Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors (1963) User Reviews

A Russian fairy tale

[Madluke91 · 6/10 · 30 September 2010]

This is a very fun and quirky Russian children's movie done in the vain of Alice In Wondeland.

Olia, a young girl who is always losing things breaks a jar of jam, at which point a mirror begins to talk to her. She climbs inside, where she meets her reflection Ailo (The backwards spelling of her own name.)

The mirror was crooked however, and they are actually within the most crooked of all crooked mirrors.

They meet a host of characters, ranging from the Tattletales, King Tarrop (Parrot backwards, you get the point, the spellings are backwards.), Leasew the chef and many others.

There dilemma begins when Dneirf is taken to the Tower of Death for breaking a crooked mirror. Olia and Ailo set out to try and save him, meeting this bulk of interesting characters along the way.

The film is very sweet and innocent, a slight bit of Russian propaganda if you can call it that, i think of it more as a little bit of patriotism, is thrown in, but that's pushed far back. This film is more a fairytale than anything else.

I won't lie, the production isn't superb. The fantasy sets are very dated and remind me of many other very cheap 60's films, and it is very childish too. But it is very enjoyable, and that's all that matters.

If you want a little bit of harmless entertainment, or you have some young-ones you'd like to show something too, then maybe this is a good option.

Through the looking glass

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 11 January 2019]

Have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of watching Russian films, especially fantasy. Both five years ago, when going on a bit of a quest to help me through an intensive period of studying, and now when re-visiting the fond happy memories during a much calmer period. Watching the films has given me great pleasure and it is somewhat too an education, getting acquainted with these stories and making one interested in learning Russian (a lovely language, though not easy to learn).

'Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors' is not one of the standouts of the "re-visiting" period and it is not one of my favourite Russian fantasies. It is still a lovely film, very entertaining and charming and with a lot in its favour. As noted, there is a 'Alice in Wonderland' influence to the story and atmosphere, but it is hardly derivative. There are enough imaginative touches to set it apart and the atmosphere has a sense of wonder, the surrealism being a big part of the appeal. It is another winner from Alexandr Rou, have not seen all his films but have liked all that have been seen. It will be a shame though that some viewers will be most familiar with him from 'Frosty' (or 'Morozko'), riffed on MST3K, which to me is not near as bad as indicated and not done justice by its dubbed version (like all the Russian fantasy films riffed).

The production values are not always mind-blowing. The costumes are over-saturated and some of the special effects do look rushed and not very special.

Some of the acting is a touch on the broad side.

On the other hand, enough of 'Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors' is colourful and nicely designed with a good deal of atmosphere. Other special effects have a charm to them and are quite imaginatively used. The music is lush and atmospheric and Rou directs with an assured touch that never gets too serious or farcical. The writing flowed enough and made enough sense, some of it is on the cheesy side but again not in a way that was distracting as it didn't feel over-the-top and it certainly doesn't complicate the storytelling which is actually pretty simple.

Liked the storytelling, which was fun and amiable with a sense of wonder and endearing quirkiness, and the viewer is fully immersed into a wonderfully bizarre world. The surrealism is done inventively and even though strange (in a captivating way) didn't to me become incoherent. The characters are immensely colourful in personality and it is difficult to not remember them. The acting is not the greatest but there was something oddly likeable in this respect.

In conclusion, very nice. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Cute little flick

[the-antichrist-is-near · 6/10 · 3 May 2023]

The Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors uses the rather over-used mirror portal to a different world, but adds it's own idea to it with using it to show the other side of the human character. Furthermore it gives children a simple insight into the backstabby ways of politics too.

Obviously there will always be some little plot holes in a movie like this, or other story related things that could've done with a little more explanation, but overall it's a movie with a very nice flow to it that keeps you entertained until the end. And that, compared to similar movies from the same era, features a surprisingly low amount of in-the-face soviet propaganda.

Mirrors, mirrors everywhere

[tenshi_ippikiookami · 6/10 · 15 December 2016]

Crazy child story that seems to mirror (cough, sorry, cough) "Alice in Wonderland" in some aspects, but that also seems to be a critic of the ones on the other side back on that era (the end of the movie says it all, with the woman looking at the camera and sending a very clear message to the viewer), "Korolevstvo krivykh zerkal" is quite the strange movie.

