Family cinema to refresh (and overcome) the long school holidays
We're past the halfway point of this hot summer, and the kids are already well into their vacation. A long, long season. For parents who are already at a loss for what new plan to suggest to their children, a good dose of family movies can be very refreshing.
The Muertimers , a fun and terrifying offering for teens, opens today. The same goes for the German animated film The Super Elfkins. Another German-Spanish film, Heidi: The Rescue of the Lynx, which rescues the unforgettable girl from the Alps, will hit theaters on the 22nd.
'Heidi: The Rescue of the Lynx' extols the values of friendship and respect for nature.When Álvaro Fernández Armero was young, he read The Three Investigators novels. Written by Robert Arthur, they told the adventures of three boys who lived in a California town and solved mysteries from their secret headquarters in an abandoned trailer. “No one remembers that series anymore, but I loved it. I had all the books and couldn't stop reading them,” the filmmaker recalls in a conversation with La Vanguardia .
It is therefore not surprising that his new film, The Muértimers , has an air of those books or other children's detective series that also entertained young people in the sixties and seventies, such as The Secret Five or The Secret Seven written by the great Enid Blyton.
In this case, it's Nico who's going to become a detective without realizing it. The boy, who lives in a large house next to the cemetery, receives a visit from Gabrielle, a French girl, as part of an exchange program. Nico and Gabrielle immediately become friends, but are forced to face an initial problem: some of his schoolmates laugh at Nico because his family is in the funeral business.
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“I didn't want the theme of bullying to be central to the film, which then takes on other spin-offs, but I did think it was a very interesting starting point, because the character of Nico and his story of overcoming difficulties develop through the harassment he suffers,” explains Fernández Armero, who adds that the issue of bullying “is very sensitive and topical, and a major concern for many parents.”
Soon Nico and Gabrielle will have to face other problems, because living among tombs can be a little scary. At night, strange things begin to happen in the cemetery, and at the same time, jewel thieves seem to be making a killing in the town. The children will have no choice but to become investigators to unravel this mystery.
A scene from the Spanish film 'Los Muértimer'
DRAFTING“Teenagers who go to see The Muértimers will find a story full of intrigue and characters who speak directly to them from an adult perspective, opening up a reflection on their daily lives and other issues like death. I wanted to tell a family story in which children are the main characters,” says the director of The Muértimers , which stars Víctor Clavijo, Alexandra Jiménez, Belén Rueda, and the children Diego Montejo and Iratxe Emparan.
The same generation that read The Three Investigators books was also fascinated by Heidi's adventures. Swiss writer Johanna Spyri published the story of an orphan girl who went to live with her grandfather in a remote cabin in the Alps at the end of the 19th century. Japanese animation turned the novel into a 52-episode series that aired in Spain in 1975 and garnered incredible viewership.
Now, Heidi: The Rescue of the Lynx is coming to the big screen, a Spanish-German co-production directed by Toby Schwarz and Aizea Roca Berridi, which brings back the Japanese Heidi in 3D and features all the characters that enchanted children of the seventies: the grandfather, Pedro the goatherd, and Niebla the dog.
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Heidi's Return is an opportunity for new generations to get to know this endearing girl and also a film that, in addition to being entertaining, extols the values of friendship and respect for nature. Heidi adopts a lynx cub while confronting a greedy knight who has come to her village intending to build a sawmill that could destroy the trees and the local ecosystem.
A scene from the animated film 'The Super Elfkins'
Watch MoviesThe tradition of the elfkins is also centuries old. They are little elves who "appeared in a 19th-century poem and lived in Cologne," says Ute von Münchow-Pohl, director of The Super Elfkins , in a conversation with La Vanguardia . "When the people of Cologne went to sleep without finishing their work, they did so peacefully, because the elves were very kind and finished the unfinished tasks left by humans," the filmmaker explains.
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But after a dispute, the Elfkins split into two groups. The first continued to help the man with his tasks. The second "exiled themselves underground and lived in isolation after deciding that humans were stupid and unworthy of their help."
Now Helvi, the protagonist of The Super Elfkins , "doesn't want to believe that all humans are bad." So the little girl will act as a bridge between the different branches of the elves to reconcile them and continue helping people in this sequel to The Elfkins (2020).
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“This story is heartwarming. The protagonist is positive, optimistic, and very open-minded. The film opens the door for children to learn how to approach different people, make new friends, and connect with people they didn't like before,” says the director, adding, “The Super Elfkins also have a ton of adventures that are very entertaining.”
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