The New Adventures of Pumuckl (4½ Stars)

Pumuckl is a favourite character among German children. He's a small Kobold who lives in a workshop in Munich. He's supposedly hundreds of years old, but he still acts like a mischievous child. He was first invented by Ellis Kraut in 1962 for a series of radio plays. Following on this, he appeared in three films (1982, 1994 and 2003) and two television series (1982-1988 and 1999). The film that I watched today isn't really a film. It's a collection of the first three episodes of a new television series that will begin in December this year.

From what I understand, Pumuckl fans didn't like the 1994 and 2003 films or the 1999 series, so the new series continues from the 1988 series. He used to live in the workshop of an old man, Master Eder. The first episode of the 2023 series tells us that he's died, and his nephew Florian has inherited the workshop. Supposedly the shop has been empty for 30 years, so it's possible that Florian was never told about it. Pumuckl didn't know Master Eder was dead, he just noticed that he didn't come to work any more. In fact, Pumuckl doesn't even understand what death is. Florian has to explain it to him.

In the first episode Florian sells the workshop for a large price to an investor who wants to rip it down to build a parking garage. We're not told exactly how much, but Florian's wife looks at the cheque and exclaims "So many zeroes!" When Florian meets Pumuckl, he likes him immediately and doesn't want to make him homeless, so he cancels the sale and takes over the shop as its new carpenter. Florian's wife doesn't understand. Pumuckl is invisible to everyone except Florian.

After the (almost) serious first episode, the other two episodes show Pumuckl as a prankster. For instance, he squirts water from a hosepipe at two policemen in the yard outside the shop. There was loud laughter throughout the cinema. German children must be anti-authoritarian.

Despite being in its second week, the cinema was about half full of parents with their children. I want to watch the series when it's shown on television next month. It's wonderful.