V8 - You want to be the best

For David (Georg A. Sulzer) there is only one dream: he wants to become a racing driver. But a real racing driver needs a real vehicle and that costs money. Money that David wants to earn during the summer holidays with various side jobs. The fact that he also has to look after his annoying sister Luca (Maya Lauterbach) doesn't exactly make this undertaking any easier. But just when he doesn't quite believe his dream will come true, he and Luca come into possession of a mysterious coin emblazoned with the castle's logo. This legendary place is the destination to which only the winner of a legendary and top-secret racing circus will reach. Only selected children are allowed to take part, adults are strictly forbidden to enter the castle. With the help of the wealthy and somewhat snooty Robin (Samuel Jakob) and the tough Kiki Lilou (Klara Merkel), both of whom have also received a coin, the siblings plan to face their first challenge on the way to the castle: a race against the nasty Barakudas. But they seem to be superior in every way to the newcomers, who have christened themselves V8.

Holy camshaft, what a cramp! I am aware that V8 - You want to be the best is not made for adult cinema lovers like me, but for kids. And surely some kids find the racing scenes just as cool as the rather flat gags or the outfits of the barracudas, which to the adult eye just seem ridiculous. Also, the fact that, like in Wilden Kerlen, adult authorities play only a very subordinate role and the kids live in their very own world according to their very own rules could generate a lot of enthusiasm among the young target audience. But does that necessarily make V8 - You want to be the best a good children's film? The answer is a very clear: No!

The story itself is not very original, but it offers similar to the terrible sayings of the kids just a gruesome recycling of all the negative aspects from the Wild Guys movies. If director and screenwriter Joachim Masannek had already revealed some very questionable views there, he continues this pedagogically not exactly valuable way in V8 - Du willst der Beste sein. If his very simplistic drawing of good and evil can just be forgiven, since this is often not differentiated even in respected fairy tales, aspects such as a latent sexism (which here, however, is not quite as bad as in The Wild Bunch 4) are not exactly worthy of a FSK 0 release.

On the child actors can be criticized at this point nothing. They do their thing well throughout and exude an obvious joy in racing and dressing up, which I'm sure some young viewers will be infected by. However, even if some talent is evident in the children in front of the camera, this is of little help if this is then in turn lacking in the script and direction. There are so many quite wonderful children's films that don't just spasmodically aim to be cool. Films that manage to tell beautiful stories without insulting intelligence. V8 - You want to be the best is definitely not one of these films.

Who doesn't care what the kids watch, the main thing is that they have fun, can confidently send his little ones to this machination. But if you want to make sure that your kids get something worthwhile and worthwhile in addition to fun, you should choose one of the numerous other and much better children's films that are currently flickering across the screens. You want to be the best? Probably not!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp