Heidi - DVD

Movie: It's a story that every child in Germany has actually known for generations: orphan girl Heidi (Anuk Steffen) is taken to live with her grandfather, the Almöhi (Bruno Ganz), in the Swiss mountains. After initial difficulties, Heidi has a happy time here, makes friends with Geißenpeter (Quirin Agrippi) and also grows fond of her cranky grandfather. But the idyll does not last long, for Heidi is taken by her Aunt Dete to Frankfurt, where she is to be brought up in the house of the wealthy Herr Sesemann (Maxim Mehmet) to become a well-bred, educated young lady. At the same time, she is to be a good friend to Klara (Isabelle Ottmann), who is in a wheelchair. Although Heidi tries hard and a friendship actually develops between the mismatched girls, the girl is just miserable in the big city. She wants to go back to her grandfather, back to the mountains - as fast as she can.

The stories about Heidi, conceived by Johanna Spyri, may be over 130 years old, but they are still timelessly beautiful and captivate young and old alike. So it's no wonder that the story is adapted again and again for television or cinema. For many, the animated series from the 1970s is the most successful adaptation, a piece of eternal childhood whose theme tune is still familiar to everyone after more than forty years. Others may prefer the very early film version from the late 1930s, starring Shirley Temple as the child star of the time, or the Disney adaptation from the 1990s with Hollywood stars Jason Robards and Jane Seymour. There's such a wide range of Heidi incarnations to choose from that you seriously have to ask yourself: Do we really need another film adaptation?

However, it becomes clear after just a few minutes that the new film adaptation by Alain Gsponer (The Little Ghost) has definitely become a great addition to the oversized Heidi universe. Gsponer puts on an exceedingly endearing production that fits the spirit of the original exactly, which also gives it a pleasant timelessness. He manages well to avoid pandering too much to the young target audience. Fast cuts, cool sayings or a poppy soundtrack - all that, which you unfortunately see far too often in German children's films, is deliberately avoided here. The humor is never overly silly, but simply heartfelt. And by the fact that almost all characters do not seem too exaggerated, real emotions can also arise.

This is especially true for the moments between Heidi and her grandfather, who is embodied quite wonderfully by Bruno Ganz. When his Heidi is taken away from him, you still have to swallow quite hard even as an adult viewer. Only Katharina Schüttler plays as Fräulein Rottenmeier a bit too exaggerated, but this is compensated by her colleagues - such as a very charming Peter Lohmeyer as house servant Sebastian. High praise also goes to the child actors, who do their thing well throughout and thus provide a good identification surface for the little viewers.

This new Heidi is not just a successful adaptation of the much-loved classic book. It's also a really nice children's and family film that can convince with great camera work, good actors and a reasonable narrative pace. It's nice to see that there are still such timelessly beautiful stories out there in such a target-group-appropriate adaptation. This clearly deserves an Absolutely Worth Seeing!

Picture + Sound: In terms of the picture, the great colouring is particularly striking. This makes the already beautiful landscape shots seem even more inviting and the emotional warmth of the story is also made visually palpable. Otherwise, the realization of the image can also please with a decent overall sharpness and coherent contrasts. As for the audio, the dialogue and music dominate the proceedings, with coherent ambient sounds and some nice sound effects providing some surround movement. Good.

Extras: The DVD has a decent behind-the-scenes look (approx. 30:02 mins) to offer, consisting of interviews, film clips and some footage from the shoot. There is also a promo making of (approx. 9:54 mins), some cut scenes (approx. 7:37 mins), concept art (approx. 1:00 mins), 2 featurettes (3:45 + 3:08 mins) and the trailer for the film. If you've seen the longer behind the scenes featurette, you can forget about the making of and the two featurettes, as they really just repeat information that has already been covered.

Conclusion: Alain Gsponer's Heidi is a very nice remake of the well-known and often adapted material, which can convince with a lot of heart, good actors and a good dose of humor. On DVD, the hit movie is presented in good picture and sound quality and also in terms of extras, the disc can convince. Overall, there is a clear: Absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp