I can barely remember the movie, since I was very young when I saw it in the cinema, but I think that it is a nice children`s movie which is better than a lot Disney movies. It has cute animation and a fun story. If you ever get the chance, show the movie to your children, they will like it.
3 Reviews
Interesting European animation. One to watch for.
stephen-633 November 2001
Shown once on UK tv in an English dub, this is a worthy feature from Europe. The animation style is unusual, with what looks like real water shots mixed with detailed pencil sketch animation (in colour). Not up to the best Japanese standards but better than many Hollywood epics of late. The story is of termites stowing away on the ark, being overcome, and the ark being saved from sinking by a mountain that gets in the way. The English characterisation was good although some of the animals tended to become a trifle overexcited from time to time (loud high pitched laughs and screams... ). If you collect animation styles this is one to look for. A reasonable family film, although maybe not suitable for the younger ones due to some emotional tensions and limited violence.
Urchs' inferior work
Horst_In_Translation24 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"In der Arche ist der Wurm drin" or "Stowaways on the Ark" is a West German German-language film from 1988 and it is one of two somewhat known (animated) films by writer and director Wolfgang Urchs. I prefer his movie from 2 years later though: "Peterchens Mondfahrt". That one is also slightly longer than this one here, which only runs for 78 minutes, so a very short watch. And while that other projects focuses on a beetle, this one here is about woodworms living in Noah's Ark. The religious references are really only minimal though, it is all about the fun, comedy and animation. The woodworm are suspected of damaging the ark, but the ones really to blame are termites and the woodworm not only have to prove their innocence, but also convict the real bad guys.
The animation is okay for late 1980s, could have been better, could have been worse and the looks of the protagonists are fine as well. Cute (especially the young one) and fun. But sadly, the story is not good enough in terms of quality and quantity for anything over 45 minutes, which means this film had some lengths and there were so many characters in here that we know nothing about and that also added very little to this movie, so maybe the best would have been if they had been left out. The voice acting cast includes no big names, the only one I recognized was Benjamin Blümchen's voice, who also voices an elephant here fittingly. I myself prefer Urch's latter effort, but this one here is not a failure either, just lacking considerably in several apartments. That's why I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
The animation is okay for late 1980s, could have been better, could have been worse and the looks of the protagonists are fine as well. Cute (especially the young one) and fun. But sadly, the story is not good enough in terms of quality and quantity for anything over 45 minutes, which means this film had some lengths and there were so many characters in here that we know nothing about and that also added very little to this movie, so maybe the best would have been if they had been left out. The voice acting cast includes no big names, the only one I recognized was Benjamin Blümchen's voice, who also voices an elephant here fittingly. I myself prefer Urch's latter effort, but this one here is not a failure either, just lacking considerably in several apartments. That's why I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
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