JoJo Rabbit DVD [2019]

This is a review of the 2020 All Region Blu-ray from Walt Disney/Twentieth Century Fox. The quality is excellent and there are plenty of extras.New Zealand writer/director Taika Waititi has now moved into the Hollywood mainstream, as director of the 2 most recent Marvel ‘Thor’ films ~ ‘Ragnarok’ (2017) and ‘Love and Thunder’(2022) ~ but he cut his teeth on very different fare. His well-received Vampire comedy ‘What We Do in the Shadows’(2014), spawned a successful TV series spin-off. And this film, made for just $14 million, grossed over six times that amount, and received 6 OSCAR nominations, with Waititi himself receiving the award for Best Adapted Screenplay.The screenplay is an adaptation of the much darker and less humorous book ‘Caging Skies’, by New Zealand-Belgian novelist, Christine Leunens. It is apparently, a fairly loose adaptation, with Waititi writing in chunks of lighter material, but Leunens entirely approved. The potentially controversial subject matter may have been behind decisions to push the film’s development into cinematic limbo, but it was finally picked up by Fox, with Waititi to both direct and star.Any initial misgivings by the powers that be, appear to have been forgotten, as a notable array of British, American and New Zealand talent was assembled to give life to Waititi’s vision. Scarlett Johansson is excellent as Rosie, the mother of the titular Jojo (Johannes). Sam Rockwell shows an unexpectedly good instinct for comedy, as the reluctant commander of the Nazi youth camp, ‘Jungvolk’. Alfie Allen, so memorable in ‘Game of Thrones’, and Stephen Merchant, one of the major figures in British post-millennial comedy, both provide excellent support. But it is twelve-year old Roman Griffin Davis, the British lad who plays Jojo, who is the revelation, together with New Zealand’s Thomasin McKenzie, who plays Elsa. Interestingly, both Davis and McKenzie have parents who work in the cinema industry (though not as actors). They are both really excellent, effortlessly carrying the weight of the action, in a tricky and quite grown-up film.Despite Waititi’s work to add light to the shadows of Leunen’s original story, this is not really a comedy. Yes, there are some very funny bits, but this is dark satire, with some serious irony thrown in for good measure. How delicious to find Adolf Hitler being played by a man who describes himself as a ‘Polynesian Jew’ ~ Waititi’s mother is of Russian-Jewish and Irish ancestry, and his father is Māori and French-Canadian. But inevitably, any film containing Hitler, even in the guise of a child’s imaginary friend, and any film that deals with the Nazi’s treatment of European Jews and of internal opposition to their regime, cannot be overly pink and fluffy. But it is done well, even tellingly, and there is nothing tasteless.The film is extremely energetic ~ there is a great deal of vigorous running about. Most of the filming was in the Czech Republic, and very handsome it is. Overall, this is amusing, often touching, and quite hard-hitting, but it is no rib-tickler. Slightly self-indulgent direction and slightly muddled scripting nudges it down, but it is worth 4 strong, well-meaning, Stars.

This is a funny film , could be offensive to some but watch it light heartedly , I will watch it again , I had a good chuckle

My dad wanted to watch this movie last Christmas, while there were quite a few family members visiting. Nobody really fancied watching it due to preconceptions about the subject matter. My dad watched it himself on his iPad while we were preparing things in the kitchen and he kept laughing out loud throughout the film. I watched the film a day or two later and found it to be a really enjoyable, funny in places, but heart-warming film that would be good to watch with family or friends at any time.The Director Taika Waititi has produced a gem and the cast are outstanding in their performances, particularly the young boy, Roman Griffin and his interaction with Taika's own outlandish portrayal of the infamous German leader.Since watching it I purchased the Blu Ray and will probably watch it again this Christmas. The Extras on the Blu Ray were also worth watching about the making of the film. I would highly recommend this movie.

It's a dvd that works. Funny though.

MILD SPOILER ALERT: This review is really in response to the two (so far) negative reviews of this film on Amazon. One is by someone who just didn't like the film. That's fine, we are all entitled to our opinions, but the other was an inaccurate, one star review by someone who liked the film but complained at the lack of a Blu-Ray version. Well, in answer to the second reviewer, it is the Blu-ray I am reviewing so you might want to check your facts a little better. In answer to the first reviewer I would just like to say that people have been using humour to get them through very dark times since people have been walking the earth.JOJO RABBIT uses satire as well as comedy to get across the idea that Jojo is just a normal (if lonely) boy growing up in extraordinary times and with an extraordinary set of circumstances. With his head full of Nazi propaganda, he believes, as many did at the time, that the Germans are the good guys, that the Jews were devils (with actual horns) and Hitler is a hero who will win the war and make the world a better place. It uses the comedy very well to show us the ridiculousness of this opinion and it shows the journey Jojo takes as he gradually changes his views from those he shares with his childish ideal of Hitler, his imaginary friend, to those views he develops later in the film, due to his interaction with the very real Jewish girl, hiding in the wall space.The script is crisp and the film, in my view, navigates it's way around the slippery slope of bad taste very well and gets it's point across without ever making light of the horror of what was actually going on at the time. Jojo is just a little boy and the film is from his point of view. It doesn't need to crassly show emaciated heaps of bodies at a death camp for us to know what is really going on here and what Jojo is clearly not aware of.We are all entitled to our opinion and comedy, more than any other genre is very subjective. If you like Taika's style of comedy you will love it, but like many of his other films, there are serious points to be made between the laughs and they'll be a few tears of sadness to go with the happy ones by the time the final credits roll.

Great film. Great service