The movie I watched was “A Royal Corgi Christmas” with direction by Clare Niederpruem and main actors  Frank Smith, and Sharon Coade. This review will have spoilers of the movie! The movie is a romantic comedy holiday with corgis (yes the dog breed) being the main conflict. The movie is about a prince, Prince Edmond, getting a Christmas gift for his mother, the queen. The problem is  that the corgi isn’t trained. Edmond assumes that the “royal dog trainer” will train the corgi, Mistletoe, but she is rejected by the trainer for being “too old and untrainable” and not being a part of the royal corgi bloodline. Edmond sees a problem with this because now he must find a new trainer for this dog. While this dilemma is brewing, Mistletoe is creating problems in the castle. Mistletoe finds himself embarrassing not only Edmond but also the Queen at a royal gathering. This is posted on youtube for millions of people to watch. One particular person who comes across this video is a dog trainer in America, Cecily. Cecily is a famous Youtube dog trainer who is trying to make her big break with her new dog rescue rehabilitation company that can’t seem to get a kick start. Cecily gets the good idea to see if she can train the newest corgi at the royal home, Mistletoe. Cecily’s manager isn’t new to this and gets her the job. Edmond signs the contract sent to him without really looking to see what he was getting into. Edmond would have to attend every session of training with Mistletoe and Cecily. Cecily explains that she isn’t a person who trains dogs but a person who trains people to train their dog. 

I have some critiques of the movie. One thing that threw me was that Edmond was considered a  “bad boy”. Edmond was well versed in hobbies and serving in the English military. In what way is this kind military boy a bad boy? The only reason they give for this thought of the “bad boy” persona is that he didn’t go to the last family Christmas parties, but so what? They are just Christmas parties! Another thing I wasn’t a fan of was how easy it was for Cecily to get the job with Edmond. They had never met before and Edmond didn’t even read the contract between them. Why would it be so easy to work with not only a Prince but to live with the royal family?! They barely did a background check on her. Another thing I found confusing was the jumping around of the movie. The scenes after ad breaks would be completely different from what was happening before. The jumping around of the scenes made  created confusion about where the story was in the movie. Finally, the last thing that made me upset about the movie was that the movie ended so soon. It ends right after the first kiss but we don’t know what Edmond and Cecily are, we don’t know who’s keeping Mistletoe, we don’t know if Edmond’s sister stays with her boyfriend after she had him leave, and we don’t know if the Queen and the royal adviser are together. There are so many plot holes are left untouched. 

I had many criticisms of the movie but I also have many things to compliment the movie on. One thing I really liked was that the actors felt like real people. Many of the Hallmark movie actors feel like puppets that are just pretending to be people but the actors in this movie felt very real. I loved how they weren’t afraid to make ugly faces, it was really interesting. Another thing I really liked was that they included things like Youtube and the Queen’s corgis. The amount of dogs in the movie was also very nice. I feel as though many times in movies where animals are the main plot point, they lose the main purpose. Another thing I loved about the movie was that the Queen passed the crown to the person who really deserved it, Edmond’s sister Victoria. Victoria was a strong woman who actively helped her community and not only that, she really wanted to rule. Edmond didn’t really care about ruling but felt he had to as he was the first born male. Victoria deserved the crown more than Edmond and I loved how they gave it to her in the end. I also enjoyed how they didn’t make Mistletoe a saint. They let the dog be a dog and do bad things. They also let the other dogs begin to break free from the standard of the royal corgi lineage of being good. The movie is something that I would recommend for all Hallmark movie lovers to watch. It is an authentic Hallmark Christmas movie but also has many different features. The movie gives me hope for the future Hallmark Christmas movies to come! I would rate this movie 4.3 out of 5.