Die Abrafaxe - Unter schwarzer Flagge (2001)

Beautiful, moving film.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Three boys named Alex, Max, and Califax discover an Aztec golden bowl in a museum that turns out to be a time traveling device that transports them to the time of the pirates where they must use the bowl to find the gold of El Dorado from the evil Blackbeard the pirate with the help of Anne Bonnie and many pirate friends.A few years ago when this movie first aired on Cartoon Network as a part of a movie marathon, I watched it to see it for myself.I thought it was gonna be the least good, but there were a lot things that got me interested. The animation was well-done, The characters were likable, The fantasy/action was good and the storyline keeps you interested of what's going on.However, there was only one bad thing that seemed to ruin the entire movie: the storytelling. The acting turned out to be okay, but its just that the storytelling seemed to make pretty much some flaws and it rushed the storyline for no apparent reason.The visuals and sound effects were simply put together and they weren't that bad and the pop song "Lass die leinen los" (which it got translated to When the winds are up) by the German singer Nena was simply good.I've never read the "Die Abrafaxe" comic books in which this movie was based on, but I think it's way better than the comics since they had very different adventures.I will recommend this movie to anyone who like Non-Disney movies and I am gonna give Gerhard Hahn and Tony Power a lot of credit for their brilliant work.3.5/5

I must admit it - I'm too closely attached to the comics on which this movie is based to give a proper review on its own merits.As an adaptation though it has virtually nothing to do with the source material. The characters are in design halfway fitting, but for their personalities they lack everything they had in the strips. Here we have just three bored kids in a museum, who are looking for trouble. I don't know exactly when it was made clear in the comics that they are not children, but even so they have behaved much differently in the comics, much more matured - though still looking for adventure, but somehow it never came across this "childish" as in the movie. Here we have these kids trying to act as grown-ups without doing much to the story than an actual child would have, while in the comics they were usually the driving forces in the stories, showing wits and maturity most of the time.For the movie itself, I think, it's okay. Indeed more intended for young children than for us elders who know the comics too well. As such it is a nice time-travel story, including some magic (beyond the time-travel itself) ans a lot of pirates.As a fan of the Mosaik comics I was hugely disappointed, that the filmmakers basically made an animation for young kids, disguised as a movie featuring the Abrafaxe. It can be best described featuring three kids that were fans of the Abrafaxe and had their costumes...

This is very good, maybe even great animated cartoon. I don't know anything about Abrafaxe comic books, but Abrafaxe movie is clever and very entertaining movie. Besides that, it is so funny!It's a story about three teens friends, who come to the middle age Caribbean with pirates, Spanish galleons and lost treasures, through the mysterious ancient artifact. This adventure becomes dangerous for them but friendship, loyalty and cleverness help them in all troubles. Action is good, sound and visual effects also fine.Abrafaxe is one of my favorite non-Disney animation and also in my top ten all-time animated movies. My congratulations to Gerhard Hahn and Tony Power. They could make extremely good movie without big costs. Recommend to all, but especially for teen animation fans.8,0 out of 10

Being a pirate sometimes is dangerous! Being on the other side, the good people, it is even more. And when three kids, a piece of gold, some fantasies and some action are put together, adding some special sound and visual effects, a travel back in history can get all of us a nice cartoon movie! Check it yourself...