This German-Austrian animation aimed at younger children borrows from vaguely familiar sources
Based on a well-known German book for children from 1915, this derivative but adequate animated feature fuses together an assortment of vaguely familiar characters and story tropes. The clever bit is that the film takes ideas from folklore and appears to be inspired by pre-existing intellectual property without infringing it.
For instance, one of the characters that early-adolescent protagonist Pete (voiced by Aleks Le) meets on his way to the moon, where his sister has been taken prisoner, is the Sandman, a traditional figure in northern European mythology and popularised by ETA Hoffmann in the early 19th century. Later on, our heroes get to ride the backs of giant polar bears, remarkably similar to the ones in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials book series. Meanwhile, the humans’ guides also include beetles wistfully looking for abducted loved ones that seem to be mutant descendants of Disney’s Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio and the creepy crawlies from A Bug’s Life.