User Reviews

"Lauras Stern" is a German movie from 2004, so this one is already over a decade old and back then it managed to win a German Film Award in the children's film category. This is very accurate and deserving though as it was up against one other film only and that was from the unbearably bad Wilde Kerle franchise. This one here is clearly superior luckily. It is an animated movie by the team who also worked on the Little Polar Bear duology. And even if the voice acting cast here does not contain as many familiar names as for the arctic movie, German film buffs will still recognize some of the actors, such as Krekel, Fitz, Mattes and Schafmeister for me. The animation looks really retro as if this film could have been much older than 21st century and that's not a negative aspect at all as it adds to its charm.

So yeah, overall I enjoyed the watch. Here we have the story of a girl who has to move to a new house and isn't happy about that at all. Her brother has similar problems that worsen even when his beloved stuffed animals is taken away from him for a brief moment. Anyway, things take a turn for the better when the girls manages to make friends (and foes) and finds a magical little star that has fallen from the sky and it has the ability to bring all kinds of stuffed animals to life, which is something that especially the brother enjoys. All in all I think the first half hour is pretty good, but then it gets a bit worse in the second half hour until the journey through the stars is pretty good again at the very end, especially visually. Like I wrote in the title, the film's innocence is one of its biggest strength, even if the subject maybe only makes it interesting for really young audiences. Of course those still young at heart will enjoy it too I believe and yes this includes myself. It's a bit of a shame the second half of the movie was a bit on the forgettable side as the film surely offered potential for being even better. It is a relatively short film and I guess this is a good thing overall here. It runs for under 75 minutes without credits, slightly over 75 with credits. the Wonderwall song at the very end is nice too and fits perfectly. I recommend checking it out and I can see why it is one of Germany's most known animated films still today, even if admittedly there aren't that many compared to the United States or so. Go see it.

Laura's Star is a 2004 German film produced by WarnerBros and it tells the tale of a lonely girl who befriends a wishing star. The animation is nice,the story is very endearing and sweet,the score is good too(done by Han Zimmer who also did The Lion King). Parts of this reminds me of Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue meets Lilo and Stitch. This also happens to be the first German language movie from WB.

If you are looking for the English version its very hard to find it.

When I was 17 or 18, I remember watching the television series on the now-defunct Discovery Kids channel and not realising they were based on the books that I never knew existed until earlier this year since I realised that the TV series had a similar animation style to the book illustrations. When I heard of this film, I thought it would be based on the TV series but it wasn't due to its animation that differs from that in the series. I recently bought this in a 4-DVD pack along with 'The Powerpuff Girls Movie,' 'The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot' and a DVD of Dr Seuss cartoons.

The animation itself was rounded, fluid, detailed and smooth while the backgrounds had an acrylic painting/pastel drawing look to them. I was blown away by the musical score because it was magical and suited the film's theme very well. While the song 'Stay' was pretty mediocre and hard to hear in places, I loved the closing song 'Touch The Sky.' The British voice acting was full of clarity but it differed from the voices in the TV series and Laura's voice was a tad grating to begin with, although she became an endearing character as the film progressed. The dubbing was sometimes off but this is forgivable since this film was originally made in German. I found the opening sequence phenomenal but when it finished I was confused because I couldn't tell if Laura and her family had just moved in or if they were going to move house. The scenes with Laura flying with the star were breathtaking and the scenes that took place during the night were some of the most detailed I've seen compared to the darker scenes being less detailed in 'Kung Fu Panda.' Laura's and Tommy's toys coming to life were reminiscent of the 'Toy Story' franchise in spite of them coming alive in their presence as opposed to Andy's toys coming to life in his absence.

All in all this is a stunning children's film if its animation differs from that in the TV series, probably due to them being made in different studios. 8/10.