Pudding T – Gummi T (2012)

Directed by: Michael Hegner | 80 minutes | animation, comedy, family | Dutch voice cast: Marjolein Algera, Jelle Amersfoort, Sander van Amsterdam, Wiebe Pier Cnossen, Enzo Coenen, Has Drijver, Stephan Holwerda, Marcel Jonker, Pepijn Koolen, Kiki Koster, Peggy de Landtsheer, Lucie de Lange, Anouk Maas, Jan Nonhof, Daphne Paelinck, Ivan Pecnik, Finn Poncin, Alwin Pulinckx, Leo Richardson, Daan van Rijssel, Joey Schalker, Oscar Siegelaar, Sharon Sturkenboom, Hymke de Vries

It doesn’t take much to embrace the main character in the Danish animated film ‘Pudding T’ (‘Gummi T’ in the original version). And that while ten-year-old Iwan doesn’t exactly like his appearance. Wispy hair, thin ‘spaghetti’ arms, a nose that would make him a mockery in the real world… Ivan is the prototype of the underdog. Bullied at school and good at nothing except creating his fantasy world, using scrap materials, in an abandoned factory. And the cutest girl in the class, Lottie, the principal’s daughter, is in love with him, but he hasn’t realized it yet. Iwan’s father thinks he’s just a ‘sad horn’. Every day, Ivan has to hear the stories about how strong and smart his father was when he was the age of his failed son. That Iwan’s mother has exchanged him for a strong Greek (“he’s fat!”), he just ignores. Iwan is very unhappy and tries very hard to get strong too, but he can’t even cycle or spit far, let alone build muscles to push someone away. The arrival of a witch in the village offers both him and his father a new chance…

‘Pudding T’ is based on the book “Pudding Tarzan” by Ole Lund Kirkegaard, which is in many people’s top ten list of favorite children’s books. The funny drawings, which the Danish writer who died at much too young age (he was only 38 years old) made himself, certainly contribute to the success of the book. Fortunately, the film stays fairly close to that visual imagination of the main character. After his wish has come true, Iwan has exactly the same funny-looking muscles as in the book, and the rest of his appearance also corresponds to how Kirkegaard envisioned him.

The animation film was made by Crone Film Produktion, the Danish production company that previously delivered ‘Orla de frog swallower’, also a film adaptation of a book by Kirkegaard. The animation style of both films is very similar and just like ‘Orla’ ‘Pudding T’ is an explosion of colours, with funny shaped buildings in a crummy holiday-land-like village, populated by caricatures. Crazy noses (Iwan’s isn’t even that strange compared to his villagers), disproportionate bodies with thin legs and some ladies have crazy shaped breasts. It takes some getting used to the look of the film, but the story quickly grabs you. From that moment on you sympathize with poor Iwan, who already has a hard enough time with his annoying father, let alone being taunted and harassed by the butcher’s daughter and her cronies.

The humor in the story is well dosed. You won’t roll off your chair laughing, but a comic situation regularly makes you laugh. In any case, ‘Pudding T’ does not choose the easy way and the usual, predictable jokes are therefore omitted. The fact that the story does take the well-trodden path of a nigga who suddenly undergoes a change that makes him popular, and thereby loses sight of what really matters, does not detract from the fun you will get from ‘Pudding T’ . It remains interesting to see how Iwan develops and gradually learns his environment, especially his sad horn of a father, a lesson. Fun for young and old.