Lovely little movie about a little witch but ironically she becomes a big witch in the end.real nice movie for kids not too many scary bits and a real lovely ending worth a watch.
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maureenfox-1951817 November 2018
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Kamurai2527 March 2020Decent watch, probably won't watch again, but can recommend for first time viewers, particularly young ones.
I found another weirdly dubbed German movie. Despite that, the story itself is endearing, but I think there is something of a cultural perspective on witches that I'm missing as an American.
Our witch stories tend to use more of Kleine's type, but the old world leans towards old, warty, children eating witches.
If nothing else, then there is a palatable moral quandry in this that makes for a good moral. -
soydane11 June 2019A heart warming family movie. Nice story and good acting along with it, makes it fun to watch.
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Horst_In_Translation1 February 2018"Die kleine Hexe" or "The Little Witch" is a really new German 100-minute movie that was actually released just today. The director is Mike Schaerer, a prolific editor most of the time, and the script is by Matthias Pacht, an award-winning writer who is also fairly experienced already. Of course, the original story here is by Otfried Preußler, one of the most successful German (Czech-born) children's book authors of the 20th century, who died about 5 years ago. And like with so many other German (mostly for) kids films, the cast includes some really big names. Herfurth plays the lead, an actress who is definitely among the most known German actresses from her age group abroad too. von Borsody plays the main antagonist and the raven is voiced by Axel Prahl who isn't busy letting people into the Lux theater right now. And maybe others too. As for Herfurth playing the main character, it clearly raises my appreciation for her to see her in this fantasy movie instead of another garbage sequel to the Fack ju Göhte series. But lets talk about this one here now. I think that it is a really good achievement and an entertaining watch from start to finish for sure. The story is fun to watch and as we follow the main character during the year before her big test, we find out a lot of interesting things about her, but also about the human characters that she helps out on several occasions. You could say of course it is surprising she actually passed the exam as we never see her practice, but well it would not have been too interesting to see her study this big book all the time would it? So even for the weaker plot points, it is pretty easy to find an explanation if you want to and don't be too critical.
Let me add that I have not read the Preußler book this is based on and it is absolutely not necessary to do so in order to enjoy the movie, even better you won't be spoilered in advance, but of course I don't know how close they may have stayed to the original story. Initially I was a bit skeptical if Herfurth is maybe too old for the character as maybe I kinda expected someone near the age of Sabrina or Bibi Blocksberg, but with the final really powerful use of witchcraft, the age does make sense. It was a surprising ending somehow wasn't it, but what can you say? They wanted her to be evil, so she directed her evil act against those who can complain the least about it and not the innocent kids. The raven/cat conflict between the title character felt a bit rushed in, but it was okay still I guess. The ways in which we see her and her pet like each other were pretty sweet, especially at the very end. I also really enjoyed the moment when Herfurth says she can't turn the kids into stone and also doesn't want to and this was in fact pretty emotional and it wasn't a problem at all that it was of course expected. So the story is pretty good here and another huge strength is the visdual side. Costumes, make-up and set decorations really are all you could hope for. There are moments when I felt this deserves even 4 stars out of 5 and it was a close call eventually. Still this is without a doubt my favorite 2018 film at this point and it is a good watch for those young and also certainly those young at heart. I very much recommend checking it out. A fairly wonderful film at times and I applaud everybody who worked ot for bringing us a modern version of an old story that works really well and flies by in fact. See it. -
trevd-2297710 October 2019I haven't read any of the books on which this is based but the film by itself is wonderful, inoffensive fun. I wish there were more films like this one. Although there are no in-jokes or sly winks to adults, we can enjoy this one too. Just forget your jaded skepticism for a while and go for the ride. The cinematography, set design, costumes, in fact all of the art design in this film is exemplary. It really conjures up the old german folk & fairy stories that I for one remember reading as a child. This little gem deserves a wide audience & if it's internet presence is anything to go by, it doesn't have one yet. I can only offer the strongest encouragement to the makers of this non hollywood fare & hope they are able to keep making movies of this caliber. The english dubbing on the version I enjoyed was a better than usual job as well..
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The movie's good intention, lovely scenary and well selected main actress gets shattered unfortunately by irrelevant comments, lousy speaking styles, missing episodes and by being rude,little modest and badly behaved. Normally, the story is coherent, the episodes are well explained and contain reasons and motivation for the persons' reactions, mostly missing in the film. Actually, the little witch manages to hide her magic powers in front of human beings by smart hints and allusions about what happens next, but not in the movie. People seem to behave rather rude and egoistic. The way words are pronounced often seem rather spit out as in colloquial language which weakens the magical fairytale atmosphere. One might wonder at what time the fairytale plays. The village seems a medieval one, the children are dressed as in the 50s. The girl wears her hair loose, rather uncommon for the intented time, i'd say. Even though, the little witches house is nice and funnily decorated, i wonder if the scene-painters got confused with Pippi Longstocking (by Astrid Lindgren). Some decoration and household appliances get in focus and make you wonder why the tea pot seems arabian, why the raven sleeps in a hanging bed (ridiculous), why the little witch takes a bath without taking of her clothes and letting hang out her feet: i don't consider such details as magical or wondrous but ridiculous and childish. The raven is presented as warm hearted and benevolent but also ageing and cowardly. The other witches are disappointing and utterly absurd - they might seem too weird and scary, but also lousy and dumb. Some of the added episodes are nice, make allusions to other fairytales, but particularly the end is too long, too incoherent, too exaggerated, unnecessary - to sum up: boring and previsible.
