Bibi and Tina are riding and witches again. Above all, however, they have to deal with a wonderfully evil Kurt Krömer and a cute alien.
Berlin – Not only meteorites land on earth in this new Bibi and Tina film. No, the two best friends, who are so fond of horses and sometimes have magical powers (“Hex, hex!”), also have a small, rather funny alien waiting for them. But that’s not all: A villain, embodied by the Berlin cult comedian Kurt Krömer, is also part of the turbulent and colorful part in “Bibi & Tina: Simply Different”.
The director of this multi-generational strip, which is accompanied by excellent music, comes again from comedy old master Detlev Buck (“Karniggels”, “Knallhart”, “Männerpension”), who also directed the previous four successful Bibi and Tina parts knew (from “Bibi & Tina”, 2014, to “Bibi & Tina: Tohuwabohu Total” from 2017).
Bibi (embodied by the wonderful Katharina Hirschberg) and Tina (equally convincing: Harriet Herbig-Matten) welcome three new, initially rather mysterious holiday guests to the Martinshof: They call themselves Disturber, Silence and Spooky and are just, yes, a little bit different. Silence doesn’t like to talk that much, Spooky believes in extraterrestrials and the bald-haired Disturber soon declares war on Bibi.
Disturber’s distrust even drives Bibi and Tina into the arms of the mysterious V.ASSER (Krömer), who still has an unfinished business with Count Falko (Holger Stockhaus), going back to his school days. Meanwhile, the excitement (fans of Frederick Lau and Kida Khodr Ramadan please pay attention!) about the meteor shower from space does not stop. And the little extraterrestrial, who always stays a little in the background, is also there.
For children and adults
While Detlev Buck didn’t do himself too much a favor with last year’s Thomas Mann adaptation “Confessions of the imposter Felix Krull”, which was entertaining but never entirely consistent, the North German director, who is not averse to silliness, is again in his element here. A successful balance between children’s, youth and adult film. In any case, you are by no means bored as a parental cinema companion, the quickly told strip is far too much fun for that.
Some scenes are wonderfully silly – not least the many singing passages (including perhaps the prettiest homage to the potato that the local cinema knows). Here a Nietzsche quote, there a Kurt Krömer, whom one has not seen so unleashed, evil and crazy in a long time, there a small historical excursion to Frederick the Great: Adults also get their money’s worth. Once it is said: “Only the imperfect hits the middle of the circle”, a nice bon mot that you like to take home with you.
It’s okay to be different
Yes, the otherness that the film claims not only in the title. Especially towards the end of the entertaining 102-minute it is the subject of being different and also imperfect, that’s totally okay. Buck never puts it on too thick, it never gets pedagogical, never moralizing. Fortunately, Buck’s anarchic streak is present – who likes know-it-all, overly instructive children’s films.
Almost everyone here has their shortcomings: from the annoying radio presenter, to the overwhelmed count who tends to be unfit to live, to the mysterious V. Asser, who can’t quite decide between this and that person, slips from one outfit to the next (and sometimes appears as a vampire – the only slightly spooky moment in the otherwise kid-friendly adaptation).
In any case, all of this is a lot of fun and actually only allows one conclusion: Bibi and Tina and the little extraterrestrials reminiscent of Rusty Knight (unfortunately appearing far too rarely) will rock this cinema summer with their sympathetic differentness.
Bibi & Tina: Simply different, D 2021, 102 min., FSK from 0, by Detlev Buck, with Katharina Hirschberg, Harriet Herbig-Matten, Kurt Krömer dpa
