"Capt'n Sharky" or "Käpt'n Sharky" is a German German-language animated film from 2018. It is not a long watch by any means at slightly over 70 minutes and I will spare you the names of the two directors and two writers because you can check these out yourself. But a bit unusual to see two people in each department and there is no overlapse. Basically you can say that most of those in charge here also worked in the past together and came up with films like Ritter Rost and Der kleine Drache Kokosnuss. These are also films that are rather for pretty young audiences I'd say, even if for some reason Ritter Rost made it on the shortlist of films to represent Germany at the Oscars for the Foreign Language category. But let us not drift away. This film here is about pirates, but never really scary pirates like some of the ones you find in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. More like an animated kids-friendly version of Yellowbeard. The protagonist is Sharky, a boy who wants to be a pirate and in order to achieve this dream he recruits a gang of misfits to support him. This includes one other boy who is far too scared to really succeed at sea, a girl (I will say more about her later) and a whole bunch of talking animals, such as rats. The rat for example,, however, is not what you may associate with the name metaphorically, but really a loyal helper. Sharky's initial picks who he would want as his crew were a gang of rough grown-up pirates though, but they have no interest in spending / wasting their time with a kid until there is something at stake they also want to have. But even then, they aren't loyal at all, just pretending. So these are somewhat the main antagonists and part of the story is also how Sharky manages to see them for what they really are. To go from admiration to despisement.

I must say I did not like Sharky too much though and that also had to do with his voice and as he is the one at the center of it all, this is a negative dealbreaker. He is voiced by Anton petzold that maybe some German film buffs know from the Rico, Oskar films because he plays the title character Rico. And that certainly makes him one of the most famous cast members here too. Most of the others don't have any notable big screen releases in their bodies of work, especially not when it comes to playing main characters. The one big exception here is Axel Prahl that almost everybody here in Germany knows from Tatort, even if he has acted in many many other (notable) films. I must admit I did not recognize his voice. I guess that speaks for him. He is the one who lends his voice to Alter/Old Bill, the leader of the crooks. Another character I have not mentioned at all is the admiral and he is is the female protagonist's father. He may not have awful things on his mind like the pirates do when it comes to how to deal with the kids, but still he is an antagonist because he represents the film's anti-fun component and just chains the kids to the ship to make sure they don't do anything out of the ordinary. Also he is absolutely not amused by his daughter wanting to be a pirate and go to sea. But still she manages and goes on a memorable adventure. Well, memorable if you experience it yourself, for the audience not so much. She was still my favorite character. Had she been at the center of the movie, then maybe I'd have given it a thumbs-up overall really. The way it actually turned out I can't do that. It's not a horrible film really, but I felt this is one that is really just for the small ones. This is also shown by the fact that there is no romance indicated between the girl and boy (they may still be too small for that) and the only somewhat dangerous situation is when the ship is about to blow up, which of course does not happen. Nobody shall be scared or seduced watching this. Animation is fine though, even if it is a bit obvious this was not a big budget production. But it's alright. Character writing and the overall plot and also missing attention to detail story-wise are the bigger issues. I don't know if they plan on making a sequel at some point, which is clearly possible as this film is not even close to being 2 years old and they did for both Ritter Rost and Drache Kokosnuss, but if they do I guess I have not too much interest in checking it out. At least not right away.

The movie is beautiful! I recommend anyone who likes animation movies. I hope you make sequels to this incredible movie. Recommended 10/10