Stephan Hammond
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Keinohrhase und Zweiohrküken" is a spin off from the very successful German films "Keinohrhase" (Rabbit without Ears) and "Zweiohrküken" (Rabbit without Ears 2). The literal translation of the second film is "Chicken with Two Ears", which explains the reference in this animated movie. Both characters were invented in the films that are named after them. The rabbit, for example is a reference to a little stuffed animal made by one of the children in the first film when Tschirner's character says something like "No it's not ugly. It a special rabbit. A rabbit without ears." While the two original films have some dirty talk and are more aimed at grown-up audiences, this one is primarily for the children.It features Til Schweiger voicing the rabbit and his little daughter Emma, who also had parts in the two previous films, voicing the chicken. Matthias Schweighöfer, who played Ludo's friend in the films, voices the fox, sort of the antagonist, but really too nice to be truly scary, so it's also a good watch for very small children. Unfortunately Nora Tschirner is not in here, probably only because there's no female character that she could have lent her voice to. But no worries, it looks like there will be another "Rabbit without ears"-movie in 2014 and she will be back on board again too. The animation was pretty good and what I liked most about it was how clean it all was, like a precisely-painted picture. People may say, it may have lacked a bit of character because of that, but I thought it was incredibly nice to look at. Story-wise, it's about a rabbit who gets mocked and not hunted by the fox because he has no ears. The film has some nice emotion for older audiences too when they show how the rabbit is really sad because he doesn't manage to find a friend. One day he finds an egg in front of his door and he finds out that everything that comes out of eggs (be it crocodiles, snakes or whatever) does not have ears either, so he's happily caring for it waiting for whatever's in there to become his friend. Of course, he's not amused at all when the chicken in there proves to have two rabbit-like ears. After initial disappointment, he still becomes friends quickly with the little one and they're having a great time together.The supporting characters like the fox's dad or the bear didn't really add much to the story, but they were still nice additions for comedic relief. Okay, there was nothing really funny about Fox Sr., but the frog with the mobile phone was directly related to him and was pretty hilarious, especially when he voiced the father's words with the appropriate face expression. All in all, it's a good film for the whole family, especially for the children although the parents I saw in the theater seemed to enjoy it as well, more than usually when they take their kids to the theaters and often start sending SMS 15 minutes into the movie. And even I, way older than the film's target audience, can't deny that the chicken with Emma's voice shouting delightfully "Au jaaa!" was the cutest thing ever. Don't be confused by the low rating. It's a good movie with lots of heart. Recommended.
