Die Känguru-Chroniken

I am totally disappointed. Given the good quality books of Kling it is hard to imagine that anyone could produce a worse movie than this. 25 years ago, the Berlin dialogues would at least be kind of original, today it is full old cliché and this world is obviously long gone as well. What is even worse, the movie has not one likeable character in it. Always a very bad sign. Avoid.

No fun, no plot. That's all I have to say. Didn't laugh, didn't sweep away.

3 stars are awarded for the kangaroo animation. Otherwise, the question is why you have to produce such a film at all. One would have "simply" used a drawing style to take out the actor discussion and to put the quick, precise jokes on point.

So it's just a normal German movie and in international comparison it's just 3 Imdb stars. Does money eat your brain here, Mr.Kling?

There are 3-4 good laughs and that's it. The script is weak, the directing much more (the film does not find his rhythm in the first half an hour, almost every scene is with music that pushes itself into the foreground, the style of this movie resembles a children's film), the only good thing is the look and movement of the kangaroo.

The director Dani Levy, who is repeatedly overrated as a comedy director, did not understand what is so funny about the chronicles. The kangaroo's absurdity only works when the rest of the world seems normal. But when the whole world goes crazy, like in Levy's film, a kangaroo with communist statements doesn't stand out anymore.

And you don't have to be a communist or a kangaroo or both to demonstrate against the insane demolition and high-rise plans - the main drama in the film.

All in all a nice film for children and teenagers. As an adult you look in vain for the wit of the story that the books by Marc-Uwe Kling definitely have.

The movie is everything I hoped it wouldn't be and I can't believe the author gave his blessings. It's a typical german comedy. In a bad way. Which means the humor is very silly. Which doesn't do the ingenious novels by Marc-Uwe Kling any justice, because the humor there is witty and more on the dry side. What made me cringe the most was what I'm sure will be sold off as movie "citations". Which even if you know they are meant like that just come off as blatant and shameless stealing. As a viewer I felt insulted. A citation has to do bring in new elements. It has to hint at the original just to show the appreciation for it. Put it in another context. Not stealing entire scenes and dialogues and even end with the same punchline. If you're outright stealing at least have the modesty not to copycat material that everyone and his grandmother has seen hundreds of times. The interaction between the kangaroo and the main character is unconvincing and weak. It looks like he acts to thin air. Which is made worse by the fact that the kangaroo's voice is coming from the off and doesn't fit in with the ambient sound. There's no reverb, no nothing. But you can see it's lips move, so it feels just awkward. The animation is not the best either. All the punchlines that put me to tears while listening to the audio books just don't fire because the timing is off. The story they've build around the source material is plainly dumb and uninspired tv-quality stuff. As is the cinematography, if you wanna call it that. German telenovela level. There's nothing I like about the movie which the books didn't do better.