DAMSEL

Name: DAMSEL
Item: DAMSEL
Author: Lillie Jaenchen

"Family Is More Important Than Material Wealth"

Content: -1 Caution advised for older children, including teenagers, and sensitive adults.

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

DAMSEL is a fantasy adventure on Netflix about a young princess named Elodie whose parents marry her off to the Prince of a wealthy island kingdom, to save their own people from starvation. However, after the wedding, Princess Elodie is taken to a secret ceremony in the mountain overlooking the castle and thrown into a chasm. Elodie survives the fall and discovers she’s the latest of many princesses doomed to death because they’re offered as sacrificial victims to the fire-breathing dragon living in the mountain. Princess Elodie is determined, however, to be the first princess who survives.

DAMSEL has lots of peril. The scenes of Princess Elodie trying to survive the fire-breathing dragon and her ruthless mother-in-law are well-crafted, exciting and compelling. As the Princess, Millie Bobby Brown, star of Netflix’s ENOLA HOLMES mysteries, does a wonderful job. DAMSEL has a positive pro-family worldview, with touching scenes between Princes Elodie and her father, stepmother and younger sister. DAMSEL is an entertaining fantasy for mature audiences. MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children for scenes of violence, the scary dragon, and light feminist themes.

Content:

(BB, C, Fe, L, VV, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong moral, pro-family worldview with some redemptive scenes of repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation, plus the movie’s kindhearted stepmother says, “Thank God,” when she learns her stepdaughter is still alive, and images of light are associated with the movie’s themes of healing and reconciliation, but there are some light feminist themes revolving around a heroine who saves herself and doesn’t need a knight in shining armor to do it;

Foul Language:

One “d” obscenity;

Violence:

Strong and light violence includes soldiers are burned in the fiery breath of a dragon, a knife is used to cut the palms of two hands in a blood oath union (some blood is shown), a woman is thrown and falls down into a deep chasm suffering many scrapes and a leg wound, birds are shown being burned in a dragon’s breath, a woman is seen dead, a woman’s leg is shown burned on the surface (burned flesh is seen and screams of pain are heard), the names of many young women are carved on a cave wall indicating how many have been sacrificed to the dragon, a burned skeleton is shown briefly, young woman outruns and hides from a dragon’s fiery breath, young woman climbs a cliff of sharp crystal rocks using an abandoned crown, woman uses a knife to stop herself from falling down a chasm some men are shown smashed by a dragon’s paw, a man is impaled by a dragon’s claw in the chest (some blood is shown), a young woman fights a dragon who’s stabbed in the eye with blood coming out and burned;

Sex:

No sex scenes or sexual immorality (a young couple kisses briefly during a brief wedding scene;

Nudity:

No nudity;

Alcohol Use:

No alcohol use;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

A woman calls on her dead mother for help, but there is no ghost or supernatural communication, a royal family running an island kingdom uses deception to regularly sacrifice people to a dragon, and the heroine’s father has a greedy motive but repents.

More Detail:

DAMSEL is a Netflix fantasy adventure about a resourceful princess, a scary dragon and a ruthless mother-in-law. DAMSEL has exciting, compelling, well-crafted scenes of peril, set in a heartwarming story where family is the most important value, but MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children due to some violence, scenes with a scary vengeful dragon, and themes of a young woman escaping a devious plot to turn her into a sacrificial lamb for slaughter.

The movie opens with a king and his men chasing a dragon into its mountain lair. However, the dragon burns most of the men and kills the others until only the King is left.

Centuries later, Princess Elodie is pressured by her family to travel far from their frozen Northern kingdom to marry a prince she’s never met from a wealthy island kingdom. The people in Elodie’s kingdom are starving, and her father and stepmother, Lord and Lady Bayford, believe the alliance with the island kingdom will improve their fortunes. Devoted to doing her duty, Elodie travels with her parents and younger sister family to the neighboring kingdom, where she’s introduced to her intended, Prince Henry, and the wedding festivities are prepared and begun.

After the wedding, Elodie and Henry ride to the mountain where the battle with the dragon occurred. Queen Isabelle and some the royal court greet them. Isabelle makes a small cut to one of Elodie and Harry’s hands, after which the newlyweds clasp hands. Harry then starts to carry Elodie across a bridge but reluctantly tosses her into the deep chasm below.

Some tree limbs break her fall, but Elodie suffers a gash in her right leg along with some cuts and bruises. She takes strips from her dress and binds her leg wound. As she explores the cave, Elodie discovers she’s the latest of many princesses doomed to almost certain death as they are offered as sacrificial victims to the fire-breathing dragon that dwells in the heart of the mountain. Elodie is determined to be the first princess to escape the dragon’s lair. However, when she finds that she’s not the only one being deceived, she must consider whether a simple escape will be enough to end this nightmare.

DAMSEL has lots of peril. The movie’s well-crafted scenes of Princess Elodie trying to survive the fire-breathing dragon, not to mention the devious machinations of her ruthless mother-in-law, are exciting and compelling. Her character takes the center stage, and Millie Bobby Brown, the star of Netflix’s ENOLA HOLMES mysteries, does another wonderful job. The other characters are not as well developed, but there are touching scenes between Princess Elodie and her father, stepmother and younger sister.

DAMSEL has a positive pro-family worldview. Though Princess Elodie and her family recognize that duty is important, she and her parents discover family is more important. Her father and stepmother also eventually realize that family is more important than wealth and amassing riches. In contrast, the evil mother-in-law and her kingdom are punished for their greed and injustice. DAMSEL also features a heartfelt scene of forgiveness. In addition, Princess Elodie’s stepmother says, “Thank God,” when she finds out Elodie is still alive.

That said, DAMSEL does have some feminist elements. It’s not a story about brave knights saving damsels in distress. Princess Elodie directly says that exact thing in a brief narration at the beginning. However, although Princess Elodie survives because of her determination and intelligence, the story doesn’t go beyond that into woke territory. The evil mother-in-law is also a determined female, but she is corrupt. Also, Elodie’s father, though flawed, has his own heroic moments. So, DAMSEL isn’t a woke movie that’s saying men are bad and women are good. The evil Queen and her family are contrasted with Princess Elodie and he kind-hearted family.

DAMSEL is an entertaining fantasy for mature audiences. MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children for the movie’s scenes of peril and violence, the scary vengeful dragon, and themes of human sacrifice.