A dog prince gets John Larroquette and Kimberly Williams-Paisley to overthrow a government.
“The 10th Kingdom” is about two random people in Central Park discovering a dog that takes them to a land of fairy tales. Fulfilling middle-aged housefrau wishes ages before ABC mined the same territory, we get to see the milquetoast Kimberly Williams find her dog prince and begin a life as a princess. Dianne Wiest and Rutger Hauer bring strong turns, but it’s not enough to life the film above a meh. Still, the show gets re-ran all the time on Encore and it seems to have attracted a minor fan following.
I don’t attempt to understand what random 90s trinkets attract fan attention. That being said, I can kinda see the hints of what would later develop in similar fan favorites like “Enchanted” or “Once Upon a Time”. Still, the show suffers from the same rushed sensation that plague the Halmi produced mini-series of this era. I remember seeing one of these every four months on either NBC or ABC for what felt like three solid years.
The Blu-Ray comes with a featurette and isolated score track as the special features. The A/V Quality is stunning for a show I remember looking really low-rent for ages. But, such was the case for many TV mini-series events from the late 90s. Also, this marks my first time not seeing it in 1.33:1, so that’s a plus. I’d recommend a purchase to fans, a rental to others.
RELEASE DATE: 11/3/2015
