Steeling myself and preparing for the worst, I pop another Pippi Longstocking DVD into the player…
But saints be praised, this one isn’t merely bearable, it’s good, and it has a plot! With conflict! The first Pippi Longstocking film in the series, Pippi Longstocking, could get along without a plot, since it was an introduction (and a slice-of-life). The second, Pippi Goes on Board (or maybe this is the second – it’s confused) had no excuse, though. It was more random than an episode of “Family Guy.” It’s basically the worst thing you’d picture when told of a Swedish public television kid’s show reedited and dubbed for U.S. theatrical distribution. But Pippi in the South Seas, it takes the promise in Astrid Lindgrin’s original Pippi Longstocking and does something with it. This entry is so much more disciplined, narratively, I’m shocked it’s by the same people.
Also, it has pirates.
On top of having a plot (and villains), Pippi in the South Seas is notable for one other thing – emotional resonance. It wholly focuses on the relationship between Pippi Longstocking (Inger Nilsson) and her Papa, Captain Efraim Longstocking (Beppe Wolgers, noted Swedish translator) – a relationship which was entirely missing from Pippi Goes on Board, yet another of its detriments. And in this endlessly feather-light children’s franchise, Pippi and Papa ground things more thoroughly than any halfhearted realism or the “audience surrogate” Settergren siblings.
Things seem at first to be following the standard Pippi rule of randomness, with Pippi floating around in a bed hoisted by her hot air balloon, as Tommy and Annika (Pär Sundberg and Maria Persson) come over to visit, their parents on vacation. But let us not fret, for Pippi is already well underway detailing her family’s piratical pastimes, with talk of a treasure she herself helped bury, once belonging to her grandfather, the dread Pirate Unspellable. Then her bed falls apart.
Pippi promptly finds a message in a bottle, and our story is off! Papa Efraim, as flashbacks reveal, has been kidnapped by evil pirates (unlike his fun-loving self), and is being held in a tall tower until they can extricate info on his buried treasure. Well, no hour and a half of disconnected scenes for this flick, for it’s off to the rescue!
Yup, this is an adventure story, told from a child’s point of view. That means many good things: It takes place in whole new settings, suggesting a rather substantial budget for this government-funded work of Swedish TV. The budget’s clearly not too huge, as evidenced by the cheap and makeshift special effects on display, but that’s part of the charm. It evinces the sort of consistent (yet clearly artificial) fantasy universe I’d hazard inspired the Gene Wilder Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (that is, if that 1971 film had access to the original Swedish TV show, since the actual film wasn’t put out until 1974, apparently). This is another one of South Seas’ triumphs: its magical realism. This was already present in previous Pippis, but removed from Pippi’s tiresome hometown, it seems more apropos, more imaginative, and far, far less crammed full of stifling whimsy. And being away from that hometown is doubly good, since it means most of the series’ regular adults are not to be seen.
There’s something else marvelous about the adventure story framework: Tommy and Annika have no choice now but to cease being ciphers. No longer are they simply anthropomorphized reaction shots; now they have individual personalities. Like in any good three man band, we have Pippi the leader, Tommy the stupid but gung-ho lackey, and Annika the realist who is always getting shot down. That makes her far more interesting than Annika the depressive and angst-ridden Swede.
So off these three children sail, on their balloon-hoisted bed, ready to make the 2,000 mile trek to the South Seas. Logic is not an issue here, in that perfect way of childhood, ‘cause we cannot let it taint the fantasy. Of course, that a bottled message would unerringly reach Pippi in the first place…
(There’s a possibility this whole story is merely make believe, but raising such questions is to disbelieve and misinterpret the childlike intent of the tale.)
Soon enough Pippi’s balloon has run out of air and deposited them on some mountaintop. This is but a minor setback for three imaginative and enterprising youths, for while an adult may see the nearby junkyard wasteland as an isolated hell, Pippi sees it as an opportunity. An opportunity to fashion a rickety steampunk airplane out of boxes, driven by a bicycle pedal. Soon they’re back on their way, flying through the air!
And flying through a volcano!
Meanwhile, Papa is pondering his imprisonment and pirate parrot persecution. We’ll be joining him whenever the movie needs a narrative cutaway. The two villainous pirate captains, Jocke med Kniven (Martin Ljung) and Blod-Svente (Jarl Borssén), continuously trouble Papa about the treasure, to little effect. As villains in a Pippi Longstocking movie, they are none too effective, but unlike the crooks we’ve seen before, they’re at least somewhat of a threat. Considering the past narratives, it’s amazing these filmmakers were comfortable with clear cut bad guys.
