Werner - Beinhart! (1990)

Broesel has to make a Werner animation film but right now he has no real ideas for new stories. Thus he simply draws some stories from Werner's youth.

Directors:

Gerhard Hahn, Niki List

Writers:

Rötger Feldmann (comic) (as Brösel), Ernst Kahl

Stars:

Klaus Büchner, Andi Feldmann, Kulle Westphal

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Klaus Büchner	...	Werner (voice)
Rötger Feldmann	...	Brösel
Andi Feldmann	...	Meister Röhrich / Andi (voice)
Kulle Westphal	...	Eckat (voice)
Meret Becker	...	Rumpelstilzchen
I. Stangl	...	König / Produzent
Johannes Silberschneider	...	Kanzler / Chauffeur
Ludger Pistor	...	Pastor A. Amen
Nicole Boguth	...	Krankenschwester
Jürgen Tonkel	...	Landadeliger
Barbara de Koy	...	Hofdame / Tante Brösel
Johanna Bittenbinder	...	Lehrerin
Robert Spitz	...	Blinder
Peter Luppa	...	Hofnarr
Ulrich Berchtenbreiter	...	Mönch

Storyline

Broesel has to make a Werner animation film but right now he has no real ideas for new stories. Thus he simply draws some stories from Werner's youth.

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Plot Keywords:

part animation | cult film | based on comic | character name in title | 

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Genres:

Action | Animation | Comedy

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Details

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Release Date:

29 November 1990 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Twardziel Werner

Box Office

Budget:

DEM 8,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Constantin Film, Hahn Film AG, TFC Trickompany Filmproduktion

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

At the time, with approx. 4,8 million admissions, the second most-successful German movie - only after Otto - Der Film (1985).

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Crazy Credits

After the introductory credits there is a faked film tear, the screen becomes white and the shadow silhouette of a man can be seen, shouting 'Bescheid' (What's on!). This cannot really be translated but spoofes a more popular joke of 'Werner', one of which has been widely integrated in ordinary day language in Germany.

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Connections

Followed by Werner - Das muss kesseln!!! (1996)

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Soundtracks

Beinhart
Performed by Torfrock

User Reviews

Even after so many years, still so much fun

First off, you absolutely need to watch this movie in German (with some good knowledge in this language to boot), because A LOT of it will be lost in translation otherwise.

It's a specific kind of German humor, one that's definitely not everyone's cup of tea, especially since a couple of scenes involve humongous amount of poop, vomit and other grossities. But underneath it's crude exterior lies a clever exaggeration of real life situations based on the authors, Rötger "Brösel" Feldmann, experience.

Take for example when Werner is at work as a heating, air-conditioning and pluming mechanic/installer. I myself have worked in the same field, not the same job, but I've got to know a lot of people that did the same work as the characters and I recognized a lot of traits and mannerism from the movie. There were a lot of stuff going on that immediately felt familiar to me - of course in a exaggerated and comical way. One of the big ones is Meister Röhrich, Werners boss. This is the character that steals the show. The master apparently knows everything better yet is so clumsy that he always ends up causing literally disasters wherever he works at. This alone would be funny enough, but he speaks in a such strange voice and dialect, says a lot of weird job-specific terms, that it's ingenious. And would you know that he is based on a real person that refused to allow them to use his name?

Then there is the marketplace and football, the technical review of the choppers, the hospital visit and other every-once-in-a-while situations I'm sure everyone has come across and it's always fun to see with what Brösel comes up with to parody them.

As you may already know the movie has parts in it that are not animated and filmed live. These scenes are largely considered to be boring and everyone seems to skip them. To be honest, that's what I did too in the past, but over the time they kinda grew on me. Sure, they are amateurish, the humor consist mostly of burping and catchphrases and they generally pale in comparison to the animated material, but they are fun in a so-bad-its-good way and at least they seem to be self-aware about it.

When it comes down to the animation itself, there is little to complain about. It's not as fluent or sharp as e.g. Disney works and even a bit inconsistent and sketchy in the later parts of the movie, but overall just very well executed, with a good sense for physics and a big part why the slapstick in this movie works so well. There always are small things to discover that you didn't notice the first time. It's creative and full of ideas all the time.

The voice-acting was superbly done. Everyone fits perfectly and it's hard not to notice the fun the staff had while delivering their lines. Andi Feldmann easily deserves an award for his role as the eccentric Meister Röhrich.

Werner: Beinhart is pretty much the movie equivalent of a caricature painting. It's about the small things in real-life but exaggerated in a hilarious and creative manner. It is raw, unconcerned fun and it shows what a real person Rötger Feldmann is. It's just a shame that none of the sequels managed to get even close to it's level.