A ChucksConnection Film Review

 

Antonina Litwiniak wears red high top Converse “Chuck Taylor” All Stars in the film.

 

 

Klek’s Academy

 

by Hal Peterson

Ada Contrary with Albert and two other girls.

 

Kleks Academy begins in the streets of New York City where we meet Ada Niezgódka (Antonina Litwiniak), a twelve-year-old girl who is pretty much a loner and scratches for extra money delivering packages on her bicycle. Ada does not have much of a family life because her father has been missing for a number of years, and her mother Anna (Agnieszka Grochowska) spends most of her time trying to find him. Things begin to change for Ada when she receives an invitation to attend Kleks Academy. Ada is astonished to receive the invitation and even more surprised to discover that Professor Ambrose Kleks (Tomasz Kot), headmaster of the academy, is her uncle, that both of her parents attended the academy, and that her father Alex (Mateusz Król) was a grand master. Even more surprising for Ada is that her next door neighbor, Doctor Paj-Chi-Wo (Piotr Fronczewski) knows all about the academy. He tells her that the academy is magical in nature and will help her to learn her special power. This will allow her to use that power to find her missing father. Ada travels up through the portal to the academy and gets to know the other children. She even befriends Albert (Konrad Repinski) a very shy boy who has trouble fitting in. Professor Kleks teaches all the children how to use their imagination to access the magic inside them.

In class with other kids and Matthew.

Much of the story line revolves around Matthew (Sebastian Stankiewicz) a man who is half bird and half man. Matthew, who now works for Professor Kleks, used to be a human prince. One night while wandering through the forest, he encountered the wolf king and shot him dead when the wolf attacked him. Matthew was also injured during the encounter, and was treated by Doctor Paj-Chi-Wo (Ada’s New York neighbor). Doctor Paj-Chi-Wo advised Matthew to change his form because the wolves would soon be coming after him. He even gave him the cap of Bogd Khans, which allowed Matthew to change into a bird. Unfortunately Matthew lost a button from the cap, which meant that he couldn’t change back to a human form. Luckily Professor Kleks had special berries that allow Matthew to return to human form for a few hours. But the wolves (or wolfurs in their human form) discover that Matthew is hiding at the academy and plan to come there and get him.

 

Ada meditating.

 

With the wolfurs now threatening, Professor Kleks believes that Ada is the only one who can save the academy. He believes that she has inherited from her father the powers of empathy and harmony and use them to prevent the academy from being destroyed. Unfortunately there is a spy in their midst, Snag, who has been spying for the wolfurs all this time and helped them infiltrate the academy. This conflict and its resolution make up the balance of the storyline.

 

Ada talking with Professor Kleks

 

Klek's Academy is a Polish-made film that is now streaming on Netflix, so you can view it in English (or with English subtitles). The film is beautifully shot with coordinated art and costume design that often creates visual scenes of red. These scenes accentuate Ada’s look and often feature Ada’s red high top Converse sneakers (see below). The storyline tends to be tedious in places, which at times makes the film seem overly long. This adaption of the original book and subsequent movie doesn’t live up to its action potential and most of the characters seem one dimensional. But for the younger preteen crowd for which this film is intended, the film is okay, but probably would work better as a series of shorter episodes that could emphasize the different characters, Ada, Michael, the Professor, Albert, the wolfurs, Ada’s parents and gives their characterizations more screen time.

Best Chucks Scene

 

Closeup of Ada’s red high top chucks.

 

Antonina Litwiniak in her role as Ada proudly wears red high top Chuck Taylor's throughout the entire film. Perhaps this is one way the costume designer chose to show that Ada is an American and living in New York City. The cinematography is quite chucks-friendly as you see them framed in many of her scenes throughout the film. And its nice to see that there is no attempt to hide their ankle patch. The two closeups here are two of the two best chucks shots in the film.

 

Closeup of Ada walking.

Support the film industry by purchasing genuine DVD, Blue Ray, or streaming copies of these films. Illegal copies only help profiteers. Make sure your money goes to the producers and artists who actually create these films. Still images from the film are used here as teasers to get you to view an authorized copy. If you have information about a film where a main character wears chucks, contact us at films@chucksconnection.com.

Purchase chucks, shoelaces, and books about chucks.
High Tops	Low Tops	Shoelaces Page	Books