On Swedish Children's Classics, or, They Do Things Differently Here
We watched Bröderna Lejonhjärta (The Brothers Lionheart) yesterday. It's from an Astrid Lindgren book of the same name. It's a children's classic and, so Val says, one of those things everyone knows about.
What is it about? Well, basically, children dying in horrible ways. More than once! Oh my god.
So there are these two brothers. One of them is Totally Awesome and everyone loves him, and the other one is a sick little cripple who they are pretty sure is going to die soon. The Awesome one tells him this story about a magical land he will go to when he dies, to make him feel better about the whole thing, and says that when he eventually dies he'll go there as well and they'll be together again and he'll be really healthy and it'll be amazing. Then the older one... dies in a fire. Surprise tragic plot twist! Then of course the younger one dies as well because he's so sick. (They have a mother, by the way. Approximately no time at all is dedicated to how she might feel about the whole thing. No-one thinks about it, or mentions it, and she never actually appears at all, though she is once heard to sing a song about doves in another room...)
And they actually do go to a magical land, and he actually is all healthy and strong, and it's great!
And... then they get caught up in this big conflict between the good people and the evil people (who wear sinister black outfits with purple linings, so are clearly Bad) and there's something about a dragon... I don't know, we watched this in Swedish so I may have got the plot a bit wonky. That's not the point, anyway. The point is that they help save the day and are heros!!!!!!! and it's all great only THEN! Then they go to try and get rid of the dragon and it sets fire to the Awesome brother and everyting is horrible again and I think they jump off a cliff or something because he's not going to make it and the little brother doesn't want to go on without him. Aaaaaaaaaaaagh. Good grief. (There is some thing about how they're going to go to another great place where everything is peaceful, but really. Look how well that one worked out last time. The big brother will probably just find some even more improbable way to get set fire to. Again.)
In short: You might have thought they were fairly safe because they were already dead. You would have been wrong!
(So yeah, it was actually a pretty good film as far as I could tell - although let's not talk about the glove-puppet Evil Dragon - but fucking hell, Sweden.)
What is it about? Well, basically, children dying in horrible ways. More than once! Oh my god.
So there are these two brothers. One of them is Totally Awesome and everyone loves him, and the other one is a sick little cripple who they are pretty sure is going to die soon. The Awesome one tells him this story about a magical land he will go to when he dies, to make him feel better about the whole thing, and says that when he eventually dies he'll go there as well and they'll be together again and he'll be really healthy and it'll be amazing. Then the older one... dies in a fire. Surprise tragic plot twist! Then of course the younger one dies as well because he's so sick. (They have a mother, by the way. Approximately no time at all is dedicated to how she might feel about the whole thing. No-one thinks about it, or mentions it, and she never actually appears at all, though she is once heard to sing a song about doves in another room...)
And they actually do go to a magical land, and he actually is all healthy and strong, and it's great!
And... then they get caught up in this big conflict between the good people and the evil people (who wear sinister black outfits with purple linings, so are clearly Bad) and there's something about a dragon... I don't know, we watched this in Swedish so I may have got the plot a bit wonky. That's not the point, anyway. The point is that they help save the day and are heros!!!!!!! and it's all great only THEN! Then they go to try and get rid of the dragon and it sets fire to the Awesome brother and everyting is horrible again and I think they jump off a cliff or something because he's not going to make it and the little brother doesn't want to go on without him. Aaaaaaaaaaaagh. Good grief. (There is some thing about how they're going to go to another great place where everything is peaceful, but really. Look how well that one worked out last time. The big brother will probably just find some even more improbable way to get set fire to. Again.)
In short: You might have thought they were fairly safe because they were already dead. You would have been wrong!
(So yeah, it was actually a pretty good film as far as I could tell - although let's not talk about the glove-puppet Evil Dragon - but fucking hell, Sweden.)