The story goes around Olya, who gets home after watching a movie she shouldn't have, loses the flat's key, gets scared because of some boys and ends breaking a plums jar. Just after breaking the jar, she discovers she has a 'mirror' self on the other side of the... mirror (yes, I know...). She crosses and we get Olya and Alyo, who join forces to search for their cats and get entangled with the politics of the mirror world's kingdom, a plot to kill the king, trying to save a boy who is going to be killed because he is making 'straight' instead of 'crooked' mirrors... All in quite the psychedelic world.

The story is very simple to follow (even if the developments are quite arbitrary), but it is enjoyable enough, with all the twisted characters, silly adventures, and camp clothes and cheesy dialogue. It is original enough, and the acting and direction accompany the story quite well, making this "Korolevstvo krivykh zerkal" an interesting little curio.

A great kid's movie

[Alya-4 · 10/10 · 11 May 2000]

Certain films leave a lasting impression, even though you cannot explain why. This film is dated and the quality of the special effects is questionable. Nonetheless, this movie has a lot of charm. It is actually quite exciting (my little cousins love it) and fun to watch.

Distorted Reflections

[Cineanalyst · 7/10 · 20 August 2020]

Although "Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors" is transparently Soviet propaganda, the mirror motif is intriguing and potentially undermining of its own message. And while one might rightly expect such a fairy tale clearly inspired by Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass" to be utterly contrariwise to that book's brilliance, there is some cleverness here. Sure, the breaking of the fourth wall to advise one to "look at yourself with other people's eyes" is blatant collectivist lecturing, the children break into patriotic song at the end, and one of the girls even proclaims when asked from whence she came, "From the best country. There's no country better in the world!" As nauseating as all of that is, the production design isn't bad, albeit childish. Moreover, when the blonde girl, like Alice, follows her cat into the mirror, she meets her own reflection (as played by real twins). Everyone from this looking-glass land has a name that spells another word backwards. The twins, for example, are called Olya and Yalo, or the king is revealed to be the pesky parrot from the world outside the mirror when his name is reversed. The wordplay doesn't get any more clever than that, let alone does it come near approaching Carroll's wit, but in addition to all these doppelgängers and semordnilaps, there's something to the crooked-mirrors business, including as it relates to cinema.

Indeed, the picture begins with a film-within-the-film (a foreign, Italian one, "Abracadabra" (1952)). We don't see the actual film, although many of the town's children do despite a sign stating that no one under 16 is to be admitted. This recalls the beginning of "Alice in Wonderland," with the reading and complaint of books without pictures or conversations. Moreover, film is already strongly associative with mirrors, and their placement beside each other here only suggests that the filmmakers understand that and leverage it. In the fairy tale, there are the crooked mirrors that distort reality and straight ones whereby people see the truth, but the film never really exits the fantasy. Even in the land outside of the mirror, cats and jars of jam move backwards in time and a character makes an address directly to the camera. In its entirety, the film itself is a kingdom of crooked mirrors. The outward politics of it, of submitting to the conformity of others' "eyes," is quite stupid, but the inward reflexivity of a film about films as metaphorical mirrors is rather intelligent. It's actually about examining oneself by looking within--not from without.

This film is nothing like Alice in Wonderland

[vedma51 · 10/10 · 26 March 2008]

People, people! This film is nothing like Alice in Wonderland and forget about "cheap special effects." This is a Soviet film from the 60's after all. The broken jar has nothing to do with special mushrooms. Tarrop is not like criticisms of W; its a tongue-and-cheek criticism of "rotten capitalism". Its pure and abashed sly propaganda aimed at children. But of course, having watched it as a kid growing up in USSR, you get engrossed with the actual fairy-tales aspects of having strong friendships, being honest, etc.. Yes, in Soviet films, they always made girls' dresses short, but in schools you would be kicked out if your dress was shorter than knee-length. Part of that was to project a young naive perfect little Pioneer girls who were completely asexual. But you have to remember that during Soviet times we, youngsters, played outside, by ourselves, past midnight and never even wondered if we would get kidnapped. It was safer for kids there in that respect. Otherwise, it was a straight-forward propaganda tale that also taught kids good moral qualities, without all the super-junky-sugar coat freakiness of Disney cartoons. It is reminiscent of the cartoon "Three Fatsos" where there is also a commentary against imperialist enslavement of people via classism and basically call for unity of proletariats. Or even an Italian story of "Adventures of Chipollino". Again, everyone, it is not alike to Alice in Wonderland (how irritating and presumptuous)! It is a great Soviet classic!

