Synopsis: Three black-cloaked robbers terrify the countryside until they meet an orphan named Tiffany and decide to buy a castle for homeless children. Animated. From the book by Tomi Ungerer.
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Die drei Räuber 7.5

I stumbled upon the film at the OPL and, somehow, it seemed vaguely familiar.

I was about to cast it aside, though, when further scrutiny brought to light that it was based on a book. Then it dawned on me: I grew up on the French book this is based on!!!

So I simply had to see the film, even if I knew that the adaptation would probably be merely so-so (of course, I borrowed the book from the library first!).

It turns out that they did a decent job of it. The main hurdle, which they leapt over relatively ably, is the fact that this short book could really only make a 10-minute film. This film is a little over an hour long, so a lot of scenes were added, stretched or further developed to make the final screenplay into a feature-length format.

(This is quite similar to what happened with Dr. Seuss’ ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’: it was also originally a short book that was famously transformed into a TV holiday favourite. However, that was only extended that one to a 22 minute special, so it retained the essence of the original. And there wasn’t as much filler as, say, its feature-length, live-action incarnation featuring Jim Carrey.)

All this to say that they found a way to make it work. It would probably have been better in a shorter format, but they thankfully didn’t mutate the original into an unrecognizable form: the basic story is the same, the characters have the same feel, and the outcome is the same. It’s just that we get an extra storyline thrown in and the characters (and their relationships) are developed more fully – and pleasingly (if a tad traditionally)

Oh, and there are the “requisite” musical numbers, as well (you’ve been forewarned).

Meh… you can’t win ‘em all.