What luck, Pumuckl is back

On Christmas Day, "Neue Geschichten vom Pumuckl" will have its free TV premiere on RTL. With a new Master Eder and artificial intelligence, but at the same time a goblin who also makes nostalgic hearts beat faster. A tightrope walk that is successful through and through.

Pumuckl has already come a really long way. And not just because, as a descendant of the Klabauter, he has certainly already sailed the seven seas. No, since his creator Ellis Kaut gave birth to him in the early 1960s, he has marched through almost every institution: Radio plays, books, records, cassettes and CDs, film, television, audio books, streaming and even a musical.

Pumuckl has already worn out three Meister Eder characters during this time. Originally voiced by Munich folk actor Franz Fröhlich in the first radio plays, opera singer Alfred Pongratz soon took over the task of voicing the master carpenter after his death. But even he did not outlive the goblin. So after his death in 1977, Gustl Bayrhammer finally took his place - and thus the actor that many people still have in mind when it comes to Master Eder. This is also because it was Bayrhammer who played the role when Pumuckl not only learned to speak on the big screen and on TV, but also to walk as a cartoon character.

Speaking of speaking: Only one person has been able to hold his own over all these years - in a way Pumuckl himself, but more precisely Hans Clarin, who from his very first radio breath put phrases such as "Pumuckl teases, Pumuckl hides, nobody what mecks" into the goblin's mouth. The actor's unmistakable voice merged with the red-haired pixie's appearance, created by illustrator Barbara von Johnson, to form a total work of art that soon seemed impossible to shake. Pumuckl with a voice other than that of Hans Clarin? Unthinkable!

The blessing of the AI

But even Clarin was ultimately not blessed with the seemingly eternal youth of a goblin. He died in 2005 at the age of 74 - twelve years after Bayrhammer. This was probably one of the main reasons why the success story of Meister Eder and his Pumuckl, which had already lasted over four decades, was abruptly brought to a halt. After Clarin's death, no new radio plays or even film and television formats featuring the two were produced. Until now: With "Neue Geschichten vom Pumuckl", RTL and RTL+ have taken the risk of finally bringing the haunting of the workshop back from the drawing board.

The fears and concerns surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) may be justified. In this case, however, the possibilities arising from the technology are a blessing. For example, cabaret artist Maxi Schafroth now voices Pumuckl. With the help of AI, however, his voice is distorted to such an extent that it comes pretty close to that of Hans Clarin. If you want, you can listen to Schafroth's unaltered dubbing, at least on RTL+, thanks to two-channel sound - but who wants that?

However, the fact that even the AI version cannot imitate Clarin down to the very last corner of his legendarily exalted Pumuckl intonation may reassure technology sceptics a little. On the other hand, this is perhaps the only mini-criticism that die-hard groupies of the leprechaun might have of "New Tales of Pumuckl". Because otherwise, there's no other way to put it, the series is one thing above all: brilliant. A big Klabauter word of honor!

Goblin charm meets beer bliss

This is primarily due to the fact that the makers around director Marcus H. Rosenmüller have shown exactly the right sense of proportion in adapting Pumuckl to modern times without robbing him of his soul with too much consideration for apparent political correctness. The new Master Eder may no longer go cigarette shopping, but Pumuckl can still sip a pint of beer in the year 2023. The master carpenter's social circle may no longer be made up of all Seppelhut Bavarians, but that doesn't make it any less quirky. The workshop is still located in a Munich backyard, which seems to have fallen out of time, but could well exist as it does today - only the time for geraniums in front of the window is definitely over!

The basic recipe of combining anarchic goblin charm and Bavarian beer bliss has not been changed. A recipe that is largely responsible for the fact that Pumuckl still has star qualities more than 60 years after his first glue pot mishap, as it catches on with children and adults alike. And because - despite all the pedagogy that sometimes resonates when Pumuckl has learned his lesson - it never comes across as pointing the finger.

Rosenmüller and co. also didn't make the mistake of trying to somehow reanimate the old Eder with a new cast, which could only have failed in comparison with Bayrhammer anyway. Instead, they came up with the ingenious trick of sending Eder's nephew Florian, played by Florian Brückner, to the stage. The result is a gentle new beginning and generational change. His surname alone allows the nephew to become "Meister Eder", but without letting him imitate the good-natured and grumpy loner that his uncle once was. Instead, as a slightly spoiled but equally likeable millennial, he brings his own personal, sometimes no less bizarre idiosyncrasies with him.

Pumuckl and the "Sterbseln"

As clever as it is not to dwell on the past with the character of Eder, it is just as clever to do the same with the visual language of the series. Pumuckl is not pimped up with all the means of animation art, but comes across exactly as the cartoon character that the audience has come to love and appreciate him as. Not only does this give the whole thing just the right nostalgia factor, but also the appearance of Ilse Neubauer as janitor Stürzlinger alongside new actresses and actors such as Katharina Thalbach, Milan Peschel and Eko Fresh. Neubauer is one of the few cast members of the original series from the 80s who is still alive.

The third episode of "Neue Geschichten vom Pumuckl" is also about death - the death of old master Eders, which Pumuckl naturally doesn't really want to understand. After all, "dying" doesn't seem to affect his guild. "There has to be an end to death at some point", he grumbles, while at the cemetery he would love to dig up his former foster father immediately. This is as touching as it is hilarious and illustrates the warmth with which the series has been realized.

"Hurray, hurray, the goblin with the red hair, hurray, hurray, Pumuckl is here", is the familiar refrain at the beginning of every episode of "New Stories from Pumuckl". You could also say: "What luck, Pumuckl is back." Oh, that rhymes. And what rhymes is good.

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The new version of "Neue Geschichten vom Pumuckl" will air on RTL TV on Christmas Day, using artificial intelligence to Distort Maxi Schafroth's voice to resemble Hans Clarin's, creating a connection to the original television series.

Even with the technological advancements, some Pumuckl fans might miss the distinct inflections in Hans Clarin's legendary Pumuckl intonation, but overall, the new television series continues to captivate audiences with its unique blend of goblin charm and Bavarian beer bliss.

Source: www.ntv.de