Kostya's Boring Codec World

Sadly, all good things come to an end and this series review is no different. Let’s look at the last three entries before I give my opinion on all of them.

Prince for Egypt

Obviously a retelling of the Biblical story of Exodus with some unique Dingo touches.

First of all, the narrator here is not the usual bird.
The Narrator

And Egyptians have a very distinct appearance (though they look somewhat like Atlanteans).
A princess that adopted Moses

And Moses did not merely had a brother Aaron but also they had a pet crocodile Benjamin who actually helped to push the crib on the river to a safe place. Later another kid is sad because he can’t take his pet crocodile with him (because it will die without water in a desert on the way to the Promised Land). I think pet crocodiles should’ve been mentioned more often in the Bible.
Grown up Moses

There’s also a change in depicting scene with the burning bush that contradicts the religious concepts but I guess the change helps children understand it better than just watching on some random burning bush talking. If you want bushes talking—see Pocahontas again.

Pharaoh, his advisor and advisor’s advisor

And I bet you didn’t expect a monkey to be sent to spy on slaves either.

Exodus

It ends peacefully too, without Egyptians being swallowed by the Red Sea.

Overall, it’s not something outstanding but if you’ve watched other Dingo Pictures cartoons you may watch this one as well.

The Sword of Camelot

This is a retelling of Arthurian Legends. And to get rid of obvious references early: ni!

The narrator

Merlin

This is the only other cartoon beside Bremen Musicians that got a live narrator. Who is also Merlin. It’s somewhat funny how other stories have wizards or oracles looking like a stereotypical Merlin but here he’s quite different.

Anyway, this story covers not merely a story of Arthur but also his other knights…

Mordred

…fair ladies…

Guinevere with her ladies-in-waiting

…in the castles.

You know the place

And the story spans to the pinnacle—finding the Holy Grail—and behind, when the story of King Arthur and his Knights of Round Table really ends.

Sir Galahad and Temple of Doom

This was refreshing and in other stories you often don’t get the origin of other knights or full understanding of Merlin’s role in all things but here it’s all present. Worth watching IMO.

Herkules

This is one of most entertaining stories with some parts missing due to short runtime (just 45 minutes) but also with some unexpected parts covered and even more unexpected details added.

Europa

One of the first details—you don’t often see Europa present at Mt. Olympus. I think this cartoon was produced in Europe…

Zeus

And on the picture above you can see another fine detail omitted in the myths: Zeus consulting the Olympic Constitution. This was done in order to help Herkules (or Herakles) to find a way to become god later.

BTW, this is the palace where the actual king was born

Obviously not everybody was satisfied.

Hera

Eurystheus The Task-Giver

So one thing after another and Herkules sets off to perform heroic deeds.

Everybody knows he had strangled the lion but who knew they boxed too?

And while performing the labours he also meets a daughter of some local ruler and tries to win her heart too.

Hydra

And after defeating The Hydra (without cauterising the stumps but with a completely unexpected method!) he has to deal with centaur.

Nessus stealing the fair maiden

I bet you didn’t expect that centaurs can look like that!

And after that he’s sent to retrieve Cerberus.

The entrance to the underworld

And after displaying the dog and in the middle of marriage ceremony Zeus calls him to help defeat Olympus from the monsters escaped from the underworld. Actually it was an uprising of titans who managed to break free from Tartarus and IIRC it happened when Herakles was a god already and lived on Olympus but you can’t expect an adaptation to cover all details.

Underworld monsters

There are many other rarely mentioned bits not covered here like Herakles voyaging with Argonauts or helping Prometheus which would make a fine story by themselves.

Nevertheless, this is wildly entertaining story and I highly recommend watching it. It’s a pity you’re more likely to find a rip-off instead.

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So, after watching all these (except Arischa of course) what do I think about these?

Are those cartoons silly? Yes!

Are they poorly made and lack in quality? Definitely!

Are they entertaining to watch? Hell yes!

Despite all the flaws (or maybe because of them) these cartoons make me laugh and some of the art there (like Wabuu’s song) is actually not bad. But let’s sum up what we have here:

• tight budgets resulting in reusing characters, footage and many clichés? check
• unique art style? check
• unique way of storytelling? check
• intended for children but probably more enjoyed by adults? check

So there can’t be two different thought about it: ladies and gentlemen, Dingo Pictures has managed to create German analogue of anime. And that’s what it will be remembered for.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 5th, 2017 at 8:17 am and is filed under Dingo Pictures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.