Take a look at the 15 movies you'll be hearing about in fall 2024.

15 Fall Movies You Need to Know About

Take a look at the 15 movies you&#39;ll be hearing about in fall 2024.

Check out the biggest movies and shows out now or coming soon.

IMDb Staff Picks for November

Discover some of the most anticipated sequels, prequels, and spin-offs coming to theaters and streaming.

New Sequels, Prequels, and Spin-Offs

The devil tricks a little boy off his laughter in exchange for assured wins in all his bets. It depicts his journey after the deal with the devil, how he loses his soul bit by bit with each win.

The Legend of Timm Thaler or The Boy Who Sold His Laughter (2017)

Excellent movie to get some idea, whats wrong with this world of crisis

The Legend of Timm Thaler or The Boy Who Sold His Laughter

&quot;Timm Thaler oder Das Verkaufte Lachen&quot; is a German movie from this year that actually premiered exactly a week ago. It is in the German language and was directed by Andreas Dresen, one of Germany&#39;s most successful filmmakers right now, maybe the number 1 director currently from the former GDR. Tne script is by Alexander Adolph, one of Germany&#39;s most successful writers when it comes to small screen scripts, even if occasionally he also worked on theatrical releases. Of course, this one here is adapted from the work by James Krüss, the man who came up with the original Timm Thaler. First thing people may think of when they hear Timm Thlaer is probably Tommy Ohrner who starred in 1979 in the mini-series about this character. Ohrner makes a cameo in this film here as well as an employee of an expensive hotel in two scenes. And still, he is nowhere near the biggest names working on this one. If you look at the cast, you will find a long list of really successful German actors like von Dohnányi, Prahl, Hübner, Kühnert, Uhl, Mädel, Peschel, Haberlandt, Schmidt (Andreas), Król etc. I personally was quite well-entertained by the couple scenes including German late night legend Harald Schmidt who plays an announcer at the horse races. The child actor who plays the title character is Arved Friese and while I was never truly impressed with him, I think he works the part pretty well. I also liked Emil von Schönfels who made it truly easy to hate the character with all his actions and comments. The female actor with the most screen time is Jule Hermann and she is on par with Friese overall. I think the cast overall did a pretty good job. There is solid drama, some decent emotion, but surprisingly little comedy. I wrote in my title that kids should see this one and I think it is true. However, if you want them to see a new kids comedy, this is not it. This has nothing to do with the likes of Bibi &amp; Tina or animated films in terms of the comedy factor really, but there is a lot of depth and drama instead here, maybe already too much for its own good. Dresen&#39;s attempts at making this a really relevant film are very visible, this was intended to be much more than 1.5 hours of pointless fun. The most obvious example is probably when the devil starts to talk critically of society about how the rich exploit the poor with one example of how Africans are robbed by white men of their natural reserves. The title already says that this is the story of a boy who loses his smile and the reward for him is that he wins every bet he makes afterward. As we find out later, this was intended by the main antagonist, so that Timm would lose a part of his soul bit by bit. This was also one of the weaker plot points of the film i must say. The way Timm transforms into the devil more and more came pretty much out of nowhere and would have needed better build-up. Now I said already that the devil is the main antagonist. On the one hand, it was fine because we never really know who the bad guys are. The stepmother with her son, the two thieves or JvD&#39;s character. Early on, it is a bit questionable. On a negative note, honestly if he was really the devil, the root of all evil, then why would he rely on such idiots as his henchman seriously. And why at the very end would he lose all of his appearance only because he lost his ability to smile again. This is again where it really is a kids film as it did not make entirely sense on these occasions. But it does on most others and that&#39;s why I enjoyed it. The emotional highlight comes very surprisingly already early in the film when we find out about the death of Timm&#39;s dad. I know Timm dealt with this properly when he got the grave stone finally and closed this chapter somehow, but I kept wondering why he did not wish for his father to actually be alive again. Or he could have said something like he bets that only 2 of his next 3 bets would be won and then the curse would be lifted too. Anyway, enough flaw-searching now because otherwise it may sound as if this was a film I did not like as much as I actually did. Another pretty great scene was when we hear Król tell us what the two kids actually wanted to say but did not and this rang very true in this particular situation. All in all, certainly one of the better German kids films and maybe even Germany&#39;s finest from 2017 for younger audiences. I certainly recommend checking it out. On a final note, i would like to add that this review comes from somebody who has neither read the book nor seen the Ohrner series (or another adaptation) of this pretty well-known literary work.

tt4578050

This is just to forget just after watching. They transformed a special series to fit the expectations from today - or what they think the expectationas are. Just go for the original with its uique style, athmosphere and soundtrack from a time when they dared to go a new direction.

Tommi Ohrner played the role much better. Somehow he looked more like it and his laughter was much more natural, while this boys laugh is not real.

The simple facts about the movie are known now. But the mainplot does handle around the trading(and exclusion of people) and its results for the world and the character of humans... so secondary narcissism and a bit greed. The absence of conscience is a problem for the intention of the film and book, so it is simply a problem for the film and its comprehensibility...

This was really tough to watch until the end. I still love the original TV series with Thomas Ohrner and Horst Frank. That was intelligent creative writing and acting. But this one here is just childish and ridiculous. You will see talking mice, that were actually laughable demons (one is a man dressed up as a woman) working for the Baron. The story itself is also very different from the original series. It is set in another time (30ies or 40ies from the look of the cars and fashion). Then Timm&#39;s father brings another woman with her son into his life. After he died poor Timm has to live with the evil stepmom and stepbrother. The Baron comes across as an Idiot who has lost everything and is trying too hard to get a purpose in his life. The develish portrayal of Horst Frank from the original series is totally missing here. Overall this remake as a movie absolutely missed the mark. It is totally forgettable and utterly garbage. Thomas Ohrner, the original Timm Thaler has a cameo appearance in this movie. That was at least one good thing.

User reviews

The Legend of Timm Thaler or The Boy Who Sold His Laughter

You want your kids to see this one

No. Nonono.

The old original is 1000 times better.

Excellent movie to get some idea, whats wrong with this world of crisis

Childish and ridiculous

More from this title

More to explore

Recently viewed