Urbanus: De Vuilnisheld

"Urbanus: de Vuilnisheld" is a good but far from great animated movie. To fully understand the reasoning behind my relatively high rating, you really need to be from Flanders; - the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. The score represents more than a rating for this film alone, it's an ode to Flanders' most iconic comedians and his delightfully vulgar comic book series where I grew up with. In the early 80s, comedian Urbanus (real name: Urbain Servranckx), together sketch artist Willy Linthout, created a comic book series based on a caricature of himself. In sheer contrast to all the other politically correct comics in my home country, the Urbanus comics are at least what comics should be: crude, dumb, offensive, extravagant, sexist and utterly immoral! As we speak, the series almost reached 200 stories, and it's the only series that still offers as much juvenile amusement as the first ones.

"De Vuilnisheld" - roughly translated as "The Trash Hero" - plays like a typical Urbanus comic adventure. It's almost praiseworthy the makers didn't make any efforts to do anything particularly special. In our anti-hero's hometown of Tollembeek (a farmer's village full of idiots and alcoholics), the local con artist Jeff Potato has a plan to become filthy rich at the expense of others. He arranges for all the trash of the nation to be dumped in Tollembeek, while he keeps his neighbors quiet by offering them free beer. Meanwhile, horny teenager Urbanis is preoccupied with collecting enough money to buy a ring for his crush, the sexy schoolteacher Miss Pussy.

Don't expect too much, and you'll be well-entertained. It's just a lot of childish gags about boobs, feces, more boobs and more feces. Many acclaimed - in Flanders, that is - actors and actresses lend their voices to the colorful inhabitants of Tollembeek, and it's an extra fun aspect to spot and recognize them.