I remember A.M.G. Schmidt's "Wiplala"-stories from my childhood. They were quite fascinating to read and because of that I waited for this movie to be made. When I saw an advertisement, I even considered going to the cinema to see it, but thank God I decided not to do it.
My hopes were high, but I was disappointed: the movie and the books are not similar in any way, except 1) the names of the characters and 2) a small guy wiplala, whose name is Wiplala.
Why did they have to make Nella-Della act like a whining teenage bitch, while in the books she is a reasonable young LADY, who looked after her family, including her little brother? And she did that gladly. Yes, it is true, that Mr. Blom was very absent-minded, but Nella-Della did not behave like he was an old fool. Sadly, this kind of attitude is seen in this movie.
Why was it necessary for Johannes to hide Wiplala? What additional features did it give to the plot?
Arthur Hollidee, the poet – according to the book, he was a neighbor to the Blom family, not their close friend. He was so poor that he occasionally came to the Blom's house to eat with them. Over there he saw Wiplala, who then turned him into a stone monument. But this monument was still human-sized. In the movie, Hollidee is a local weirdo, who everybody hates (especially Nella-Della?!) and who is in love with
his own sister?! Because he did live with his sister. And – wouldn't it be more logical to close the street and remove the statue, not to destroy it?
The scene in the restaurant – the Blom family is sealed into an office and police is called, because
they ate a hot-dog and Mr. Blom accidentally flipped over a plate filled with spaghetti? This does not make sense! The version in the book – they are locked into the office, because they did not have any money to pay for their meal – is much more sensible.
A children's movie should give examples, how to behave and so on. But what kind of an example does this give, when the Blom children are constantly eating fast food and garbage like that (the hot-dog in the restaurant and potato chips in the Chinese store)? Yes, the bakery, where they end up in the book, is not healthier, but still more reasonable place.
About the scene in the Chinese shop (why Chinese?) – Their plan was to hold the toy car under the shelf and to hope that the Chinese boy (or his grandma) would not look under it to see what is keeping the car stuck? But what if the boy HAD looked under the shelf? And what would they have done, if the boy had decided to leave the remote control onto the shelf, high above?
I would rather not comment the fact that after such driving, not only Mr. Blom's arm would not be broken, they all would be dead or at least severely injured. Oh, by the way – although Mr. Blom's arm was broken, they somehow still managed to climb onto the plate that was located on top of the food cart
If such pizza-delivery-guy would work for me, I would sack him immediately.
And where are those events that took place in an old house near a canal?
If someone should ask whether to rent this movie or not, I would say: "Not!" and rather recommend those books that A.M.G. Schmidt wrote about Wiplala. They are much more interesting.
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