It's an adaptation of one of the lesser known tales from Hans Christian Andersen, and as a fairy tale be aware that this is aimed at a younger (under ten) audience. As such, the story is fairly straightforward, the evil stepmother is very evil, and the morality is brutally blunt. While the religious aspect of this tale is downplayed in this anime adaptation, the religious aspect of the moral is inescapable (not that is necessarily a bad thing, of course).
Where this movie falls down is in the execution - in particular, the visuals, the quality of the artwork and character designs, and the sound design. It's dark, it's murky and unsophisticated, as if they tried to squeeze this out on a low budget or tight schedule, or both.
