The Red Shoes (Golden Films)

The Red Shoes (or also known as The Beautiful Ballerina by some other copies) is a 2000 Golden Films adaptation, telling it's own rendition of the Hans Christian Anderson story of the same name. Interestingly, it would be one of the last animated knockoffs made by Golden Films.

Summary
The main character, named Shari, is a shy Gypsy girl who comes into a provincial town with her caravan. She lives with her mom, father, and her mouse companion named Gypsy. Her mother earns money from sewing ribbons on ballet shoes for the Royal Theatre and Shari's father, Mikos, angrily demands that Shari deliver the shoes to the theatre. There, is introduced the clumsy dresser Anna and two more mice, Buda and Pest.

While watching the star ballerina, Martina, dancing, Shari accidentally releases one of the stage ropes that almost falls on Martina and makes Buda fall on her skirt. However, Martina gets more upset when Shari touches her cat named "Foo Foo" and wants her fired. Then the Count, Peter Petrock, arrives and is infatuated with Shari as he wants to see her come to the theatre again.

Later, Shari is asked to go to a festival being thrown by the other Gypsies. There, she meets a mysterious man named Kevin who plays the violin. He says he'll be staying with Shari's group for a while. The two fall in love and he gifts her a golden hair comb, saying he will always come back to her no matter what and he leaves for a while without explaining why.

Shari practices daily at the ballet theatre while Martina tries to make things more difficult for her. After meeting with Kevin again to celebrate joining the ballet company, she notices a scar on his chest and begs him to tell her what happened. Kevin tells her the reason he is staying at their caravan is his father worked as a farmer for a wealthy merchant in Budapest until the merchant's wife saw her jewelry was missing and accused Kevin's family of stealing it. Kevin got into a fight with one of the officers but the officer died in the fight, causing him to flee from the authorities.

Shari visits a shop one day where she sees red ballet shoes. The seller tells her they are magical and he could strike a bargain for her, offering the shoes in exchange for her eternal devotion.

While practicing ballet, Shari begins to neglect her personal needs like eating or sleeping comfortably to continue dancing. The mice end up stealing food for Shari and sing a random song before Martina tattles on Shari, claiming she is a thief and makes fun of her for sleeping in the theatre. Martina remarks that Kevin must've abandoned her and that he doesn't care, which Shari believes for a moment. Count Peter comforts Shari, saying if she is hungry she can just let him know. Meanwhile, Shari's mom Nadiya talks to Kevin and suggests he visit Shari but he's reluctant as the police are still looking for him. A stranger than rides up to them, introducing himself as Andras and says he's travelling to Corsica. Nadiya invites him to stay at their caravan for the night.

Buda, Pest, and Gypsy make a plan to sabotage Martina's performance by scaring her in hopes she doesn't come back. Buda is launched from a handmade catapult which scares her and makes her fall over, spraining her ankle. Kevin, Mikos and Andras are seen playing poker and drinking late at night. Things are lighthearted until Andras reveals a box with jewels and gold, Kevin asks where they came from and it is revealed that Andras is the one who stole them. The two get into a fight, Andras rides away and Kevin follows him to bring him to the police and get a release for his parents.

The next day, Kevin visits Shari at the theatre and tries to explain he has to leave for a few days to turn the jewel thief in, but is interrupted by the Count. He says since Martina hurt her ankle, she won't be able to practice for a ballet show and he fills Shari to take her place. The Count tells her she must focus everything on ballet and have no distractions, like family or Kevin, which makes him run out of the theatre as Shari calls out to him. Shari ends up having a dinner date with the Count, where he gives her a necklace and almost kisses her but she rejects. Shari is later stressed about her not being as good as Martina to Anna, mentioning she needs new shoes. In particular the red ones she saw earlier in the film.

One day, Shari is able to visit her parents and she asks them where Kevin has gone. Mikos says he has moved on and isn't sure when he'll be back, causing Shari to run away crying. Nadiya asks him why he didn't tell the truth, in which he says it's been two weeks since he left and doesn't want to mention the possibility he is dead to Shari. Feeling like she has nothing left, Shari goes back to the shop as Gypsy follows her and she trades the comb Kevin gave her in exchange for the shoes.

