Is it actually that bad?

It's terrible, really.

No it isnt that bad at all. 1st lets not forget this was meant for children and not for adults, so dont review it from the perspective of an adult but see how children love the movie. 2nd I have just watched it myself and could not find anything offensive about it. Honestly there wasnt a single time I made a connection to the hyena's aliasing the people of Ukraine. It is just a children's story and to me it is totally unthinkable for little kids to suddenly hate whichever people at all because of watching this movie.

Dont judge this production from an adult perspective, kids will love the story.

With the exception of Chinese and Japanese, there aren't many non-English language animated films available in their original lingo. That's a plus for this film! No sub titles, though. The Russian voice cast, CGI animation, characters and music were very good. Children would enjoy the story. If you like stories set in Medieval times, watch it!

those remarks says more about the commentors than the movie.there is no mention or hints about needer russia or ukrainian in the movie.at least not in the english dubbed vers.it is a fun and innocent disney/dreamworks type of family movie.recomended.:-))

Kids and I just saw this last night. We hail from America and thus, thus our reflections will come from a different point of view than those abroad. In fact, it wasn't until coming to the message boards that I even made a connection to Russia/Ukraine. Admittedly, still having a hard time making the connection---but again, I'm not in the thick of it to see the biases planely, and am not here to invalidate those who do.

To get to the greater point, we enjoyed it! We went into our viewing knowing this was a different production than say DreamWorks or Pixar, so our expectations were adjusted from the get-go. But the story line was reminiscent a bit of Narnia (specially the relationship of wolf and boy/ lion and kids). We loved that heroism lied with even the smallest of creatures, and despite the envitable big battle, my young kids didn't have to shield their eyes.

And althouh the idea there was a witch who ate kids, the creepiness aspect was nulled when **SPOILER** she "met the wrong kid" (a scene explained, instead of shown). So again, as a parent, was so appreciative they did a creepy suspenseful scene without actually having nightmare-prone kids enduring that scene all the same.

Three shockers from this though:

1. They mention the "eternity of God", and how all other things as we know it will cease to exist someday. As an American, was not use to a blantant religious message in a cartoon movie. Not personally against it in anyway, but felt a twinge of "wow, I wonder who this will offend!"

2. As briefly mentioned above, that this had any potential political motives. Propaganda fell flat on this American.

3. It got a low rating! (See the above praise).

4. (Ok, so make this 4 shocker points): The English version of the monkeys, specifically the leading head Queen...it was Whoopi Goldberg! Again, with my American lens, felt awful that the voicing representation of animals, and monkeys of all creatures, was black. She accepted the role grant it, but part of wonders if the production team were scouting for a black woman. I'm white, but hung my head over this.

I'm an adult, but I'd say this movie is suitable for kids. I'm also an American, so that factors into it. I don't really know anything about Ukraine, so if there was propaganda in it, I totally missed it.

I didn't think it was that great, but I liked it alright. Has a fairytale-esque story that goes in a lot of directions but more or less comes together in the end. I was surprised that it outright mentioned God, but not displeased. It was one of the things that marked this film as not-American.

I'll admit I was also surprised at casting Whoopi Goldberg as the Monkey Queen, but hey, it's not my movie. (You could say she's challenging the current stereotype of black actors not being cast as monkeys in things due to current PC sensibilities, LOL.) Maybe they were scouting for some big-name actors, and Whoopi Goldberg had three days where she wasn't doing anything important. Who knows?

There is no objective reality... and that's Sucker Punch