Kooky

Imagine you're a kid... and you've got the perfect movie. I like that Jan Svěrák inherited a similar tone of humor from his father, which he elegantly colors with his own ideas. For example, rarely do we see such a humorous expression of a young child's view of sex. Those who are more attentive and mature will appreciate the unobtrusive remarks on the theme of totalitarianism, the ingenious car chase, and all the catchphrases. If that’s not enough, the film also features excellent technical aspects and a brilliant voice cast (Jiří Macháček reigns supreme!)... with one big BUT. Zdeněk Svěrák simply recites his text. His voice doesn't change pitch once and it's terribly annoying. So much so that I’m not willing to throw in a fifth star, although for everything else the film undoubtedly deserves it. Even for the cuteness - because that's how it's supposed to be. (2010-05-25)

For several weeks now, Kooky has been peeping at me from the pages of newspapers and magazines, in the form of a film about a film and from the TV screen, and so one tends to see a return to the glorious past of Czech animated film in it. The reality is something like this - I felt like a music master who chooses an excellent singer with a subordinate appearance as his partner and then desires only to listen to her. In short, my relationship with Kooky must necessarily be intellectual, because emotionally it completely missed the mark for me. It is certainly possible to speak in superlatives about the formal aspects, whether the artistic or primarily camera work and editing, but I have a fairly significant problem with the screenplay and the pace of the film, which subdued and lulled me throughout. If a person visits a lunchtime showing at a movie theater, has not spent a sleepless night or had a heavy lunch, and still has to exert an unbearable amount of energy to stay awake, something is not right. Kooky definitely has several individual elements that can be highlighted, but as a whole, it did not impress me and even my third star is truly more of a recognition of a certain uniqueness because not only on the Czech but also on a global scale, it is certainly an original film, a combination of puppets and nature along with artistic craziness like the little fairy-tale characters' cars, and it brings together something that has not been seen before. As for the animation, but also the artistic aspects, I do get the impression that Barta's film In the Attic or Who Has a Birthday Today? surpassed Svěrák's film. Although, understandably, Barta's film will have many more viewers due to the well-known Oscar-winning filmmaker and the media support, and will undoubtedly be more successful. Thanks to its visual orgies and a more dynamic pace, Barta's film perfectly suppressed my awareness of its very simple screenplay, while here I clearly felt those shortcomings. Overall impression: 50%. I attended the showing with my children, who should be in the ideal age category for watching a similar film, and even their final reaction was very lukewarm. (2010-05-23)

An interestingly made film, but at its core is annoyingly cute and warm in a typical Czech fashion. I was bored from the very first minute and only watched it all out of respect for the creators, because, technically, they’ve done a very good job that could be appreciated abroad. I guess I’m not the target audience… (2011-01-09)

A tough adventure drama. Svěrák created an impressive and mainly functional world which maybe isn’t completely suitable for kids (the mom in this movie is the bad guy!), but rather for people who want to return to their childhood. Excellent voice-overs, delightful camerawork, great action scenes (that truck reminds me of the Nazis in that Indy movie and the races in The Phantom Menace) and fine music make Kuky wonderful to watch. Bring on more original attempts at revitalizing Czech film. (2011-05-13)

I'm quite sorry about the fact that most people gush about Kooky's originality, playfulness and wonderful childishness, yet they have no idea about Barta's one year older film, In the Attic or Who Has a Birthday Today?. It has everything that Kooky has, but it seems much more original. Well, back to the pink... Excuse me... The red stuffed animal and his forest gang. It is a very nice film. It’s original, with charming puppets, good cinematography and music. But I still gave it three stars because I found it too long, without suspense in the ending - although it was an "action ending" - and almost boring. Overall, it was good, but I don't particularly regret that I didn't catch the bear in the movie theatre. At home and on DVD, it looked just right. (2011-08-10)