"Pinky and the million pug" is a 2001-movie, directed by Stefan Lukschy, and very loosely based on the 80s children book from the GDR "Detektiv Pinky" by Gert Prokop. The original book contains ten stories, about a young orphan boy, who is nicknamed "Pinky" after the American detective Allan Pinkerton. The boy wants to be a detective himself like Pinkerton and is helping rich people in his town with different cases with success, which are charged with small treats for himself and his friends and an animal donation to the local zoo. Pinky and his friends live originally in the a fictitious town Kittsbirgh, NY. In the stories are a few puns to society, like asking a democrat if he's always telling the truth in his speeches and if he will donate an elephant to the zoo.
This movie is transporting the characters to a unnamed town (Leipzig) in Germany in the years 2000/1. This movie features two new stories and only the main characters from the source are included, which are Pinky, his friend (nicknamed as Monster), a new orphan girl named Diana (nicknamed Princess, a reference to Princess Diana of Wales, in the original book she's called Marie-Antoinette), their new parents nicknamed as Blindworm (their mother) and Punk (their father, he was Potter in the original book, cause of their surname, in the movie they are called Pommer). Also there is the multi-millionaire Jonathan Morgan. Also Inspector Columbus is similar to Captain Henderson from the book. Most of the other characters like Morgan's dog, Arnold the pug, his nephews, Frank and Phillip Fräser, who just want to inherit his money, his financial adviser Dr. Webster, his maid Leontine, Pinky's foster brothers Wumm and Peng, two characters who don't have much screen time, etc. are new in the movie. But to be fair: Mostly every story in the book features episodic characters.
In the plot Morgan, dressed as a bum, is stealing DM 2,20 from Pinky while spying on his employees in a restaurant. Pinky followed him and found him. They meet and Morgan asks him if he wants a real case, since he wants to be a detective. His first task is to find him in his shop, disguised, which he can do. Then he gets his first case, in which he has to find the shop robber, who is stealing a lot of things. If he is successful he gets money and a party for his friends. And he will get another case later.
The stories are mostly not from the book (the first story is based on chapter 2 called "At night all cats are grey", but there are a few direct quotes from the book and direkt references to the book, like a scene, where Pinky acts smoking or an adoption at the end of the movie, when Morgan decided to adopt Pinky with all he's got (so he took all his friends, nice ending), however in the original book Monster got adopted by another character.
I myself was able to watch them filming a scene as a child, as I was in Leipzig back then. There I met Lukschy, I saw Morgan/Hans Clarin, more knows as the voice of Pumuckl, an easy looking Jamie Krsto and a few others. It was very nice, Stefan Lukschy showed me the set, explained everything and many years later I found this movie again and decided to see it and to read the book. Well, it is a children crime movie, so you can't expect big action or exact faithful description of criminal service workers, which is also not really featured here. Even if it is for children, it seems like the original book even had a bit more action than this movie.
The movie is a nice try adapting this book, whom not everyone may know. Many nice places in Leipzig can be seen, like the famous Auerbachs Keller, the old city hall, Leipzig City etc. The actors mostly give good performances in their roles, but it is nothing spectacular. You can make more stories or characterization of the characters. Also a few puns or critic to the society could be added too, as it was also added in the original book. It's a nice movie you can watch but it's not a masterpiece, which probably not supposed to be. So for children the movie is quite OK.
This movie is transporting the characters to a unnamed town (Leipzig) in Germany in the years 2000/1. This movie features two new stories and only the main characters from the source are included, which are Pinky, his friend (nicknamed as Monster), a new orphan girl named Diana (nicknamed Princess, a reference to Princess Diana of Wales, in the original book she's called Marie-Antoinette), their new parents nicknamed as Blindworm (their mother) and Punk (their father, he was Potter in the original book, cause of their surname, in the movie they are called Pommer). Also there is the multi-millionaire Jonathan Morgan. Also Inspector Columbus is similar to Captain Henderson from the book. Most of the other characters like Morgan's dog, Arnold the pug, his nephews, Frank and Phillip Fräser, who just want to inherit his money, his financial adviser Dr. Webster, his maid Leontine, Pinky's foster brothers Wumm and Peng, two characters who don't have much screen time, etc. are new in the movie. But to be fair: Mostly every story in the book features episodic characters.
In the plot Morgan, dressed as a bum, is stealing DM 2,20 from Pinky while spying on his employees in a restaurant. Pinky followed him and found him. They meet and Morgan asks him if he wants a real case, since he wants to be a detective. His first task is to find him in his shop, disguised, which he can do. Then he gets his first case, in which he has to find the shop robber, who is stealing a lot of things. If he is successful he gets money and a party for his friends. And he will get another case later.
The stories are mostly not from the book (the first story is based on chapter 2 called "At night all cats are grey", but there are a few direct quotes from the book and direkt references to the book, like a scene, where Pinky acts smoking or an adoption at the end of the movie, when Morgan decided to adopt Pinky with all he's got (so he took all his friends, nice ending), however in the original book Monster got adopted by another character.
I myself was able to watch them filming a scene as a child, as I was in Leipzig back then. There I met Lukschy, I saw Morgan/Hans Clarin, more knows as the voice of Pumuckl, an easy looking Jamie Krsto and a few others. It was very nice, Stefan Lukschy showed me the set, explained everything and many years later I found this movie again and decided to see it and to read the book. Well, it is a children crime movie, so you can't expect big action or exact faithful description of criminal service workers, which is also not really featured here. Even if it is for children, it seems like the original book even had a bit more action than this movie.
The movie is a nice try adapting this book, whom not everyone may know. Many nice places in Leipzig can be seen, like the famous Auerbachs Keller, the old city hall, Leipzig City etc. The actors mostly give good performances in their roles, but it is nothing spectacular. You can make more stories or characterization of the characters. Also a few puns or critic to the society could be added too, as it was also added in the original book. It's a nice movie you can watch but it's not a masterpiece, which probably not supposed to be. So for children the movie is quite OK.
