Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"7 Zwerge" was a massive success in terms of box office here in Germany, so no surprise the second movie came out 2 years later. It's once again 90 minutes long. The center of it is Otto Waalkes once again and he brought basically the entire comedy elite from Germany in here. The director is Sven Unterwaldt again and he wrote the script with Waalkes and Bernd Eilert, who already worked with Otto back in the 70s. Not too long ago, a third entirely-animated movie came out, but it did not come even close to the commercial success of the first two. the second did not make as much money as the first, only about half, but still a whole lot, so it was the no°7 in box office 2006 in Germany.The dwarfs are played by the same actors as in the first film, with one exception. Wöhler played Majowski's part. Nina Hagen plays the main antagonist again and her daughter Cosma Shiva is also back to reprise her role. Many of the actors, also in smaller roles, like Hoffmann return here and they also got some new names, including Lindenber, Stein, Barth, Pocher (not a great fan of these four, especially the last two) and Olli Dittrich ("Dittsche") as Pinocchio in a hilarious performance. But I'm a great fan of him anyway. The cast is top-notch and as good as it gets for a German comedy movie. Katy Karrenbauer, Jürgen Tarrach and Karoline Schuch are also in this films, all 3 more dramatic actors really. Just like the first, this movie has references about all kinds of fairy tales, not only about Snow White. I mentioned Pinocchio before, but there is also Rumpelstiltskin and Hansel&Gretel. The film's title is obviously a reference to James Bond. The (00)7 fits also nicely in terms of the amount of dwarfs, but I don't know if they thought about that.One of my favorite scenes was Maddin Schneider's turn as a fireman, obviously the perfect profession for someone with so quick reactions like his. What I did not like, however, was that they somehow gave every comedian his moment to shine. I like Ralf Schmitz, but his pantomime number felt almost more out of a comedy program than out of this movie. Nina Hagen did not do really much for me either and I have to say I lost a bit interest here as the film went on. The first half was possibly better than the second. The "Pet Shop Boys" cover at the end was nice though. All in all, I would say this film is slightly inferior to the first, both pretty decent movies though and worth a watch.
