This is a brief review of the Czech Language version with English subs. Kuky Returns is a joy to watch, if initially hard to follow. But you soon get into the adventure! The dialogue between characters is great. Its essentially a buddy movie in a round about way. The style of filming/presentation is the main draw. - Im sure you've seen the trailer? if not check it out soon. The puppetry brings everyone to life right down to the last leaf. I am now waiting for the English Language version, as the Directors have employed some great authentic sounding voiceovers for this! apparently they too are Czech Speaking so have been able to reproduce the speaking parts as close to the original as possible! out soon I guess?

I had a chance to see this beautifully simple yet very inspiring fairy tale like movie during annual film festival in Vilnius, and after the viewing came out with my spirits soaring and a huge grin of satisfaction firmly planted on my face. The plot of this puppet movie is rather simple. A kid named Ondra, who is suffering from severe asthma, has to let go of his favorite toy - a stuffed toy named Kooky. But he isn't giving up on his favorite toy easily. Instead all the viewers are brought into his world of fairy tale like childish imagination/dream, where Kooky comes alive and tries to find his way back to Ondra. The story follows Kooky's adventures and misadventures on his journey back home as seen through the eyes of Ondra. And that childish perspective is what gives the magical feeling to this story - a child is telling the story and all the reasoning behind everything that happens to Kooky is limited to child's imagination, which is rather simple yet fascinating.

Lets start with the easy thing: the visual aspect of the movie is simply brilliant! No one can deny this. And one more easy thing: the music is brilliant as well! OK, some people over the net do deny this... but honestly, we don't believe them. I've bought the soundtrack and since then I've listened to it like million times. Whenever I'm feeling blue, this soundtrack is right at hand. And it actually works for any other colour too. Now the screenplay: fine, there could be a thing or two (or twelve or something) deserving some improvement, we must admit that... this is why I just can't give the movie all 10 stars. It's because when you watch the movie, you will simply realise that there are couple of moments when you feel the pleasant and fluent story unwinding sways a bit. But not much. And you'll get over it, I promise. Because no matter what, the story is so touching, full of gentle and incredibly clever and funny and truthful dialogs between the two main characters (in Czech dubbed by the grandfather Zdenek and the grandson Ondra Sverak), which make me watch the movie over and over again. I've heard many people complaining about the prosody (or other suprasegmental voice features) of these dialogues: that they are flat, like being simply read, without proper emotions and intonation, blah blah blah. As a matter of fact, this is one of the mostly criticised things about the movie. But I think these people haven't recognised the most important thing about the movie: it is a Dream Story! It is a story where reality and dreams melt together in the very natural way, where you can hear the forest gods and a pink teddy bear talking to each other without even opening their mouths (often they even don't have any mouth) - because you simply can hear their thoughts! They live in a different dimension with different rules and laws (such as when they drive their cars very fast, it suddenly starts to snow) and they are created (or at least supported) by the mind and dreams of an ordinary, but kind of melancholic and clever (and asthmatic) little boy. And the way the main characters talk to each other, is just the right way you'd expect when listening to someone's mind and its imagination and dreams.

Kooky's Return (Kuky se vrací) is a story about children's imagination - we don't know if everything happens only in Ondra's fantasy or if it's for real. Jan Svěrák won't tell you which one of these two options is right. YOU - the viewer - have to decide. Most of the characters are moving puppets and they are... well, they are quite ugly but very charming. They are little forest gods or tiny monsters made of garbage (ecology is one of the topics in this movie but don't worry, it won't bother you). And Kooky. Kooky is a cult toy in the Czech Republic right know because he's old-fashioned, pink and plain but sooo cute at the same time. I didn't mention the story so far because it's not the most important thing in Kooky's return. It's adequate: story of a lost toy that wants to come back to its owner and experience some adventures in the forest with picturesque characters. It's the good old manual work with puppets and imagination the the scriptwriter and director Jan Svěrák.