Dick Trom (2010)

Directed by: Arne Toonen | 84 minutes | family | Actors: Michael Nierse, Marcel Musters, Eva van der Gucht, Thijs Römer, Loes Haverkort, Nils Verkooijen, Fiona Livingston

Dik Trom is an old acquaintance in film land. The title hero from the youth novels of C. Joh. Kieviet appeared on the big screen at considerable intervals between the 1940s and 1970s. In 2010, Dik Trom reappears in the cinema, in a comic youth film that is completely detached from the source. The 21st century Dik has nothing to do with Kievit’s books anymore, except for a good-hearted title hero with a BMI of 30+.

The result is a cheerful and funny film, but one with a difficult message. Thickness is not seen here as something to be accepted, but as a laudable ideal. Thin people are dull and strict, fat people are cheerful and sociable. Whether that’s true or not, at a time when an average kid takes up two movie theater seats, it’s a striking moral.

That awkward message is no reason to skip this film. The humor in ‘Dik Trom’ is aimed at pre-teens, with lots of physical jokes, cartoonish antics and the kind of lame puns that the target audience loves. For adults there are good visual finds and a few nice language jokes.

The playful and stylish visualization is the greatest strength of this 21st century ‘Dik Trom’. Unlike in the books, the story does not take place in Hoofddorp somewhere in the twentieth century, but in a fantasy village that has become loose over time, as you often see in comic strips and cartoons. In that village the contrasts are sharp. Opposite the sterile white structures of the thinners is the colorful household of the Trom family. There’s a white classroom with bicycle pedals under the benches, a state-of-the-art supermarket, a trio of genteel men in suits and bowlers, a restaurateur straight out of the 50s and a gym trainer from the 80s. Curiously, those disparate elements form a beautiful and of course a whole, in which it is pleasant to spend an hour and a half.

Not everything has been equally successful. Too many jokes focus on the contrast thick/thin and you really can’t hear the word fat valve after fifteen minutes. Not all youngsters act at the adult level and the story is a bit too predictable. Nevertheless, this ‘Dik Trom’ is a refreshing youth film for the whole family. A comedy you can safely send your overweight child to. As long as you put it on carrot juice and muesli balls afterwards.