A dinosaur, but not from Jurassic Park

The little dragon Tabaluga lives with his best friends in idyllic Greenland. He has however one big problem: Tabaluga just cannot manage to ignite his fire. Without it he does not feel like a real dragon. On his way to Iceland, in search of fire, he meets more friends … and a beautiful Ice Princess named Lilli. Through her, Tabaluga discovers a new power, that will enable him to ignite his fire. Thanks to Lilli he also gains the strength to face the evil snowman Arktos.

Read the interesting interview with a team of Tabaluga´s filmmakers.

You can see the movie 31.05 | 08:40 | GOLDEN APPLE CINEMA 3, more details can be found here.

Little green dragon Tabaluga is a character from a fairy-tale, created by musician Peter Maffay in 1983. Tabaluga is seven years old (a dragon year equates to 100 human years). His universe has steadily expanded ever since (there were albums, concert tours, musicals, a cartoon series, and a planetarium show) and in parallel, the community of fans stretches now over three generations.

Peter Maffay: "A dream has come true at last – Tabaluga’s story is coming to the big screen. The idea was always there that Tabaluga would one day get his own movie. It is the cherry on the cake of our Tabaluga universe, which has now existed for 35 years. We wanted to take our time with a screen adaption. We knew it would be complicated to get such a momentous production off the ground."

Director Sven Unterwaldt: "I have a great respect for the task entrusted to me. Peter Maffay started in the 70´s as a pop singer, then made the great transition to a rock star and then suddenly surprised us all with Tabaluga, a tale for children. I found it great, the way he was always reinventing himself, but at the same time, staying authentic."

Usually you’re a director of life action cinema.

Sven Unterwaldt: "But I always dreamed of making an animation film. This technology offers so many new possibilities. With life action films, many of the parameters are set in advance: the set, the actors, the props, the costumes. As director I provide the team with a vision, but often I can only react to what others are offering me. In contrast, with an animation film, everything must be created from the ground up – from the smallest blink of a character, to the expansive scenery."

You had to wander around in a universe that already existed: Tabaluga’s world.

Sven Unterwaldt: "That was a blessing and a curse at the same time. A blessing because one is able to fall back in the characters that have been developed over decades. A curse because this huge history has to be concentrated into 90 minutes of film, without disappointing fans or overwhelming the new viewers. However, a film requires a dramatic composition, a story that works over three acts."

And a few songs!

Solveig Fina: "We absolutely wanted to incorporate the most beloved Tabaluga songs into the film. Normally one first writes the script, and only then the songs. In our case this was reversed."

How exactly did you work with the animation?

Sven Unterwaldt: "Illustrators translated the script, scene for scene, into pencil sketches. The result was an animatic, a type of flip book in which individual black and white pictures come to life, like a comic. In the next step the animated storyboard was transformed into a three dimensional world. It’s a very technical process."

What were for you the most important elements to focus on in the animation?

Sven Unterwaldt: "The actual animation took place at two international studios, in Toronto (Canada) and Dalian (China). We agreed on a vivid and authentic look, but still true to the original children’s book illustrations. Our goal was not superrealism, we did not want our little dragon to look like a dinosaur from JURASSIC PARK. TABALUGA takes place in a fairy-tale world. I worked with the animators in a very similar way as I would work with actors, giving them impetuses as to how Tabaluga and Lilli would move."

Solveig Fina: "In order to make sure that each one of Tabaluga´s green scales, every silver strand of Princess Lilli´s hair, every white bristle on the coat of Limbo the Polar Bear, would be visible on screen, a lot of preparation was needed. We took a long time over the surface areas of the characters."

And what about the dialogues?

Helga Sasse: "In order to achieve optimal lip synchronisation, the animators created two different versions of all scenes, in which the characters sing: one for the German and one for the English version. When animated characters sing, the movements of their lips are more noticeable to viewers than when they speak, and the lip movements really need to match the rhythms of the songs."

Tabaluga is a well-known concept that you had to handle with care.

Peter Maffay: "Tabaluga is our baby, which is why we did not want to just hand him over, but rather to look after him. I interfere in everything. A process like this also has its conflict points, but in the end we all came together to reach our goal."

Helga Sasse: "Every stage of the production took place in close consultation with Peter. He was a tough negotiating partner, who however contributed many important impulses to the creative process. He knows what every character thinks, how they feel and act. It would not have been in our interest to produce a film which did not have his 100% support."

Solveig Fina: "I grew up with Tabaluga. I was fascinated by the timeless tales of this universe: friendship and love, overcoming evil. Arktos, the totalitarian ruler, reigns through fear and spreading lies. However in the end the good triumphs over his populism and abuse of power. Subconsciously the current setting has also influenced the film."

How do you, as the original inventor of Tabaluga, feel about the result?

Peter Maffay: "The film is fast moving, funny and full of emotion. The audience will roar with laughter, and then in other moments wipe away a tear. This film spreads the values which we have incorporated into our stories right from the start. It was always our aim to tell stories which had a fable-like quality, and contained a message: that empathy, playfulness, inquisitiveness should not be brushed aside, and that we should try to put our prejudices aside when speaking and interacting with each other."

Based on information from the producer’s press files