Die Wilden Hühner und das Leben (The Wild Chicks and Life)
Germany 2009

Opening 29 Jan 2009

Directed by: Vivian Naefe
Writing credits: Cornelia Funke, Vivian Naefe, Uschi Reich, Thomas Schmid
Principal actors: Michelle von Treuberg, Lucie Hollman, Sonja Gerhardt, Jette Herring, Jeremy Mockridge

Die Wilden Hühner (The Wild Chicks) are back in full force with a trunk load of problems! Sprotte (Michelle von Treuberg) and her gang of girlfriends face growing up and young love in this last film of the Die Wilden Hühner (The Wild Chicks) series based on the popular books by Cornelia Funke. Each girl has her own problem that is dealt with throughout the film, each providing a lesson for all. Should Sprotte have sex with her boyfriend, Fred (Jeremy Mockridge), to keep him from becoming interested in another girl? Does Melanie (Sonja Gerhardt) really need to fake a pregnancy just so she can be the center of attention? Will Frida (Lucie Hollmann) succeed in stealing Melanie’s boyfriend away from her? Die Pygmanen (The Pigmies), the girl’s rival boy gang of which Fred is the leader, have fewer problems but not less serious ones. Alcohol abuse, peer pressure, first love, moving to another country and leaving your friends are all addressed at some point, some in more detail than others.

The film brings the Die Wilden Hühner series to a neat, compact, happy end, but its attempt to introduce, follow through and wrap up all the above mentioned problems, in addition to a teacher-teacher (Benno Fürhmann, Jessica Schwarz) romantic relationship and Sprotte’s mother’s (Veronica Ferras) surprise pregnancy, while the baby’s father is gallivanting around the globe as a journalist, turned the storyline into one long “Dear Abby” column. Most of these topics are worth a film unto themselves. However, they do hit home and will, hopefully, lead viewers to think about their actions and consequences, which is a good lesson to learn! Learning from others’ mistakes should give them food for thought before they plunge into similar situations. Sprotte’s decision not to have sex with Fred and to be pressured despite his attempts to cajole and sway her, put her in a strong independent role, one which, hopefully will influence many young girls watching this film.

Cornelia Funke only wrote three Die Wilden Hühner books, which now have all been filmed. How will the story continue? The open end of the film gave the strong impression that three younger girls who call themselves Die Wilde Küken (The Wild Chickadees), who inherited the Wild Chicks caravan, book of secrets and talisman necklaces, would no doubt take over the adventures where the more mature Wild Chicks left off. Coming to movie theatres soon! (Tracy Moede)

Second Opinion

I think this is the best of all three Wilden Hühner films. There are a lot of topics in this film that children under 11 years old probably won’t be able to understand. You definitely need to be old enough to understand some of these topics, like romantic things that older boys and girls do, for example. Altogether, it is a good movie because it has everything a movie needs. It is exciting, funny, sad and romantic. It is funny because the wannabe wild chicks (they call themselves the little chickadees) and the wild chicks play tricks on each other. The film is exciting and scary when they all go together on a one-week class trip where the chicks and the Pigmies (the rival boy gang) play a mean joke on the little chickadees, who have to go into a dark, scary cave and wind up getting lost. Will they be able to find their way out safely? It is also sad because Fred, Sprotte and all their friends get in a fight when one of the boys from the gang has to leave and move to Copenhagen. The movie has lots of problems of young love in it and all the problems that come with first love and all the stress of wanting someone to love you, but not being ready to do things sexually you don’t really want to do. I think the Die Wilden Hühner is a good movie for all girls but it is better if they are old enough to really understand it. It is too bad it will be the last film of the Wilden Hühner because the actors are getting too old and Cornelia Funke hasn’t written any more books about them. (Becka Moede, age 13) ( )