It’s a story as old as time itself. A princess finds herself in peril and requires a heroic love interest to bravely ride to her rescue and defeat the big villain, freeing her and allowing the happy couple to live happily ever after. In 2024 it feels a little outdated and reductive as a narrative, which is why it’s great to see an animated, fairy tale-esque movie take a different direction towards the concept of “once upon a time”.
Rebellious follows the story of Princess Mina, who is due to marry but against tradition chooses her own husband-to-be, Ronan. While her father, The King has his reservations he initially accepts the idea of bookish, intelligent Ronan becoming his son-in-law rather than a strong powerful warrior. However, that all changes when the evil sorcerer Kezabor kidnaps Mina, and the King offers his daughter’s hand to anyone who can rescue the princess. Ronan, feeling pushed to one side, embarks on a dangerous rescue mission, using his brains rather than brawn to try and find a way to rescue Mina, although the Princess is also hatching plans of her own to free herself from the clutches of the maniacal Kezabor.
If the story of Rebellious sounds familiar, there are definite parallels with a number of well-known animated properties. Aesthetically, Rebellious owes much to Aladdin and doesn’t shy away from that, while it also emulates some of the thematic elements of Frozen and a raft of more recent Disney films, but it also doesn’t necessarily from these comparisons, with a sequence near the outset of the film offering a less than subtle nod to the Disney princesses who may or may not have already been captured by Kezabor. In a sense that knowing, self-referential tone is what makes Rebellious so much fun, it’s a film that knows it’s not reinventing the wheel but is also not content to churn out a facsimile of what already exists.
The characters in Rebellious are particularly well drawn. Mina never feels like a damsel in distress, rather a smart, independent woman who has a plan to free herself from her predicament. Equally Ronan is an intelligent, sensitive man who uses his skills and intellect to solve the many obstacles and challenges that bar his way to reaching Mina, rather than failing where his rivals might by trying to use brute force in what feels like a nice attempt to tackle he traditional gender roles in films of this ilk. Kezabor is a lot of fun, although his motivations are a tiny bit muddled at points, and that does make him seem more one-dimensional where it would have been useful to see him having a more refined agenda. That said, there’s enough going on that his binary motivation of evil is plenty to keep things ticking along.
Rebellious is a fun, family movie with a relatively fresh take on the fairy-tale dynamic. The story might not be that unique and it certainly borrows from other similar movies, but taking its own approach. The jokes are well pitched, again not reinventing the wheel but certainly doing enough to keep a young audience amused. It may not reach the heights of the blockbuster Disney releases of the year, but it certainly does enough to provide an entertaining experience for all the family.
Dazzler Media presents Rebellious in UK and Irish cinemas from 25 October