Pippi a bordo!

PIPPI GOES ON BOARD (known in Germany as DIE NEUESTEN ABENTEUER VON PIPPI LANGSTRUMPF: PIPPI GEHT VON BORD/THE NEWEST ADVENTURES OF PIPPI LONGSTOCKING: PIPPI GOES ON BOARD), the second German compilation film of the 1969 Swedish PIPPI LONGSTOCKING TV series (which I reviewed elsewhere here on IMDb), is admittedly a mixed bag on one level. If you remember, the first PIPPI LONGSTOCKING compilation film is basically a cut & paste pastiche of most of the best parts of the TV series (on the intent of making that the ultimate Pippi film), right? Well, PIPPI GOES ON BOARD further capitalizes on its success by taking the *leftover* best parts from the series! If you're used to the series and its solid structure, the result is somewhat of a mess.

On the other hand, this film is a major improvement over the first film on another level, as the English dubbing uses real kids to do the dubbing voices of Pippi (Inger Nilsson) and her pals Tommy (Pär Sundberg) and Annika (Maria Persson)! Despite their obvious New York accents (all of the films from this point on were dubbed in NY; I think the first was dubbed in California; either way, the distribution for all four was handled by the Boston-based film distribution company, G.G. Communications), the children voice actors did a great job, and lent much needed charm to the characters they performed. Fred Ladd, best known for bringing classic anime shows (ASTRO BOY, GIGANTOR, etc.) to the US, takes over the dubbing for the series from this point forward, and you'll recognize some of the adult voice actors here, too! (Some are veterans at Titra Studios on the dubbing for various Japanese sci-fi film classics.) The funny thing is, the US dub got the policemen Kling (Ulf G. Johnsson) and Klang (Göthe Grefbo)'s names mixed up! Despite that, veterans Gil Mack and Ray Owens ("Klang" and "Kling," er, Kling and Klang, respectively) did a great job dubbing their voices. And from this point onwards, Captain Longstocking (Beppe Wolgers) has the voice of a classic Italian movie Hercules than the, well, Italian accent he got in the first film!

This film's music score is done by German composers Konrad Elfers (who scored the previous film), and Christian Bruhn, who turns up very good music and songs that compare quite well with the works of original Swedish composer Georg Riedel. While the German version uses Elfers' same arrangement of Jan Johansson's "Here Comes Pippi Longstocking" (AKA: "Hey, Pippi Longstocking!") in the opening credits, the US version uses a whole new rearrangement, which I like even better! This new arrangement of the theme song (with lyrics by E. Jonny Graff and Lenny Whitcup) recalls the tune for the classic Tootsie Roll animated commercials, and is sung by little kids. It's really cute!

Now, let's consider this film's title. The climax/ending of the last film (which really *should've* been the climax/ending of this film, as in the book of the same title) is put at the beginning as a flashback, so the extracted material from the series used in this film is totally retconned! In a way, that's actually funny. Probably so much so that the movie was retitled HERE COMES PIPPI LONGSTOCKING (HÄR KOMMER PIPPI LÅNGSTRUMP) when released in Sweden! I gather that it must've been Astrid Lindgren's decision, as it would have been rather a deviation of the book it was based on.

But I'll admit it; despite this film being the weaker of the films, it's definitely *not* unwatchable. We still get great Pippi fun in this film! You'll see a lot of great moments you never got to see in the first film. And, as I said, with much better dubbing! It's very entertaining, even very touching.

The first half of the film uses Episodes 13, 3, 4, 5, 11, and 2 (in that order), which are practically cut and pasted all over the place, but we get a far more consistent flow with the usage of Episodes 6, 7, and 8 in the second half.

In summary, I still recommend this film very highly! It is best seen as a double-feature with the first PIPPI LONGSTOCKING film. Of course, this movie would be followed by the two feature-length movie sequels to the TV series, PIPPI IN THE SOUTH SEAS and PIPPI ON THE RUN!

Although this is one of the least ambitious of the Pippi movies, it happens to be my favorite. It doesn't have the pirates or exotic locations of the South Seas adventure, or the flying cars of the one where they run away from home. It's basically just a continuation of the first film, with Pippi and her friends tramping around town irritating people and showing complete disregard for property laws. Since the back story and exposition are already in place, no time is wasted and the children set to work immediately. And, unlike the other films, the children are a bit more malevolent in this one.

There's a strong, negative undercurrent to the proceedings this time around. Tommy and Annika are noticeably more fault-finding of Pippi, critisizing her singing voice and expressing displeasure on several occasions. Tommy insults her shoes. Annika says her games are dull and uninspired. Pippi, in turn, plays cruel jokes on them involving guns, drugs, and sinking boats. She makes Annika cry and forces Tommy to compromise his manhood by spraying ladies perfume in his face. The animals aren't spared from Pippi's abuse, either. She throws a pair of panties on her horse's head, admonishes him harshly for eating sugar (which she encourages him to do), and brutally traps Mr. Nilsson under an overturned laundry basket, furiously telling him "If you're going to act like an ape, you belong on a cage!"

In "Pippi Goes on Board" there's actually three different children doing voices for Pippi, Tommy, and Annika - as opposed to that one old lady who did everything in the first movie. However, most of the characters are dubbed with New Yawk accents-which makes their kvetching all the more hilarious.

This Pippi movie is my favourite.. But maybe it's just because I saw it the most times in my childhood?...