The incredible success of Harry Potter not only spurred numerous Hollywood productions. In this country too, there have been repeated attempts over the past few years to do so Fantasy phenomenon – from The School of Magical Animals to the hotly anticipated bestselling adaptation Woodwalkers.
The first German Harry Potter alternative was released in cinemas in 2002. It is the live-action adaptation of one of the most famous radio play series at all: Bibi Blocksberg. Although the film was extremely successful at the time, the fantasy series never made it past part 2. The premiere is now celebrating a small revival at Netflix.
German Harry Potter alternative: Bibi Blocksberg’s film from 2002 conquers the streaming charts on Netflix
Bibi Blocksberg has been on Netflix’s streaming offer for a few days now and has it directly into the Top 10 most popular films done. A mixture of nostalgia and curiosity is probably responsible for this. Bibi Blocksberg is currently being rediscovered and rediscovered on Netflix. The film is currently number 8 on the Netflix charts.
You can watch the trailer for Bibi Blocksberg here:
Bibi Blocksberg – Trailer (German)
The story tells of the 12-year-old young witch Bibi Blocksberg (Sidonie von Krosigk), who saves two children from a fire. For this heroic act she should get the witch ball, which is actually only intended for witches aged 15 and over. Villain Rabia von Katzenstein (Corinna Harfouch) doesn’t like that at all.
Alongside newcomer Sidonie von Krosigk and Corinna Harfouch, she impressed at the time six million euros expensive production (via Cinema) with other big names: Katja Riemann, Ulrich Noethen and Monica Bleibtreu. Even Rufus Beck, the voice of the local Harry Potter audio books, was part of the film’s cast.
Bibi Blocksberg had no chance against Harry Potter – but it is still the most successful German film of 2002
Bibi Blocksberg did extremely well with the target group of young fantasy fans and held her own eight weeks in the top 10 the German cinema charts. Even if the film couldn’t keep up with the 9.7 million viewers that Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets attracted to cinemas in the same year, its success is considerable.
Over 2.2 million people saw Bibi Blocksberg in the cinema. This is what makes the imaginative radio play film adaptation most successful German film of 2002. Two years later, the sequel Bibi Blocksberg and the Secret of the Blue Owls was released, which still attracted 1.3 million people to go to the cinema. The figures refer to the German cinema market and come from InsideKino.
The trailer for Bibi Blocksberg and the Secret of the Blue Owls:
Bibi Blocksberg and the Secret of the Blue Owls – Trailer (German) HD
Bibi Blocksberg 3 never existed. The fantasy series that had begun was increasingly forgotten. Only after a ten-year break from cinema did the young witch conquer the big screen again – in Bibi & Tina. The fantasy comedy marks the start of one of the… most popular German children’s film series. Four film sequels and an Amazon series have already been released.
You can now stream both Bibi Blocksberg films from the 2000s on Netflix. The Harry Potter films are currently available as a streaming subscription on RTL+.