2 Movies Like Girl vs. Monster (2012)

Staff & contributors

, 2024

Historically, noble ladies get married to lords in order to strengthen existing alliances between their family’s domains. At best, they are able to broker peace, but at worst, they are hostages to the stronger family they married into. Damsel cleverly depicts a twisted version of this relationship through a reversed version of the fairytale, where instead of a wedding being the ultimate endgoal, it is the start of the princess’ misfortunes, placing Millie Bobby Brown into a fantastical survival stand-off against a dragon. It’s an intriguing idea, though the film mostly sticks to its PG-13 lane, leading to a fairly entertaining dark fantasy flick without delving deep into its horrors.

Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Actor: Angela Bassett, Brooke Carter, Elmano Sancho, Ezra Faroque Khan, Mens-Sana Tamakloe, Millie Bobby Brown, Milo Twomey, Nick Robinson, Nicole Joseph, Patrice Naiambana, Ray Winstone, Robin Wright, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Tasha Lim, Ulli Ackermann

Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

Rating: PG-13

Not many teenagers experience the life of a celebrity singer, so it’s easy to fantasize over how that life would go. It’s precisely the appeal of Violetta, one of the few forays Disney Channel made outside of America, which somewhat plays out like Hannah Montana without the double life shenanigans. Tini: The New Life of Violetta is the final film to cap off the show, and like plenty of teenybopper series, it has the cheesy miscommunications and cliche conflicts hastily strung together with aesthetic music videos and randomly arranged dance numbers supposedly in the name of finding yourself and living your life, etc. etc. But, while it isn’t the most original or romantic summer teen movie, Tini: The New Life of Violetta still manages to be a sweet send-off for the Latino fans that grew up watching the show, and one that gently eases Tini’s move from cute teenybopper sitcom lead to Argentinian pop star.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music

Actor: Adrián Salzedo, Ángela Molina, Beatrice Arnera, Clara Alonso, Diego Ramos, Georgina Amorós, Jorge Blanco, Leonardo Cecchi, Mercedes Lambre, Sofia Carson, TINI

Director: Juan Pablo Buscarini