A magical item in the hands of a little girl leads to mayhem.
It is interesting the kind of areas of tension that this chooses to mine laughs from, and how many of them are still prevalent. The field of psychiatry, relations between neighbors, stress, changing how much is allowed and how to discipline when it comes to child rearing, and more. The screenplay has way more effort and genuine skill than anyone had any right to expect from this kind of thing. Verbal comedy, slapstick, etc. With that said, this thing does definitely wear out its welcome, and some of the varied gags do end up feeling like they basically just did anything and everything that budget and special effects allowed for. Way too much bluescreen. There are chunks of this that are just non-stop relentless hijinks, and you find yourself hoping it'll soon take a break. At least it's short, at just under 90 minutes. Also, there are some clever touches, such as the recently-rendered-human statues of Hans Christian Andersen and The Little Mermaid(who was based on his poem) greet each other for the first time.
I'm not going to comment on the acting ability or singing talent of the children in this. Not even to say that they should have been asked to do it less, if they weren't better than here. And at least a few of the lyrics(which I don't blame on the wee ones, mind you) could have been significantly better. It feels wrong to criticize young kids who didn't even have a say in it. It was up to the parents whether or not they do these. What I will leave it at is that the film is a lot more appealing during the appearances of Ove Sprogøe(with his underplayed delivery building up to a nervous breakdown) and Dirch Passer(with his calmness exploding into out of control passion, in part shown through his rubber face), the mega stars(and with good reason!) of the time.
I recommend this to only the biggest fans of Danish cinema from the period. Everyone else, stick with the infinitely superior Olsen Gang movies. 6/10.
