Film review – The Queen’s Corgi

As soon as I saw the trailer in October 2018 I knew I had to see “The Queen’s Corgi”, a Belgian animated adventure film releasedt his year. This children’s film is produced by the Belgian company nWave Pictures, directed by Ben Stassen and Vincent Kesteloot, and written by John R. Smith and Rob Sprackling. This weekend I visited the cinema for the third time this year. Luckily it was still pretty quiet on Saturday morning, with few children with their parents attending. I could also have gone in the afternoon, when there was also a 3D version. I did watch the normal version.

The Story

“The Queen’s Corgi” is about the adventure of Rex, the British monarch’s most beloved dog, who loses track of his mistress and stumbles across a clan with dogs of all kinds confronting and fighting each other. During his epic journey to return to the queen, Rex ends up in an animal shelter, makes friends, falls in love and discovers his true self.

My thoughts

Although the film is aimed at children I enjoyed myself tremendously. However I guess I looked at it in a totally different way than the children surrounding me. Being situated in the Netherlands I really wonder how many children actually know who Queen Elizabeth II. and Prince Philip are, nor that they’ve always had corgis.

For an adult like me, being into royalty and knowing London, I thought the film was quite a bit of fun. The Queen, Prince Philip, Buckingham Palace, the Victoria Memorial, St James’s Park, the Trumps, all very recognisable. And I thought it was really well done, even when in the film the palace had a French garden instead of an English landscape garden.

Rex (Latin for King) joins Charlie, Nelson and Lady Margaret (wonder who they are named after, my guess: Prince Charles, Lord Nelson and Margaret Thatcher or Princess Margaret). Prince Philip presents him to the Queen, and will soon regret that as Rex turns everything upside down. The Queen falls in love and before he knows it Rex is the Top Dog of the palace. But then everything goes wrong. When the US-president Donald Trump, his wife Melania and their corgi visit the palace Rex behaves very badly. Charlie is eager to help him getting away from the palace, but it soon turns out that he had other intentions. Rex is rescued and ends up in an animal shelter, while the Queen mourns his death. In the animal shelter he meets lots of other dogs and finds out what dog fights are. He falls in love with Wanda. Finally he manages to escape and with help of his new friends finds his way back to Buckingham Palace. He and his friends live happily ever after while Charlie … oh well, have a look yourself.

The film is about love, friendship with themes as mobbing, be yourself, don’t think you are better than others. According to my cinema the film might sometimes be a bit scary for children under 6. I myself think children who are 10-12 years old might not always like it, especially not when they love a bit more action. There was a boy of about that age sitting behind me who didn’t really like it his mother said. The longer Dutch trailer can be seen here:

Release dates worldwide

It turns out in France and the Netherlands the film was released much earlier than elsewhere. If you can please go and visit. Italy, Greece, Poland, Spain, Hungary and Romania should have or have had it in the cinemas by now.

• Estonia and Lithuania – 22 March 2019.
• Belgium – 3 April 2019
• Portugal – 4 April 2019
• France – 10 April 2019
• Hong Kong – 25 April 2019
• Germany – 1 May 2019
• Singapore – 13 June 2019
• Australia – 4 July 2019
• United Kingdom – 5 July 2019