Heinz (2018)

Directed by: Piet Kroon | 76 minutes | animation | Original voice cast: Ruben van der Meer, Ilse Warringa, Tygo Gernandt, Wim T. Schippers, Bruno Vandenbroeke

Heinz, invented by Windig and de Jong, is a grumpy tomcat. This feline misanthrope is having a hard time with the figures in his environment. What about Jodocus the Tortoise, who talks madly and slowly? Heinz tries to hold his own and he does that by complaining. Lots to complain and walk around with a disapproving look. In a three-strip cartoon that works great. This cartoon hangover became a cult hero for a reason. Director Piet Kroon also calls himself a fan of this anti-hero and decided to make a real feature film about this cat. But how do you translate a strip of three strips into a cartoon that will keep you interested for 76 minutes?

Kroon tries to hold the attention by making up a story that keeps the short gags together. For example, we meet Heinz when he is kicked out of his favorite pub because he has not paid his outstanding bill. One day he wakes up in a strange bed in the Fairytale Forest. He doesn’t know how the cat got there. Heinz does discover that his son is missing and that everyone is mad at him. On his quest to find his child, the hungover cat visits countless Amsterdam bars, visits the Flemish Zurkeltruttegem and ends up on a mysterious tropical island where he meets the alien Zak.

The synopsis immediately indicates that the plot is wafer thin and mainly serves as a peg for linking small jokes together. That may work, but not in the case of this film. The biggest flaw in ‘Heinz’ is that the jokes kill. This is partly due to the poor voice work. Ruben van der Meer misses the sarcasm and the bone-dry voice that you link to the title character. Heinz is a kind of feline and villainous variant of Maarten van Rossum. Anyway, besides that the jokes are too flat and childish. What works in three strips does not work in animated form. Perhaps this character is simply not suitable for a movie.

The animation does justice to the cartoon. The clean lines with which Windig and De Jong caused a furore return. There was little budget for the animation, but the creative way in which the makers have worked with it is commendable. ‘Heinz’ has a face all of its own. The love of the makers for the drawing style of Windig and De Jong splashes off the screen. Unfortunately, the jokes failed. This is a valiant attempt at turning a cult comic into a film, but in its current form it is too childish for adults and too mature for children. Unfortunate.