David und die Weihnachtselfen

According to Wikipedia, Poland has only made a total of 4 Christmas films as of the time of writing: The Nutcracker (1967), Letters to Santa (1&2), and David and the Elves. It is clear that as a country, Poland has for the most part been very private with its Christmas traditions and lore, and I would like to start by saying thank you so much for opening yourselves up so that we of the rest of the world can have such a glimpse of your Holiday Season. The acting is well done and the fact that it has an English dubbed version on Netflix is even better. I especially loved the clever little references to other Christmas films, such as The Santa Clause with the beard scene. The cinematography was excellent, on par with other traditional films such as The Christmas Chronicles, however low-budget it may have been. The story is wonderful and heartwarming and an absolute joy to watch. Thank you, Poland, for sharing such a unique and charming Christmas tale with us. I would love a sequel.

We didn't expect much from this comedy cum drama cum fantasy cum children's movie... but somehow it paid off! Perhaps our joy in it came from reveling in another culture's traditions or avoiding the sappy dialogue and voices by listening to it in its native Polish and reading the subtitles? (Aside: We did that for Megan Markle's banal narration of Disney's nature documentaries and it made them actually watchable - French audio, English subtitles.) Whoever wrote those subtitles really knew how to make them meaningful and funny - even just the "Ho ho ho" while the audio only had "Ho ho" was a cute one.

Even in English though, I imagine this still was a good movie. The casting was terrific, the pacing was perfect, the sets were cut down but well done, and there was just enough holiday cheer. No overblown FX here or celebrity casting for no reason whatsoever. The little side gags were really well timed and without any of that excess acting/dialogue/stupidity that often ruins them in these Netflix/Hallmark Christmas tropes. And, for the main plot itself, well, there's not much too it and it is definitely not what the tag says it is ("overworked elf..." ah, no), but it still works in an odd sort of way.

Overall, this was a tough review to write as it's a very tough movie to describe... but we loved it! Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia!

While the voice overs were of a mixed level of success (and I think it probably be watched in its original Polish with subtitles, though I haven't done that - yet), I thought it was a charming film and quite different in tone and style from typical Hollywood fare. All the characters have "attitude", and since I came into watching the film with something of my own attitude, it hit me just right. Santa and Ms. Claus are hilarious. Nice story and messages. A refreshing alternative to the other 75 new Netflix x-mas films...

I wasn't expecting much but it is one of the best Christmas movies I have seen. The main character is eleven, and the movie should land well with that demographic, and their parents. It was uneven at times but the kids probably won't notice because there is the right mix of action, humour and emotion throughout. It would be easy to experience this story with the characters for anybody with imagination. Acting is much better than I was expecting. The songs are underwhelming but sincere. Note: I watched this in Polish with subtitles, not the dubbed version. Definitely worth the time to invest seeing with your grandkids and some hot cocoa :)

This production screams quality. The sets, costume, acting, and direction down to camera movements and an overall directorial vision that is cohesive and deliberate. These are a few of the excellent qualities of Michal Rogalski's "Dawid i Elfy" (David and the Elves).

I was enthralled right up until someone spoke. This has nothing to do with any the voice actors' ability or talent, it is the fault of whoever chose to overdub this film rather than to just have subtitles. It is likely no worse than any other film's overdubbing, however, with a film of this quality, it comes across as cheap, rushed and performed by actors that seeming didn't have enough time to prepare for their roles and who just ended up reading lines (often in isolation and not interacting with other actors) into a microphone in a studio. I very well could be wrong but that is my major gripe with this otherwise great little film.