoyed Princess. It’s an intelligent, uncomfortable, ultra-violent movie.  Fans of extreme movies will really enjoy Princess.  It’s hard to watch at times but the story is more than just cheap exploitation.

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