After the four “Bibi & Tina” screen adventures with Lina Larissa Strahl and Lisa-Marie Koroll proved to be reliable million-dollar hits, even the cinema spin-off of the “Bibi & Tina” Amazon series, which was canceled after one season, was able to attract more than 700,000 visitors to the local cinemas in 2022. In view of these success figures, one can hardly avoid classifying the box office result of the qualitatively absolutely successful “Bibi Blocksberg – The Great Witches’ Meeting” as a tangible disappointment: Yes, the reboot is deliberately tailored to a younger audience after the horse adventures suitable for teenagers – but the just 377,000 tickets sold in Germany were still a cold shower. After all, that’s even less than the unfortunately completely messed up Neustadt competitor “Benjamin Blümchen” from 2019.
Would that really have been enough for a sequel under normal conditions? Fortunately for fans of “The Great Witches’ Meeting” both young and old, this question was never seriously asked. Because you’re not nearly as flexible when it comes to film series with child actors – and so “Bibi Blocksberg 2 – The Totally Bewitched Time Travel”, directed by “The School of Magical Animals” director Gregor Schnitzler, was given the green light before its predecessor even started in cinemas. And while the rental company expects a lot more this time, especially due to a much better start date, we would also add that the word has hopefully gotten around by now about how much fun Part 1 is. And to get straight to the point: Part 2 goes even further!
Bibi (Nala) and her best friends – with and without witch powers – are of course back in the sequel.
Marita (Fia-Marie Lin) and Florian (Aithonas Avgoustakis) got really cool places with Inspector Krause (Thorsten Merten) and the frenzied reporter Karla Kolumna (Palina Rojinski), respectively. Bibi Blocksberg (Nala), on the other hand, has once again taken too much time – and now, for better or worse, she has to do her school internship as a watchdog in the castle museum. After all, there is currently a special exhibition about Neustadt’s history on the agenda – with a particularly valuable historical music box as a crowd puller!
Nevertheless, Bibi is already preparing for a lot of boredom when the music box suddenly disappears. The clues initially lead to the museum director Farrah Pahani (Nilam Farooq), but Bibi is sure that she definitely has nothing to do with the whole thing. However, during their own research, a witch’s spell goes wrong. So Bibi and Marita end up more than 130 years in the past – and there they meet the young castle heiress Fritzi von Klunkerburg (Carmen Diego). Against her will, after the death of her parents, her deceitful aunt (Fritzi Haberlandt) is supposed to marry her to her clumsy cousin…
At night in the museum
If Bibi is initially disappointed that her desired internships, which promise a lot of excitement, didn’t work out, you as a viewer actually want to join her straight away: “Bibi as a policewoman” or “Bibi as a reporter” – both of which sound more exciting than “Bibi the museum guard”, especially since Palina Rojinski (“Nightlife”) is a perfect match for her frenzied Neustadt role model. But puff cake! Time travel, a criminal case, a bit of “Bridgerton” with a castle spectacle – “Bibi Blocksberg 2” definitely delivers when it comes to entertainment value.
My personal favorite gag: When Marita shows up at the scene of the music box coup as Inspector Krause’s assistant – and after just a single day of school internship, she naturally chases the other cops around, as if she were leading the investigation. Despite the mini-appearance of his secretary Pichler at the end of “The Big Witch Meeting,” we still have to wait for the mayor’s first appearance, but overall “The Totally Bewitched Time Travel” already has too many characters rather than too few.
“The Totally Bewitched Time Travel” lives up to its title – because this time all sorts of witch pranks are also carried out in the 19th century.
Especially when Bibi’s previously absent witch friends Schubia (Carla Demmin) and Flauipaui (Philomena Amari) join the time-traveling rescue crew in the last third, it’s almost too much of a good thing – despite Schubia’s naturally super-cool Kawasaki vacuum cleaner flying broom. But that’s exactly where songwriter Peter Plate comes into play, because this time he’s finally taking no prisoners!
Instead, this time he starts right at the beginning with a Bernhard & Bibi combo, whose diamond-fanned video look is reminiscent of the playful DIY early days of the digital MTV era. This lays the foundation – and the fans of the current director from the Theater des Westens in Berlin (where the “Bibi & Tina” musical is also shown) will certainly not be disappointed afterwards. Most people between the ages of 13 and 19 will probably find this absolutely cringe – but everyone else will definitely have a lot of fun with the colorful, feel-good pop songs!
Conclusion: Another entertaining and charming witch time travel adventure, in which the castle setting in particular ensures spectacular viewing values. In addition, the sequel more than makes up for the one weak point of its predecessor: the Rosenstolz singer/composer Peter Plate, who was already responsible for the catchy tunes in the “Bibi & Tina” series, is once again going full throttle when it comes to musical pop after the rather disappointing songs from “The Big Witch Meeting”!