Maria si Mirabella in Tranzistoria

it is easy to criticize it. because it is dusty, too childish, strange for our time. but it remains seductive. for ballet, for old cartoon characters, for the easy moral, for the mark of Gopo and as last part of adventures of the girls. a film who use the TV only as excuse for a large, nice joke. not same charming beauty of the first part but a decent work, interesting for discover the manner to create the magic with poor tools in last years of Romanian Communism. an interesting film. not high ambitions but nice entertainment. and that detail is real important in that case. because the fake skin of script, dialogs and , maybe, acting, is not the axis of a travel in a slice from lovely childhood. so, a nice work. not the best. but seductive in a special manner and good occasion for the kids from yesterday to meet old emotions.

Not a very good sequel. The first movie was set in a beautiful magical forest and the second one is set in a weird electronic land of transistors and it looks as bad as it sounds. Maria and Mirabela are played by different girls this time and their acting is much more childish. The music, courtesy of Eugen Doga, is still beautiful though. And the animation is still nice. It might be worth watching for having a healthy laugh at Romanian escapism and for the good message of doing something good with your life instead of wasting time, but the plot is too childish and this movie doesn't bring up good nostalgia, like the first "Maria, Mirabela". But hey, little children might enjoy it ...

This film is a beautiful ending for Ion Popescu Gopo's film career. Childish, indeed, but charming SF-fairy tale about two little girls getting lost in a fabulous world inside a TV. I remember I saw this film in 1989, when I was 7. TV was important for me those days, because it was the source for thousands of daydreams, i.e. films and cartoons (all of which I saw on video cassettes). Gopo could foresee the impact that television would soon have on young people, so from this point of view, his movie is in a league with Spielberg's "Poltergeist", only a fairy-tale version instead of a horror. Gopo died later in 1989, but before the Revolution broke in December. He never saw Romania turning against oppression and fighting for real freedom, but maybe he didn't need that. He was free in the first place, because he was an artist.

Well, I summarize everything that made me view this "not childish", or rather, it is "not quite for children" film. Why? There are clearly elements of "adulthood" - TV, which show the transfer of 16+, some features of the behaviour of the characters, for example, the management of a motorcycle and a car, and, finally, the lyrics of songs. The last thing upset me the most: I did not hear the wonderful song "Maria, Mirabela...", which was the title theme in the first film. Well, okay, however, the songs in the second movie there is no shortage, they are, with some exceptions, quite tuneful and melodious, memorable, and I even liked the musical theme of the knitting grandmother, and the Kwaki's song and love the theme of Skipirich and Omide. I somehow thought that the Romanian language in something similar, oddly enough, with the Portuguese, slip some words common to both languages ("misteriosa" of the first song, "lagrima", from theme of love).

This, perhaps, is all that can be said positive about this project. I specifically use the word "project", because I personally do not consider this film as a full-fledged work, and certainly not a continuation of the story about the wonderful, magical and lovely sisters girls and their friends - animated animals. It seems that the creators just wanted, so to speak, to go to the popularity of the first film, but it did not go as expected, and the result was appropriate. The film can not be called childish because of the above features; adult topics are touched upon, and quite relevant, such as the society of people in a non-existent country of Tranzistoria, unsteady and ephemeral, but so frighteningly real and reminiscent of the notoriously known society of "common prosperity, common dream, universal consumption", which has developed in the Western part of our hemisphere and threatening to spread its deadening, oppressive and anti-human influence on the rest of the world. People in such a "state" are not human beings, but only shells: there is a body, but no mind, no thought, no living desire for anything. Especially sharply and ominously ran into memory words from the semi-dream, semi-song: "We accept all, Good and Evil, the only thing that matter is that we've always been lucky..." I don't know about you, but when I hear these words I just feel its threatening sense and presented void, as it reminds me the way of life, or rather, the way of existence, and, the most important, the way of thinking of the high part of people of countries from so called "Golden Billion". God Master forbid that all over the world people become like this, it would be too scary and disastrous for humanity and morality... This part of the film in a sense, I can say, was a definite success, for those viewers, of course, who, like me, can see its hide (and high) meaning.

