Bambo & Dex

Sadly, the only full-length animation feature ever to emerge out of the Netherlands has a predictable story development and substandard animation that doesn't live up to contemporary standards, let alone today's standards. To put it mildly: the film is a grossly infantile simplification of Marten Toonder's immortal comic strip novel, which is full of subtle humor, to be appreciated at an up-grown level, with characters like caricatures of class society: the ruling classes (the marquis, sir Bommel himself, the mayor), their henchman (police commissioner Bulle Bas, the middle classes (the shopkeeper, the civil servant)and the everyday folk (mainly commoner Wammes Waggel, the childish goose). Now in the film, all this is spoiled by playing down the critical messages , aggravated by stupid animation: everything moves at the wrong time, expressions changing rapidly, lips not keeping up with speech etc. The redeeming factor is the voice acting, which is superb in almost every single case. The shopkeeper Grootgrut outdoes them all, except the marquis, who is played by Ger Smit, best remembered for a series of classic voices for animated TV-series De Fabeltjeskrant. Grootgrut is played by Paul Haenen, who is best known as Bert of Ernie of Sesame Street. The few songs are highly superfluous. Continuity: the eyes of miss Doddel change for white to yellow in almost every cut. Now for some faulty story telling: at the point at which Bommel and his dragon are arrested, the film jumps to a news report from which we learn they are at large. How's that? And why is the dragon prone to stealing? Is also not explained. All in all, the beast is utterly unconvincing. As is the film as a whole. Alas.

Excellent animation film. Plain and simple. Perhaps somewhat dated now, but I watched it many times when I was a kid. My little brothers used to watch it, rewind it, and watch it again. Time after time. We know most phrases by heart. :) I don't know about the English/American version, but the Dutch voices are superb. Haven't seen anything of this quality since, in this category.

Rating from the Dutch judge: 8 (out of 10).

The previous commenter forgot to mention this movie is from 1983 and the comic itself is from 1947.

Don't try to compare this movie with today's standards. The movie is almost 40 years old. And it's completely in the style of the original comic.

It's a beautiful movie and great made. I would really recommended it. I enjoyed the movie when I was a kid and I'm sure children these days would enjoy it too.

it is one of that lovely animations who remember the childhood in sweet light. nothing complicated, nothing extraordinary. only a Dutch classic book adaptation, with nice characters and nice humor, old values in honest clothes and moral as part of tradition. but that is far to transform it in boring film. because its ambition is only to conquer the young public and it is far by competition with Disney /Japanese universe. old fashion product, it can be useful for viewer who search an easy show who not gives revelations but only a kind of hot chocolate for soul. the interesting thing is the verdict about people by mayor. than, the roles to actors who reflects the serenity of small fable. and, sure, the friendship as heart of life.

"Als je begrijpt wat ik bedoel" is based on a very popular Dutch cartoon figure which whom whole generations grew up with. The movie knows to capture the comic book feeling on screen, which makes the nostalgic value of the movie very high.

Even though the movie has a fun feeling the undertone is dramatic and emotional, which is the most powerful thing of the movie. It is a movie that even the most tough adults will be moved by and it isn't unusual for some to shed some tears.

The character (even though they are animals) are very humane and realistic which makes the emotions work even better. The characters are brought to life by an excellent voice cast.

The quality however is not very good. The movie looks sloppy and outdated. The animations are pretty standard and simple but effective. There are some weird musical numbers that are far from good and also the music itself doesn't quite seem to fit the movie and is used at weird periods throughout the movie.

See it for the nostalgic value, however if you live outside the Netherlands or Belgium you can not fully appreciate this movie and it might not be worth your time.

7/10

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