A milestone in "bratty kid" cinema, the South African comedy TROMPIE (IndiePix, 1975) features one of the most bratty kids ever to slime his way across a movie screen.
This lone adaptation of author Topsy Smith's popular "Trompie" book series is an entry in South Africa's Apartheid-era independent film industry of the 70s and 80s, whose works have long fallen into obscurity save for those few that IndiePix has managed to restore and re-release for not just their entertainment value, but for their historical and novelty value as well.
An early entry in the genre, this one is different from later ones I've seen in that the production values are quite good and the cast is predominantly white. Yet it retains all the earmarks of pure independent filmmaking with a modest budget and an overall casual atmosphere.
The focus is on young scalawag Trompie (Andre Laubscher) and his mates Blikkies, Rooie, and Dawie, who form a neighborhood gang they call the "Boksombende." They're the typical rough-housing, trouble-prone little kid types who like to play army or cowboys and Indians in the woods when not causing a ruckus during some adult social situation or scheming to get out of school and domestic chores.
Trompie, however, carries it several steps further by being one of the most obnoxious, spoiled, selfish jerks in all of children's cinema. It's hard to empathize with the little twerp when he shows no empathy for anyone else, no regret for his actions when caught, no self-awareness whatsoever, and no sign of any redeeming qualities of any kind.
What the resolutely slow-paced film does offer is a pleasingly nostalgic, rustic sort of quality as the boys cavort amidst sunlit natural surroundings, carefree and uninhibited, when they aren't stuck in the daily drudgery of school and having to stay after class for acting up.
Trompie's misadventures include messing up his older sister's social life, disrupting a school play (after which a classmate is unjustly punished for his own actions), and stealing the local pastor's pet baboon, all of which he lies his way out of or blames on someone else.
Laubscher's performance as Trompie is fairly good, and it isn't his fault the part is written to be so unlikable--so much so, in fact, that it comes as a genuine relief when, in the final minutes of the story, we're allowed to feel some sympathy for him when he develops a deep attachment to a dog belonging to the family gardener's visiting brother and begs the man to leave the dog behind before departing.
Not sure this is enough to save TROMPIE from being an overall unpleasant experience, however, unless one enjoys watching a rotten kid do all kinds of rotten things and get away with them without ever learning anything positive or growing as a person. Maybe I'm being too picky about what is basically just a mildly entertaining kids' movie, but by the end I was fervently wishing Trompie would get eaten alive by wild animals or something.
Release date: December 15, 2020
Available from Amazon on DVD and Prime Video
Product Dimensions : 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 2.72 Ounces
Media Format : NTSC
Run time : 1 hour and 24 minutes
Release date : December 15, 2020
Actors : Andre Laubscher
Studio : Indiepix
ASIN : B08FTF9Z82
Number of discs : 1
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