Wiplala - Un maghetto per amico

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.

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.

Not as bad as I thought it would be, was expecting to give this one about a 3/10. Fun plot, I myself have never read the book however me and 2 other friends watched it and we had a blast. I didn't like some of the poor acting however the music ("How We Belong" to be specific), the lighting, and the CGI/green screen was all quite good! I still don't understand how this is supposed to be a Christmas movie, its more or less a movie with Christmas mentioned every now and then. The actors weren't all that bad however, some of the facial expressions were pretty funny. Overall not too rubbish of a movie, its dubbing however and the closed captioning weren't all that great.

"wannabe wizard can't drive"

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.

This is a really good movie. If you watch with your family, it is better. It is full of good values for your family and your life too. The adventures in this movie are really entertaining and fun. Plot of the movie is paced reasonably. The conflict is well displayed and my family enjoyed throughout the movie. I don't read yet the original book but I am really sure the book is excellent. I would like to read it one day. Because of that, I can give it 9/10. I would like to watch a movie like this in the future. I love to watch good movies from European countries to escape from Hollywood films and this is one of the movie I recommend to watch with your family.