Jim Bouton : La Cité des dragons

Before you base yourself on my ratings if you are going to watch this movie or not there are a couple things to clarify. I watched this movie without reading anything about it before, I just stumbled on this movie and gave it a shot. The problem is not that it's in German, even though it's quite funny to see that all Asians speak German, but the fact that I'm fifty years old and that this movie is made for kids between five and eight. So the whole movie looks and sounds very childish. I have a wide imagination but this one is just too childish. If I were six years old I would probably love this movie, but I'm not, I'm fifty and so this movie is, even if it's well made, just not for me. But if you have kids this movie will get their attention and keep them quiet for a while.

Very personal review following:

My young son loved this movie. He wants to watch it over and over and over... It speaks for the quality of the film that we (his parents) haven't grown completely sick of it yet.

What I like about the movies is how much it inspires the imagination of my boy. He endlessly wants to play scenes from the movie, calls himself Jim and his father Luke. At first I thought it might be a bit too scary for a 3 year old but he doesn't mind the slightly darker sequences.

Michael Ende didn't write as many books as others, but most of his books became instant classics. The tale of "Jim Knopf und Lukas, der Lokomotivführer" ist his best known, next to "Neverending story", which has become a classic both as a book and a film. While the latter aims for adults as well as for older kids, "Jim Knopf" is a great children's story - although it contains elements that will ring more with grown ups.

The book is great in it's detail, and the pictures are fantastic on their own account. Then there's the marionette-version, made for TV by the "Augsburger Puppenkiste", in the 1970s.

Now, Jim finally and well deservingly hits the big screen - and the makers did really, really well! They took lots of inspiration from the beloved TV-Version and didn't change a lot of the story: Jim being brought to the island of Lummerland with only a few habitants and a train engine as a baby, later sailing away (on the engine!) with his fatherly friend Lukas, to explore the secret of his heritage, trying to save princess Li Si from the dragon's city on the way, meeting lots of curious people on their journey...

The director tells the story very straight, the action is well paced, and there are hardly any important parts missing. The visuals are fine, except for Nepomuk, the half dragon, who REALLY looks animated! No 3D, thankfully! The actors are doing a great job, especially both leads, but also all the secondary characters.

A minor annoyance to me was the unnecessary change of the fact that Jim can't read or write at the beginning. That's why he has to DRAW a letter to Mrs. Waas when he's leaving. They kept the drawings in the movie but ADDED additional writing!

Apart from that there's hardly anything to criticise. I rate this fantastic adaption 9/10 and look forward to the sequel "Die Wilde 13"!

Michael Ende's "Jim Knopf" books were among my favorite books as a child, and of course I had watched the puppet series by "Augsburger Puppenkiste" and still listen to the wonderful audio book today. So, as a decades-old fan, I was sceptical when this real life adaptation came up, but now that I've finally seen it, I can say: This might be the sweetest movie I've ever seen, and it made my heart jump with joy from beginning to end!

Everything about it is perfect, from the script to the actors, from the sets to the music. They really managed to capture the essence of the books, dusting the story off a little bit without losing the enchanting atmosphere Michael Ende had created in the original story. Even the unavoidable romance which even stories for children seem to need these days was not annoying or awkward but refreshingly natural and lovely.

The sets, especially Morrowland and the different versions of Emma, are super cute, and all the actors are perfectly cast. Eden Gough is the sweetest Png Pong you could imagine, and Milan Peschel's Tur Tur touched me to tears! Solomon Gordon is such a natural, and his smile & laughter are simply contageous. Oh, and I love that Thomas Fritsch was chosen as the German narrator, I could listen to his voice for hours.

Last but not least, the soundtrack played a big part in making this movie so magical. As someone who had already enjoyed "Wickie und die Starken Männer", I recognized Ralf Wengenmayr as the composer right away, and once again, he has done a fantastic job creating atmosphere and joy with music! I still had a smile on my face hours after I had finished watching this movie, it made me so happy.

I can not wait for the sequel!

This live-action fantasy film is based on the 1960 children's novel of the same name, which was the first published work of Michael Ende. Internationally, Ende is best know for the book on which L'Histoire sans fin (1984) was based, although Ende himself didn't like that film. But in Germany, Jim Button is better known than the Neverending Story.

Ende's excellent book won the German Youth Literature Award, but part of the book's success is owed to two adaptations for television by Augsburger Puppenkiste, a marionette theater. The first, Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer (1961), consisted of 5 half-hour episodes in black and white. The color remake, Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer (1977), was shortened to 4 slightly shorter episodes. Regular re-runs of the serial ensured that generations grew up with it, and generations looked forward to passing on the joy of watching the serial to their children, often rewatching it on the occasion. Special cross-over episodes combining Jim Knopf and his friends with other Augsburger Puppenkiste stars were long an important staple of German TV's Christmas Eve programming. But an even more obvious indication of the production's popularity is probably the fact that a remix of the title song (the Lummerland Song "Eine Insel mit zwei Bergen" -- "An Island with Two Mountains") by Dancefloor project Dolls United was in the German charts for 33 weeks in 1995/96, reaching second position at some point. I am not sure they made the song more popular; they just gave people an excuse to play it outside its original context.

It was always obvious that any new adaptation would be received as a remake of the classic marionette version, and so would be held to the highest standards in terms of narrative charm. Failure was almost guaranteed, but in the end they did pull it off. Compared to the 2 hour color serial, some cuts were required, but the result is still a complete, coherent story with all the important highlights intact. And most importantly: The film's visual quality is just stunning. It cannot have been easy to accurately reproduce so many of the marionette serial's shots by means of special effects that hit the sweet spot between realism and overt but seamless artificiality. The casting and acting is also excellent. The actors seem aware at all times that they are replacements for marionettes, acting naturally with just a hint of woodenness.

A few words on the plot / the underlying book: Michael Ende famously wrote its beginning with no idea where it would lead him. So he started with a tiny island in the sea with two mountains, a castle, two houses, and a tiny railway system. It has a king and three subjects, including the shopkeeper and Luke, the train driver. When Ende wrote about the surprise delivery of a large parcel, he himself did not know what it would contain. Similarly, much later Jim, Luke and steam engine Emma find themselves in mortal danger in an extremely dark and cold place. Here again, Ende wrote down the problem before spending weeks in search of a solution.

The film is targeted to children and to adults who grew up with the underlying book and TV serial. But the plot's highly original blend of fantasy and fairy tale, combined with the stunning visuals and high production values, makes the film well worth watching for a more general audience. Just not suitable for those who feel they must constantly prove they are adults and run screaming out the cinema when the film opens with the description of Morrowland -- a tiny fantasy island in the sea that only makes sense as a model railway landscape.