But to undercut their threat somewhat, we instantly see the Pirate Captains (What, you think I’m bothering to write out their insane Swedish names each time?) training for defense, all in preparation for than inevitable scourge, Pippi Longstocking (shudder!).
That scourge, meanwhile, has drifted her less-than-sound aircraft onto an isolated island paradise – with lions. Such wildlife shall offer little threat to our prepubescent heroes, as the cats are represented primarily in the form of culled nature doc footage. And while we get several minutes of Pippi’s gang existing in pure “Gilligan” mode, it never feels like an intrusive non sequitur, as in the past films – because the narrative structure of such an adventure tale allows for picaresque episodes. As long as the characters persist, the plot needn’t be airtight.
And just when we’re pondering how they’re gonna get off that island (Pippi has a raft-building book, and is openly considering the Jack Sparrow method), a pirate ship appears in the cove – ah, The Curse of the Black Pearl, I see where you’ve been stealing from! This crazy new set of pirate-neutrals, led by the fearless One-Eyed Oscar (Alfred Schieske), makes berth just as – Pippi et al steal away in their ship. Pippi’s spurious logic, moral relativist that she is, justifies that these random pirates as least have their rowboats. Just as in the equally plagiaristic Muppet Treasure Island, expect this one-off gag to become an extended callback.
The children sail into the sunset, as the movie wholly embraces the childhood fantasy of pirates divorced from their historical realities – not a complaint. It turns out, against all reason, that this film is something of a musical. Okay, sure, we’ve had that “Pippi Longstocking Theme” bellowed at us incessantly for all three pictures so far, usually sung by Pippi herself in full self-narrator mode. Oh, and she (or her redubbed voice) even sings it LOUD, in a way that neither my television’s speaker system nor my ears are happy with.
(“I am Pippi Longstocking. / When you say it fast, it’s funny. / Pippi Pippi Longstocking. / Don’t you love to hear my name?”).
Still, this movie feels the need to add in occasional new songs. What is with this compulsion for children’s films to make pirate movies into musicals?! Hilariously, the dub’s translators don’t seem equipped to respond to this problem; they do rephrase the first few new songs, but after about halfway, we start hearing everything in Swedish. Ah, laziness. I can relate.
Halfway through, and Pippi has reached the port town where her Papa is kept (by unerring inner compass, combined with childlike fantasta-logic). Considering how terrified the Pirate Captains are of Pippi Longstocking (a name which sends a chill up the heartiest spine), I expect the rescue section shan’t take too long. Then it’ll be a Third Act to recover the buried treasure, right?...Right?
In what I’d call South Seas’ greatest misjudgment, the remaining majority of the film shall concern Papa’s rescue, leaving a mere 10 minutes at the end for treasure hunting. It’s the same plot I’d expect, really, but it seems somewhat disproportioned. This means the latter half drags, but then again, I’ve been spoiled with my 62 minute Charlie Chan movies, which would just be ending around now.
Of course, it’s always possible to fill up a nearly interminable amount of minutes with time-honored pirate clichés. One of those clichés, available on a budget, is the pirate tavern. This is where Pippi goes next, seeking info on Papa’s whereabouts. The many, many grown men skip about unerringly, singing a chantey full of the vague “Yo hos” the translators replaced Swedish lyrics with. Then, in regular dialogue, one pirate says something so incomprehensible, it too is left in the original Swedish. And you know, the original movie’s good enough, I could care less how awful the translation is – it’s like Drunken Master!
The Pirate Captains arrive, they of the greatest Pippi-terror known to mankind. Still, somehow they do not recognize this freckled redhead girl with the sideways ponytails – Who else could it be?! And just like when you act scared in front of a pit-bull, their sudden horror when Pippi reveals herself (through song) prompts her to torment all the adult men with a deadly long-sword. Non-graphically, of course, and non-fatally.
Despite her clear mastery over the baddie brigade en masse, Pippi is soon on the run, as it were, in a foot chase filled with wonderful cartoon logic. And still, in all the danger, the three children skip! It’s their main mode of locomotion, an odd and distancing form of glee that’s best left behind in the other Pippi pics.
In all this chaos, Pippi has learned where Papa is – the prison cells (NO! – sarcasm). Thus they break into the central fort, accomplished all Trojan-like within three separate cannons. Then the Pirate Captains consider testing said cannons in anticipation for the final deadly standoff. Thus Pippi & Co. sneak out and hide in a nearby well, taking a hint from the Disneyland ride.