Shari wears them during her performance at the Royal Theatre and it's a success. The Count invites her to sit with him but Shari is physically unable to stop dancing and begs him to take the shoes off but she accidentally kicks him in the face after he tries to. The Count angrily walks away and Shari continues dancing, getting closer to the edge of a cliff. Below, Kevin is playing his violin and sees Shari before she jumps off. Kevin holds her, apologizes and tells Shari he loves her. He finally tells her he went to Budapest to clear his name and the two get back together. In a musical montage, Kevin proposes to her and the two are seen travelling together with the caravan with a child of their own.

Gypsy mentions she saw this future in her crystal ball and Buda asks what's in his future, hoping it's cheese.

Why It Sucks

 * 1) The animation is very basic, and that wouldn't be a bad thing if it didn't have bizarre cuts, movement, and lip syncing. Especially with the fight scenes where the guard just fight the air with his sword or when Buda and Pest's voices switch for one whole scene, it's unintentionally funny at times.
 * 2) Shari is a bland main character. Her awkwardness can come off as a bit annoying and her bland nice personality doesn't really make sense for people to boost her up like she's super amazing.
 * 3) Kevin is also bland and can be kind of a dick at times, in particular when he left Shari with no explanation and when he tells her he went to Budapest to turn Andras in, he says "You didn't seem to care" as to why he didn't tell her. Despite the fact she was crying out his name over and over, totally didn't care. The only redeeming feature is his backstory, since it is pretty fascinating that he doesn't have a perfect backstory and did something shocking. But that's all there is. (Also, why did they make him look like Bob Ross? It's distracting..)
 * 4) Shari's dad, Mikos, is an asshole. Once he's introduced, all he does is berate his wife and daughter but they just brush that off and he's acting normal?? It's not a complete 180 but still, it's confusing why he would act so aggressive to Shari in the start.
 * 5) Seriously, why is everyone so thirsty for Shari? We got Kevin, The Count, Buda (in some clips), and even the creepy shop owner. It's so bizarre to see.
 * 6) Some of the lines in the movie come off as innuendos. It's not known if it's intentional or not but it's odd. Like Shari moaning after water splashing on her, Kevin saying "I would've preferred it in my mouth."/"I think I'll have this in my mouth, care to join me?" when he got splashed with a cup of water by accident, The Count humming hungrily as he checks Shari out in the beginning, the shop owner wanting Shari's "eternal devotion" (although before the ending is revealed, it is still creepy how he says it all husky for some reason), and Buda saying "Hey, cute toes." after Shari takes off her red shoes.
 * 7) The songs that are in the movie are put at weird times or have weird sequences. Like when the mice bring the food for Shari, they go into a high pitch fever dream song that feels like it goes on for a long time. The only lyric is "happy happy joy joy" over and over.
 * 8) Buda and Pest (haha-) are pretty annoying. Just like most of these animated mockbusters, the animal sidekicks are pushed into every scene and it gets grating. Especially Buda. Gypsy doesn't really have this issue all the time, but she has her moments of being put in scenes where she doesn't really belong. Also the fact she is dressed similarly to Shari is weird.
 * 9) The Count is so creepy. He is always eyeing Shari like a piece of meat and is so possessive of her at the ballet, he forbids her from socializing.
 * 10) Martina is just the stereotypical mean girl with little depth and fills in French stereotypes with her voice. It kinda sucks since Anna mentioned that Martina gave up everything, even her heart to dance metaphorically speaking. It would've been interesting if she was given more to use before disappearing from the rest of the movie.
 * 11) The Red Shoes, you know the things the movie is named after? Well, they are barely in this movie. They show up once and are only used when the movie is about to end.
 * 12) Some of the lines are reused and they barely hide it.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Compared to the other bad movies Golden Films has made, the animation in this movie is more decent and clean than the others. Although the cuts are still kinda weird and the pacing can be off, it isn't as bad as Hunchback of Notre Dame's pacing.
 * 2) The story technically makes more sense than most of the other movies made by Golden Films.
 * 3) Some music in the movie pretty okay. The beginning intro of the gypsies entering town with the song "Spirit Dance" is atmospheric and sounds pretty good. The only song that is grating to listen to is the one the mice sing.
 * 4) A few jokes may make you chuckle, in particular when the guy with the newspaper, Joseph, is mean to everyone but is nice to a guard to picks up the bouquet meant for Shari and gives it to him, saying to bring chocolates next time.
 * 5) Shari's mom Nadiya is fun to watch. She has good energy and some funny lines.
 * 6) The movie is more lighter than the actual story. In the story of The Red Shoes, it originally had the girl who couldn't stop dancing after putting them on deciding to CUT HER FEET OFF. And after that, her cut off feet are still dancing with the shoes on until she dies..