"Hexe Lilli: Der Drache und das magische Buch" or "Lilly the Witch: The Dragon and the Magic Book" or just "Hexe Lilli" is a German/Italian/Austrian 85-minute movie from 2009, so this one will have its 10th anniversary two years from now. The director is Stefan Ruzowitzky and he is also one of the writers who worked on adapting this modern piece of successful children's literature. If you take a look at the filmmaker's other stuff (not just the Oscar-winning "Revanche"), you will find films that are pretty dark, pretty creepy at times even, so this family comedy is actually not exactly what you would expect from him. However, it also shows how popular children's films were back then here in Germany, still are today. This is also proved by the fact that the cast list is actually quite prominent. The (voice) actors include many names that are pretty familiar and known here in Germany. I will spare you the names, so you can check out the cast list for yourself. One interesting addition though is Pilar Bardem, even if she does not have too much screen time outside the first 10 minutes and yes she is Javier Bardem's mother and the one he thanked so graciously in his Oscar acceptance speech.
This is the story of a girl who gets picked as the successor to the powers of a mighty good witch. A little dragon (voiced by comedian Michael Mittermeier, who did a pretty good job here) is out to talk to her and introduce her to the world of sorcery. At the same time, we are introduced to her family, her school mates, her teachers etc. This is really pretty much what you could expect and maybe even hope for if you hear about a German fantasy film about a little witch. It is a nice mix of "normal" life and life as a witch. There is no real depth to it, but that's okay. The fantastic references still keep audiences interested. At times it was difficult to see that Naujoks' clumsy antagonist character is really so smart and powerful to achieve what he achieves in this film, even if it is just temporary. Talking about temporary, the temporary transformation scene early on with Catterfeld playing a pretty hilarious role was one of the best of the entire film. By the way, in the second half it also reminded me a bit of Momo with the gray colors everywhere. As a whole, this is a film that got slightly worse in the second 40 minutes, but it's all good. I'd still call it an enjoyable outcome. Go see it if you can. I will certainly check out the sequel at some point too and I hope it is just as good.
This is the story of a girl who gets picked as the successor to the powers of a mighty good witch. A little dragon (voiced by comedian Michael Mittermeier, who did a pretty good job here) is out to talk to her and introduce her to the world of sorcery. At the same time, we are introduced to her family, her school mates, her teachers etc. This is really pretty much what you could expect and maybe even hope for if you hear about a German fantasy film about a little witch. It is a nice mix of "normal" life and life as a witch. There is no real depth to it, but that's okay. The fantastic references still keep audiences interested. At times it was difficult to see that Naujoks' clumsy antagonist character is really so smart and powerful to achieve what he achieves in this film, even if it is just temporary. Talking about temporary, the temporary transformation scene early on with Catterfeld playing a pretty hilarious role was one of the best of the entire film. By the way, in the second half it also reminded me a bit of Momo with the gray colors everywhere. As a whole, this is a film that got slightly worse in the second 40 minutes, but it's all good. I'd still call it an enjoyable outcome. Go see it if you can. I will certainly check out the sequel at some point too and I hope it is just as good.
