"Schlupp vom grünen Stern" is a German mini-series from 1986, so this one is already over 30 years old and it consists of four episodes, each under half an hour running time, so you can watch the entire thing effortlessly in under 2 hours. It is definitely among the most known career efforts for writer and director Sepp Strubel and he adapted the novel by Ellis Kaut here. Kaut is more known certainly for bringing Pumuckl to life, a character that is still very popular in Germany today. Schlupp maybe not so much. Here we see the Augsburger's Puppenkiste's take on this character and this means we have a group of puppeteers from Augsburg, a Bavarian city in Germany, doing the "physical" work if you want to call it like that while voice actors and a narrator do the audio job. The narrator was okay, the voice actors did not do too much for me. music was so-so. The main theme you hear at the end of each episode was actually pretty fun, but the rest was hardly memorable. In terms of the visual side, I am undecided either. Schlupp, the main character, looked pretty fun too and this made it a better watch, but the human characters did hardly anything for me looks-wise. And the story as a whole did not impress me either why I would say I am a bit surprised by the high rating here on imdb. This is definitely not among the best from the Augsburger Puppenkiste, just like it is not among the most known. Still seems like it was successful enough for them to make a sequel that is even less known than this first one we have here. As for this original, I rated every one of the 4 episodes 2 stars out of 5, greatness is non-existent, goodness is rare and I guess there is a reason why puppeteering in film is just not a factor today anymore by any means. It's difficult to make it work. Watching this one live at a kids theater may be fun, but seeing it on tape is not exactly a fulfilling activity in my opinion. So unless you really love the Augsburger Puppenkiste (I wonder how known she is outside Germany, where it is still a household name) then go for it, but otherwise skip it because I don't think it will turn you into a fan.
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