Based on the children's classic by Astrid Lindgren, this was obviously intended as the Swedish reply to the international commercial success enjoyed by West Germany with THE NEVERENDING STORY (1984); the result proved nowhere near as effective and, if the film is remembered today, this is chiefly due to the presence of Christopher Lee (naturally, as the villain of the piece) and the very young Christian Bale playing the titular hero's sidekick in his screen debut.
As with the afore-mentioned Wolfgang Petersen fantasy, this starts out in modern times – with the protagonist bullied by his peers and unloved even by his (adopted) family. Seeking his wanderer dad, he is transported to a fairy-tale landscape and finds that here he is the King (Timothy Bottoms), and his own name has been changed from Bosse to Mio; likewise, the boy's only chum (Bale) is called Benke in our age and Jum-Jum in the Land of Faraway. A legend concerning a king's son defeating the evil knight Kato (Lee, sporting an iron claw and, literally, a heart of stone) – who abducts the children of the realm and, for no discernible reason, transforms them into birds – is expected to be fulfilled upon Mio's arrival. Typically, a number of characters come into play during the journey either to help, hinder or assail our young adventurers; indeed, before departing, he is given a sword capable of cutting through both steel and stone and a magical coat that allows him to become invisible simply by wearing it inside out – the latter is provided by weaver Susannah York. For the record, despite their above-title credit, both York's and Bottoms' contributions are negligible at best.
Oddly enough, there is barely any action prior to the last half-hour of the 99-minute film – when the two boys are imprisoned but escape soon after and Mio confronts Kato, who is turned wholly to stone upon being run through with the hero's sword. Ultimately, the film makes for harmless and reasonably pleasant-looking viewing – and, while its artistic potential comes up lacking compared to other contemporaneous Hollywood efforts of its ilk (such as LADYHAWKE {1985} and WILLOW {1988}), the producers certainly left nothing to chance by commissioning two former members of the hugely popular Swedish pop group ABBA to compose the title tune!