Mega Mindy and the Black Crystal (2010)

Directed by: Matthias Temmermans | 78 minutes | adventure, family, crime | Actors: Free Souffriau, Louis Talpe, Anton Cogen, Fred Van Kuyk, Nicky Langley, Urbanus, Levi van Kempen, Hero Muller

In ‘Mega Mindy and the Black Crystal’, the second cinema film of the bright pink latex-clad heroine Mega Mindy (Free Souffriau), who “slays every crook on earth”, Mieke/Mega Mindy has to take on the thief Axel (Levi van Kempen). This not only disrupts the stage performance in which Mieke is just barely kissed by her great love Toby, but he also shows that he is in possession of a duplicator: exactly the kind of device that Grandpa Fonkel had to invent when he was still at school. His classmate and friend Klaus (Hero Muller) succeeded; Mieke’s grandfather’s device exploded. With that duplicator, Axel makes a second Mega Mindy. No problem, you might think, but that’s not all: the crook puts a piece of black crystal in the duplicator, so that he turns the Mega Mindy copy into a bad (black) Mega Mindy! Luckily it’s only a speck of black crystal and Mega Mindy defeated black Mega Mindy in no time.

A long time ago, black crystal crashed from space in Zahambra, a country somewhere in the Middle East. This black crystal has the effect of making everything go bad. The black crystal was well hidden. The rest of the black crystal can only be found with the help of the map in the tomb of the palace of the sultan of Zahambra. Axel manages to escape from the theater. Mieke investigates with the help of grandfather Fonkel. The trail soon leads to a fortress, but thanks to Commissioner Migrain’s bumbling, Axel takes off again. Grandpa contacts his former buddy Klaus. When it turns out that Axel has flown to Zahambra, Mieke, Toby, Grandpa Fonkel and Klaus go after him. After all, they have to warn the sultan that someone has evil intentions with the black crystal and prevent the theft!

‘Mega Mindy and the Black Crystal’ is a big step forward from the cringe-inducing first cinema adventure. The film looks a lot more professional and the acting is a bit better. More attention has been paid to the sets and the costumes also look nice. However, the story is unnecessarily stretched; every time the couple is out of trouble, new problems arise. This puts the patience of young and older viewers to the test. Especially when everyone is back from Zahambra, and you actually have the idea that the credits will roll across the screen within a few minutes, the cake is not yet over. However, this is a great pastime for children in the target group who are already Mega Mindy fans. Make way for the third Mega Mindy movie?