The Club of Sinterklaas & The Disappeared Shoes (2015)

Directed by: Ruud Schuurman | 78 minutes | family | Actors: Tom Audenaert, Evi van der Laken, Stef de Reuver, Eric-Jan Lens, Wilbert Gieske, Anouk de Pater, Tim de Zwart, Wim Schluter, Job Bovelander, Beryl van Praag, Piet van der Pas, Frans de Wit, Leo Alkemade, Okke Verberk, Maike Boerdam, Marieke de Kruijf, Daniel Romagnoli, Tijn de Graaf

The Sinterklaas Club is a well-known concept and has become a permanent fixture for the children of our little country around the arrival of the saintly man. After the successful TV series, ‘De Club van Sinterklaas & De Verdwenen Schoentjes’ is already the fourth part of the film series. The formula of the Sinterklaas films is almost the same every year: something goes wrong and threatens to cancel the Sinterklaas party, but fortunately the loyal helpers of the Club van Sinterklaas always manage to save the party in the nick of time. And this film is no different.

The film opens with the boy Kornee Kwastenbroek who puts his shoe every year and sings his songs well, but never gets a present. It turns out that one of Sinterklaas’s helpers has misread the mailing list, causing Sinterklaas to pass his house year after year without ever filling Kornee’s shoe. When we see Kornee again, he’ll be grown and determined to get back from Santa Claus for all the years he didn’t get any packages. His plan is to design stuffed animals (moepies), who can steal all the children’s shoes at night so they don’t get their presents.

In the castle of the Club of Sinterklaas, the preparations for the evening are in full swing and everything seems to be running smoothly. When Kornee sees that a parcel truck with a large load of cuddly toys is left unattended, he seizes his chance and throws the cuddly toys into the water. The Piets now have too few presents for all the children, so Kornee offers to deliver 100 moepies. Two mommies help him with his plan and steal the children’s shoes. When Danspiet finds out who is stealing the shoes, she enlists all the people in the club to catch Kornee in the act. They find all the shoes and then the Sinterklaas party can happily continue.

Not a surprising ending, but for the little ones it will be a bit exciting whether all the shoes will be found in time to be able to let the evening take place. Fortunately, the moepies are actually quite cute and the Piets are always cheerful. The songs and dances make the film a great children’s party and with a modest 70 minutes, ‘De Club van Sinterklaas & De Verdwenen Schoentjes’ is also suitable for adults.