Die Abrafaxe - Unter schwarzer Flagge

Being a pirate sometimes is dangerous! Being on the other side, the good people, it is even more. And when three kids, a piece of gold, some fantasies and some action are put together, adding some special sound and visual effects, a travel back in history can get all of us a nice cartoon movie! Check it yourself...

This movie is the first real movie with the characters of the only real comicbook of former East-Germany. The heroes, the Abrafaxe - Abrax, Brabax & Califax (the heirs of the in East-Germany absolutely famous Digedags) for the first time appearing in the Mosaik-Comic-Book #1/1976. Since then more than 300 issues (every month one) are published. The Abrafaxe are one of less good Things who survived East-Germany while the German reunification. And now they're going to the Big Screen.

First is to say - the Abrafaxe are NOT children. They are a kind of Elfes, Goblins (in a positive way) or what ever, nobody knows. They are on her big voyage through time and space. They've participated on much historical events in world's history. And ever there are new secrets to discover.

Here they are now in the 17th century in the Caribbean Sea. The high time of the pirates. And of course they are involved in a very special adventure. And this adventure is a good movie, specially for the kids. But for the fan it's not so pleasant. And for an adult who never heard about the Mosaik, the Abrafaxe and their origin - it's unsatisfactory. In the best moments it's good as a Disney-movie. But today in times of Pixar an Anime should be more than this. And by the way - the story is not more than OK. Maybe it would have been better to start with an older story out of the Comics.

As moviefan 6 out of 10. As fanboy 8 out of 10. It was good to see the heroes of my youth on the big screen.

I must admit it - I'm too closely attached to the comics on which this movie is based to give a proper review on its own merits.

As an adaptation though it has virtually nothing to do with the source material. The characters are in design halfway fitting, but for their personalities they lack everything they had in the strips. Here we have just three bored kids in a museum, who are looking for trouble. I don't know exactly when it was made clear in the comics that they are not children, but even so they have behaved much differently in the comics, much more matured - though still looking for adventure, but somehow it never came across this "childish" as in the movie. Here we have these kids trying to act as grown-ups without doing much to the story than an actual child would have, while in the comics they were usually the driving forces in the stories, showing wits and maturity most of the time.

For the movie itself, I think, it's okay. Indeed more intended for young children than for us elders who know the comics too well. As such it is a nice time-travel story, including some magic (beyond the time-travel itself) ans a lot of pirates.

As a fan of the Mosaik comics I was hugely disappointed, that the filmmakers basically made an animation for young kids, disguised as a movie featuring the Abrafaxe. It can be best described featuring three kids that were fans of the Abrafaxe and had their costumes...

I had never even heard about this movie until Cartoon Network in Korea showed it as their Magatoon movie of the week. I was very impressed with the story - the characters are engaging, the story is complex enough to hold your interest without confusing you, and the artwork was superb.

I would have given the movie a nine, but for one thing. Every time the movie dealt with the characters, the animation was gorgeous. But every time I was shown images of the ships on the sea, it switched to a horrible, unbalanced, inartistic computer animation. It completed ruined the entire aesthetic of the movie for me.

Regardless, I do recommend this movie for all ani fans. It was, for me, a cast of unknowns, but I was completely impressed with the talents of all of them. Enjoy!

This is very good, maybe even great animated cartoon. I don't know anything about Abrafaxe comic books, but Abrafaxe movie is clever and very entertaining movie. Besides that, it is so funny!

It's a story about three teens friends, who come to the middle age Caribbean with pirates, Spanish galleons and lost treasures, through the mysterious ancient artifact. This adventure becomes dangerous for them but friendship, loyalty and cleverness help them in all troubles. Action is good, sound and visual effects also fine.

Abrafaxe is one of my favorite non-Disney animation and also in my top ten all-time animated movies. My congratulations to Gerhard Hahn and Tony Power. They could make extremely good movie without big costs. Recommend to all, but especially for teen animation fans.

8,0 out of 10