Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
Lidia Draper
Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
Allison Davies
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Dieter" is an animated German movie from 2006. It runs for comfortably under 1.5 hours and is the most known work for both writers here, but not for the two directors who have also been prolific with the Werner Beinhart franchise. I liked that one and I like this film here as well as the approach is somewhat similar in terms of story-telling and animation. It is "only" a small screen release, but it could also have deserved a big screen release in my opinion. This is basically a Dieter Bohlen biopic, even if some parts were left out completely or almost completely. One example would be the protagonist's first marriage and the three children that were the result. And DSDS, Bohlen's long-running trademark show, also already existed back on 2006 for a couple years, but is not part of this movie. So it is a bit on the incomplete side. Instead, the focus is mostly on Bohlen's ill-fated relationships with Naddel and Verona Feldbusch as well as his tumultuous yet highly successful work relationship with Thomas Anders (and his wife Nora).I think many people who don't like this movie would argue that Bohlen is not a character who deserves his own biopic, but I disagree. He has sure gone through a whole lot in his life (he turned 63 this year) and there is enough material in here. Sure you could say that stuff like a broken penis is nothing that makes a difference or plays a role to anybody except himself, but this is exactly the point. It played a major role to himself and thus deserves being included in here. I also wrote earlier already that I like the Werner films and yes the approach here is very similar. Also the film does not know any taboos at all as you probably already realize from what I just wrote in the last sentence and that's excellent as we don't need any further politically correct garbage. I also think that this film has solid attention to detail, for example when it comes to the animations of minor characters in the background. They don't just stand there, but still move and do something, even if it does not really add anything to the story. I myself would not really call myself a fan of Bohlen and definitely not of his talent casting show, but there is no denying he made a lot of correct decisions in his life, financially and artistically, and the consequence is that virtually everybody here in Germany knows him, even if they may not like him. But this also may have to do with jealousy a bit. And after all, in terms of his show, the fish needs to like the bait, not the fisherman, so can you really blame Bohlen or RTL for what they are doing if millions of people suck it in every week?Anyway, back to this movie, Bohlen himself is the narrator and he has many lines, which is a nice addition and makes perfectly up for the fact that Bohlen does not do his own voice, it even gives a more autobiographical take to it all. With he exception of Völz and Harry Wijnvoord voicing the devil LOL (still these two only have one scene each), there are no known actors listed for this project, but that's perfectly fine as this doesn't mean they aren't doing a good job. On the contrary. The voice acting worked well together with the animation in my opinion. There were many funny scenes and this film never tries to be something it couldn't achieve. Even the more serious moments about Bohlen's childhood or his father's words still have some kind of lightness to them and matter anyway only to Bohlen himself. The movie is never preaching. But it is frequently funny. I recommend checking it out and regardless of you like it or not, there is no denying it is among the most famous German animated films of all time, even if I can see why some of the people depicted in there probably did not like it. But maybe it is just too honest? Go see it.
t_atzmueller
If you're not from Germany, you've probably never heard of Dieter Bohlen. Consider yourself lucky. Guitarist-cum-producer Bohlen, together with singer Thomas Anders, had produced a couple of mediocre, but successful Pop songs under the guise of "Modern Talking" in the 80's; sort of "Milli Vanilli" crap that hasn't been caught.The musician Bohlen would have been all but forgotten, had it not been for his hyper-inflated, borderline psychopathic ego, which made him a judge and leading force behind "Deutschland sucht den Superstar", Germany's answer to "American Idol". Imagine a blond version of Simon Cowell (they even look vaguely similar), just more mean-spirited and nepotistic. This success prompted Bohlen to write his memoirs, in which he's slinging dirt at anybody, dead or alive, who has ever crossed his path. And, savvy businessman that he is, Bohlen took the chance to turn said memoirs into a feature-length cartoon.Long story made short: we witness Bohlens upbringing in a small North-German hamlet, rise to fame with "Modern Talking", break-up, relationships with alcoholic hanger-on girlfriends Nadel and marriage impostor Verona (both still haunt the German boulevard media to this day), reunion with Thomas Anders and Bohlen's ultimate descent to hell.Stylistically, the cartoon is somewhere between "Werner" and "Das Kleine Arschloch" ("The Little Rectum"), meaning, it's crude, simple, lazily put together by some bored animator(s), without any of the merits of above mentioned toons.The most important question: is it funny? Answer: no. Like above mentioned animations, it thrives on potty humour involving puking, passing winds and excrements, but has none of the wit. If anything, we must give Bohlen credit for being honest enough to admit that he's a "not a very nice person" (which is a kind description for a word beginning with "A" and ending with "hole").2 from 10 points should do.
enigma-e
Admittedly, I watched this piece with already VERY low expectations. Dieter Bohlen is a rather untalented composer parvenu whose lack of talent is only surpassed by the size of his ego.This was the first cartoon movie that I watched that was 100 per cent humor free. It is rude, offensive, redneck and blatantly anti- women. As such, it is a creation befitting Bohlen, but the average viewer will be rather put off by it. No wonder that it was never shown in a cinema theater: It would've bombed BIG time!Not even the expense of 6.5 MegaEuros were able to save this utter piece of crap. Save your time... and money!
Fabian Seitz
Dieter Bohlen, Germany's notorious composer and producer of slightly trashy pop hits like "You're my heart, you're my soul" felt the need to tell his story - and gracefully he decided to hire a ghost writer. The result was a funny book about his life. Well, more or less a fuzzy image of it. He didn't deny that he is a selfish asshole but the whole story was twisted to fit his image of himself. No word that he has probably beaten up his former wife and she ended up in hospital. However it was written in a funny style and a huge success after his appearance as jury member of the German version of "American Idol" - especially his unforgettable comments.This should be the end of the story - really. In the hype of the mentioned "Idol" TV show called "Deutschland sucht den Superstar" (abbreviated DSDS) somebody must have come up with the terrible idea to make a movie out of the book. The result is "Dieter - der Film"I have rarely seen a movie which tries so desperately to be funny and fails so completely. None of the gags really hits the point. Naddel's voice and style of talking was getting on my nerves right away although Verona's voice should have done that more. Obvious, childish, predictable and lengthy gags destroy any motivation to watch this movie to the end within a few minutes. The content of the movie is a sloppy film adaption written sloppily down by a ghost writer based on Bohlen's sloppy idealized memory. They could have used this freedom to do almost everything. It was supposed to be a satire, but they failed. The story is totally uninteresting and the fact that the background voice is Bohlen himself guarantees that the whole film has nothing satirical at all.It's no wonder that it was considered to bad for a cinema release. The probability that this thing would have rotten in some archive was quite high until recently when the current season of DSDS turned out to be a mediocre success. With the "friendly" help of Germany's biggest yellow press newspaper "BILD" and the desperate situation for the TV station RTL to have something in the program while the still unbeatable show "Wetten dass... ?" is running on Channel 2 the movie finally arrived in television - unfortunately.Watching this movie is a waste of time - there are certainly better cartoons with much more fun and a story actually worth looking at.Therefore: 2/10
