Die Schule der magischen Tiere 3 
Germany
2024
Opening 26 Sep 2024
Directed by:
Sven Unterwaldt Jr.
Writing credits:
Sven Unterwaldt Jr., Thorsten Näter, Viola Schmidt, Barbara Te Kock, Ursula Gruber
Principal actors:
Emilia Maier, Loris Sichrovsky, Emilia Pieske, Luis Vorbach, Lilith Julie Johna
Two girls: Ida (Emilia Maier) and Helene (Emilia Pieske), as well as two boys: Jo (good-looking Loris Sichrovsky) and Silas (Luis Vorbach) work on their projects at Winterstein School. There are plans to tear down the forest to build a luxury hotel. Naturally, Ida wants to save this forest, where she has a small house. She needs at least 10,000 signatures to prove that there is public support. To enlarge her “influencer canal” Helene is filming a fashion show with creations by fashion designer Maya Malukapa. She hopes for some kind of success as her parents have lost their fortune and are currently moving the family out of their huge villa, which they can no longer finance. Silas wishes to impress Ida and manages to “collect” some money to buy a Maya Malukapa t-shirt. The four kids are accompanied by their magical animals: Karajan the French cat, Rick the crocodile, Juri the penguin, Henrietta the turtle, Rabbat the fox, Caspar the chameleon, and Pinkie the magpie. The animals are indeed magical. Not only do they speak as perfectly well as their human contacts they can instantly change into stuffed animals, as their real existence is to be kept secret.
We have enjoyed two previous “School of the Magic Animals” films which showed in 2022 and 2023. Now we have the third, which continues with many of the same characters and has added a few new ones. The Museum of Natural Sciences (Naturkunde Museum) plays an important role as the location for the fashion show, as well as a dinosaur skeleton which collapses, and a small bone which is stolen. There are at least six songs, with much dancing; Ida can play the piano. This children’s film will be popular, not necessarily due to this new version, but simply because it is based on a book by Margit Auer. She is responsible for 29 Magical Animal books all printed in Hamburg, translated into 26 languages and selling over 10 million copies. My favorite animal was the cat Karajan, spoken by Ralf Schmitz with a French accent. (Becky Tan)
