Röllin sydän (2007) Reviews

• Impotent Animation

  TheHande2008-10-16

  Röllin Sydän in its essential sounds like a good idea. The format of animation is less restrictive as opposed to actually filming the movie and especially in the case of a fantasy film. However, it seems the scriptwriters weren't really paying attention to the essentials of what makes a good Rölli film (see "Rölli - Amazing Tales") and instead what we end up is very similar to "Rölli ja Metsänhenki". A generic children's fantasy-film with Rölli slapped on to make it sell. By far one of the most disappointing aspects of the film is the animation. It is basically on par with most TV-animation, but hardly matches the epic scale of Walt Disney, Don Bluth or even Ralph Bakshi. The film looks so incredibly unremarkable, it's the sort of stuff you'd expect from a straight-to-TV or DVD animated film. While the character designs are themselves good the character-portrayals are disappointing. Everyone over-acts and they should have found far more appropriate voices for some of them. Even the songs in this film managed to annoy the heck out of me. Having said all this the movie does actually have some funny moments and an okay plot, but even Rölli himself comes off incredibly lame for some reason. The film is a good children's animation film, but parents are likely going to get bored with it. The reason Röllin Sydän doesn't really work is the same reason why the live-action Asterix films don't really work. Just as an Asterix film doesn't work without the zaniness of real animation, it's simply not the same without Allu Tuppurainen physically doing the performance for Rölli.