Playmobil: The Movie

If you read the reviews, you could get the impression that the main flaw of the Playmobil movie is the fact that it's not the Lego movies. Yes, thank you, we know that.

This movie does NOT try to be a clone of the Lego movies. Strangely, most reviews I have read seem to have a problem with that. The Playmobil movie is not full of meta jokes or references to other movies. The movie does not make fun of the quirks of old Playmobil sets. It's not self-aware. The characters don't know that they are toys. The fairy godmother behaves exactly like a fairy godmother; she's not behaving oddly or making sarcastic jokes. If you are expecting all those things, you are simply in the wrong movie.

The Playmobil movie is exclusively targeting children, not adolescents or adults. From this point of view, it's a solid movie. The 3D animation looks a bit outdated but it brings very well the look and feel of the Playmobil toys to the big screen. The story is okay but I think it would have been better to spend more time on the characters instead of rushing through the different sceneries. There are locations that don't contribute anything to the story (e.g. the scene with the lava and the dinosaurs on the road), while potentially interesting characters like the fairy only have a short appearance. But again, that's me as an adult overanalyzing a children movie. Children will probably enjoy to see all their favourite Playmobil themes.