"Bibi & Tina: Tohuwabohu total" is a German 110-minute movie from 2017, so very new and fresh and it is the 4th entry to the Bibi Blocksberg (&Tina) series by writer and director Detlev Buck. And as before he worked with Bettina Börgerding on the script for this one here. According to Buck himself, this is the final chapter to the story, so did they manage to go out on a high note? Unfortunately not. There is major focus on the refugee crisis in this movie here and the other reviewer is correct in saying that the lightness is gone. I am not too sure how appropriate the subject here is. Sure it's nothing bad to teach younger audiences about what is going on in the world, but it just did not fit in tone and style compared to the previous three films. I'd have preferred another core plot here. Anyway, they tried to go for that in the third movie (the only one I did not see at a theater) and it also went pretty wrong there. Maybe the best would have been if the series had ended after the second movie as the first two managed pretty decent quality and were among the better (if not best) German kids films of the 21st century. But if you rush so many films within such a short period of time, it's not really a surprise when it goes wrong at some point.
So yeah, the biggest problem was that the movie was simply trying to be too much: the main story with Lea von Acken's character (I liked the actress more in other projects than here), the story with this group of African musicians, the two refugee boys, the Trump parody... Yes there were good moments about some of these two like for example it was funny how much of a Casanova one boy was, but still, focus on the Adea story, maybe one other and it would have been perfectly fine at slightly under 90 minutes. And maybe they also should have done with the story errors, like why does the Albanian girl speak German throughout the entire film if Bibi's spells only last for a couple hours at best? Away from that again: Oh yeah, the Trump story was the worst of the worst really unfortunately. Embarrassing stuff and I am pretty disappointed by Buck that he basically includes such cringeworthy stuff that was really on BILD level in terms of level of quality and entertainment. Just like in the previous films, the magic (actually a crucial aspect on the Bibi Blocksberg cassettes) was just a minor component here. Nobody is surprised by Bibi's abilities anymore and this is not at all what the film is about. It is all about teens having a good time like the previous films and maybe this one here is a bit more serious with the way it elaborates on world politics and sometimes actually takes itself pretty seriously there. Not fitting for a kids movie if you ask me. Finally the music: Man some songs were really cringeworthy and this refers to all males except the one who falls in love with the African singer and he is by far the best singer in the cast. Strahl and Koroll also don't come close to his rendition of the Bibi&Tina main there, even if it is nice to hear it from somebody else, actually the main person in this song. The girls are slightly better than the men overall, but also nothing special. When they sing some of the old songs "Up Up Up", it's nice to listen to, but the new songs for this movie (with one exception perhaps) are a complete mess and the way they tried to fit them in with the story just isn't working at all. To end the review on a positive note, I would like to say that I enjoyed Maertens again with his character like in the previous movie and while Strahl left me a bit unimpressed this time I kinda liked Koroll in here for the first time. I think she was really bad in the other films at times, but is surprisingly bearable in this final chapter, maybe because there is really no great drama to her in here and she somehow makes the comedy work. But as a whole, it wasn't on par with the good films 1 and 2. Don't watch.
So yeah, the biggest problem was that the movie was simply trying to be too much: the main story with Lea von Acken's character (I liked the actress more in other projects than here), the story with this group of African musicians, the two refugee boys, the Trump parody... Yes there were good moments about some of these two like for example it was funny how much of a Casanova one boy was, but still, focus on the Adea story, maybe one other and it would have been perfectly fine at slightly under 90 minutes. And maybe they also should have done with the story errors, like why does the Albanian girl speak German throughout the entire film if Bibi's spells only last for a couple hours at best? Away from that again: Oh yeah, the Trump story was the worst of the worst really unfortunately. Embarrassing stuff and I am pretty disappointed by Buck that he basically includes such cringeworthy stuff that was really on BILD level in terms of level of quality and entertainment. Just like in the previous films, the magic (actually a crucial aspect on the Bibi Blocksberg cassettes) was just a minor component here. Nobody is surprised by Bibi's abilities anymore and this is not at all what the film is about. It is all about teens having a good time like the previous films and maybe this one here is a bit more serious with the way it elaborates on world politics and sometimes actually takes itself pretty seriously there. Not fitting for a kids movie if you ask me. Finally the music: Man some songs were really cringeworthy and this refers to all males except the one who falls in love with the African singer and he is by far the best singer in the cast. Strahl and Koroll also don't come close to his rendition of the Bibi&Tina main there, even if it is nice to hear it from somebody else, actually the main person in this song. The girls are slightly better than the men overall, but also nothing special. When they sing some of the old songs "Up Up Up", it's nice to listen to, but the new songs for this movie (with one exception perhaps) are a complete mess and the way they tried to fit them in with the story just isn't working at all. To end the review on a positive note, I would like to say that I enjoyed Maertens again with his character like in the previous movie and while Strahl left me a bit unimpressed this time I kinda liked Koroll in here for the first time. I think she was really bad in the other films at times, but is surprisingly bearable in this final chapter, maybe because there is really no great drama to her in here and she somehow makes the comedy work. But as a whole, it wasn't on par with the good films 1 and 2. Don't watch.