harlekinrains

I understand where the negative sentiments of most people in here come from, as myself and an entire community of devoted fans have the same problems with every movie production of the three investigators children series (popular in germany), that never seem to get what we all got out of the books, when we were young adults. But this is also the reason, why I felt compelled to write this review, because as someone having seen many below decent productions of my childhood reading adventures -- this was more than a breath of fresh air - this, as a children TV series, is excellent.

And also, I've never read the books. :)

I cant say enough about the production values on this series, they are astonishing. Camera and lens work superb, prop department out of this world. Lighting great. Sound, music and mixing wonderful. Art assets inspired (credit sequence). And that from a prop pencil, to any car chosen in any shot.

Casting - superb. Because I dont know the characters in the books, I get drawn in by the personalities portrayed by the child actors, which never seem out of place, which never talk to an adult character that talks down to them or wants to playact a childrens book character. Mother and father figures great in giving off that inspirational artsy, and intellectually eccentric vibe, you'd want your ideal island guardians to give off, even down to the dog that has fun in this production. Villains, wonderfully portrayed as well (So far I have only seen two of the four episodes).

And in that entirely excellent production its two aspects that excel above all.

Thats location scouting, set design, and shot framing - which is so excellent, I still get thrown by it watching the second episode, the closest equivalent coming to mind being the Indiana Jones movies, not just, because this is a period piece, but because of the denseness of atmosphere that gets conjured up, even in the silliest treasure cove. Its so good, it can invoke that dreamlike feeling you get from children books, when letting your imagination fly. Spore particles in the air, moving the stone plate away from a hidden grave, finding the exit through a subway tunnel, with the subway acoustically right in front of you. Visiting probably the greatest weird, upbeat circus environment in cinema yet (next to Freaks 1932), down to the label on a balloon that is handed to a child. Its all so good, it doesnt matter, when that then gets blended into a horror house sequence part in the same circus a few moments later, which feels out of place, because as soon as the five friends reach a caravan about 10 cuts later, the dense atmosphere is back. And Its -- like your mind would paint it. Its, what youd want for a childrens movie, if you ever could direct one. And its not just the sets, its also the location scouting, and the camera angles on establishing the church in episode two, and the camera angle while poking the dead diver with a stick in episode one. Which was introduced by a "ok, I trust you, do you want to see a corpse" scene.- that couldnt have been more wonderfully written into any children novel, for establishing the bond between the four friends. Yes, you get the occasional prop department misses, like the fake spiderwebs looking like fake spiderwebs, but if you would not know how they look, you wouldnt notice that either.

And second, the chemistry between characters. Do you know how hard it is to get a group of child actors to jell together as a team? Do you know how hard it is, when they are different ages? There is not a single scene in this series I've seen so far, where the team of five feels out of place, or the scene would have benefited from another take.

I mean four children and a dog, playing with a ball on a meadow, in the distance, looked over by mom and dad... Do you know how hard it is to have that even look remotely fun on camera? Do you know how hard it is, when two of the children are notably younger? In here it feels like a painting of a childhood summer moment for two or three seconds, its that good.

I think largely due to the personality of the actor in the George role that manages to encompas the empathy of a mother figure, the grudge of a schoolboy - and the acting skills of a fine method actor, and draws the other, older male child actor into the scene with it, so the two younger actors can just follow the emotion set in the scene. But it might even be the younger female actor which has an intensity to her play thats remarkable for her age. So both of them excellent, as is the production, as is the shot design, as are the old school fade effects on screen transitions, as is the music and sounddesign...

I mean, ok - there are story and plot, which arent the strongest, but who cares when you are following an adventure into arguable the best designed childhood adventure phantasy on film, dare I say even outclassing The Goonies in childhood imagination believability and atmosphere?

You cant make a better children adventure series. This is excellent on so many levels, you just have to excuse my ignorance of the source material. :)

(Also I've seen this in the german dub version, so maybe that changes the character of it also - the german dub is good and I cant say how conversations flow in the original.)

So if you invented BTC lets say there is a decent chance you wouldnt lose the keys.

If you didnt die, what do you do with the keys?

You hold them to potentially topple governments or high rollers, once they adopt it (the fear of one of the potential investors the filmmaker talks to).

You make a conscious decision to burn access because you are an idealist. (Actually burning them on chain would be far less romantic, and give you bad media attention.. ;) )

And the movie makes a pretty good case for that community having been idealism driven - having nothing in common with the craze that developed along side the fast doubling in worth over time sales world that developed around bitcoin analogues.

So - if you believe Satoshi lives, and he didnt lose access to the keys, this is what you believe in, in some form.

I also liked how they differentiated and explored the different crazes on a timelime as their central theme. I think they got the characterization of those down pretty well.

The end was overzealous and you actually start to see the fear of "what does it mean, if the world thinks I'm it" building in the main culprit the journalist honed in on. :) That felt like a pretty gradual building up of "what the eff I'm getting framed here", and not so much a "someone has found out my very personal secret".

Decent documentary with a horrible end (Dont put the fear of jebus into Crypto Nerds!)?

El Salvador is in the black whop did doo! ;) (I may eat those words some day... ;) )

And what it feels like to be in the company of ones. What differentiates them from engineers and people in scientific trades. The value and the heartfeltness of truths for all factions and for all types of people. The value and place of story telling. And still all the aspects it takes to become a performer in your own right.

With good editing.

The final big time and place cut I was sceptical on, but upon the second viewing - it fits and brings the (not so obvious) story arc to its intended finish.

Whats especially well done is, that it stays truthful to the audience throughout, while it tells them everything to know to understand whats happening before their eyes in an analytic way also -- and yet in its credit sequence it ends with the most easy thing you can do to an audience - mislead them, but in a way - that if you listen to it closely you'll understand, that it is misdirection in a very fundamental way. Yet still truthful. And for certain, no big mystery, because you've been told how it works by one of the magicians in the first third of the movie.

And yet the movie is not about any of these things. Its about the sense of wonder, the heart, the comfort and the story telling, that Shawn Farquhar brings and brought to magic -- and about being entertained by a shockingly probable murder mystery. And at least in my interpretation, how he hands over his understanding of the craft to future generations.