The conference of animals (film)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title The conference of animals
The Conference of Animals Logo 001.svg
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1969
length 93 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Curt Linda
script Curt Linda
production Curt Linda
music Erich Ferstl
camera Wolfgang Dietrich ,
Ivan Masnik ,
Barbara Linda
cut Gisela Grischow
synchronization

The Conference of Animals is a cartoon by Curt Linda from 1969 based on the book The Conference of Animals by Erich Kästner . It was released in German cinemas on December 13th and is the first German full-length cartoon in color.

action

In the opening sequence, children free a group of animals from a burning circus and let them return to their countries of origin. From then on, the animals regard the children as their friends. When the lion reads in the newspaper that the 365th Human Peace Conference has come to an end without solutions to human-made problems such as wars, famine and environmental degradation, he consults with the other animals, and Together they decide to convene a conference of animals to finally move people to a worldwide peace agreement for the sake of their children. All animals on earth are notified and send delegates to the conference. Five human children, one from each continent, are brought along as guests of honor.

At the same time, the 366th People's Peace Conference begins. The disagreements begin with the question of the shape of the conference table. The animals, which gave the conference the motto “It's about the children”, ask people to ensure that there is never again war and hardship. They state that the bureaucracy stands in the way of consensus building and that they will clear the way for people. To do this, they send hordes of mice and rats into the people's conference building to destroy their files. But people have copies and transcripts brought in and continue the conference unimpressed. The animals then demand the removal of the main obstacle to peace, namely the state borders. This is an unacceptable encroachment for humans and they declare war on animals.

Machines with grapples collect people from all over the world to prepare them for the military. They are all compressed into a standardized format by another machine, then uniformed and armed. Images of peace are extracted from their heads and images of war are used instead. They are trained and drilled in rapid transit and then march against the animals.

The animals advise what to do. The skeleton of a dinosaur, which is also attending the conference, is in favor of a counterattack, because in its time people acted quickly instead of talking a lot. The other animals condemn his opinion as old-fashioned and point out that this is probably why the dinosaurs became extinct. But when General Zornmüller, the spokesman for the human conference, delivered an ultimatum to the animals in which he called for the animal assembly to be dissolved and otherwise threatened with eviction, the animals did not respond. Instead, they come to the conclusion that basically the problems of mankind stem from the military and therefore send swarms of moths to destroy all uniforms so that all troops and many of the conference participants stand there naked. As a result, chaos breaks out in the military because no one can recognize the other's rank. However, people are quick to procure new uniforms and declare that cannons and rifles cannot be eaten by any animal. They raise their troops again.

The animals are about to give up, but then come up with the saving idea: They collect the children in every country and hide them. In doing so, they invoke their right to withdraw custody of unsuitable parents until they are up to their responsibility for their children, and repeat their demands. The people now go to war against the animals under the leadership of General Zornmüller. In a speech, the general explains that this serves peace, since it can only be maintained with the help of soldiers, and since the children are the soldiers of tomorrow, the attack to recapture the children is a necessary means of securing peace. This is the first time that heads of state have agreed on this.

Although humans are technically superior to animals, animals prevail and win through cohesion and cunning. At the same time, there is a popular uprising among parents who want their children back. The heads of state now agree to negotiations and invite a delegation of the animals to their home. When the general asked where the children were, he only got the answer that they were fine. You then see the children who are cared for by animals and, as they fall asleep, wish that the argument would last a long time, they like it so much with the animals. However, after some hesitation, the people's heads of state finally sign a treaty that abolishes all state borders, abolishes the military, bans all weapons and stipulates that all science must be exclusively in the service of peace and that the education of children is the highest task should be.

Relationship to the original book

Erich Kästner had already added the title “A book for children and connoisseurs” to the book The Conference of Animals , which was marketed as a picture book from the beginning and is now considered a classic children's book, making it so clear that it is also suitable for adults directs. Curt Linda followed the same path with his film adaptation and stuck to the humor from Kästner's book, which was tailored to children, but also adopted his political statement. There are also many satirical swipes at the military in the book . Linda took up Kästner's anti-militarist tendencies and reinforced them. For example, additional scenes emphasize General Zornmüller's hypocrisy by showing him at home, where he has a bed with cannons and a telephone in the form of a tank, but a dove of peace as a cuckoo clock. After the moth plague, Zornmüller screams for a “total attack”, which can be understood as an allusion to the Sportpalast speech . There are no such hints, which are aimed exclusively at an adult audience, in Kästner's book. The entire storyline of the war scenes was added especially for the film. In the book, people do not go to war with the animals, but allow themselves to be persuaded to conclude the peace treaty after the three attacks by the animals (destruction of files, moth plague, kidnapping of children).

In the film, which was made twenty years after the book, the conference of people is not the 87th, as in the book, but the 366th peace conference.

Another difference is that the animals in the film are much less humanized . In the book, the animals sleep in beds, make phone calls and appear in suits for the conference. In the film, with the exception that they can speak and read, they act largely like animals. They also have no names, which means that the sex of the animals is left open in the film. In the book template, all individually presented delegates, both humans and animals, are expressly male. Females only appear as wives of the delegates at the beginning. In the film, the animal delegates are sometimes spoken by actresses.

As with all film adaptations of his books during his lifetime, Erich Kästner was in contact with the director while working on this film. Although Kästner usually attached great importance to the faithful implementation of his works, in this case he gave his consent to the changes.

A significant part of the dialogues has been taken almost verbatim from the book. Some scenes in the film are also based heavily on Walter Trier's book illustrations . One example is the depiction of whales lying in a harbor like ships with their mouths open to let the animal delegations board and transport them to the conference venue. This image is found in the book and in the film in a very similar form. Since it was used as the cover picture for many editions of the book, it has a high recognition value.

criticism

The lexicon of international films ruled that the film was "imaginatively animated and musically well arranged" . However, he has "some lengths" . The Evangelical Film Watcher drew the following conclusion: “Tastefully and imaginatively designed German cartoon, which stylistically differs significantly from Disney, but unfortunately also has a number of lengths and, especially in the second part, loses tension and originality. Despite some superficial gags, the deeper meaning of the fable and its political allusions will remain incomprehensible to children. Recommended from 12. "

For the singer Marco Wanda , the film is one of the works that had a decisive influence on his life: “Looking back, I think that the music in the film The Conference of Animals made me a musician. … The film made me a writer even more than a musician. To someone who builds worlds. I see myself more as a writer and less as a musician ... "

background

Erich Kästner had already offered the book to Walt Disney for a film adaptation in 1949 - shortly after its publication . This, however, it is with the words "No politics!" ( "No politics!" ) Have rejected.

synchronization

role Voice actor
lion Georg Thomalla
giraffe Ursula Traun
pig Horst Sachtleben
elephant Ernst Fritz Fürbringer
camel Paul Bürks
Marabou Anita Bucher
owl Rosemarie Fendel
mouse Bruni Löbel
Icebear Anton Reimer
kangaroo Erich Kleiber
parrot Maria Landrock
ass Thomas Reiner
mole Kurt Zips
General Zornmuller Charles Regnier
teller Klaus Havenstein

literature

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ingo Tornow: Erich Kästner and the film . dtv, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-423-12611-6 , pp. 73-74
  2. ^ The Conference of Animals. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ Critique No. 1/1970, 22nd year, p. 4
  4. ↑ Marco Wanda: Mein Lebenswerk, in: Neon, January 2018, p. 124.
  5. ↑ Klaus Kordon : Time is broken - The life story of Erich Kästner . Beltz & Gelberg , Weinheim 1998, p. 265