Die Känguru-Chroniken

We all know that books are better than their respective filmed version. There is rarely a movie which is more enjoyable than the counterpart book. But from the likes of Marc Uwe-Kling - who even joked about making a movie out of this book in the very book - I definitely expected more.

This movie takes a number of random scenes from the books and somehow plasters them together into a more-or-less, but really rather less, coherent story. There is a more prominent focus on Jörg Dwigs and the nazis who were more of a real threat than in the book and the story tried to have a focus on some AfD-based jokes. But the focus was really not that funny, most such jokes already done thousands of times and the storyline just a mess. Even the actors didn't seem convincing and the best parts of the book were left out.

All in all unfortunately very disappointing and unexpected for such a fantastic book series. What a pity.

I am totally disappointed. Given the good quality books of Kling it is hard to imagine that anyone could produce a worse movie than this. 25 years ago, the Berlin dialogues would at least be kind of original, today it is full old cliché and this world is obviously long gone as well. What is even worse, the movie has not one likeable character in it. Always a very bad sign. Avoid.

There are 3-4 good laughs and that's it. The script is weak, the directing much more (the film does not find his rhythm in the first half an hour, almost every scene is with music that pushes itself into the foreground, the style of this movie resembles a children's film), the only good thing is the look and movement of the kangaroo.

The director Dani Levy, who is repeatedly overrated as a comedy director, did not understand what is so funny about the chronicles. The kangaroo's absurdity only works when the rest of the world seems normal. But when the whole world goes crazy, like in Levy's film, a kangaroo with communist statements doesn't stand out anymore.

And you don't have to be a communist or a kangaroo or both to demonstrate against the insane demolition and high-rise plans - the main drama in the film.

All in all a nice film for children and teenagers. As an adult you look in vain for the wit of the story that the books by Marc-Uwe Kling definitely have.

If you know and love the books you may come away a bit disappointed. Most of the humor which relies on the reader/listener having some familiarity with literature, philosphy, history is missing. All the more complicated or self-referential bits of humor are missing. It basically feels like a dumbed down version with some unneccesseary additions (e.g. a love story). Forcing the episodic nature of the book(s) into a coherent story was certainly not easy and it shows in the weak cookie-cutter plot. Actor quality is also a mixed bag. Especially the protagonist and main antagonist aren't cast particularly well or just weren't given enough to work with by the script.

That said the kangaroo CGI is good quality, the interaction between it and the other characters feel natural. The movie starts off funny and the pacing works for the most part. Some signature jokes were also incorporated well into the story.

If they take the criticisms to heart I feel they could crank out another one or two of these movies with better quality. There's certainly more than enough source material to draw from.

The movie is everything I hoped it wouldn't be and I can't believe the author gave his blessings. It's a typical german comedy. In a bad way. Which means the humor is very silly. Which doesn't do the ingenious novels by Marc-Uwe Kling any justice, because the humor there is witty and more on the dry side. What made me cringe the most was what I'm sure will be sold off as movie "citations". Which even if you know they are meant like that just come off as blatant and shameless stealing. As a viewer I felt insulted. A citation has to do bring in new elements. It has to hint at the original just to show the appreciation for it. Put it in another context. Not stealing entire scenes and dialogues and even end with the same punchline. If you're outright stealing at least have the modesty not to copycat material that everyone and his grandmother has seen hundreds of times. The interaction between the kangaroo and the main character is unconvincing and weak. It looks like he acts to thin air. Which is made worse by the fact that the kangaroo's voice is coming from the off and doesn't fit in with the ambient sound. There's no reverb, no nothing. But you can see it's lips move, so it feels just awkward. The animation is not the best either. All the punchlines that put me to tears while listening to the audio books just don't fire because the timing is off. The story they've build around the source material is plainly dumb and uninspired tv-quality stuff. As is the cinematography, if you wanna call it that. German telenovela level. There's nothing I like about the movie which the books didn't do better.