Parents' Guide to Albion: The Enchanted Stallion

This is a generic otherworldly adventure designed to appeal to tween girls, complete with a sensible stable girl protagonist saving the day. In the mode of the Narnia and Hobbit tales, where a quest motivates the characters to do the courageous things they do, here an imperiled magical kingdom needs a 12-year-old girl's assistance for survival. Many of these adventure-in-a-strange-world films would profit from a 10- or 20-minute reduction in running time, and this is no different. There's an obvious and not always successful effort to mimic the irreverent humor of The Princess Bride, and John Cleese, of Monty Python fame, amusingly executes the odd role of a cruel and cannibalistic general whose torso and face are covered with nipples.

Albion: The Enchanted Stallion features luscious green landscapes, swelling inspirational anthems, and a twisting and at times slow-moving plot about a peaceable people tricked into living underground in a treaty brokered by a hoodwinked goddess. Some are dressed like Vikings and others like Santa's elves, and yet others like medieval Crusaders. What world they live in, what era they live in -- for the first 80 minutes there are few answers to these big questions. What's impressive, nevertheless, is that this was co-written and directed by a plucky woman in her twenties, Castille Landon, who also plays Eriu. Just getting a movie made is an achievement to be lauded. The ending sets up the possibility of sequels to come. One hopes the next movie's editors will be more aggressive.