Urban the garbage hero (2019)

Directed by: Joost Van Den Bosch, Erik Verkerk | 73 minutes | animation, comedy | Original voice cast: Urbanus, Ben Segers, Sven de Ridder, Ron Cornet, Pieter Embrechts, Frances Lefebure, Sien Eggers, Tom van Dyck, Ludo Hellinx, Dimitri Leue, Koen van Impe, Tuur Verelst, Thijs J. Antonneau, Wout Verstappen, Mark Verstraete, Anke Helsen

Flemish comedian Urbanus (born Urbain Servranckx) has been one of the leading humorists in his country since 1974. Admittedly, these days his humor looks a bit stale and bland. But with his subversive absurdism he managed to kick against many holy houses for a long time. It is a form of direct humor that also caught on in the Netherlands. The provocateur reinforced that rebellious image with a comic series named after him. Together with screenwriter and draftsman Willy Linthout, he is working on a series that, in 2019, covers almost 200 albums. The satire is emphatically present with themes such as sex, religion and family. After a few feature films, this comic version of the comedian now pays the film honours with ‘Urbanus de Vuilnisheld’.

Urbanus, portrayed as a bearded child, lives with his father Cesar and mother Eufrazie in the fictional Tollembeek. Together with his best friends, the dog-like Nabuko and the fly Amedee, he experiences the wildest adventures. In ‘De Vuilnisheld’ the adults come face to face with the children. When Jef Patat, the recurring villain in the comic series, makes an apparently lucrative deal with the adults of Tollembeek in disguise, the children have no choice but to revolt. Jef Patat wants to dump all the waste from the land in the village in exchange for gold. But when push comes to shove, there is no trace of the gold. And Jef Patat also seems to have left with the northern sun. The children, led by Urbanus, resolutely take over the management of the resulting rubbish dump.

For the comic book enthusiast, ‘Urbanus de Vuilnisheld’ is a feast of recognition. All the characters pass by, such as woman-crazy Mister Pastoor, classmate Dikke Herman and Miss Pussy, whom Urbanus secretly has a crush on. The story is also typical Urbanus: crazy and inimitable, but always entertaining. The theme of not further polluting Mother Earth is presented pleasantly subtly. So far nothing new under the sun. But how does ‘The Garbage Hero’ compare as a film?

The animations in ‘Urbanus the Garbage Hero’ are pretty straight forward. Moving sprites for a still background. That simplicity suits the film well, because the humor comes above all else. And there’s plenty of that, although a lot can be said about its quality. Due to the high content of poop and pee jokes, the film will not be for everyone. At the same time, it never really wants to go bad. For example, there are some jokes about Miss Pussy’s breasts, but they are not visible. Just when they threaten to come into the picture, they are elaborately disguised by another character.

The humor in ‘Urbanus de Garbage Hero’ therefore arises mainly from the dialogue, not from the image. That’s a pretty safe approach for an Urbanus film. As if the viewer had been more important than the content. Only the very youngest will get red ears from this. That somehow feels like a loss. Because the real sharpness is missing, ‘De Vuilnisheld’ ultimately has little added value over the comic. It is certainly entertaining, but afterwards everything is quickly forgotten.