Die drei ??? und der Karpatenhund

Let me start by confessing that I cannot possibly give an objective opinion about this movie. I will try later on, but first let me give you some background on this.

The Three Investigators, or "Three ???" are a cultural phenomenon in Germany that has been going on since the 1970s. Originally this started out as a mildly successful series of children's mystery/crime novels in the US, in part endorsed by Alfred Hitchcock in the 1960s. At one point, the stories made their way to Germany, where a company in the business of producing children's audio dramas acquired the rights for the audio adaptation, which turned into a huge success here, and this has now been going on for decades. They're still releasing 4-5 new stories every year, it's still the same voice actors, and still the overall theme is mysterious, sometimes seemingly supernatural phenomena that in the end turn out to be rather worldy crimes the boys solve.

Today, this holds several world records for things like longest-running drama series, most sold tapes/CDs etc. For audio dramas; there are tours through all of Germany, where they do live performances of these stories in front of sold-out arenas.

Millions and millions of Germans grew up listening to these stories, many still do now that they're adults, introducing their own kids to it and so on. And all of this has been going on for more than 45 years now, and there is no end in sight. Basically every living person in Germany knows the Three ???, and they are beloved by many millions.

And I am one of them. I am almost 50, still I listen to the new stories on release day and keep re-hearing my favourite old episodes (thank you, streaming services!).

Now, about this movie: This is an adaptation of one of the very first stories, and one of the most beloved classic episodes. I remember saving my allowance for weeks to buy the tape, and then I listened to this over and over for weeks until the tape wore out. Some of the dialogue I still know by heart, some 40 years later.

So, of course I absolutley had to go see this movie the first chance I got. Which was today; there was a "family preview" at a local theater, and I took my wife and 9-year old son (who of course also is an avid fan).

The Plot: The Three ???, recently having become local heroes due to the events in "Die Drei ??? Und das Erbe des Drachen" (2023), are contacted by an arts dealer, whose appartment seems to be haunted: Glasses move for no apparent reason, lights flicker, and sometimes there is a deafening howling to be heard, as if from a wolf or hound... The police don't seem to care, so he reaches out to the Three Investigators for help. When a valuable sculpture, "The Carpathian Hound" is stolen from him, this case suddenly goes from simply mysterious to outright dangerous...

I won't spoil anything about the story here, but let me say that myself and my family loved pretty much everything about this from start to finish. For 40 years; I've been imagining the locations. The characters and everything about this story, and what the production team delivered here is spot-on. They did make some minor modifications to the story, but they all made sense and some even helped the plot along in a good way.

For example, they finally introduced the Three ???'s arch enemy Skinny Norris (who did not appear in the first movie); he's not a part of the original audio drama, but in many other episodes he is a recurring villain, so he is a character that you really need to have in the Three ??? Cosmos. Plus, there is a third movie planned, supposed to be released in January 2026, and the episode that movie is based on really needs Skinny as an integral part; so, good idea to introduce him to the audience here already.

They also introduced Detective/Inspector Cotta. In the audio dramas, he does not appear until sometime after episode 50 (that is when the actor voicing his predecessor Reynolds passed away and they had to re-cast), but if they're going to do more movies, then they'll be needing him. And they added Peter's red MG, the car they've been driving around in for the past 100 episodes or so.

The movie is full of references to and quotes from the audio dramas; I absolutely love the many loving details they added here (they mention Victor Hugeney, they mention "schreckensbleiches Nervenbündel" ("Geisterschloß", anyone?), and many more). You can tell that the production team themselves are all invested in the topic. Just great fan service. I actually had goosebumps on several occasions. I liked that this story (as opposed to the one in the first movie from 2023) takes place in the LA area, that is where most of the audio dramas take place, and that was always part of the magic. Growing up as a kid in rural Germany, listening to a story set in far away California, that was always kind of magical.

Now, my meager attempt to give an objective opinion about this movie: The acting is solid (after all, this is German children's cinema, so you don't really expect Oscar material), the casting as well. The story is great, and except maybe some exaggeration about somnambulism this isn't too unrealistic. The plot is maybe a bit hard to follow for an 8-year old, but in the end everything is explained pretty well. I like the soundtrack on this, because at times it gives some of the 80s vibe that the original audio dramas from that time gave me.

I also think this worked better than the first installment ("Das Erbe des Drachen") from 2023. I liked that as well, but at times they tried to make the Three ??? More modern, give them more drama than was really necessary; and put them on a location and in a situation where in the audio dramas they probably never would have ended up. In this one, they decided to stick to a story and location they knew would work, and that helped.

So I really think this is a great movie, because it works for adult fans as well as kids. But I cannot really judge if it will work for someone who is not at all familiar with the characters. Just go see it and you'll know. :)

I've watched both movies so far and this one improved on some of the issues I had with the first movie. They managed to keep it very similar to the books/audio books whilst changing it enough to fit a movie.

The cast is incredible and fitting and I loved every minute of it. I can't wait for the next movie. The best thing is, that the current actors surely can be part of 2-3 more movies before looking too old.

I can recommend the movie to any fan of the three investigators! There's many details for long-time fans to rediscover, as well as familiar faces and names that appear and get introduced.

Cinematography was great, well written and interesting from start to end!

This is indeed a very great adaptation of the one of the ??? Novels and it really succeeds in capturing not just the essence but also the structure of the crime stories by "Alfred Hitchcock". The picture and sound quality is also at its peak and the considerable low budget shows up with a high quality material of finest German Filmkunst. Even though the sets are few, they all capture what they are supposed to be, so there is really no need for even vaster sets. Most characters are fun especially our Three Investigators and my favorite character is definitely doofus Skinny starred by Filip Schnack who impersonates the role flawless.

I highly recommend this excellent movie for every age.