10th Kingdom graphicThe 10th Kingdom is another in my list of movies and shows that I try to watch every year.  I have a lot of those and honestly I don’t succeed in watching more than one or two of them over again each year.  The 10th Kingdom is partially why this happens.  Being a three part mini-series, it takes up much of the time I would use to watch some of my other favorites.

The 10th Kingdom takes place mainly in the magical land of the Nine Kingdoms or as we would call it, the fairy tale worlds of old.  Rebellion and war are afoot.  Prince Wendell is soon to be crowned king of Snow White’s former Kingdom; however his wicked step mother, the Queen, has escaped her prison and joined with the leader of the Troll Kingdom who wants to expand his territory. 

The battle spills across dimensional barriers by means of magic mirrors to the city of New York and in particular into the life of maintenance man Tony Lewis (John Larroquette) and his Daughter Virginia (Kimberly Williams- Paisley).  The two must now find a way to restore Prince Wendell, the rightful heir of Snow White’s kingdom, to his proper position.  The task is complicated by the fact that the Queen has turned him into a dog and that Tony has accidently turned him into a dog of solid gold.   They are both helped and hindered along the way by Wolf (Scott Cohen) who was originally sent by the wicked Queen to find Prince Wendell but has fallen in love with Virginia and apparently switched sides.   The cast is solid and has excellent comedic timing.  The miniseries is well paced and seems to drag in only a few places; which for a production which lasts over six hours is remarkable..  This is also not your small child’s version of a fairy tale kingdom. There is some death, gore and blood and some adult sexual humor.  Most of the latter would go over the heads of children under the age of ten, but it is still present or implied.  The one thing I will say is that The Wolf steals almost every scene he is in.  There is only one very disappointing part in the series.  It is at the very end where a possible sequel is hinted at; but sadly it never occurred.