The Little Ghost Laban (2006)

Directed by: Per Åhlin, Alicja Jaworski, Karin Nilsson, Lasse Persson | 45 minutes | animation, family | Dutch voice cast: Wiebe Pier Cnossen, Lucas Dietens, Hetty Heijting, Noortje Herlaar, Tim Koper, Jurjen Van Loon, Jan Nonhof, Beatrijs Sluijter, Hymke de Vries, Donna Vrijhof

In ‘The Little Ghost Laban’, children who are not familiar with the famous creation of the Swedish Inger and Lasse Sandberg from their books are introduced to the endearing ghost for the first time. Laban is a character many children can identify with. He is still small and lives with his parents and prankster sister – admittedly in a castle – but his living environment does not set the tone in the film. Most importantly, Laban is like most preschoolers; sometimes insecure or even scared. It is of course crazy for a ghost to be afraid, but fortunately Laban’s family and friends take it all sportingly and realize that Laban just has to grow in his task.

This short feature film features six stories of approximately ten minutes. The animations are simple but with simple means the animators know how to put a lot of emotion in the facial expressions, so that they really come to life. The picture-book-like atmosphere is enhanced by the beautiful collage-like backgrounds that seem to have been cut with a lot of home crafts. Magnificent!

The stories have a clear structure. The power of repetition is also regularly applied. For example, in the first story Laban and his friend Prince Bas try to scare the other inhabitants of the castle (the king and queen), but they only cause a fit of laughter in the king and a worried “You don’t catch a cold, do you, Laban? ” with the queen. In a later story, Laban and Prince Bas try to terrify the Queen’s girlfriend, which fails time and again, until Laban shows himself. Hilarious is Labolina, Laban’s sister, who can imitate all sounds, from a steamboat horn to the voices of her roommates.

A message could be that you should primarily believe in yourself, but fortunately there is no real morality for a change. Above all, ‘The Little Ghost Laban’ is simply a very nice and heartwarming film that the little movie fan, but also their parents, will enjoy watching.