User Reviews

The wise bob ross once said "we don't make mistakes, we just have happy accidents" with that said, impys island was a very very happy accident.

Impys island shows that even though there's terrible animation and terrible voice acting, the story can still hold strong. The character development is a strong aspect of this movie. There was a wild variety of personalty. This movie was overall a cinimatic masterpiece, I never thought a humble movie such as Impys island would change my life, but that it did.

Solomon the elephant seal was my favorite character by a landslide. His perspective on life was so unique and surprisingly deep. He went from singing alone on his rock to console himself, to singing happy songs with friends. My favorite moment was when he was finally thanked for all his contribution, it was a very emotional moment for me.

Impy on the other hand is an ungrateful brat who manipulates and lies. WHY why is the movie named after impy!? It's NOT his island. Everything he does throughout the movie is plain stupid. For example, when he cheered after he heard he would potentially get shot. Impy is just one of those characters you can't help but hate even though they are technically the main character. Impy, like most characters in the film, goes through character development and is less of a brat at the end of the move.

I do have one major criticism of this film however, there are no strong female characters. There is one female character the pig, peg. Peg is responsible for cleaning the house and basically being the mom to impy. Her only dream in life is to be a mom, huh. Not only is peg a manifestation of female gender roles in a pig, but she is constantly bullied and harassed. Almost every male character in this film manages to make fun of her, very disappointing.

Another criticism is that the movie is only 70 minutes, but hey I guess less is more

The writing and setup of this movie was simply incredible. An Island of talking animals who basically all have speech impediments and go to a "school for talking animals". My favorite line was when a bat passed impy and he said "a bird in a leather jacket!" amazing. Just incredible.

That's all I have to say about that.

"Urmel aus dem Eis" or "Impy's Island" is a German movie from 2006, so this one had its 10th anniversary last year and is based on the possibly most famous story of the Augsburger Puppenkiste. For that one from several decades earlier, it is all about string puppets, but this new take on the story is all about the animation. Okay, it may not be Pixar, but it is pretty decent overall I would say. Same goes for the voice acting. They actually got a few well-known comedians/actors on board here, at least to German audiences. I am talking about Boning, Engelke, Völz, Herbst and Pocher. Oh yeah, and Oscar winner Hans Zimmer worked on the score, so this really shows you that we have a fairly prestigious project here. I believe the original Urmel mini-series became a bit weaker towards the end and this is maybe true here as well with the rescue mission and all. But I believe nonetheless that this was a good watch overall. I see the rating here is not that brilliant, but I guess many people who love the original just gave it a thumbs-down without giving it a chance even. That's a bit pathetic. I personally am not shy to say they did a good job here overall and I liked this even more than the original because this is our generation's approach, the modern take on the subject of the old film that has not aged too well. I guess audiences liked this relatively short film too (comfortable under half an hour and this already includes the ending credits) because they made a sequel that has nothing to do with the original story though. But the sequel is decent too. I would not have minded a third film, but looking at the time that has passed since the second film I guess it is not gonna happen. Back to this first film we have here, it is a thumbs up from me. Voice acting, story-telling and animation are all on a level that I liked. Greatness? No. Goodness? Yes. Probably more appropriate for children than for adults. Go see it with your kids perhaps.