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siderite25 November 2018In 1984 I saw this movie called Neverending Story. Goofy puppets, the simple story of good vs evil and the added bonus of a child reading the tale and getting caught up in it. I thought it was different than other movies that I was watching at the time and only later I found out it wasn't an American film, but a German one. I loved that movie and in the same positive sense, Die Kleine Hexe is just as goofy and simple and perfect for the telling of a fairy (or in this case, witch) tale.
The characters are a relatively young witch and her raven familiar breaking tradition from the old and nasty witches that are her seniors. Good vs bad witches, magic done just for fun, talking animatronic animals, what else do you need? Not a perfect film by any means, but a fun and entertaining children's story. I liked it. -
jimvandemoter-5023614 February 2020I really want to like this move but I just can't. the english dubbing is just plain bad. When I see a foreign movie I want to hear the original language and have subtitles. Here the mouth movements and the words just don't match. Also the voice actors have the personality of a toothpick. I know this goes against all the other glowing reviews.
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mabuse78625 September 2018If you don't know this, the writer of the book is famous in Germany /Europe. The book of the little witch is famous in Europe and may be also in the US. However, this movie -a Swiss German production - is great, I really enjoyed it and Karoline Herfurth is close to brilliant in the role of the little witch and Swiss Mike Schaerer is really excellent in directing the film. The settings are enchanting, CGI is very good but not perfect and if you look at Otfried Preußler's message at the end of the movie, I found it is not only for kids. Enjoyable movie for the whole family.
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I absolutely loved this movie. Whether you are a fan of the stories of Preussler, or whether you enjoy fantasy, this movie is a delight. It combines the magical imagery of The neverending story with the supernatural thrill of We are the night (also featuring the charming, talented Karoline Herfurth) and the affectionately animated raven even raised memories of the Augsburger Puppenkiste (another source of dear childhood memories) for me. And not only does it have wonderful set decorations, landscapes, a lot of heart and magical suspense (even a little bit of action if you will), it has a very important message for children and adults alike: while in the world today in general evil, ruthless people are the ones to get ahead and good people are the ones who suffer, the little witch defies those conventions and advocates justice by helping good people and stopping/punishing the bad ones. Way to go (little witch and German film-making).
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lilyloo-7980725 November 2018Just watched this with my 11 yr old and we loved it! Loved the characters and the set was just full of so much to see. Cgi was pretty good and special effects makeup was spot on. I would actually be happy to sit through this again without moaning about it!
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desertship-7824613 November 2018Old world charm in this magical story of what it means to be good and evil always lose. Great cinematography, great acting , wonderful music. Fun for the family.
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rexrussell197320 October 2020I have children that range from infants to late teens, and the whole movie loves this movie. There is nothing in it to offend even the most sensitive people. It is fun and cheeky, in a way that only the Germans can pull off... and no I am not German. Words cannot do this movie justice so I will just say, watch it... you'll love it.
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White_Inscription29 July 2019One of the best movies I've seen. The story goes well, simple and beautiful, without boring section. Actors and actress appears good. Environment and clothes are colorful; and there is fun events in storyline; making them perfect for a fairy tale movie. Also the animals created by computer effects are very natural. In some part of it, I wished our world have some good witch to make this world better; solving poverty and step against the cruel. Between many movies subjected war, sex, and poor hopeless people with bad destination and dirty clothes -please stop making bad tasty movies, we watch too much of it- I'm glad to see a dreamy movies that make give people better filling. Thank you to give us good feeling. This is what our sad world needs it. ... To Philosopher people maybe don't accept stich movies: Showing violence never solve it; it just makes violence to a common thing. You should fix the justice in law instead of making us sad by making bad tasty movies. How miseries can destroy by showing it? Nobody thank you for do nothing but making your feeling bad instead of solving a problem or at least don't give people another problem.
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jotka29 November 2018Original story, beautiful and magical scenery, good acting, and funny costumes. Reminds me movie with Angela Huston. Great fun for whole family.
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umchinagirard3 January 2021Beautiful movie full of magic and dreamlike images
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julianbevans11 November 2021I wanted to give this film a low star rating but that hardly seems fair. The film itself is beautifully made. Effects, costumes, locations etc are all truly wonderful. The acting is great and the lead role is played beautifully. What lets the film down for a non-German speaking English person is the God awful American dubbing. The actors doing this are DIRE. The American accent doesn't lend itself to this kind of thing at the best of times, but this is gob-smackingly appalling. Watch the film in German with English subtitles. It's magic (pun intended).
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christasmalligan28 June 2023What a cute story! Young witch wants to dance with the older witches, but must first pass their tests. I thought the dubbing would bother me but they did a really good job. The visuals were great, and I wanted to live in her cottage in the forest it was so enchanting. I loved the relationship between the two main characters and their development throughout the movie. The set design and costumes for all the characters were fantastic. If you are into cottagecore fashion, home decorating or general aesthetics this movie is a treasure trove of inspiration as well as a nice addition to your non-scary Halloween playlist.
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agof2 March 2022I saw it with russian subtitles.
I know this story because i saw malenkaya koldunya (1991) a lot. And despite the difference in the runtime they are very similar, and probably follow the original text closely.
This movie is an adaptation of a fairy tale. The acting is quite good and most of the music is outright outstanding. They've used vocalization to echo the notes of the strings. It creates an eerie sound and it's something reminding me of Coraline. The film is quirky and whimsical and it's some kind of great.