Vili, a veréb

It was sometime ago back in the early to mid nineties, my Brother got a copy of it back when he passed the first grade, and I we still own the copy, and we always enjoyed it from time after time. The movie is filled with an equal portion of humor, action, courage, and of course a good influence for young ones of that age. The thing that I didn't know was, that the movie was originally made in Hungary back, in the late eighties. Well, like I say, we always enjoyed it, and so did all my brothers friends of who ever got a copy also, and of course will always be a masterpiece to all those out there, who's minds are just crying out for knowledge.

Allow me to explain the premise to this 1989 animated movie. Willy is a little boy who is staying home from school because he's still sick with a flu. Feeling bored, Willy decides to use his imagination. He takes a toy gun and, pretending he's a cowboy, "shoots" at some sparrows. By "shoot" I mean he says "Bang, bang!". But Willy chose the wrong day to pretend to shoot at birds, because sitting on that bench happened to be...the Sparrow Guardian.

She is judge, jury and executioner for her own brand of sparrow justice, and she finds Willy to be guilty. She then breaks into the little boy's house and turns the boy into a sparrow. That is what you get for pretending to shoot at birds.

This movie is full of insane story beats like that, including: Drunk rats trying to sell beer as wisdom elixir. Birds fighting for leadership. The sparrow guardian meowing at a cat in a public park. A bird being turned into a man and forming a romance with the sparrow guardian. If this sounds like your kind of insanity, give this movie a watch...or else the sparrow guardian will come for you.

This film contains a scene where characters spray each other in the face with an aerosol spray can. Unfortunately it taught my small children to do exactly that! This can be a dangerous and life threatening situation. Parents should be strongly cautioned about showing Willy The Sparrow to young children! We originally received this film from a Christian video club that advertised all of their films had high family standards. After the incident with the aerosol sprays occurred we canceled our membership in that club and wrote the club a very strong letter about the nature of the film. The club unfortunately declined to respond to our letter.

Hungarian cartoonist are word famous, but the excellent Hungarian cartoons are unfortunately little known abroad. Whereas there are many good short and long cartoons (Gusztav, Mezga Geza, Dr. Bubo, Ludas Matyi, Hugo, the hyppo etc.)

Vili, a veréb (Will, the sparrow) is one of the best, if not the best, among these. Vili, a ten years old "bad" boy is shooting to sparrows with airgun. A good fairy penalize him by metamorphosing him to a sparrow. He have many funny adventures with sparrows (eg. to learn flying). By the end of film he will be a good, animal loving kid.

My son was lent this in first grade. (We can buy it for $10.) There is a part where the older wiser sparrow goes to a bar and gets drunk on alcohol with two (normally drunk in credits) rats, thinking it's the elixir of knowledge. I was greatly surprised at this. But the spraying part is bad too, now that I think about it.

With 23 kids in his class at $10 each they spent $230 for this (not very good anyway) movie! And, used of for homework in place of regular homework! I just bought a wonderful geography book (Rand McNally beginners) for this grade (and older) for about $7 because I know they don't teach much at all in school! If they have money for this junk, why can't they spend it on education material!?

75 minutes felt a lot longer even to my son. It won't teach respect kindness or desire for knowledge if the person doesn't already have it. By the way; the older wiser characters talk way too fast. Joanne