Die Schule der magischen Tiere (4 Stars)

Amazon Friday #34

The name of this German children's film means "The school of magical animals". It was made in 2021, and it's based on a book with the same name. It takes place in an unnamed German town. I tried to narrow it down, but it was filmed in several different locations in Austria and Bavaria. It centres around a class in the prestigious Winterstein school. The age of the children isn't named, neither in the film nor the book, but the actress who plays the main character, Ida Kronenberg, is 11 years old. We can assume that the children are in the school's Year 6, which would be the first year of a senior school in Germany.

Ida has just moved to the town with her mother, who's opened a new hairdressing salon. As you can expect, it's difficult for a new girl to fit in. Nobody lets her sit next to them in class. 

Her only friend is Beni, who's also an outsider.

The class has a new teacher, Miss Cornfield. She says she's from Scotland, but she has a perfect German accent. That's hardly surprising, because she's played by the German actress Nadja Uhl. The class's first reaction is negative, because she looks like a witch, but they soon accept her when she says that school is more about having fun than learning. She wants the class to be a magical community. Two of the children will be selected to receive magical animals, and others will follow.

Miss Cornfield has a friend called Mortimer, presumably Scottish as well, whatever nationality the actor is. He knows a place in Sweden where intelligent talking animals live. He frequently drives there to collect animals for Miss Cornfield's class. The two children selected to receive the animals are Isa and Beni, which is no surprise. What does surprise me is that the other children aren't jealous. Ida is given a fox called Rabbat, and Beni is given a tortoise called Henrietta.

The animals are a secret. Nobody outside the class is allowed to see them, especially not the headmaster, Mr.  Siegmann.

That's the background for the story itself. Someone is stealing things from the school, such as the school clock. The headmaster tells the school caretaker to investigate, without success. Ida, Beni and their animals are the only ones able to find clues.

And no, I have no idea why the two children at the front have Rubik's Cubes.

"Yes, Miss Cornfield, we promise to leave our Rubik's Cubes at home!"

This was the most successful German film in cinemas in 2022. Deservedly so. Even though it's a children's film, it has elements that can be appreciated by adults. It doesn't have the depth of complexity of the Harry Potter films, which makes it easily accessible to young children. Its age rating is 0. It deserves to be shown outside of Germany.