Pipo de clown en de piraten van toen

Pipo de Clown had been entertaining children on television since 1958, expanding from five minute daily episodes to multi-part stories by the early seventies. At first these were filmed on cheap studio sets, but for "Pipo en de Piraten van Toen" they traveled to Aruba for a great deal of the shoot. To get back some of the money, the five part series was given a theatrical release in 1975 (and of course a long playing record with story and songs). Pipo and his loving wife Mammaloe traveled around Holland with their small circus, consisting of themselves, the funny but politically incorrect 'American Indian' Klukkluk, and Pipo's younger sister Plom (played by Janine van Wely, originally hired to play a younger version of Mammaloe in 1971). One night Plom's ventriloquist doll Judy is stolen by a big burly sailor man. Plom is really upset, for the doll is the straight man in her act. Mammaloe has a feeling Pipo is about to have another adventure and guess what? She's right.

Pipo, Plom and comic relief Klukkluk stow away on board the Bluto like sailor's ship and are horrified to find they have stumbled upon the worlds last remaining (yeah right) pirates. Lucky for them the pirates are unbelievably dim, sporting names liked Uddebuh and Addabah. In fact, Captain Labbedoe wants to give Plom's doll to his beloved wife Labbedonia because it looks exactly like their missing son, Tako. The big lug can't even figure out why the doll has stopped speaking. When they finally arrive on the island of Toen, they inexplicably find Mamaloe already there, while Labbedoe and Labbedonia perform their own version of "When I''m calling you".

The clowns decide the only way to get Judy back is to find Tako (can't have children's entertainment without a mystery or quest to solve) and travel to Hoek Windvang, the only place on the island even the pirates fear to thread. There they bump into Professor Loslip Madoemapie, who is trying to decipher ancient Indian signs (it's supposed to be haunted by Indian spirits). Strangely enough nobody thinks of asking Klukkluk's help, who seems to have disappeared completely at this point. Before the end they encounter a good willed, yet still potentially dangerous witch, and force the pirate king to repent his wicked ways. Another two Pipo adventures followed: "Pipo en de Noorderzon" in 1978 and "Pipo in West Best" in 1980, before VARA Television finally pulled the plug on Pipo. Recently there have been several attempts to revive the series, but the new Pipo's uncanny impressing of original actor Cor Witschge only serves to remind viewers of the good old days.

8 out of 10