Dunderklumpen!

If Australian's are not the most diverse happy moviegoers on the planet I am unsure then who are. DUNDERKLUMPEN was released here in the late 70s and was a success for the matinée tykes and their bewildered older brothers and sisters who must have had to draw on HR PUFNSTUF or PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH flashbacks to see them get through this. Recently in 2007 the Swedish church choir drama SA SOM I HIMMELEN has also hit massive box office, so we must connect somehow with our Arctic kindred spirits literally diagonally through the planet. This 70s hilarious forest bound animated/live pic even had a 'wandering mountain' which somehow stomped about.... I worked in a cinema and we would often sing "ja es Dun-der-klu-mpen' monstering each other with twisted faces in between sessions. Lots of fun. An Australian film called 'Grendel Grendel Grendel" also from the same time was very popular. It was monster dream-time animation too. God help us. Nobody these days believes me that there was a pic called DUNDERKLUMPEN and what it was about, so hooray again for the IMDb that reveals all.

I have trouble voting on this one...

is the acting off? yes. Is the animated parts crude in quality? many times yes. is it charming as hell? YES! This is certainly just one of those movies that shouldn't work. And for most people out there in the world I have trouble imagining that this film would come out as anything but a trippy b-flick. But for the intended audience, especially those that remember Beppe as the legend of Swedish television children's stories, this is pure nostalgia I am sure.

Me then? Well as I'm born in 85 I haven't got that exact connection with the guy, but then again... Most domestic children's movies over here on the telly was reruns from the 70s and 80s anyways so I am one of those last few that watched public service films without being abnormal.

No, the reason for me to pick up this DVD at the local library was more about a dormant homesickness. And for that it gets a big plus, as it is shot in the province of Jämtland. And seeing the landscape just made me feel good.

The plot then. When Beppe is going to put his son Jens to bed for the night, a strange journey begins. An animated fellow, named Dunderklumpen, has kidnapped some brought-to-life puppets and a mysterious treasure chest. Jens and the baby goat takes up the pursuit while daddy Beppe and his friend, the bumblebee with a sweettoth, on their trail.

They meet several weird animated figures and a lot of singing and dancing ensues to fill out the basically thin plot. Everything except some live-action moments are animated by another Swedish legend, Per Åhlin. And among the voice-cast we hear people like Gösta Ekman as En Dum En (a dumb one) and the likes in the Swedish soundtrack.

It's a slow moving and trivial adventure padded out with singing and dancing and wonderful characters in the typical jamska dialect. It's crude, yes... and it has a gap in the audience between age 5 and 20 that won't get it at all even in the native language. But for everyone else, the ones that have the right mindset for it, it's a wonderful adventure for those who get into the whole thing.

I give it an 8 as it isn't for everyone and the execution is sometimes overtly dodgy. But don't let that fool you. Try it out! You might even like it. And come over here and have a visit while your'e at it!

The appeal of the film Dunderklumpen for adults lies mainly in its nostalgic walk down memory lane to the age of innocence. The film is a document of the idealistic world view prevalent in Sweden in the early seventies. It is an eloquent nature idyll, in which children are innocent, fathers are clumsy, money is the root of all evil, criminals are good people at heart and can be rehabilitated and poor, elderly people have a lease on true natural wisdom.

Many of these traits are also present in the work of Astrid Lindgren and Beppe Wolgers was closely involved in the dramatisation of some of her books. The story's idealism is thus deeply rooted in its time and that forms part of its charm. The beautiful natural settings and the jazzy music by Toots Thielemans do the rest.

Is it just me or is this movie completely inexplicable? It features odd framing, bad singing, and a father who has an unhealthy obsession with bees. . . Strange, strange, strange. . . HS

This is not one of the best movies you'll ever see, neither is it the best acting you'll ever see but it is extremely hard to find another film that is as beautiful as this. Per Åhlin is somewhat of a god for me and this is his finest work without a doubt, a movie that children enjoy based solely on the purpose that they are children.

It is set in a beautiful landscape in Sweden called Jämtland, where a character called Dunderklumpen blows life into some toys because he has no one to play with, and all the character involved is out for a magical midsummer night.

I showed this movie to my students, they were 11-12 years old at the time and they usually watched kind of grow-up movies and didn't not react when I showed them other movies from my childhood, but this movie have a certain kind of ability to make even the toughest man smile simply because he wants to. They laughed and they were into the story, they saw beautiful nature and they loved all the characters. The music is also very powerful in itself.

A true gem, I recommend that you stop reading this and start watching the movie that has rocked me to my very core ever since I was five years old.