Le manège magique de Noël

I can't get past the horrible toupee the dad is wearing. Distracts from the movie.

This was poorly done. The acting was actually good but Bledsoe's fake accent was AWFUL, good thing it wasn't in 95% of the scenes......Oh wait. The sets were cheap and it showed, and the some of the wardrobe is ridiculous, and I'm not just talking about Bledsoe wearing children's size clothing. The dialogue was confused as if it was written by 2 different people, one of them terrible at it. When these little annoyances are nearly every single scene, it just becomes too much

Had high hopes for this one, but gave up early because the dialogue was just too artificial. The artificial accent from the prince added to the difficulty. I see from another reviewer's comments that it apparently has a really good wrap up in terms of visual sequences, character closure, and plot resolution, which sounds just like what I was hoping for from this movie, but it was too off-putting right at the start for me to be able to get there.

OoooFfff.. Painfully BAD. I'll be the first to admit I love a well done "royal" Christmas movie, and always look forward to them each year. They're hit or miss, and this one is realllllllllyyyyyyy a MISS. Rachel Boston is at the top of my "I wish they'd retire" list, and Neal Bledsoe is pretty hard to watch as well. It seems like Hallmark was trying to emulate the "nostalgia" of A Godwink Christmas (with the carousel), and the sentiments of Christmas with a Prince (equally as bad... -maybe even worse). Like another said, this year has been a lame year for Hallmark. I'll take Quality of Quantity, too!! There's basically nothing to spoil, since the story is predictable within the first 5 minutes. The best royal movies, in my opinion will remain: A Princess for Christmas, Crown for Christmas, and A Royal Christmas. Watch at your own risk. *And Hallmark, should you read this...... PLEASE just STOP using the same tired actors and actresses. And for the love of ALL that is holy, -PLEASE get new writers, actors, costumes and locations!!!!

This is Hallmark's second 'Royal' Christmas movie this season (the first being One Royal Holiday, which is arguably a better film). I have mixed feelings about this one: on the one hand, the plot is very generic (except for the carousel element) and the script is quite ordinary; on the other hand, the acting was very good overall. That said, in the end, I thought it was a decent movie, but not one of Hallmark's best, I'm afraid. I did think it was great getting a glimpse at the craftsmanship and artwork that goes into making and upkeeping a carousel. I had never really thought about it before, but it seems to be a very artistic endeavor. A pity we did not spend more time watching Thomas Carousel Restoration (which was the name of their business in the film) at work. The story here centers around Lila (played by Rachel Boston), who works for her father Roy (played by Stuart Hughes) at the family carousel restoration business, though, recently, she has been thinking about following her own path (career-wise, that is). They are hired by the Royal Family of Ancadia to restore an old carousel that Lila's great-grandfather built some 100 years earlier. Upon their arrival, they meet Whitaker (aka the Prince, played by Neal Bledsoe, our other protagonist in this story) who has taken an interest in the restoration. And so, our journey begins as Lila and the Prince team up, and we watch their relationship grow and blossom into romance in the snow-covered mountains of the Kingdom of Ancadia. The movie draws a little on a very popular plot device this Christmas season: i.e., deception and mistaken identity. I thought this worked well. Indeed, the first 20 minutes or so of the film were great, I thought. There were some nice scenes where we got a look at the craftsmanship I mentioned above, and there were some nice banter and interactions between our two protagonists. However, once we got to the palace of the royal family, the story started to become less appealing, I thought. The sub-plot around the father and son relationship (the King and Prince) was unexceptional: we have seen many movies where the Prince is not living up to the royal standards. There were some good dialogue and scenes between the Prince and Lila. However, the chemistry between the two never really developed on screen, which is a problem in a romance film. Boston had a pretty good performance; she usually does well (as a Hallmark regular) in this genre of film. Bledsoe too had a decent performance (his accent did not bother me, as it seems to have been for some of the reviewers on here). As another reviewer observed, he had a bit of a Hugh Grant vibe to his performance, which I, for the most part, enjoyed. The problem was, there was no real chemistry between the two. At least, I did not see it or feel it on screen. The supporting cast was strong, some solid performances, I thought. What was up with Roy's little boy haircut? It was a bit distracting at first. Finally, the film did have a very nice Christmas feel to it. There were some beautiful scenic shots of the castle and mountains. The scenery, props, and sets were elegant and quite festive (such cozy royal stables). All in all, it is a decent Christmas movie. If you enjoy Royal themed Hallmark (or Hallmark like) movies, then I suspect you will enjoy this one too.