Fireman Sam – Ready for Action! (2018)

Directed by: Gary Andrews | 60 minutes | animation, family | Dutch voice cast: Stan Limburg, Jelle Amersfoort, Simon Zwiers, Hildegard van Nylen, Hetty Heyting, Erik van der Horst

Fireman Sam undoubtedly has throngs of toddler fans, who have been whining the ears of parents across the country for weeks about the unmissable new feature film starring their hero. Reviews are actually not interesting for this target group; nor for their parents, because they only accompany their offspring and, let’s be honest, have little to say.

For those who want to know: for the smallest viewers, Sam’s latest cinema adventure ‘Ready for action’ will be great entertainment. You have big hero Sam, speeding cars, explosions, an important role for children, and a villain with a maniacal villainous laugh. And the older kids, who find the story little interesting, can always count the new vehicles that the film has to offer. For their Sinterklaas lists.

Fireman Sam is originally a Welsh television series from 1987. At that time it was still designed using time-consuming stop motion animation. Meanwhile, Sam and co. completely out of the computer, which saves a lot of time and offers more options. However, it is not all gold that glitters.

Yes, a lot of great action can now easily be portrayed, which gives the film a dynamism that was previously impossible. But in addition, the character animation is coarse, with wooden movements and little detailed facial expressions. As far as the latter is concerned, there is hardly any improvement compared to the original stop motion series. And while that was admittedly painstaking work, it also clearly had more charm than these computer images.

Well, the youth of today has little use for that. They want to see Sam shine, see the villain get what he deserves, and see how the kids outsmart everyone. Good news: they get it (although the villain’s punishment is a joke). The story concerns a worn-out movie star who wants to sabotage a new movie starring Sam in order to take the spotlight herself. And then there are clumsy special effects people, some children who get in the way and several more modern fire engines to replace the old familiar versions. Enough for the average child to enjoy themselves for some time.

The movie is over in 60 minutes before you know it, which in itself isn’t a disaster, at least for the parents. The story isn’t much and the dialogue isn’t very inspired. (Having several villagers shout ‘Hollywood is coming’ in quick succession: was that necessary? Besides, Dutch children have no idea what Hollywood is.)

Another nice, ‘intelligent’ touch for parents: the dominant presence of gadgets and technology. Even the smallest children can clearly no longer do without smartphones, laptops and social media. Everything is filmed and shared, which will ultimately prove to be the rescue of Fireman Sam. For parents, the James Bond-style opening credits are arguably the most fun element of the entire film. Oh yeah, and the cameraman looks like Spielberg. Amusing. But they are winks that are of no use to the target group and which are just a drop in the ocean for the viewer. Anyway, have fun, kids! I’m sure it’ll be fine.