Too Old for Fairy Tales Review: A Sweet Story About Letting Your Dreams Fly

Too Old for Fairy Tales (Za Duzy na Bajki) is a Polish children & family comedy film released on Netflix on 18 July 2022. It is based on the novel of the same name by Agnieszka Dabrowska and directed by Kristoffer Rus. Filmed in Poland, the film has a runtime of about 1 hour and 46 minutes.

The cast includes Maciej Karas as Waldek Banas, Amelia Fijalkowska as Delfina Rogalska, Patryk Siemek as Staszek Lebioda, Dorota Kolak as Mariolka, Karolina Gruszka as Teresa Banas, Andrzej Grabowski as Grandfather, Marcin Dabrowski as Host of the competition, Ewa Dolska as Coach, Sebastian Konrad as Guy on the bus and others.

-Too Old for Fairy Tales Review Does Not Contain Any Spoilers-

A Gamer Kid With a Dream

Waldek Banas’s life, filled mainly with computer games, is shaken up like an earthquake. As his mum goes away for some days and during her absence, he stays under the care of a crazy and unpredictable aunt, who introduces discipline that has been alien to him so far and imposes new duties. But although the extraordinary relative gives Waldek a real survival camp experience, the boy also receives the most valuable life lesson from her.

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The film starts with Waldek Banas and his best friend Staszek Lebioda getting ready for an e-sports match at Robot Masters Gaming Tournament. Their team is called three kings and includes another prodigy player called Rudy. However, they lose the match and are escorted back home by Waldek’s mother.

It turns out his mother Teresca is going away for some days to get tests done at a hospital in the city. Instead, Waldek will be in the care of his mother’s aunt Mariolka, which would make her Waldek’s great-aunt. From day one, she makes fun of his chubbiness and calls out Teresca for spoiling him with junk food and doing everything for him.

When Teresca goes away, Aunt Mariolka makes him cook his own food, clean and ride the bicycle to lose some weight. The boy who didn’t even pour water in his own cup now has to do everything by himself and that frustrates him immensely. Out of rebellion he runs away from home to meet his mom at the hospital and realises that his mom is much more ill than she had let him know.

On the other hand, his hectic schedule because of all the house chores leaves no time for him to play games and thus, loses out a member of his team before a big tournament that would take the winner on a trip to Germany. With very less time left for tournament selections and the realisation of the dooming reality, makes Waldek rethink his life choices.

While living with his aunt, he notices a peculiar thing about her, she likes to hang from the ceiling like she is sky diving in the air. Why is she so much interested in flying like a bird, that she does it every single night? Meanwhile, Waldek is trying to cope with his reality, he also gets to learn much more about everything else from his unusual great-aunt.

Final Thoughts: Stream It or Skip It?

Too Old for Fairy Tales (Za Duzy na Bajki) on Netflix is a fun family film that I believe will be enjoyed by everyone. It is a light-hearted watch that is short, sweet, hilarious and sometimes emotional. Although it deals with a serious subject, the film is able to talk about difficult matters without making them too dramatic.

But I am not so sure, why the English name is too old for fairy tales. The film could be vaguely said to be a realistic version of Mary Poppins, could that be the reason for adding the fairy tales part? Because there isn’t any fairy tale or magical thing happening in the film.

Too Old for Fairy Tales is streaming on Netflix.

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