Peter in Magicland (1990) User Reviews

Another animated favorite I really wish was on DVD

[ja_kitty_71 · 10/10 · 8 November 2020]

Here is another animated film I wish was on DVD or Blu-Ray. This movie was also the first movie I had added to my "Watchlist," when I got my Amazon Video account.

There isn't really much to tell about the story, except that it is about two children Peter and Anneli (Annabelle in the dub) who took a magical yet dangerous journey with a May Beetle Mr Zoomzeman (Mr. Buzzworthy in the dub) to the Moon to get Mr. Zoomzeman's missing leg back, because a long, long time ago a thief had stolen wood from the forest on a Sunday, and had cut off Mr. Zoomzeman's great-great grandfather's sixth leg. The Night Fairy banished the thief to the Moon as punishment, but he took the leg with him, causing later generations of the Zoomzeman family to have only five legs. So Mr. Zoomzeman must search for two good children who never harmed any creature, until he found Peter and Anneli.

Now I didn't know the movie was based on a children's book. But fortunately there was copy of the book translated in English. So I ordered it online and I read it. Now it is one of my favorite children's books. Anyway, all I have to say is that this movie is another animated favorite and I really wish it was on DVD.

A good watch for young audiences

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 24 August 2016]

"Peterchens Mondfahrt" is a German 80-minute animated movie from 1990, so it is already over 25 years old. The director is Wolfgang Urchs and he also wrote this film together with Alexander Kekulé and Arne Elsholtz. The latter also is a voice actor in here. And if you are a German film buff, there will be more familiar names in the voice cast. For me these would be Habeck, Wachtveitl and Hess. The film is of course based on the children's book by Gerdt von Bassewitz and as far as I know it is the only animated version of the tale. There is a live action film from 1959 as well, but it's probably not as known as this one here. The title is a bit misleading as it is at least as much Anneliese's and Sumsemann's journey to the moon as it is little Peter's. The moon has always been a target destination, not only in real life in the 1960s, but also in films. Just ask Georges Méliès.

Back to this one here. I did not know about the plot or the action as I don't think I have read the book, but this was no problem at all. It is easy to appreciate all the interesting and colorful characters and for children audiences it is not a problem at all that they don't really get that much elaborations or that audiences don't really find out about their backgrounds. Some of these actually were so interesting to watch that they could have deserved their own movie. We get a rarely evil version of the man on the moon this time as he is a huge muscular brute, but he is never really too scary for younger audiences. Just make sure your teddy bear watches away. The best thing about this film that does not even come close to the magical 1.5-hour mark was the music probably. The main theme is wonderful to listen to and the score and soundtrack are generally very nicely done and fit in perfectly with the magical story that takes us into this fantastic world. The film has almost no lengths and it is the second somewhat known film by Urchs today after an ark-themed film about worms from 2 years earlier. "Peter in Magicland" is worth seeing for young audiences and those still young at heart. I give it a thumbs-up and I found it a pity that the beetle was sleeping for half of the movie as he was my favorite character.