Dawid i Elfy

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.

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.

Well long time I haven't seen such a funny and beautiful Christmas movie , I'm not looking for flaws in the details, the important thing is that it was watched by the whole family with a lot of laughter. Congratulations.

I wasn't expecting much from this film, like most Netflix Christmas movies, but this was an enjoyable watch. It wasn't annoying and flashy and loud. It wasn't too sweet and sappy either. The costumes and sets were top quality and I enjoyed the natural acting. The story was engaging and had some cute, funny moments. For the commenter who mentioned dubbing, you can switch your Netflix settings to subtitled and the problem is solved. Overall, it's a fun little film that captures the season and doesn't rely on cliches. A very good effort.

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!