BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

levelclearer Well, I watched this movie many times so I think I can better explain what it is all about. Olya the girl in the beginning of the movie features her personal weaknesses, or bad habits, or let's call it sins. She is craving for grandma's jam so much, that she discards grandma's word no to touch the jam, and breaks the can as she tries to eat some. Also Olya is recreant, lazy, irresponsible, sweet-tooth to the extent of forgetting about more important things. In other words Olya features a number of bad habits typical for children of her age. And through possession of these bad habits she becomes attracted to the fairy-tale surreal world of "Kingdom of crooked mirrors" which in fact is some kind of anti-world where all inhabitants bear reversed names to be read backwards to understand the true nature of the character. The kingdom is ruled by bizarre and evil characters featuring different animals like Parrot, Adder, Falcon, Toad (all shall be read backwards), and in fact represent a fake and gullish monarch Parrot, and three ruthless, cunning and power loathing tycoons: Toad, Adder and Falcon, who really rule the Kingdom. Played by people dressed and made up accordingly. In order to cement their power over the Kingdom they lean upon what probably should be described as total and systematic lying, or people's mass misinformation, by producing and disseminating only crooked mirrors. For this end they arrested the mirror-maker Friend who refused to produce crooked mirrors. So the CMK world represents where do Olya's weaknesses or bad habits would finally take her if not eradicated timely and properly. During her trip in the Kingdom Olya is accompanied by her mirror twin Yalio, who has no bad habits, but acts accordingly to her age. The main goal is to free the mirror-maker Friend from the Death Tower, which means the end of the Kingdom of Crooked mirrors. Olya has to overcome her own weaknesses and bad habits on her way to the goal, otherwise the ruling of Adder, Falcon, and Toad will never end. It is important to understand that in the USSR production of movies was controlled by Art councils, so the final product is kinda a balance between the movie director and Art council, therefore something resembling propaganda can sometimes be expected. But if you understand the entire story and the plot, you will see that Kingdom is a materialization of one's bad habits taken to the logical absolute to show to kids how important is to take an active and firm position in life and to stick to the truth, that in adult life you will have to take an active position, you will have to distinguish your friends from enemies, and you will have to act accordingly. Well, from the point of view of Adder, Falcon, and Toad this must be a very dangerous propaganda.

Leofwine_draca As some other reviewers have noted, WORLD OF CROOKED MIRRORS is a delightfully old-fashioned Russian fairy tale put on film. It's a children's fantasy heavily indebted to the likes of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, telling of a young and innocent girl who climbs through a mirror and finds herself transported to a fantastic world that has been corrupted by evil reflections. Most of the film concentrates on having fun with backwards characters and names.The dated nature of this production gives it the quality of an old pantomime and that's not helped by the garish costumes and over-saturated colours of the production. However, at the same time, these things are strengths when it comes to WORLD OF CROOKED MIRRORS. The film has a distinctive and surreal look with some parts that would be more than frightening for a watching child spoon-fed on the safe world of Disney. The special effects are quaint rather than elaborate and lovers of the bizarre will be in their element.

Madluke91 This is a very fun and quirky Russian children's movie done in the vain of Alice In Wondeland.Olia, a young girl who is always losing things breaks a jar of jam, at which point a mirror begins to talk to her. She climbs inside, where she meets her reflection Ailo (The backwards spelling of her own name.)The mirror was crooked however, and they are actually within the most crooked of all crooked mirrors.They meet a host of characters, ranging from the Tattletales, King Tarrop (Parrot backwards, you get the point, the spellings are backwards.), Leasew the chef and many others.There dilemma begins when Dneirf is taken to the Tower of Death for breaking a crooked mirror. Olia and Ailo set out to try and save him, meeting this bulk of interesting characters along the way.The film is very sweet and innocent, a slight bit of Russian propaganda if you can call it that, i think of it more as a little bit of patriotism, is thrown in, but that's pushed far back. This film is more a fairytale than anything else.I won't lie, the production isn't superb. The fantasy sets are very dated and remind me of many other very cheap 60's films, and it is very childish too. But it is very enjoyable, and that's all that matters.If you want a little bit of harmless entertainment, or you have some young-ones you'd like to show something too, then maybe this is a good option.

Alya-4 Certain films leave a lasting impression, even though you cannot explain why. This film is dated and the quality of the special effects is questionable. Nonetheless, this movie has a lot of charm. It is actually quite exciting (my little cousins love it) and fun to watch.