It’s teacher Roos’s birthday (2019)

Directed by: Jan-Willem Wit | 60 minutes | family | Actors: Melissa Drost, Jörgen Scholtens

Thousands of toddlers and preschoolers from all over the Netherlands love her: Miss Roos. The cheerful teacher with her striking red dress and blonde updo has been featured every morning for four seasons in her own program on RTL Telekids and also has her own YouTube channel. Due to her enormous popularity among the target group – mainly girls between the ages of two and six – an entire merchandise line has been set up around Miss Roos, with CDs, DVDs, books, puzzles, games, sticker books, cuddly dolls and coloring books. She also has her own theater tour through the country. A film should therefore not be missing from the list. That is why ‘Miss Roos’s birthday’ (2019) was released. ‘My very first film’, Juf Roos – played by actress Melissa Drost (known for ‘Soldaat van Oranje – The Musical’ and ‘Good times, bad times’) – proudly proclaims. But ‘Miss Roos’s birthday’ is actually not really a feature film. As you often see with popular television series for toddlers that are brought to the silver screen, it is more a series of several episodes in a row than it is really a long(er) adventure. Probably because the young target group is not yet able to concentrate on following a story for a whole hour or longer. But the parents probably feel a bit cheated if they buy a movie ticket for their offspring – and themselves! – and just have a few episodes stuck together instead of being presented with a real, new movie.

Anyway, ‘It is Teacher Roos’s birthday’ follows the tried and tested recipe. Miss Roos lives in a colorful windmill where she prefers to sing all day long. Because this is a traditional Dutch program, the songs are old-fashioned, from the category ‘Get two buckets of water’ and ‘I saw two bears make sandwiches’. Nostalgia at its best, and a bit old-fashioned. Although there is of course nothing wrong with these kinds of classics being passed on to the younger generations. And so mom, dad, grandpa and grandma can also sing along. Every day, Miss Roos receives a visit from her neighbor Gijs (Jörgen Scholtens) in her mill. Gijs loves to dress up and he does that a lot (for example, in this film as a cowboy, surfer and superhero). But such a clumsy fuss-maker who looks like an adult but behaves like a toddler is also a bit irritating… Fortunately, Miss Roos herself is a nice appearance: always cheerful and sociable, creative and curious. Every episode she and Gijs experience a new adventure, where they always learn something new. They fly by windmill to a new place in their colorful, computer-animated decor. The sets are nice, but the computer animations look a bit too basic. Today’s children are so spoiled with top notch animations that they probably don’t get excited about this anymore.

Of course, the songs remain evergreens and everyone sings them along. The stories are simple and recognizable and the very young target group does not have that many requirements yet. Moreover, Melissa Drost has a fresh and cheerful appearance that is pleasant to look at. But as a film, ‘Teacher Roos’s birthday’ offers little extra compared to the television and YouTube series and because the films have a strongly repetitive character, this is more noticeable than, for example, in the case of comparable releases such as ‘Buurman en Buurman’ and ‘Masha and the Bear’. As a result, the impression is created that the film was released purely to bring in extra money. Toddlers and preschoolers may be young, but today they have so many choices and options and are increasingly finding their way in the media landscape. They are probably not really impressed by this either.