The animals from the Hakkebakkebos – Dyrene i Hakkebakkeskogen (2016)

Directed by: Rasmus A. Sivertsen | 75 minutes | animation, family, musical | Dutch voice cast: Finn Poncin, Pepijn Koolen, Marcel Jonker, Thijs Overpelt, Stephan Holwerda

In 2012, Norway celebrated the centenary of one of its most famous children’s book authors, Thorbjørn Egner (1912-1990). He created, among other things, the tooth trolls Karius and Baktus (1949), which were intended to encourage Norwegian children to brush their teeth regularly. The two trolls Karius and Baktus have taken up residence in the teeth of young Jens, who has an incredible sweet tooth. They chop and hammer their way between the teeth, leaving the boy with a terrible toothache. Only when he reports to the dentist, everything will be fine. Quite moralistic, of course, but the story became such a success that it was translated into twenty languages ​​and turned into plays. Viewed through twenty-first century glasses, the stories of Egner, who was a composer and program maker in addition to being a writer and illustrator, are not only pedantic but also conservative and role-confirming. But nostalgia always makes people long for the good old days, when life was a lot simpler and the message was clear. And so the Norwegian animation filmmaker Rasmus A. Sivertsen, known for the animation films about ‘Pelle the police car’ and ‘Solan en Ludwig’, also released in the Netherlands, made a stop-motion version of Egner’s classic fable ‘Klautermuis and the other animals from the Hakkebakkebos’ in 2016. ‘ from 1953. The film has been given the title ‘The animals from the Hakkebakkebos’ in Dutch.

The Hakkebakkebos is a forest like you have so much of it in the Norwegian wilderness. But there is one difference; the animals that live here can talk. They also live in houses similar to the homes of us humans and some of them work for a living. Hazeman is a baker by trade and Bruintje Beer acts as a sort of mayor. The small animals in the Hakkebakkebos, especially the mice, have been feeling more and more cornered lately. There are animals walking around in the forest that would prefer to eat them, such as Rein de Vos. He prefers to devour every mouse he encounters. When IJge Hedgehog also tries to eat the grandmother of Maarten Bosmuis, the mice think that something has to change. Maarten comes up with a new law, which states that from now on all animals must be friends and may no longer eat each other. He is helped by Klaas Klautermuis, who comes up with a song for everything. But does Rein intend to abide by the new rules? When Brummelman, Bruintje Beer’s son, disappears without a trace, the mice fear that Rein has struck again. But who says foxes can’t improve their lives?

What is most striking about ‘The animals in the Hakkebakkebos’ is the beautiful – and rather time-consuming – animation style that is used: stop-motion. The technique, which is being further perfected by the British Aardman studio (‘Wallace and Gromit’, ‘Shaun the Sheep’) and Laika Entertainment (‘Coraline’, ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’), is a true precision work and for all the time, love and attention that Sivertsen has put into his film, he deserves kudos. The story is, especially at the beginning of the film, a bit messy. For example, the scene in Hazeman’s bakery is sweet and funny, but feels a bit lost from the rest of the film. It seems as if Karsten Fullu, who was responsible for the screenplay, has merged several stories from Egner’s collection into one longer one (although the film only lasts 73 minutes), but that is not the case, certainly in the first half of the film. the cost of coherence. Nevertheless, this is a nice, innocent film about the power of togetherness. Moreover, a complex phenomenon such as democracy is explained on a level that is manageable for children. Egner’s work will always remain a bit moralizing and naive, but in this stop-motion variant the animals from his now 64-year-old Hakkebakkebos are fine.