Momo

Note: this review is from my perspective as a grown man seeing Momo for the first time. Kids may not notice my criticisms and thus may enjoy the film regardless.

I was looking forward to this as I recently watched Never-Ending Story for the first time in 20+ years...in gloriously-restored bluray. 8/10 classic stuff! I've never seen Momo before, and now having watched it I can understand how it didn't quite capture the imagination of viewers back then. Michael Ende again has some fantastic ideas, with the odd nugget of wisdom too, but Momo's protagonist, at least in the film version, offers nothing apart from pretty doe eyes and a sweet smile (which is the point, I know...but on film it's not terribly convincing).

Add that to the rather tame threat from the incoherent/abstract/slapstick/baldy antagonists, a cheesy & treacly support cast (among them Leopoldo Trieste's Beppo channeling Geppetto from Pinocchio), odd jarring pacing in the first half & forgettable music and you're left thinking this is very much the poorer partner when compared with Never-Ending Story: its antagonist - The Nothing - was abstract too, but it was demonstrably stronger than those 'Two Big Strong Hands', and utilised a certain scary wolf to level-up the jeopardy factor (Not to mention the more memorable characters and engaging music).

The Momo DVD I've got (EAN 4006680017280) offers awful quality: the image looks like an old VHS copy with the sound poorly mixed. The dialogue is overdubbed...badly. You can hear the studio acoustics. The sync is all over the place too, adding to the detachment. I had a quick gander online and found some lengthy clips in English...with John Huston sounding like John Huston and generally the lip-syncing looking natural (tho' Momo sounds older than the 10 years old Radost Bokel, more like a grown woman doing a twee voice).

So what language is this film originally in? According to IMDb's page it is German so they just did a very poor job of the overdubbing, while the English crew evidently did a good job (with much better audio-mixing too). John Huston tho' is not German, so his original audio must be the English mix, and someone I watched it with insisted the German dub for Müller-Stahl's character wasn't his own voice, so perhaps he did it in English originally.

This lazy cheap DVD release has potentially cost some key enjoyment out of the experience, as aside from my other criticisms I quite liked the concept: I appreciate it would work much better in book form, but as a follower of 'Die Strebe Nach Langsamkeit' myself, Momo's special power felt warmly familiar to me :) - and a few visual shots were very nicely done - strong plus points which earn it a solid 6/10.

Saying that, even if Momo had a bluray-remaster as superb as Never-Ending Story, with ambiently-mixed & timed dialogue, it would still reveal itself as inferior to Petersen's effort, purely as a film experience. Seems Petersen was more aware of his (film) audience whereas the makers of Momo perhaps were too tied to the source material (thanks to Ende himself being more involved).

Recommended only with reservations: at least make sure you're watching a good-quality release with the option for both languages (and subs where necessary).

One of the best movies for children and (as others said) adults as well! The story is very interesting as it is true that people have less and less time for the truly important stuff in life. Another good point about this movie is the fact that the evil is displayed without a lot of violence, and it is still thrilling to watch.

Radost Bokel plays Momo very well and I love the turtle

As a kid I enjoyed watching this and as an adult I still do.

Good stuff 9/10

A mysterious girl, Momo, and the gray guys who grab the time from her friends. There's the scene in which they tried making people convert by explaining the breakdown of time in their lives. It sounded convincing to me curiously.

Those are not only time for sleeping and working, but also are the time for caring for a parrot, talking to the hearing-impaired mother, hanging out friends and reading books. Too detail! I'm sure that gray guy is capable... On top of all that, he says that it's "waste" even if it's 30 minutes per day to go to see a wheelchair woman who a guy has been in one-sided love with. He totaled up 27,594,000 seconds of damage. I feel like dizzy.

By those cunning time robber, people came to save their time and be busy. But, the more they save their time, the more they lost it. People don't live to just work, working is the way to live.

This lesson was tough for my ears because I think I shouldn't be stingy with time. It's not a waste to spend time for someone. I hate these : "When are you free?" "Do you have a minute?"

If I must get time or money, I choose money without hesitating. Because I can buy time. If you struggle to think up a menu every day and choose the clothes, the better ways are to delete the selections or hire the person who decides that. If it's bad to spend a full of day working around the house, you can hire a housekeeper.

Still, I want to enjoy time to work and think basically. "The waste" is determined by the subjectivity. Also, a tough time is "the waste." But I would think that enjoying time itself is the knack to enjoy my own life. However, to enjoy that kind of time, it's necessary to have a room in our hearts. Additionally, we need some money to have the room. Everything related.

Maybe all of the things happen at the same time in parallel. But our time which we feel is absolutely only uniaxial and irreversible. Don't lose your standard of "the waste."

So, when are you free?

Beautiful images of an Italian village, a heart-warming story and great acting by Adorf, Mueller-Stahl, charming little Radost Bokel and the less known actors make this the ideal family movie. The Men in Grey, Master Hora and turtle Cassiopeia add depth to the plot, so you are free to read it as a warning of the neo-liberal episode we're in, with multinational trusts sucking the living soul out of everyone who falls for their false promises. You might even get an advice on how to overcome it -- if you want to.

Had Fassbinder lived long enough and had he not been as kaputt, he might have made this movie. Had Wenders understood a thing, he might have done it. Thanks to little-known director Johannes Schaaf at least one of Michael Ende's novels, Momo, has been adequately transformed into a great movie.

Momo is a fantastic fantasy movie. Written by the legendary writer of the Never-ending Story, Michael Ende, who takes us into the world of a little orphan who is set out to save the world. Love, a big heart, courage are the weapons she needs to save her little Italian village from time. This movie is just magical. This is a must see for my children, there is just way too much wiseness told to miss out on.