Frankly, as much as I enjoyed the first series, this second installment hooked my adult sensibilities in and kept me intrigued for the entire 200 minutes. Now that we know all about our heroes and heroines, it is time to put them in to some real action that involves Dark Kings, Wicked Witches that are all Breasts n' Fury, Evil Knights, Sword Fights and the absolute corruption of love and virtue. All in 200 minutes! Did I mention the flying rock of fury?
Hello Nasty Brigitte Nielsen!
All is right in the world of Fantighiro...or...is it?
Adventures in Lemon Land...and this guys freaky eye would actually give my kids nightmares!
Brigitte Nielsen demands answers as to why Kim Rossi-Stuart did not shoot Karate Warrior 3
The Stone Warrior is not afraid to cry.
The Dark King!
Fantaghiro the Princess Warrior is back!
The armor is all that...pure awesome Fantasy Evil.
Picking up a the end of Fantaghiro, the lovely couple is all set to live their lives together. And Romualdo's men have been busy, quickly impregnating Fantaghiro's sisters and relegating them to sub-sub-sub plot status for the remainder of the series. You want sweet, beautifully shot fantasy princes n' princesses? You got it here. But Bava is ready to throw the first major monkey wrench in to the works of this little kingdom with the Dark Witch, a hateful, venomous, love despising ball of big boobs and villainous cackle! She just can't tolerate the love and good tidings the first series brought, so for no reason other than spite, she plots to break apart Romualdo, start a war and...make our favorite Goose Armor warrior woman miserable. And she succeeds.
Fantaghiro has decided to play nice and become a queen, renouncing her weapons in a vow to the White Witch and Romualdo, however, her father, The King (again played by the awesome Mario Adorf) is kidnapped by the newly magicked army of the Dark Witch! Romualdo and his men steel themselves to rescue him...but can Fantaghiro truly step away from adventure. Or will she bust out the sheers and get in to her cute tough girl haircut?
Sheers please!
Well, before long Romualdo is attempting to pass tests set up by the ghoulish Forest Elves and their beautiful queen in a truly fun fairytale way, and Fantaghiro finds herself held by a bizarre Lemon Kingdomed Freebooter and his weird one eyed lackey. Both battle and fight...and finally triumph. But wait...the Dark Witch has another trick! If she can trick Romualdo in to kissing her, she will steal his mind and heart away, punishing true love. Fantaghiro Doppelganger trick #2 is coming right up. And it works.
Your humble blogger must admit (and worse, his wife witnessed this) actually saying "NO!" to the TV as the dark scheme unfolded. So, you know it is working and as Part One ends things are grim. But that can't prepare you for Part 2, where everything goes Grimm.
Without more spoiling, Fantaghiro draws upon her companions once more, the awesome talking rock actually gets some good lines AND gets to knock sucker knights silly! The White Witch Goose cries and advises. Golden Mane moves to the front and I must admit if they hurt that horse in a future installment I'm gonna be mad! The Dark King is revealed and yes...Romualdo becomes a slave of the Dark Witch and even swears to slay Fantaghiro!
Fantaghiro 2 is exactly the kind of fantasy program that makes me see why the series is so loved around the world. While it may not have penetrated the English market as much as it could have, the following this series has proves that young viewers, and young at heart to use the cliche, want their fantasy to be fun and exciting--and dangerous. The screenplay and pacing of the series leave the characters in peril both physically and emotionally for long stretches, as a matter of fact, there is little relief for anyone here. Romualdo is either being tested physically or mentally by his love, the forest queen, the Dark Witch and battling his lady so much that he is easily the most sympathetic character in the film. Teenage girls must just love Kim Rossi Stuart for all he endures on behalf of his lady.
The addition of the Black Queen, which is (I never, ever thought I'd type this) played incredibly well by Brigitte Nielsen has to come back in these shows. Maybe it is just her personality, but she bursts off the screen as her mammoth breasts threaten to explode out of costume and smash the hell out of the children she keeps as servants. I bet there have been a few cases of children having nightmares about her and her creations. The dark knights not only look great, but are used in battle quite often. No soft peddling the fact that they are evil, sword wielding, creatures for these kid viewers.
The success of the first series also seems to have allowed a bit more budget for this outing, the settings are as lush as you'll find in much of Lamberto Bava's work, but there are more creatures and monsters this time (hey, lookit that, a talking crab!) and the action and stunt quotient seemed to have doubled. But that isn't what will hold a 200 minute story together. The cast is excellent, Alessandra Martines seems even more assured, Kim Rossi Stuart gets to play bad guy and attempts to go as berserk as Nielsen at times and Karel Rodin (I kept trying to think of his face...he was in Hellboy) as Goldeye is great.
One thing has changed from the two series regarding performance that should be noted. The English dubs contain some different voice actors than the first film! It is weird, but workable...I know that every Italian playing a New York cop isn't Nick Alexander, but it does take getting used to.
While they have a lot less money, for some reason Bava and his crew seem to have captured what the Harry Potter films really should have looked like here-the fantasy is easy to maintain, but everything has a grounded look and feel until the director uses lighting tricks or some interesting mirror shots to give us illusions so simple they are easily accepted. CGI can't do that for me yet.
I would highly recommend Fantaghiro for fantasy fans as well as cult cinema addicts that want to see Lamberto Bava flex some different skills--and Fantaghiro 2 brings a darker edge that may entertain those expecting a black gloved killer to run up on a victim in the bathroom.
My copy of Part 3 contains no English dialog sad to say, yet I am eager to go back and see what will happen next!
The hysterical tone of the narrator here sums it up in under 1 minute!
