Urmel aus dem Eis

No offense to anybody, but I think that it is very hard for anybody who didn’t grow up in Germany in the past forty years to appreciate the impact that this story has had on kids and adults here (Urmel is now the official mascot of Germany’s national ice-hockey team!). This is, after all, the third adaptation of the original book (not counting the 2-D cartoon series) and, I must say (being very skeptical about remakes), a very good one. It was good to see Max Kruse, the author of the book (1969), who is now 86 years old, commenting on the DVD how much he appreciated this version, and I understand why. In many aspects, it has been carefully (!) updated and adapted to current taste, but in other ways it is MORE faithful to the original book than the more famous TV puppet version from the 1960s. And the dialog is so faithful to the book that I could anticipate all the punch lines! Apart from that, I was also surprised (not having read the book or seen the older version for a while) to see how topical the theme still is. I certainly never watched it for its “message” when I was 8 years old, but it has one: It is the old theme of the conservationist (who wants just to preserve nature) vs. the scientist (who wants to analyze and dissect everything) vs. the trophy hunter (who is purely destructive for the sole purpose of achieving personal “glory”). It is in no way subtle – but it is told in a way that children understand. I can tell, because my daughter is now about the same age that I was when I saw it for the first time, and the impact hasn’t changed. And thanks to DVD, we can all watch the 1969 version alongside the new one – I think we have two wonderful version of one wonderful book. And tell your kids to read the book, too (the book is called “Urmal from the Ice Age” in English, “Plodoc” in French).

Hi, this is a animated remake of the classic 60s and 70s German TV Series "Augsburger Puppenkiste".

I went with a my kids and a bunch of others (four girls aged seven and two boys aged ten). The seven year olds liked it, mainly because of the slapstick humour. The ten year olds thought it was a bit slow, not enough excitement for them. The cinema was full of little kids though and there was a lot of laughing going on.

The characters are true to their original characters. They behave the same way and have the same speech impediments. The storyline is exactly the same as the old one. Nothing new here. The animation was OK, but they weren't trying to do anything special with it, just entertain kids.

Worth taking the kids to on a rainy Saturday afternoon, but I wouldn't go if I was an adult.

I'm not fan of cartoons, but I've had very great times with some animated films such as Cars, Happy feet, Finding nemo etc, but this flick is very bad, the plot has been the worst presented I've ever seen, I had to halt it and watched it another day, really I couldn't stand it. Of course it's a movie for little boys and girls, they could enjoy it because there are nice colourful shots, that's why I graded it 4, but the script is very boring. Most of this genre of movies has a moral, thing that I couldn't find in Urmel Aus dem Eis. Could anybody tell me what kind of message the production wanted to convey with this video? Not a real story, not an interesting plot, not a clear moral. Abstain from watching it, let your kids alone in front of the TV. 2010 I still think that ithis movie was a piece of ...nothing

I know this film has been dubbed into English (full disclosure- I voice Ping the penguin). Does anyone have any information regarding a USA or UK or other release? No one tells us actors anything... The script I saw was very funny, and I thought there was a moral that adults could appreciate as well as kids. Maybe there was a difference between the English translation and the original? The film reminded me of the Weinstein Co.'s recent release of Little Red Riding Hood which was under-promoted and under-appreciated, being from a smaller studio (ie- not Pixar or BlueSky)- the visuals I saw were amazing, with some of the best physical humor I've seen in any film, animated or live action. I hope more people get to see it!

It follows the plot line outlined in Max Kruse's books.

I agree, there is no moral shown in this movie, it's just a pleasant waste of time. Not a bad thing if you're a fan of dragons or dinosaurs, or anything saurian.

I think this film was made in the manner of copyright retention, as it is done with many American franchises. Since the characters are used in a new creation, the owners keep the character's rights for a bunch of years.

The movie won't do well in the American market, or any other market that hasn't heard of the Urmel franchise.

Still, it's a pleasant movie to watch at a furry/dragon/reptile fan convention room party.