Johan und der Federkönig

I really love the Animation and the songs and the music by Jesse Pruett they really entertain me the acting especially Evan as Jonah really fits especially Carey Elwes as Jonah's Dad and Ambyr Childers as Jonah's Mom is really great the story is meaningful the graphics are decent enough the the moral is really useful.

Animated film from Sweden? I don't remember I have seen one. So probably this is my first from that region. It was less than 80 minutes, that means short and sweet. They should have stretched it a bit longer, but the point of the narration was perfectly accomplished, so it does not matter even it was shorter than the usual length. This is a pure children's film, that families might as well enjoy it. I thought everything in it was cute. The characters, and the simple story. But the animation obviously was not that great as we see in Hollywood. Also not bad to ignore it completely.

This takes place on the planet of the rabbits and tells the story of a young Johan. He's the happiest kid, living with his loving parents, but until one day when the feather king gets his mother. Missing her presence, the desperate Johan in a boat at the sea alone, uses the situation after receiving a sos radio message. He now enters the forbidden land without an invitation and his adventure begins to fight for his mother's return. It also helps him to learn an important lesson that ends with what seems the right way.

"The feather king took my mom. And I want her back"

After seeing this I think the director should get a shot at Hollywood, so that he can come back and make the international quality animated features for his nation. I said that because American production houses usually pour a big amount because of their international market that gets them five to ten times what they have spent. If you are an animation film fan, then you should try this. But you should not compare it with any Hollywood animations. I saw it during the week of Christmas and New Year, the best season to watch such magical tale.

I liked how they avoided the word 'loss' or 'death'. You would understand the situation in the story, but the film is not intended to go details. This is the film about losing someone you love and when unable to cope, especially the little kids who can't understand such concept, this film tried to give something fictional version of logic. For that reason alone, it's worth a watch with your little ones. Like the Americans say after someone had died that he/she/it is in a better place, this film set in that place and that's why it was called 'Beyond Beyond' that rhymes with 'Mirror Mirror' kind of fairytale.

6/10

BEYOND BEYOND I was just about to fall off the chair the other day when I watched a DVD. It was a feature animated film from 2014 directed by a Dane, Esben Toft Jacobsen, but the production team seemed to be Swedish. I did not think the level of ambition in Denmark today held out for more than the usual run of the mill stories and production design, but I was wrong, and luckily so. It was a fairy tale in which a child, this time a rabbit, cannot bear the loss of his mother and thus embarks on a journey on ship to bring her back. The love story from Orpheus and Eurydice for children. There is a whole lot of help and adversity from all sorts of mysterious creatures he meets on his way, and it is exceedingly captivating to follow with plenty of pace all along. I sat and enjoyed the obvious references to Miyazaki, with little creatures that run in packs over the ground. This time they are not black but blue-green. The angel is in this version a scaly dragon- like creature, and Sct. Peter is a touching bureaucratic frog-like guy. Of the almighty godlike chaos force we only get to see the tentacles, but it is reminiscent of squid arms and enclose in the climax our poor friend's vessel. The character design is innovative and appealing. It is nice to see that you do not have to follow the standard tradition of design within CGI animation, which has become almost mandatory in the business. A story of life and death can be very strong, and it is in this case. I also got to think about the Irish film director Tomm Moore, who received an Oscar nomination for 'Song of the Sea' last year. Esben Toft Jacobsen had deserved a nomination as well.

This was an excellent movie, I understood the meaning right off.

Save yourself the time and bother and watch something else: I wouldn't recommend this for either kids or grownups.

After my child and I finished watching it we were not only unimpressed, we were actually a bit angry at the meandering story-line and the lack of explanation of certain actions. Now I should add that we watched the English dubbed version and so I was prepared to consider the possibility that the script was badly translated or that the dialogue was delivered in a way that it wasn't in the original. However, even if I was watching it on mute I would see the story repeating potentially emotionally powerful scenes and rendering them irritating.

I cant reveal which bits were repetitive or irritating without spoiling the film but I was amazed that no one in the creative process thought to edit the story a bit tighter. And yes, I do get that since this is a story about the afterlife we were going to be asked to accept certain rules about that world, but the story bores us by repeating these rules over and over and insisting that we couldn't be told the reason behind the rules. You end up with a world where blind faith is expected and their parallel to a God is pretty OK with vengeance and violence. (Good to know, hunh?) Given that the subject matter is children's experience of bereavement, they had a greater duty towards making the story less convoluted and confusing.