Wiplala - Un maghetto per amico

Rubbish film. Boring, bland and predictable. Not in the same league as the "Honey, I shrunk the kids!" movies that its thumbnail and international title rips off.

Similarly to Sven I had high hopes for this film and just like him I feel that I was left disappointed. The CGI is decent for a European film, but the writing is less than impressive—to say the least. Characters are behaving irrationally and the whole plot is full of illogical twists. Why was it necessary to deviate from the book that much? Also I did not like the choice of the actor to portray Wiplala - in the book he comes across as a nerdy character and younger/slimmer than Géza Weisz is/was.

However, for someone not too familiar with the book it's an acceptable entertainment and non-Dutchies will appreciate the renowned Amsterdam landmarks featured in the film.

Decades ago, when I was about 10 years old, the book Wiplala was one of my favourites; it is still on my book-shelf, a bit worn... Its translation was excellent, I remember, even the verb "tinkelen" was distinctively translated into my native language.

So, when I heard about the film, under appropriate opportunity, I decided to introduce its mood and characters to my young relatives and their friends. They liked it, but they told it was unusual to them: no violence, only a few rude words (mild ones), values and nice ideas presented in a pleasant and convincing manner without further blathering... Still, there was a lot of excitement, and the hot car ride was fast and catchy. Both I and my younger fellas could easily identify ourselves with the characters as well.

I was a bit disturbed about the plot brought into today (the book was published in 1957) and not-so-smooth depiction of airy-fairy stuff - under superb digital opportunities the world currently has. But still, a nice family film to all those tired of constant obscenities and cruelties present in various modern creations.

So, when I looked the movie up here there wasn't really much to go on, other than that the language was in dutch, and there was an awesome photo. But bored as I usually am, I gave it a chance, with low expectations, non at all actually.

It starts of quietly, but the excitement is there, you are wondering what is gonna happen, and as the movie goes on you cant really see the future as I feel most of the movies these days give you. Which is great, I hate being bored of a movie because I already know what is around the corner.

So this movie was great, I felt the Arrietty vibe but with so much more, I would love to see something like this but maybe with a little more build to it, more background.

See it, totally worth watching. Love love love!

What a delightful twist on the classic children's books by Annie M. G. Schmidt! I loved these books growing up, and now my daughter has also fallen in love with them. We both thoroughly enjoyed the movie adaptation too.

While the movie doesn't stick strictly to the original story line (it's set in the present day), I appreciate how it maintains a lively pace and captures the essence of the books while adding a fresh layer on top of it. It strikes a wonderful balance between keeping the excitement alive and weaving in the beloved themes from Schmidt's stories. Perfect family movie in my opinion.