Crazy German Kids? Movie

Was out to the kino to catch something that I could claim as some degree of exposure to the German media scene. The redlight district probably could have provided some special, 😉 experiences, but went the other way. What are the kids watching – something German only. I found ‘Lissi und der wilde kaiser. It advertises itself as a parodie of the classic ‘Sissi’. I can only say that it takes serious license. As it turns out, it’s aimed at a little more mature audience than the normal animated show goer. I booked early. Circumstances. And with German efficiency had an assigned aisle and seat. Showed up close to time as I recalled that there is a sufficient period in advance with commercials, not trailers. Inside there are three people in a 150 person theatre. My seat if right beside them. Eventually a couple girls 13-15 come in and sit on the other side of my 13-15 year old male friends.
Two adults come in. They are the seats in front of my colleagues. I can see that there is a system in the seat assignment process…but it sucks. It starts from best seat and starts assigning in all directions. so you get 15 people all sitting right adjacent to one another despite 100 extra seats. And my German cimenagoers just go with it.
The animation and screen play is superb. It’s full of double entendres, and some rather low humour, but the story is simple. Lissi and Franzi are Kaiser and Kaiserin of Austria. Life is great, he goes around collecting tax money all day to fund a life of ostentatious luxury. Lissi is a bubblehead, but sweet and gorgeous. The animation was superb and I was really struck by how well the expressions were capatured on faces.
Meanwhile in th Himalayas, the Yeti, in the process of tormenting his smaller fellow animals, creates an unintended cosmic earthquake. This turns out to be created by satan who ‘does him a deal’ -> bring me the sweetest maiden in the world.
Life at Schonbrun is saccharine sweet. There we also find the scheming queen mother (who of course finds Lissi pointless) and the Feldmarschal who dotes on Franzi. The couple play silly games and during a very seductive cabaret show by Lissi for Franzi, she is snatched by the Yeti. Meanwhile the Queen Mother wants to head off to Russia to find him a better match. Franzi has no troops (all over-committed) so he seeks hunters to be on the lookout for the Yeti and Lissi. She suffers from the Stockholm syndrome, but not before sending a love-letter off to Franzi in an empty beer bottle – which he actually receives. Unfortunately, certain words have been lost by water smears and it reads as though she is leaving him and running off with the Yeti. The Queen mother’s strange attempts to bewitch the Feld-Marschall have had strange consequences and the company decided to head for ‘Bussi Wittelsbach’s” place (a distant relative) using the latest in GPS. Lissi being Bussi’s cousin, her and Yeti, escaping hunters also head for Neuschwanstein.
We meet Bussi. Bummed out overweight, stoned, rather down on life. Living a reclusive rockstar life. I love this take on Ludwig II. Hunters follow Lissi and Yeti to NS, battle ensues to recapture for reward. Good slapstick chase. At climax, hunters cease to be factor, but Lissi confronts Franzi, who cannot forgive her the letter. Evil reappears and neither Yeti nor Franzi will give her up…so another deal. Satan creates two more women and turns all three into swans. The Feld-marshall distracts the evil force, the yeti produces a horn which Lissi will want to play and they make the swans go for the horn, and thus Lissi is identified and force cannot have her.
Meanwhile, Bussi is standing knee-deep in Starnbergersee trying to decided whether to end it all. But can’t he can’t even see the point in ending his life so stand there morosely batting the water with his scepter. His despairing maddess is the subject of humour. When satan is defeated at this castle Bussi thinks that is kind of exciting and the Queen Mother has these bewitching opiates that she has been feeding the Feld-Marshall to find out about her son’s actions. They work well on Bussi who hooks up with the Queen mother and everyone is reunited as they should. This I am all getting from a second language appreciation.

Great entertainment. Rude and certainly profane of many idols. Not quite definite that Bussi has to be Ludwig II, or whether Lissi is Sissi, in which case the grandfather who is still about and looks an awful lot like Franz Josef is supposed to be. Is the QM, the real Sissi, or the mother of FJ who we know was a problem. Is Franzi Rudolph – a pretty happy, cheery Rudolf. The relations don’t really have a historical accuracy, but fun anyway.