Tad Stones und das Geheimnis von Köng Midas

Reading the reviews in this in national newspapers, you'd think it was one of the worst films you could possibly see, but I saw it with my 6 year old today and all I can say is those reviews have either not actually watched the film or are biased against European cartoons for some reason. We liked enough to look up the other "Tad The Lost Explorer" on our streaming service when we got back from the cinema.

It's a breath of fresh air from the usual Disney and Dreamworks output and is entertaining for all the family (I laughed at a few parts, which is something I really appreciate in a cartoon) basically being "Indiana Jones for a younger audience", which is perfect if you want to introduce your children to that kind of genre before they're old enough to watch those live action movies.

I Went to see this with my 8 year old daughter and both really enjoyed it. Very easy to follow.

Loved the bird and dog friendship but did find the romance sub-plot between the two main characters a little weak.

After a recent discovery is stolen from his beloved Sara, constructor Tad Jones embarks on a quest of helping her recover it before an ancient power granted by King Midas's necklace is unleashed in the hands of the bad guys. Helped by her sidekick and a curious mummy character, they will have to venture in various places around the world, racing to find the missing pieces of the artifact before their evil rivals.

It's an animation clearly inspired by the famous Indiana Jones, which presents the adventures of its own Tad Jones in his quest of helping the girl but also winning her heart. The characters involved are quite likable but not so complex and even a bit predictable, doing their job but nothing more, with quite simplistic dialogue most of the time. The plot itself is OK-ish, not bringing anything impressive but also being good enough most of the time, keeping it all together but without any shine, fact which represents a big letdown, at least as far as I'm concerned.

The action depicted is also OK, but not spectacular, with plenty of predictable events, or even awkward situations which shouldn't have been there. It's even pretty lame from time to time, not being able to generate enough suspense or drama in order to make you care about the characters or what is about to happen with them. Unfortunately, about the same can be said about the finale, which is predictable and even a bit disappointing, especially regarding the side-characters.

The animation on the other hand is the sole fact with managed to impress me. It's so well done, with plenty of details, vibrant colors and amazing scenery. It has to be noted that they have done a very well job in this department. Unfortunately though, a huge disappointment comes from something also related to this. The lips sync is completely off...and I don't mean that the sound is delayed or something. They simply weren't able to make the mouth of all the characters move enough to actually represent the words that were actually heard by the viewers. You could hear plenty of dialogue but the mouths simply couldn't keep up, closed too early or weren't wide open enough to be on par with the tone heard.

There isn't much to be liked about this movie. Yes, it looks great from most angles but unfortunately that's about it. You get an average story with average characters and some action maybe a bit above average but with a huge flaw in terms of lips sync. It's an animation which can be easily skipped unfortunately, as it is not able to bring almost anything out of the ordinary, of course besides the previously mentioned white ball.

A pleasant family film, and well worth a watch. A little scary in parts and might suit children 7-8 years and above, but nothing terrible. Certainly an action packed film that holds the attention throughout. An undead 'Mummy' character provides light relief and quite a lot of comedy, as do the animal characters. The central characters are like-able, the 'baddies' suitably bad. My children were riveted throughout and thoroughly enjoyed it. Fun film. Recommended!

Considering the fact that this movie cost only ~9 million euros, Lightbox Animation Studios did a terrific job. Characters are developed with tremendous passion and the charm of Momia could rival even Pixar productions. The story is full of warmth and emotion, while the romance sub-plot has the right balance of superficiality and drama. There is not much depth, but it's expected for an U rated movie.

However, while the main characters are animated with love, the environment feels too empty and unpopulated. Even though the car chase scenes take place in the middle of the day, there are barely any visual dynamics in the background, e.g. people. At times, the movement of distant objects/characters looked quite wonky and unrealistic, breaking the immersion of the scenes.

Overall, Tad 2 is a decent movie for the younger audience.