Die Känguru-Chroniken

2 Kids and 2 Adults disappointed.

The 2 Kids (7 and 10) were missing all their long term jokes and were terrified by all the visible violence. In the books the Nazis always lose against the Kangaru. But in the movie the Nazis suddenly look and behave dangerous in a non-bud-spencer-realistic-way and Marc gets hurt with real blood visible. We two adults were missing all the jokes and the fun and the nagging of Marc and his Kanguru. In our audition director Dany Levy was available for questions. He told about its own kids being long term hard core fans and warning him not to ruin the (audio)books for his kids for all time by making a bad movie. But he did unfortunately.

"Some will find it mediocre"

3 stars are awarded for the kangaroo animation. Otherwise, the question is why you have to produce such a film at all. One would have "simply" used a drawing style to take out the actor discussion and to put the quick, precise jokes on point.

So it's just a normal German movie and in international comparison it's just 3 Imdb stars. Does money eat your brain here, Mr.Kling?

This movie is even worse than I expected. Even with *no* expectations this movie isn't any fun.

In contrast to the (audio) books which *are* funny, the movie is not because of the stupid story and very silly jokes. The situational comic from the books is not transported to the movie.

The movie looks like it has been written by a child without understanding the philosophy behind the Kangaroo Chronicles.

It is so boring, I fell asleep while watching. The only thing I could like in this movie is the animation of the Kangaroo which is quite good.

If you know and love the books you may come away a bit disappointed. Most of the humor which relies on the reader/listener having some familiarity with literature, philosphy, history is missing. All the more complicated or self-referential bits of humor are missing. It basically feels like a dumbed down version with some unneccesseary additions (e.g. a love story). Forcing the episodic nature of the book(s) into a coherent story was certainly not easy and it shows in the weak cookie-cutter plot. Actor quality is also a mixed bag. Especially the protagonist and main antagonist aren't cast particularly well or just weren't given enough to work with by the script.

That said the kangaroo CGI is good quality, the interaction between it and the other characters feel natural. The movie starts off funny and the pacing works for the most part. Some signature jokes were also incorporated well into the story.

If they take the criticisms to heart I feel they could crank out another one or two of these movies with better quality. There's certainly more than enough source material to draw from.

No fun, no plot. That's all I have to say. Didn't laugh, didn't sweep away.