Heidi: Rescue Of The Lynx

Bluesky

Sweet natured but free-spirited and always full of energy, Heidi has been a children’s favourite ever since she first emerged in literary form in 1880. She has appeared on the big screen numerous times over the years, in films of wildly varying quality. Toby Schwarz and Aizea Roca Berridi’s Heidi: Rescue of The Lynx is one of the better ones.

This is a new story, drawing on the themes that mattered to author Johanna Spyri and updating them to take present day concerns into account. It’s full of details from the original books, even down to the presentation of the characters – which means that Heidi, as she’sc eight in this story, has short, dark hair, not the blond pigtails she tends to be associated with. She lives high up in an alpine meadow with her grandfather and his large St Bernard dog, Joseph, who also plays something of a parental role, looking out for her on various escapades. Her best friend is Peter, who will later become a goatherd but at this point has just one goat, only a few weeks old, who is more than enough for him to handle.

Spyri was sometimes criticised for going over the top in her depiction of Alpine idyll, and Schwarz and Berridi have followed suit. We open among mist-shrouded peaks. As a lynx leads her three babies across stony ground – the last, slightly rubbish one falling over a lot of struggling to keep up – we see somebody blowing on an alpine horn. Later, in the market square in the local village, a woman will play on what looks like a hackbrett and men in lederhosen will dance around, slapping their thighs. Assorted cute animals inhabit the woods, from bright blue birds straight out of Snow White to, mysteriously, what appear to be chipmunks (despite the only kind found in Switzerland being both a rarity and an invasive, habitat-damaging species).

Our young feline hero finds himself in trouble when his mother goes sniffing around a henhouse, away from her usual territory. Sliding down a rock and getting lost, he – the aforementioned rubbish baby, of course – is subsequently rescued from a trap by Heidi, who names him Pepper and nurses him back to health. There’s more going on here than just a kid plus cute animal tale or a lesson about the need for wild animals to be returned to their home, however. For a film aimed at young children (most kids prefer to identify with characters a couple of years older than themselves), this is tightly and cleverly plotted.

There is, of course, a villain. We first meet him as he attempts to drive his flashy steam-powered car along a road, unhappy that it’s packed with children and goats. He’s visiting the area in the hope of bribing locals into giving him permission to build a sawmill. Heidi doesn’t really know what that is, but her grandfather is against it, and in the course of what follows she will come to appreciate why. She’s more worried about the antagonism that the stranger shows towards lynxes, and the ease with which he manipulates any negative sentiment among the villagers to increse the odds of him getting his way.

This complex story also finds room for a subplot about Heidi’s friend Klara, whose use of a wheelchair has curiously been erased, though she still looks rather drawn and ill. There are adventures on the higher mountain slopes, with a cautionary episode involving a storm, and strong environmentalist themes. Heidi (not illiterate in this version) recites lynx facts from a book, so young viewers can feel like they’re learning something exciting and new, but the real lessons run deeper.

The 3D animation embodies the characters well, and the landscapes are richly atmospheric, from sunny meadows to dark caves and wild, unfamiliar forest. It’s a little bit twee, of course, but the performances feel very immediate and real. Children will easily find themselves swept up emotionally. In places that’s scary, but there’s always too much happening for them to have time to get really upset, and as adults will enjoy this too – if they let themselves – they should be able to persuade parents to stick around and reassure them. With those sweeping Alpine vistas and lots of action, it’s ideally a film you’ll want to watch on a big screen.

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