Amazing

[jledbettr · 10/10 · 28 July 2006]

A very knowledgeable online acquaintance recommended this film two years ago. A friend immediately watched it and has been, for the past two years, trying to convince me to watch it, as well.

Receiving a seal of enthusiastic approval from two opinions I value and trust, it's something of an enigma as to why I've been so hesitant to watch the film. Especially when one considers my love for surrealism and general weirdness. Considering some of the films I've seen in the past two years and in doing so put ahead in priority over Kingdom… (Hostel? Intolerable Cruelty?), it's downright disgusting of me. But I've looked at myself in the mirror, as Grandma asks at the end of this precious Russian gem, and decided to break my bad habits.

I loved this film. As soon as it was over {unfortunately after only around 70 minutes} I excitedly started this article and was ready to learn about the film. Unfortunately, things don't always go the way you'd like.

There is sadly little discussion or evaluation of this strange Russian family film on the internet and the DVD itself offers only one special feature of note: a 5 minute talk by an actor in the film (Andrei Stapran) who spends 4 minutes bragging about the films he himself made {none of which are on IMDb, unfortunately} and the other minute making general statements like "Aleksandr Rou was a marvelous director!" No kidding.

So I'm alone on this one and, as a freshmen in the high school of serious film consideration and criticism, I can only offer small observations of a questionable nature. But even Ebert has had to retract statements he made about films in his foolish youth. Such is life, they say.

Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors bears unavoidable similarities to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; a little girl suddenly finds herself in a strange world with ruthless royalty who aren't shy when it comes to executions. There's also a cat, but it functions more like Alice's cat Dinah than the Cheshire Cat.

And though it may be due to the fact I saw a theatre screening of it just two days before watching this, Kingdom… also seems to bear resemblance to Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz. While Kingdom… lacks the production values of Hollywood's masterpiece of surreal family entertainment, it's as creative in concepts and the limitations in set and costume design only stamp it with the strange and unexplainable vibes I get when watching the films of Jan Svankmajer, as well as my only experience with Jaromil Jires {Valerie and Her Week of Wonders…which is likely the kind of film that children raised on this will turn to when they are adults.} Interestingly, watching the film today, even the most politically apathetic persons {like myself} can't help but notice how much it functions like a criticism of the fella in charge. Well, you be the judge: the king in the kingdom of crooked mirrors is incredibly stupid and everyone in the kingdom knows it. He's also not really in charge – he does what the rich citizens of the kingdom tell him to do. Yeah.

That is one of the reasons I was excited in researching this film; to uncover some knowledge of the Russian leadership at the time; a figure who, I had to assume, was like the George W. Bush of his time – being the butt of a seemingly never-ending line of jokes about his intellectual shortcomings by the Jay Lenos and Saturday Night Lives of the time.

Unfortunately, I uncovered nothing. Perhaps it is all the better. I've never been impressed by Bush jokes (presidents are too easy a target for interchangeable jokes, be it about sex or stupidity). So to uncover that King Torrap {parrot spelled backwards…because this is a world of mirrors} is, in fact, a direct criticism of one person instead of a more universal questioning of anyone in charge or – what the hell – just an opportunity to have a farcical character with a parrot-esquire beak for a nose would have only let me down, ultimately.

I should also point out his cowering when facing mean-faced people he fears reminded me of the king of Wonderland in the Disney production, who seems terrified of his wife, who indeed wears the pants in that kingdom.

But to get to a more typical plot breakdown of the film (finally, you say), a little girl named Olya returning from peaking into a film which children under 16 are not allowed to see comes home to her grandma, realizing she has lost the key to their flat. The grandma scorns her carelessness and sets out to fetch her a replacement key. Meanwhile, Olya breaks into the jam cabinet and splits a jar with her cat while her overlooking parrot threatens to tell on her unless she shares the goods – which she does not do.