Night falls, and scores of lazy, terrified Scandinavian South Seas pirates sing a song as they fall into sleep. I cannot decipher the lyrics, as it’s in Swedish, but given my familiarity with this nation’s cinema, it most reminds me of the flagellants in Seventh Seal. That’s happy Swedish kid’s entertainment for ya! And as they sleep, the children creep over their prone, grog-deadened Swedish husks, like Woody and the Cheetos in Toy Story 2.
Ultimately Pippi is able to sneak her way into Papa’s tall tower, for the heartfelt reunion. You’d think, considering the story’s internal logic, that she could easily best the Pirate Captains when they then arrive to check in on Papa, and the escape will be affected! You don’t think like Pippi, then. She hides, which is as nonsensical as if Superman did it (she even has Superman’s icy breath, as of this entry, to compliment her superstrength). That rescue shall have to wait for a while, since Papa has an even more important task for Pippi to fulfill first. He’s hungry, and he wants Pippi to sneak him food in his cell. (Papa’s fat, you see.)
When the Pirate Captains discover Papa’s secret food, and learn of their Pippi infestation, they proceed to move him from the tallest tower to the deepest dungeon. Oh, my dear pirate friends, you’ve played right into Pippi’s devious trap!
Or so I think. Here are Pippi, Tommy and Annika loitering funkily upon the beach, tossing rocks. Careful, guys, you’re edging into directionless Pippi Goes on Board territory here! But the gods of plot momentum respond, in the form of another bottled Papa message – Man, those things are more efficient than texting! So now that Pippi knows Papa’s in the dungeon, she shall finally go and freaking rescue him the only way you can in movie climaxes – with explosives!
Making a long and ridiculous story short, now that Pippi’s set her mind to it, Papa’s rescue is as easy as Swedish meatballs. Pausing briefly so that Pippi can go all Donkey Kong and hurl barrels at pirates, she, Papa, and those two somewhat useless other children can all sail off in One-Eyed Oscar’s pilfered pirate vessel.
Now they’re off to retrieve the buried treasure, but so are the Pirate Captains. See, in their final moments of pre-Pippi peace, those masterminds were at long last able to torture the info out of Papa’s corpulent gourd – he’s ticklish, it turns out. So now it’s a race to buried treasure, with…nothing in particular hanging in the balance. Except the good guys deserve the treasure more, apparently, by dint of their being the good guys.
The treasure, by the way, is on another desert island, inside this really interesting multi-colored drug cave which we really should’ve spent more time in.
As Pippi and her two loyal droogs divvy up the loot on the beach, the notorious Pirate Captains near in their ship, actually equating themselves with chickenhawks…Oh – oh my dear. That’s…something the translators ought to have altered (I’d bet it means different things in Sweden).
There is a final conflict concerning possession of the treasure, involving a few more parties than I have the energy to explain right now. Suffice it to say, this is the moment where One-Eye Oscar makes his grand reentry, and a bunch of maroons are there too. It all pans out, of course, with Pippi in possession of the gold, and the baddies now marooned on the island with its unspellable Scandinavian name. Pippi’s left them with her raft-building book, though, and here the translators do manage to work in a good gag of their own: the book’s title is in Swedish, and our English-speaking villains cannot speak Swedish. That’s comeuppance for ya, combined with a funky interpretation of the translation convention!
As the film ends, Pippi and Papa resolve to go their separate ways (again), Pippi to return to her home at Villa Villekulla, everything back to normal. It’s originally a TV show, remember, so there’s decent justification for the snapback.
So, what are my main complaints? It drags a little, and the sound mix on the DVD is overwhelming. That’s not much of a problem, considering Pippi in the South Seas does everything I thought this series should do. A child of a sufficiently low-tech mindset (that is, one who doesn’t need farting CGI Chihuahuas to be happy) could appreciate this, though I’d say it’s a bit outside of my target demographic. Still, on an intellectual level I can see the film’s value – sadly, I lack true nostalgia for this series. And with Astrid Lindgren writing, I’d wager most of the success here not having to do with the production design or Inger Nilsson has to do with her original novel. And that’s a classic of children’s literature – so I’m told.
Related posts:
• No. 1 Pippi Longstocking (1969)
• No. 2 Pippi Goes on Board (1969)
• No. 4 Pippi on the Run (1970)
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