About the main characters I will not say anything, because I can't decide whether I like them or not, rather something in between: like the same, even externally and in type similar to the original Maria and Mirabela, but the essence is still different, maybe just the depth is not enough. In this second film more attention than girls, was taken by animated creatures, Kwaki the Frog, Firefly Skipirich, and Butterfly Omide, which is not the same as in the original, especially Kwaki, maybe just because it is there another actor voiced. Here they are just animated pictures from the wall, and not quite real, although painted characters that is different from characters from the first story, which were clear and quite human. In general, the main characters turned out to be if not a complete parody, but rather a copy of their predecessors, and quite pale and not too convincing.

The same, in my opinion, the main thing is that the first film is still a fairy tale, rather childish, Yes, but clear, simple and comprehensible story that will be pleased to watch both children and adults, and better - parents with their children as good and sweet "bedtime story". The second film is not a fairy tale, not at all, for me, it's grotesque phantasmagoria, something theatrical, something intimate, quite heavy, dark (most of the time in the frame darkness reigns, and the bright colors quite noticeably hurt the eyes) and a little wafting the basic idea of the story. Although I cannot admit that the moral here is stated, despite the seemingly rather clumsy implementation. For myself, I decided so: to take this film as a continuation of the original fairy tale, it is not necessary to take it literally, because the characters here, though they have original names, but completely different in their traits of character, although there are similar features and characteristics. No, the point here is different: it is necessary to consider, even if it is a bit difficult that the two films belonging to different periods (the beginning and the end of 1980-ies) there is only one, but decisive and unifying whole: faith, boundless faith in the good and the creative in man - friendship, faith in yourself and your strength, love for your neighbours and family, hope for the best, mutual help not only to crush and overcome the evil Kingdom of Tranzistoria, but also to conquer their own fears, complexes, doubts, to grow a Person, not just a man in the street, a consumer who does not believe in anything, not want anything but his own well-being.

This film, though shot in the late 1980s, and was shown in the USSR already in 1990, in something much wiser and, I am not afraid of these words, deeper and more meaningful than those films and cartoons that followed and so are a continuous conveyor to the present time, leaving nothing in the children's souls, except emptiness, lack of spirituality and again, the spirit of consumerism. Here, in contrast to the first film, this topic is affected, alas, too (the Kwaki's song that he is a movie star, popular culture, etc.), but then it's not so clearly and prominently shown and there was no imposition of stereotypes that shines through in every second Hollywood cartoon/film, designed for a young audience. Let me be called whatever you want, I do not care, I am grateful to this film for the fact that I saw an excerpt from it in my childhood, 15 years, or rather 20 years ago (the song of Kwaki remembered and animated characters turned into people, too, the rest passed by, because of just a young age of mine, it seems), now I wanted to find the original and discovered the "wonderful-superwonderful" world of two pure souls and the heart of the girls-sisters - Maria and Mirabela and their little friends.

Based on the above, my assessment is 7 out of 10, that is quite adequately and generously, because I didn't have high expectations, and nowhere is there to overstate, but to understate the film's rating I would not have too, because it left in my Heart and my Soul some trace, more positive than negative, despite its many flaws.

The bright memory of the dearly departed is dedicated... PS: after all, so I'm sorry that the role of the Kwaki in both films, Anda Calugareanu (24.10.1946 - 15.08.1992), died after only 2-3 years after her most significant project in career, in 1992, at the age of only 45 years... What a pity, to tears and role of Maria, a beautiful and unforgettable Gilda Manolescu, it happened in the 2008/2009 - 34 or 35 years, I don't know exactly, but her life has been cut shortly, tragically and horribly, under circumstances that are not fully understood... Rest in peace, bright souls of good people, I wish you found peace and quiet on Heaven, since you have not received it in life. P. P. S.: and here the King, the ruler of Tranzistoria, his manners, and apparently, something vaguely reminded me David Bowie, the Goblin King Jareth from the film "Labyrinth".