"Lauras Stern" is a German movie from 2004, so this one is already over a decade old and back then it managed to win a German Film Award in the children's film category. This is very accurate and deserving though as it was up against one other film only and that was from the unbearably bad Wilde Kerle franchise. This one here is clearly superior luckily. It is an animated movie by the team who also worked on the Little Polar Bear duology. And even if the voice acting cast here does not contain as many familiar names as for the arctic movie, German film buffs will still recognize some of the actors, such as Krekel, Fitz, Mattes and Schafmeister for me. The animation looks really retro as if this film could have been much older than 21st century and that's not a negative aspect at all as it adds to its charm.
So yeah, overall I enjoyed the watch. Here we have the story of a girl who has to move to a new house and isn't happy about that at all. Her brother has similar problems that worsen even when his beloved stuffed animals is taken away from him for a brief moment. Anyway, things take a turn for the better when the girls manages to make friends (and foes) and finds a magical little star that has fallen from the sky and it has the ability to bring all kinds of stuffed animals to life, which is something that especially the brother enjoys. All in all I think the first half hour is pretty good, but then it gets a bit worse in the second half hour until the journey through the stars is pretty good again at the very end, especially visually. Like I wrote in the title, the film's innocence is one of its biggest strength, even if the subject maybe only makes it interesting for really young audiences. Of course those still young at heart will enjoy it too I believe and yes this includes myself. It's a bit of a shame the second half of the movie was a bit on the forgettable side as the film surely offered potential for being even better. It is a relatively short film and I guess this is a good thing overall here. It runs for under 75 minutes without credits, slightly over 75 with credits. the Wonderwall song at the very end is nice too and fits perfectly. I recommend checking it out and I can see why it is one of Germany's most known animated films still today, even if admittedly there aren't that many compared to the United States or so. Go see it.
So yeah, overall I enjoyed the watch. Here we have the story of a girl who has to move to a new house and isn't happy about that at all. Her brother has similar problems that worsen even when his beloved stuffed animals is taken away from him for a brief moment. Anyway, things take a turn for the better when the girls manages to make friends (and foes) and finds a magical little star that has fallen from the sky and it has the ability to bring all kinds of stuffed animals to life, which is something that especially the brother enjoys. All in all I think the first half hour is pretty good, but then it gets a bit worse in the second half hour until the journey through the stars is pretty good again at the very end, especially visually. Like I wrote in the title, the film's innocence is one of its biggest strength, even if the subject maybe only makes it interesting for really young audiences. Of course those still young at heart will enjoy it too I believe and yes this includes myself. It's a bit of a shame the second half of the movie was a bit on the forgettable side as the film surely offered potential for being even better. It is a relatively short film and I guess this is a good thing overall here. It runs for under 75 minutes without credits, slightly over 75 with credits. the Wonderwall song at the very end is nice too and fits perfectly. I recommend checking it out and I can see why it is one of Germany's most known animated films still today, even if admittedly there aren't that many compared to the United States or so. Go see it.