When your humble reviewer grew up (when dinosaurs roamed) there was no such thing as a Christmas movie.As the TV age dawned, older movies which perhaps had a X-Mas scene in them would be eagerly displayed by programmers at fledgling TV stations to try to establish a "theme." Look closely for example at Miracle on 34th Street (the original -- not the 200 remakes!) or even Its a Wonderful Life and you will notice they are actually real movies that just happen to have a secondary X-mas theme.So for those of us of a certain age, we grew up to the same half-dozen or so movies played over and over, season after season.As with everything else, the pendulum swung the other way and by the dawn of the new millennium, making these movies for the season had become a profit center. Now suddenly we have too many of them. And they are not all gems.But this one is. The pacing is wonderful as is the casting the acting and the performance of Danica McKellar. The script does not over-reach.Loved it.

After I watched the movie I discovered the actress played Winnie in the Wonder Years 1988-1993 she is now about 40. She plays a 31 year old in this film which was fine. I enjoyed it and it was fairly well done but I probably would not watch it again because it got a bit too predictable at the end.The lead actress was great and yes there was a purposeful imitation to the Sound of Music. Her character was to be adored by all. When asked to give a toast "here's to those who have seen us at our best and at our worst but cannot tell the difference" Enjoyed seeing the King being taken with her "speaking her mind" manner. Loved the King's daughter. Much was very well done in the movie. The horse scene with the King was excellent.

I really liked watching Danica McKellar's character from being a maid to becoming a princess. I liked her quirkiness and the fact, she stole the king's daughters heart by spending time with her as a governess. Ellie Botterill as the little princess, was absolutely adorable and so pretty like, I could definitely see her big in the future somewhat. She really is a great little star!Alexandra Evans was a good actress too with playing the "future queen" hopeful. She would be even pretty as the queen too but as you know with fairy tales, they go for the pretty ones to be left out and shouldn't be married to the "ultimate king".This is a good Christmas movie, its even a good excuse to kill time by watching it.

Whilst it is a stereotypical Christmas film it is an archetypal example of what a Christmas film should be. Anyone sitting down with their notepads out analyzing a film like this is just a Scrooge. It doesn't need to be over-thought, it is a Hallmark production which follows a strict guideline as to what a feel-good Hallmark production has to be (family).To criticize Danica McKellar in the lead-role seems an odd thing to do. You know what to expect from a family film. Any other actor would have had to act the part in exactly the same way. There isn't room in the role or in the movie as a whole to be experimenting with method-acting or "what's my motivation?" and getting deep and dark with the character - again - it's a Hallmark film. As well as an actor, Danica is a mathematician (or the other-way- around?) and would suggest her accepting this role was purely for fun and to have Christmas months in advance! She chooses roles that won't clash with her scholastic career too adversely and must balance these two very different careers. The interaction between herself and the young lead comes from a genuine place. Being so bound to a past role when a child is the bane of all actors - the character she is eternally manacled to is an anagram of "epic inner woo". Danica is epic as an example of how to avoid finding too much of your inner woo and going of the rails when vulnerable and young. She survived early-fame, looks even more attractive now and can wryly smile to herself that she has the credentials to play a part like this without any fear of any dented Porsches coming back to haunt her. For this reason alone, the film is just that much more charming and is what gives it the propulsion it would have lacked had just about anyone else played her part. It has a start, a middle and a fairytale ending...but we already knew that!