Synchronguru

Wow, that was something... I just finished the film and i have to say, I'm speechless. Such a powerful, sad story, told in such a masterful way. The acting, though sometimes a bit weak, is all in all very good, the actors all look their parts and some of them have really powerful voices, I love it. The direction and cinematography give the whole picture a strong sense of realism, nothing is sugar coated, it's like you're standing right next to them. If I understand correctly, they even cast a few boys, who really went through the hell portrayed in the film. Most prominently David Svec, who had already appeared in Wiktor Grodecki's second documentary on the topic, Body without Soul. As I mentioned in the title, this movie has certain parallels to the 1981 film Christiane F., I'd even go as far and say that Mandragora is the Gay version of Christiane F.. Both deal with the same topic and are even shot in a similar way. And like Christiane F., this movie definetly isn't your standard Saturday night viewing pleasure, it left me with an uneasy feeling that I can't describe and I definetly need the entire rest of the day to digest it.

TL;DR: Great movie but proceed with caution. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll rewatch the Green Mile, because I need something light hearted right now.

Because at least they had some level of acting. This piece of crap has to be one of the worst Pictures to be ever produced. Brett Kelly can't ever stop can he? What's more astounding than that they released it at all, is the fact that it got INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION and got DUBBED! I wouldn't even wonder if they did the French version themselves (It's a Canadian production after all). The "actors" are probably some neighbourhood friends of his, who all shared the same dream of becoming famous. Well, it would've succeeded if they went into the Porn-Business. And that's basically everything theres to say about this movie. It's so boring that my review doesn't even reach the required characters, so let's do a bit of filler, shall we? There are low-budget movies that turn out to be big successes (e.g. Friday the 13th), there are low-budget movies that are so bad they're good (e.g. All of John Waters' early films) and then there's Brett Kelly Entertainment, the most boring, cheapest, worst kind of movie there is. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go and watch "Lion and the King 2" (or was it 3?).

Heaven knows, why they would buy this picture in the first place. It's based on a german book series and it's musical adaptions, that have been touring germany since 1993, even going so far to hire a few of the cast, like Heinz Hoenig, who played Arktos (the villain) since 2003, and Rufus Beck, who voices the fatherly mentor character, here a Raven, in the musicals a character called "Der Magier" (the Magician). But back to the review. Why are the English distributors at fault? Because firstly , they wanted to trick parents into thinking that this was Disney's Frozen apparently. And how? They changed the main Character from Tabaluga (the dragon), to his love interest, who was the daughter of Arktos in the books. Secondly, the English dub is just horrible, im guessing that it was done in Canada, which is like the center of English voice dubbing. Dear citizens of America, Canada, the UK and other. If theres one thing you absolutely mess up every time (except for anime) is dubbing foreign movies and series. And for those who were expecting Pixar level animation, we don't do that here, Germany and animation is another whole subject, but in short: we aren't very good at it. The songs, which were written by german Rock Icon Peter Maffay and childrens entertainer Rolf Zuckowski, aren't all originally written for this movie but come from the books, where they are arranged much better, and don't sound so computery. To conclude, this movie only works, if you're german and grew up with Tabaluga.