Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Well, I didn't have big expectations from the film given it was both modern and done under Disney's flag, and expected something very westernized, but luckily I was completely wrong. The movie's actual plot isn't bad, and fits well into Russian fairy stories (The "Malachite Box" is the only book I ever seen stories about gem cutters in), the main antagonist is actually competent, which is something you don't see that often (and I liked her quips, too), and the characters do manage to be fairly sympathetic and relatable. Oh, and great visuals too,from costumes to special effects, but that's not why I'd watch a movie.But, that all goes to the side. The movie is filled with hilarious quips ,and pokes fun at oodles of fairy story cliché , from the obvious - talking horse wondering if Ivan's the dumb Ivan from another fairy story, Baba Yaga and Ivan tossing storybook lines at each other from memory, the sad, bored bohatier, GPS ball of thread; to the more covert ones, such as the head gem cutter's rhetoric being that of an old nomenclature cadre, to the Countess's terrorist-style negotiation, to Koschei having the personality of a mobster, complete with an expensive girlfriend. Oh, did I mention the magic mirror showing a monoscope? Cracked me up both times I seen it.All in all, well-worth watching.