What makes it different from others?

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

"Die zertanzten Schuhe" is a German television movie that aired first during the holidays 2011, so this one recently had its 5th anniversary and if you know a bit about the Brothers Grimm and their fairy tales, then maybe you already recognized the name. this is one of the many work by them that got adapted in recent years for the small screen here in Germany, by ARD and ZDF usually. And also as usual, this one here runs for roughly an (slightly under) as they do most of the time. The director is Wolfgang Eissler and the script comes from Gabriele Kreis. While I like some of these films, even love one or two, this one here stays very underwhelming sadly. I am not sure if it is the fault of the filmmakers or of the original work by the Brothers Grimm, but this one never succeed really from any perspective. The most known cast member Dieter Hallervorden is completely wasted and all his character does is scream once every 10 minutes basically. Karina Fallenstein, also somewhat known here in Germany, is equally wasted. Nothing to her character at all. The young male protagonist is played by Carlo Ljubek and he is pretty forgettable having pretty much the same face expression for the entire film (when his character isn't sleeping). And still he is better than his co-lead Inez Bjørg David, who proves once again that talent-wise she never should have made it past soap opera fame, and certainly not into lead performances. I may be a bit biased here as I did not find her very attractive and that's a negative deal breaker in a princess movie, but honestly I am positive all the other princess actresses could not have given equally forgettable performances if they had been cast for Amanda here, who with IBD's approach to the character feels really unlikable and I kept wondering what Ljubek would see in her at all throughout the entire film. The story is also really shoddy. It takes until halfway into the movie at least to understand what is going on. Probably not the Grimm's brightest moment, but also not for the people working on this one here. I was glad it did not reach the 1-hour-mark and give it a thumbs-down. 4 stars out of 10 is still fairly generous. Not recommended.