According to the logic of the popular cultural forward movement, pirates, like "cowboys and Indians", should be forever adapted to the nursery of the time, but somehow they still manage to cling to the children's collective consciousness. Probably a lot thanks to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise at the last moment putting the genre in the respirator.
In any case, Captain Sabeltand is hot as the North Sea oil in Norway, created by the cultural entrepreneur Terje Formoe. The profit-bubbling company Kaptein Sabeltann AS broadcasts TV series, animations, feature films, CDs, PC games, books on running tapes and also has a permanent show at Kristiansand's zoo.
As a newcomer , it is possibly easier to see the phenomenon of Captain Sabeltand, which mostly seems like a worse copy of Peter Pan's arch-rival Captain Krok.
But okay, he had to have some attraction, even if it's not quite clear here.
In the latest film, however, it is not he who is at the center but little child duo Pinky and Sunniva who are drawn into a power struggle between said pirate king and Maga Khan - a vampire type who, along with his malevolent wife (oddly dressed in gym pics), trusts over the archipelago Marmeladia, while his army of monkeys keeps the starving population in check.
Both are searching for the magic diamond that can fulfill every wish, but are stopped by the unlucky kids who, despite fronting a profit-making franchise, teach us that greed only leads to misery.
Large anime eyes placed in oversized heads give a high coefficient of validity, yes, especially the one where the mini monkey will go home with the smallest. The stubborn computer animation connotes tetra-change rather than animated life but still has its good sides. The sea looks unusually wet (it is generally difficult to make water look alive) and that dilapidated village in Maga Khan's mismanaged kingdom is fantasically rank.
But the plot… well - you might not ask for too much story in a movie that is so clearly aimed at the youngest audience, it will probably appreciate all the rattle, rattle and farting, but this one is still in the saddest team. The conflict is over before it started and afterwards, only the cues are left in the mind.
For it is not only greed that is of evil, we know, also manchauvinism. When Synniva begins to swing the sword, the pirates get a lesson in basic equality: Girls can also be lost.
A sentiment that, after just over two decades with small, self-indulgent Disney heroines, feels a little antiquated.