dalgard

A timeless children's classic - with its unique water-color style Jannik Hastrup has created a true masterpiece of Danish animation. Once again he has given full justice to one of Bent Haller's wonderful books. The voice acting, especially Tommy Kenter and Claus Ryskjær, and the music by Fuzzy, Jacob Groth, and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen represent the best of its time.

The movie handles themes that lie just beyond the grasp of children, such as love, parenting, war, drinking, and growing up, in a powerful yet very gentle way. It has many moments that will never be forgotten and the characters will stay in children's hearts forever.

The two things I liked most about this movie are the calm, confident lack of pretentiousness and the incredible palette of characters all played by brilliantly casted actors.

Compared to some of the so-called luminaries of the genre made by ex. Orson Welles, this movie is almost demure. It really makes a minimal amount of noise for itself. Especially the heist itself, which supposedly would be the climax, takes place in an incredibly unceremonious fashion - and this I felt gave me time to enjoy both the detailed and realistic mise-en-scene and the great characters with their constantly varying facial expressions.

It is very rare to see a movie with such variation in characters. They all seem to be very different from each other and none of them are stereotypical in any way. This is what really made the movie entertaining to me - it seems like, if this had been a TV series, each one would be material for a spin off :)