Sunshine Barry and the Disco Worms – Disco ormene (2008)

Directed by: Thomas Borch Nielsen | 75 minutes | animation, comedy | Dutch voice cast: Jim Bakkum, Sita Vermeulen, Yesser Roshdy, Tommie Christiaan, Bea Meulman, Doris Baaten

Okay, maybe we’ve gotten a little spoiled by all the pomp and circumstance of Pixar. You can’t expect a small, sweet movie on a small, sweet budget to spend two weeks animating a single lash hair like the big animation studios do. Yet. Even if you adjust your expectations for this film to the modest budget that the producers had at their disposal, ‘Sunshine Barry and the Disco Worms’ is still very basic. The minimalist design and the faded colors balance on the edge of simple and downright unsociable. And that for a children’s film!

So you don’t have to go for the animation, that should be clear. Fortunately, the music gives color to the film. It’s good to hear that disco classics like ‘Disco Inferno’ and ‘I Will Survive’ have not lost their eloquence after all these years. Only one problem arises: the very young target group of the film did not grow up with disco and will therefore not have any youth sentiment. Mom and Dad have, but ‘Sunshine Barry’ is too childish for them. The moral of the story is too cliche (he who clings to his dreams will prevail) and there are no jokes that fly over the heads of the kids to be picked up by the parents.

Another minus are the dubbed disco hits. You must love that. Jim and Sita’s sung parts are satisfactory, but nothing more. Incidentally, this is only partly due to our Dutch pride. English simply swings a bit more than Dutch. In addition, ‘Sunshine Barry’ also contains original versions of disco songs, sung by experienced singers. Jim and Sita can’t compete with that. Don’t worry about the man, kids probably won’t mind. They just get a friendly movie with worms who, despite their lack of limbs, boogie on hits from the seventies. They also receive the message that discrimination is wrong. It could be better, it could be worse.