When she accidentally drops the jar, the mirror in her house begins to talk to her (perhaps this was grandma's special jar of jam with a few extra ingredients…), and she follows her cat into the mirror where she meets her reflection Aylo.

From there, the two embark on a strange journey after witnessing a youth being sent to the aptly named Death Tower for rebelling and making straight mirrors so that people can see the truth instead of being fooled into believing the lies of the crooked mirrors he has been enslaved to make (which make the old look young and vice versa).

They encounter several strange characters with names like Daot (toad spelled backwards; the character himself looks like a toad) and so on as they attempt to free their friend (named Dneirf, of course!) As Watson Pritchard at Something Weird Video put it, this film "…at times (resembles) a live-action cartoon from hell." That simple statement couldn't be truer.

What happens exactly when you crack a can of grandma's jam.

[levelclearer · 9/10 · 29 December 2016]

Well, I watched this movie many times so I think I can better explain what it is all about. Olya the girl in the beginning of the movie features her personal weaknesses, or bad habits, or let's call it sins. She is craving for grandma's jam so much, that she discards grandma's word no to touch the jam, and breaks the can as she tries to eat some. Also Olya is recreant, lazy, irresponsible, sweet-tooth to the extent of forgetting about more important things. In other words Olya features a number of bad habits typical for children of her age. And through possession of these bad habits she becomes attracted to the fairy-tale surreal world of "Kingdom of crooked mirrors" which in fact is some kind of anti-world where all inhabitants bear reversed names to be read backwards to understand the true nature of the character. The kingdom is ruled by bizarre and evil characters featuring different animals like Parrot, Adder, Falcon, Toad (all shall be read backwards), and in fact represent a fake and gullish monarch Parrot, and three ruthless, cunning and power loathing tycoons: Toad, Adder and Falcon, who really rule the Kingdom. Played by people dressed and made up accordingly. In order to cement their power over the Kingdom they lean upon what probably should be described as total and systematic lying, or people's mass misinformation, by producing and disseminating only crooked mirrors. For this end they arrested the mirror-maker Friend who refused to produce crooked mirrors. So the CMK world represents where do Olya's weaknesses or bad habits would finally take her if not eradicated timely and properly. During her trip in the Kingdom Olya is accompanied by her mirror twin Yalio, who has no bad habits, but acts accordingly to her age. The main goal is to free the mirror-maker Friend from the Death Tower, which means the end of the Kingdom of Crooked mirrors. Olya has to overcome her own weaknesses and bad habits on her way to the goal, otherwise the ruling of Adder, Falcon, and Toad will never end. It is important to understand that in the USSR production of movies was controlled by Art councils, so the final product is kinda a balance between the movie director and Art council, therefore something resembling propaganda can sometimes be expected. But if you understand the entire story and the plot, you will see that Kingdom is a materialization of one's bad habits taken to the logical absolute to show to kids how important is to take an active and firm position in life and to stick to the truth, that in adult life you will have to take an active position, you will have to distinguish your friends from enemies, and you will have to act accordingly. Well, from the point of view of Adder, Falcon, and Toad this must be a very dangerous propaganda.

Surreal Russian children's fantasy

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 30 November 2016]

As some other reviewers have noted, WORLD OF CROOKED MIRRORS is a delightfully old-fashioned Russian fairy tale put on film. It's a children's fantasy heavily indebted to the likes of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, telling of a young and innocent girl who climbs through a mirror and finds herself transported to a fantastic world that has been corrupted by evil reflections. Most of the film concentrates on having fun with backwards characters and names.

The dated nature of this production gives it the quality of an old pantomime and that's not helped by the garish costumes and over-saturated colours of the production. However, at the same time, these things are strengths when it comes to WORLD OF CROOKED MIRRORS. The film has a distinctive and surreal look with some parts that would be more than frightening for a watching child spoon-fed on the safe world of Disney. The special effects are quaint rather than elaborate and lovers of the bizarre will be in their element.