The Flying Liftboy (1998)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

best movie i've ever seen.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The movie is based on the well-known children's book 'Abeltje' by the (locally) famous Annie M.G. Schmidt. The book is, as in most cases, better than the movie, which has been altered to appeal to another generation. Enter the skateboard and an earring for Abeltje, a mother who runs a garage instead of a florist's, and the 'girl next door' who suddenly became a 'love interest' of sorts. These modernizations show again their age today, probably more so than the original story would have done. I would have preferred it if they had stuck a bit more to the original story, although it must be said that they added a fair bit of adventure, which isn't all bad. It's a decent (though rather wacky) children's adventure story the young ones will surely enjoy, and some parents may like it too.NB: Comments about so-called 'racism' are not only ridiculous, they are simply moronic. And false. Clearly, ALL adults in the story are portrayed as goofballs, as is the case in most children's books. That's probably how it should be. Let the kids laugh about those silly grown-ups. Most likely some left-wing extremists can't handle the fact that the movie (also) pokes fun at some Fidel-wannabe revolutionaries in the fictional (hello!) country 'Perugona'. So yeah, don't confuse 'Pravda' (what's in a name) with the truth. It's blatant propaganda, just like in the old days. Enjoy your movie. :-)

This movie is great for little children. Do you really think that children will turn in to Geert Wilders because of a movie about a flying elevator?:S If you start stuffing your child's head with illusions and stupidities that "The US is bad and the western way of life is not good", they will turn into ignorant and shallow racists themselves. This movie is made to entertain children and at that it does a good job, this movie is not about political statements. Racists (which Geert Wilders is not, he is a realist) are crafted by their parent who stuff their heads with all kinds of delusional ideas and therefor don't let the child develop it's own perspective on the world. Parent who don't let their children think for themselves create people who can't think. I ask you on behalf of your child, stop messing with his mind. thanks!!

There is a lot more about this movie than it being 'a slow and nice film for little children'. Besides having charming children in the protagonist roles, the support roles kick real ass. There is the garage-keeping mother of Abeltje, who doubles as an American mother who thinks to have found her lost son and turns Abeltje into a puppet. There are also many jokes on New York jet-set and Latin American revolutionaries which will be lost on 'little children', such as the German 'translator', played by a comedian who plays nazis with enthusiasm on national television and delivers his role acidly. And, of course, there is the singing teacher who teaches a bunch of mariachi's to sing a song that is recognizable as one of the greatest hits of the early 80's, with the writer of the song actually playing a mariachi, with moustache and all. Early on she teaches a gang of New York youths to sing and dance to writer Annie M.G. Schmidt's famous song De Twips, also a hit in 1966. Although little children will get some fun out of this movie, it seems primarily aimed at the Dutch moviegoer of way past the infant age. Camerawork is impeccable, FX's are convincing and the cutting pace is breathtaking. No wonder Dutch children's movies fly so high internationally these days.

I think it's a great movie for the whole family to go. Too bad for you, because the movie only available in The Netherlands is. But soon it'll come too to France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the Scandinavian countries. If you live in Holland, you have to see this movie! It's not only a movie for kids, think older people will like this movie too.