I remember very well when there was a casting show for the child actor to play Wickie which ran several weeks and was put into effect by Michael Herbig, one of Germany's most famous comedians ("Bullyparade") and also the writer and director of this movie. He also plays a small role as a Spanish narrator, which really should have been left out. It's neither funny, nor does it add a lot to the film. This can be said about most of the movie. There are many much better children's book adaptations out there and the only scene I kinda liked was the battle between Wickie and his dad with the stone carrying sequence early on.
The dad reminded me a bit of Majestix from the Asterix movies, especially when looking at how he communicates with his wife. Wickie, however, is not a rough brutal viking as they want him to be. He works much more with his mind than with his non-existing biceps. The plot is that all the viking children are abducted by another viking tribe (it is not shown how that happens, probably as it's a kids film and they may have gotten scared) and so Wickie, who managed to flee, and his clan need to get them back. There are actually some interesting names cast as villains. if you are slightly familiar with German cinema, you may recognize the late Günther Kaufmann (worked a lot with Fassbinder), Christoph Maria Herbst, Herbert Feuerstein or Jürgen Vogel. Herbig has worked a lot with Herbst in the past, but his "Bullyparade" colleagues Tramitz and Kavanian are not around this time.
All in all this movie is a fairly weak comic book adaptation. The sequel which came out not much later is slightly better thanks to the introduction of an interesting new character, but not by much. With all these great children's books' adaptations out there currently, I cannot recommend to watch this one. There's many better choices and I am somehow surprised to see this was the most successful German movie at the box office from 2009, back in the year of "Avatar". The humor was just really weak here. One example was the underwater sequence, which did almost nothing for me comedy-wise. Apart from that, I assume the dramatic highlight should be the father/son-relationship, but on an emotional level it did not strike me either, even if the song about that issue was nice, but also much more comedy-like than dramatic. What was truly bad, was the version of the Hey Wickie theme song they included here. All in all, not recommended.
The dad reminded me a bit of Majestix from the Asterix movies, especially when looking at how he communicates with his wife. Wickie, however, is not a rough brutal viking as they want him to be. He works much more with his mind than with his non-existing biceps. The plot is that all the viking children are abducted by another viking tribe (it is not shown how that happens, probably as it's a kids film and they may have gotten scared) and so Wickie, who managed to flee, and his clan need to get them back. There are actually some interesting names cast as villains. if you are slightly familiar with German cinema, you may recognize the late Günther Kaufmann (worked a lot with Fassbinder), Christoph Maria Herbst, Herbert Feuerstein or Jürgen Vogel. Herbig has worked a lot with Herbst in the past, but his "Bullyparade" colleagues Tramitz and Kavanian are not around this time.
All in all this movie is a fairly weak comic book adaptation. The sequel which came out not much later is slightly better thanks to the introduction of an interesting new character, but not by much. With all these great children's books' adaptations out there currently, I cannot recommend to watch this one. There's many better choices and I am somehow surprised to see this was the most successful German movie at the box office from 2009, back in the year of "Avatar". The humor was just really weak here. One example was the underwater sequence, which did almost nothing for me comedy-wise. Apart from that, I assume the dramatic highlight should be the father/son-relationship, but on an emotional level it did not strike me either, even if the song about that issue was nice, but also much more comedy-like than dramatic. What was truly bad, was the version of the Hey Wickie theme song they included here. All in all, not recommended.