Title: Agathe Christine: Next Door Spy 
Director: Karla von Bengtson
Production Company: Copenhagen Bombay Production
Length: 77 minutes
Release: August 2017 Denmark
Actors: Agathe Christine: Simone Edemann Mogelbjerg; Vincents far: Dar Salim

This movie is an animated detective movie about a 10 year old girl, Agathe Christine (AC) who desires to be a detective. The storyline is after the style of Agatha Christie detective stories.

It opens with AC, her mother and older sister moving to a new city. AC is not wanting to make the move and having to find and make new friends.

AC often daydreams of being a detective. One day while out walking she finds out that a local kiosk is being robbed on a regular basis. She has a suspect in mind and sets out to solve the mystery. In the end AC is able to solve who was doing the robberies.

The main character is the only well built character in the story. AC is a strong willed child who is determined to do what she wants regardless of what the rules are or others think. Throughout the story AC will often lie to keep herself from getting into trouble or to be able to do what she wants to do.

Her sister and Vincents (a neighborhood boy) will also often lie to cover their tracks or to gain control of a situation.

There is one character that stands out as to not really fitting into the story. It is the lizard that hatches from an egg that AC has. The lizard starts out very small and talking. As the story goes on, it grows very large and attempts to control AC. It appears to have an ulterior motive that is not really dove into in the story.

One of the negative aspects of this movie is that there is some inappropriate language in it. Vincents and his friend use some foul language at times. It is not very harsh, but still foul. For a movie that is geared towards children 9-12 years old, it is too much and unnecessary.

Another negative aspect is that the mother does not appear to really be involved very well in AC’s life. She is willing to pay a neighborhood child to be willing to play with AC. She makes implications on AC without really paying attention to what is actually occurring.

One of the positive aspects that I see in this movie is that AC learns to not be so quickly to judge the character of a person. She feels for the guilty person once she learns of his feelings and why he does what he does. However, this draws on the ethical question of whether stealing for a good cause is good or bad.

Another positive I can point out is that the guilty character does pay back what he owes to the kiosk. This does show taking responsibility for wrongs done.

Children, ages 9-12, will be able to easily follow the simple dialogue. If they enjoy a mystery, most will enjoy this movie, though it is not action packed or fast moving. The movie moves along at a simple pace. I see this as a positive note due to most movies today are very high packed with action, flash/bang/move.

As for the production of the movie, it is not a high quality filming. It does have good, simple filming, but does not measure anywhere near the quality of some of the major animated movies seen today.

While the overall story line is good, I struggle with recommending it to anyone due to the language in it. As a believer, I do not see any reason for subjecting children (or adults) to foul language that is not necessary. Outside of the language and the lizard, the movie is a good simple mystery that middle school children would probably enjoy.

No press embargo: TriCoast Entertainment has released the feature onto various digital platforms (InDemand, Amazon, iTunes, DirecTV, AT&T, FANDANGO, FlixFling, Vudu).

All pictures used in this post are used with permission and are copyrighted.