Die Wilden Kerle

Die Wilden Kerle (lit: "the wild guys") are a German movie series (based on the children's book series Die Wilden Fussball Kerle, which became The Wild Soccer Bunch in the Cultural Translation in America) from The Noughties about a team of boys (and Vanessa) who like to play football (soccer, for Americans).

There are no less than five movies about them:


 * 1) "Alles ist gut, solange du wild bist!": The team has a problem: A bunch of older bullies, lead by "fat Micky", have occupied the place where they use to play football. A match (naturally) shall decide who gets the right for the place. Fortunately, former football pro Willi is there to train the boys.
 * 2) They need money for an upgrade of their sports field for a match vs. the national team, and Vanessa has fallen in love with the cool skater boy Gonzo and is missing for an important match.
 * 3) "Die Attacke der Biestigen Biester": The bunch is challenged for the title of "wildest team in the world" - by an all-girls team, of all things.
 * 4) "Der Angriff der Silberlichten": The team has to do a freestyle soccer contest against the "wolves of Ragnarök". Then, the "Silberlichten" team lead by the girl Horizon appears. And she tries to seduce the boys...
 * 5) "Hinter dem Horizont": After Leon has disappeared, the team looks for him and crosses the borders of reality, it seems. They discover a castle inhabited by vampires, who challenge them to a "Soccer 3D" match.

Especially the later movies weren't exactly liked by the critics, but they still were commercially successful.


 * The Alcoholic: Willi has a problem.
 * Broken Pedestal: Willi in the first movie, when they learn (from fat Micky, of all people) that Willi wasn't a pro as he claimed.
 * But Not Too Foreign: Rocce, the half-Brazilian
 * Catch Phrase: "Alles ist gut, solange du wild bist!" (Everything's cool, as long as you're wild!)
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Willi disappeared after the first movie. Other members of the team were Put on a Bus. Sometimes, The Bus Came Back.
 * Cool Bike: For a gag, in the bike scenes they added sound effects of motorbikes. And in #4, they get real bikes.
 * The Cuckoolander Was Right: When Leon disappears in #5, Raban and Joschka get the idea that he was abducted by vampires.
 * A Day in the Limelight: Each and everyone of the "Wilden Kerle" has their own book.
 * Defeat Means Friendship
 * Department of Redundancy Department: Unbesiegbare Sieger, Biestige Biester (two of their opponents)
 * Distaff Counterpart: Die biestigen Biester
 * Early Installment Weirdness: Inverted. The first movies were about mundane topics, but in the latter they had to play against vampires. ???
 * Earth Drift
 * Face Heel Turn / Heel Face Turn: Several members have left the "Wilden Kerle" for the one or other reason, and sometimes even joined other teams, but returned later. More common in the movies.
 * Fat Bastard: Der dicke Michi (fat Micky)
 * Film of the Book: Five of them.
 * Free-Range Children: A very Egregious case. Im the fifth movie, they look for Leon who has disappeared. The search takes ten months! Do they still have parents??
 * Gadgeteer Genius: Hadschi, "Düsentrieb" in #5 for the vampires.
 * Genre Shift: The first movie was a quite conventional kids' sports movie. Later movies added romance (appropriate since the boys grew up), adventure (OK, I guess) and fantasy / horror (???).
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: Justified, you need eleven people for a real football team. Many of those (at least of our heroes) get A Day in the Limelight.
 * Love Interest: Gonzo for Vanessa in the 2nd, Horizon in the 4th movie.
 * The Merch: Including stuff you "need" if you want to found an official "Wilde Kerle" team in Real Life.
 * Nerd Glasses: Raban
 * Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: All of them, except #2.
 * One Steve Limit: However, in another way broken - until the books came out, "Joschka" pretty much referred to politician Joschka Fischer.
 * Our Vampires Are Different: In #5. They like to play what you may call 3D soccer.
 * Putting the Band Back Together: In #3.
 * The Quiet One: Maxi, who never speaks
 * Repetitive Name: Hadschi ben Hadschi ben Hadschi ben Hadschi. (Shout-Out to Karl May.)
 * The Series: Animated, will come to your TV in 2012.
 * Shout-Out: Two vampires are named "Jekyll" and "Hyde".
 * The Smurfette Principle: Vanessa.
 * Inverted with their opponent team "Die biestigen Biester" - all females
 * Team Pet: The dog Socke.
 * Token Minority: Deniz, the Turk
 * Tomboy: Vanessa, natch. She wants to become the first woman in the (men's!) national team.
 * Unfortunate Names: "Die biestigen Biester" can mean "the beastly beasts" or even "the bitchy bitches".
 * Write What You Know: Author / director Joachim Masannek trained a boys' soccer team.
 * Write Who You Know: Two main characters are named Leon and Marlon, like the sons of the author.