User Reviews

While this is an interesting aesop, it somewhat undermines it when it's clear the painting has a magical hold and manipulates the person into seeing what they want. To the point of drowning out other voices.

Becky, to be frank, was dead upon finding the painting. She wasn't truly snapped out of it till the end, and not even then! We see her backing away and complying as a hostage so she might be kept alive. It didn't work. Anyone would've tried to escape.

It's like expecting a drunk person to think clearly. Nope. The aesop of "be careful what you wish for" only works if there's zero magical influence. There's a lot more to it overall, but I will say the Mother's apathy shows how she's just no longer sympathetic as a victim. There's still empathy to be given, but not sympathy. Minerva clearly does care, but is psychologically abused to ignore it, lest she be eaten herself.

Then there's the Dragon/Dinosaur, who is clearly intelligent. Or drawn that way. It peers out the window, knows what time it is, won't strike till then, and is implied to fully hold the two hostage(if not cut a deal with them. It ignores that they aren't happy with it, as long as they comply).

The aesop may be that Becky isn't supposed to be truly sympathetic due to her envious and rude behavior, but this doesn't truly start till the painting has a magical hold on her. Something that requires a second watch to notice. Her envy is present, but she's not really mean about it and just is having fun thinking of nice ways to improve their living place. This is fine. The painting then is shown, and she's immediately enchanted by it, far more than is natural. At first, this might feel like Becky's obsession due to her envious nature is the cause(which would be a good lesson), but it's dropped multiple times it's magical, and then we know for sure it directly affected her mind. It hypnotized her with promises of grandeur.

Next up is her abandoning her mom for a sleepover. People seem to think she agreed to stay forever. This is a massive misreading of what really happened. She was told to stay put, and backs away in fear, cause she's held captive now. It's implied that she can't do much but be eaten, not even run away, with the magical hold on her. Even if she could, she'd be immediately grabbed by the monster(Minerva probably wouldn't survive either). But Becky was blatantly designed to be a character who is a little unpleasant and got an extreme case of disproportionate retribution for daring to want a better looking house.

Thus, "be careful what you wish for" doesn't work as a concept truly. It's undermined by the magical manipulation. I said this a bit before, but it cannot be emphasized enough how horrific this ending is. To give an idea, I have a vivid memory of this being completely different(which for the record, my memory is incorrect and I watched it from start to finish more than once to be sure) of her being asked to stay forever, specifically right before the tassel is pulled. Then she's immediately eaten alive, the dinosaur walks away, roaring multiple times. This doesn't help. And that's part of the point. It's a "bad guy wins" situation, not an aesop situation.

Now, there is an aesop that works; hard work is the only way to get good things. And you can't always get what you want even with that. This applies to both girls. Minerva has to work hard to do everything right, as her life was never perfect, or she dies. Becky isn't willing to do small chores(though we don't see evidence of her being an actual brat till after she finds the painting. She's a little annoyed at taking out the garbage while she's in the middle of a project, something she worked hard at setting up). We do see her complying to her mom later on to immediately go to bed. The next day she's more rude about things, directly ignoring her mom. After that, it goes downhill as she thinks everything is truly perfect, while Minerva gives multiple hints it's not what it seems.

What makes this more of a downer ending, and a cruel twist than normal is that they could've had them switch places. Imagine if the house was only two rooms and the rest was desolate. And that they could never eat. This could teach a lesson. No magical holds either. But it's a two rooms house anyway, has a magical ability to enchant people, and the dragon/dinosaur is outright intelligent, forcing a cycle of serial killing. Implications are made it's not truly any of the antagonist's faults, as they were painted into that. Even the monster is a unique position where it directly has a voracious appetite. Something notable here is that it was drawn that way. In other words, what did you expect it to do? This is why the real villain isn't the dragon, but the painting Mother who complies with implies demands, and makes sure her daughter(if they really are "related") into doing what she wants to save her own skin, telling her it's for the best. She loses true sympathy by calling humans fools, meaning neither are human either. They're some kind of creature too. So we have a victim of psychological torture, a victim of magical manipulation, a victim of a painting monster, the other mother who is a different kind of victim, and finally, a unique monster who may not even be able to do anything about its situation but be evil. It's likely outright made of evil to the point of not realizing what it's doing. Basically? Yeah, the painting mom is the true villain of the story, abetting a possibly unintentional serial killer, forcing her "daughter" to do so, and making it clear she doesn't care about others. She is implied to not really care about her own daughter too.

I give this an 8/10 for failing the core aesop of "the grass isn't as green on the other side as you think", but still having an extremely good set if dialogue and Bailee Madison is really good at what she does. Sadly the Spanish version has a pretty crappy scream at the end(though the rest is good) that undermines the true terror, which sets the atmosphere right. I could be off on why the scream was so half-hearted, to be fair. I don't know accents well, but the English version does it best in that department.