Bee Maja

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The Maya the Bee is the main character in two early 20th century published novels by the German writer Waldemar Bonsels (1880-1952) and in an intermediate 1975 and 1980 Japanese-German animated series produced and their adaptation as a comic series from 1976 . There was also a new edition of the series in animated 3D format in 2013 and a 2014 movie based on it . There are also several stage versions, including a. a play and a musical .

Books

Waldemar Bonsels was one of the most widely read German writers in the 1920s. In his books The Maya the Bee and Her Adventures (first published in 1912) and Himmelsvolk (first published in 1915), he processed his childhood experiences in the great outdoors around the Bredenbeker pond in Ahrensburg and (after moving to Schleissheim near Munich in 1910 ) his observations in the park Schleissheim Palace complex . These two works have now been translated into over 40 languages. Maya the Bee and Her Adventures was not only Bonsels' most successful book, but also "almost the only work by the author that he wrote not for adults, but for adults and children".

characters

In the book of 1912 come next nameless animals (insects, and fishes a..) And other significant figures (people in love children, drone , flower sprite , grasshopper , hornet , fireflies , ants , bug , Robin , Earthworm ) following named characters before:

Other well-known Maya the Bee characters such as the grasshopper Flip and the bee boy Willi do not come from Waldemar Bonsels, but were developed and named for the cartoon series.

content of the book

Maya the bee is taught by the educator Kassandra and prepared for her first excursion. From this, however, the young bee does not return as planned; instead, she discovers nature. Including a nameless earthworm, of which the beetle Kurt eats a piece while the rest of the worm crawls on. She becomes acquainted with the ants people, who are described as a band of robbers (not as a soldier people as in the cartoon), as well as with a butterfly, a bug and many other animals.

Maja's greatest wish is to get to know the highest living being, man. Kassandra was already talking about him, and she kept meeting animals that had to do with him, such as a housefly. A flower elf can finally grant her the wish. Yes, more than that, she not only sees the person, but two loving people in the garden of an arbor. For the flower elf, this encounter should be surpassed in the book Himmelsvolk .

When Maja is finally captured by the hornets, she learns of preparations for war against her people. She manages to break out and warn her homeland people. In this way it can prepare for the attack of the hornets and finally repel it. Maja is forgiven for her "escape" and the Queen appoints her as her advisor.

Movie

In 1924 and 1925, the biologist and cultural film director Wolfram Junghans adapted the book for the cinema in collaboration with Waldemar Bonsels . The film plot was re-enacted with live insects, which was reflected in the long production time of almost two years. The silent film in six acts was premiered on April 8, 1926 in the Dresden Capitol and received good reviews, especially for its technical achievements.

The film Maya the Bee and Her Adventures was reconstructed and restored in 2004 by the Federal Archives' film archive on the basis of a film copy from Finland in cooperation with the Waldemar Bonsels Foundation . In 2011 the Austrian composer Florian C. Reithner wrote accompanying music for this film, which was released on DVD in 2012 with this setting.

In 2014 the German-Australian production Biene Maja - Der Kinofilm was released as 3D in the cinema.

theatre

There are various theater adaptations of Bonsels' novels, for example the children's play "Maya the Bee and Her Adventures" by Rainer Lenz and the musical "Maja and Co." by Peter Lund (text) and Wolfgang Böhmer (music), which was released in 2006 in Neuköllner Opera was premiered in Berlin.

Cartoon series

In the 1970s, the books with Maya the Bee were first implemented as a television series. The animation was implemented on the initiative of ZDF at the Japanese animation studio Zuiyo Enterprise as an anime Mitsubachi Māya no Bōken ( Japanese み つ ば ち マ ー ヤ の 冒 険 ) in two seasons with 52 episodes each. The director was Hiroshi Saitō. The title song of the German version of the series, Die Biene Maja , was composed by the Czech composer Karel Svoboda and sung by Karel Gott .

In 2012 Studio 100 produced a new, computer-animated 3D series which was published in German as Die Biene Maja . The figures differ significantly from those of the 1970s and have been made much slimmer in order to adapt them to today's viewing habits. The 78 episodes, each eleven minutes long, cost a total of around 12 million euros. The series started on March 29, 2013 on ZDF.

In September 2016, ZDF announced that 52 new episodes will be produced and will be broadcast on ZDF and KiKa at the end of 2017.

Awards

Others

A version of the film music recorded by Karel Gott and Norbert Dickel in 1996 as a possible club anthem of Borussia Dortmund under the title Schwarzgelb - Wie Biene Maja was less successful with the fans than with the opponents of the Schwarzgelben and was moderated by Stefan Raab , among others .

Maya the bee and her friends Flip and Willi can be found every day in the Holiday Park to take photos with them. In addition, there has been a park-owned Majaland since the 2012 season , with attractions around Maya the Bee.

A criticism of the common personification or humanization of animals or plants in books for children and young people also in Maya the Bee can be found in Maria Lazar.

Since 2013 Studio 100 has released several educational games with Maya the Bee as a mobile app .

comics

Based on the television series, Bastei Verlag published a 163-volume comic series from 1976 to 1981 under the title Die Biene Maja (second edition from 1977) and from 1977 to 1979 a total of 17 paperbacks. New editions with a reduced number of episodes appeared until 1992. The drawings came from the Munich Atelier Roche (temporarily from the Spanish studio Ortega), where new stories and characters were created and illustrations for Maya the Bee merchandising were produced for years .

New characters in the comic series

The comic book series writers have added numerous characters, including: a.

  • Bee colonel
  • Toff and Zürpel, watchman
  • Shimmy, silverfish and petty crook

From September 1998 to August 1999 the DeVision publishing house brought out further Maya the Bee books.

literature

  • Christian Adam: Maya the Bee, Heidi, leather stockings. Small excursion to children's and young people's books. In: Reading under Hitler. Authors, bestsellers, readers in the Third Reich. Galiani, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86971-027-3 , pp. 216-22.
  • Petra Josting; Sebastian Schmideler (Ed.): Bonsels' animal life. Insects and reptiles in children's and youth media . Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2015, ISBN 978-3-8340-1518-1 .
  • Harald Weiß: Maya the Bee's flight through the world of media. Book film, radio play and cartoon series. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2012, ISBN 978-3-447-06572-6 .
  • Harald Weiß (Ed.): 100 Years of Maya the Bee. From children's book to blockbuster. Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-8253-6378-9 .
  • Harald Weiß: Maya the bee and her adventures. In: KinderundJugendmedien.de . (February 11, 2015).

Web links

Books
cartoon
General
Movie

swell

  1. ↑ Harald Weiß: Maya the bee and her adventures. In KinderundJugendmedien.de (2015), accessed on November 20, 2017.
  2. ↑ Harald Weiß: Maya the bee and her adventures. In KinderundJugendmedien.de (2015), accessed on November 20, 2017.
  3. ↑ Hans-Peter Siebenhaar : Slim bee . In: Handelsblatt . No. 68 , April 9, 2013, ISSN  0017-7296 , p. 24 .
  4. ↑ ZDF press and information: "Maya the Bee" is taking off again: ZDF and Studio 100 are producing the second season of the animated series in 3D. In: presseportal.zdf.de. Retrieved September 6, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Gold / platinum database . In: musikindustrie.de. accessed on July 16, 2015
  6. ↑ Vote ! Which BVB anthem is the best? ( Memento from May 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) By Anne-Kathrin Neumann, May 13, 2011, Dorstener Zeitung
  7. ↑ Maria Lazar : Waldemar Bonsels and the German insect . No. 7 . Ullstein Verlag , July 1926, p. 149–151 ( digitized version ).