Emil & Ida i Lönneberga (That Boy Emil)

Director: Per Åhlin, Alicja Jaworski Björk, Lasse Persson

Sweden 2013, 63Min, Swedish, age recommendation: 5 years and up

‘E-e-emil!’ shouts father across the small farm in Katthult, his toe caught horribly painfully in a rat trap, his hands full of sticky flypaper and his hair full of dough. Here we go again: the boy is up to his old tricks and will have to be banished to the woodshed. Except that Emil doesn’t see this as punishment – on the contrary: he locks the door from inside so that he can continue undisturbed to carve another of his wooden figures, of which he has a whole collection. His little sister Ida also wants to sit inside the shed, but she’s too well-behaved. And it’s not that easy to get up to Emil’s kind of mischief. All this bright boy really wants to do is solve problems – something he goes about with his own refreshing logic. This new adaptation of Astrid Lindgren’s beloved tales from her book ‘Emil of Lönneberga’ portrays the sunny side of life in the country at the beginning of the twentieth century. Based on the book’s original illustrations, this animated version also features Lindgren’s own narration. Eventually Ida manages to get on equal footing with her brother by smashing a load of eggs. All at once the cries of ‘E-e-emil!’ can be heard reverberating around the farm.