[Director Peter Tweksbury] has kept the kiddies from gushing too coyly, suppressed the mugging of a comic trio of thieves, photographed the fresh Berlin setting in effective color, and juxtaposed suspense and wit with a nice, bouncing pace.

The children will howl and grown-ups will look on with smiling indulgence.

Slezak and his pals, known as the three skrinks, are amusing in their blundering progress and the many kids respond enthusiastically to Peter Tewksbury's direction.

While the shot-on-location adaptation of Erich Kästner's classic makes Emil and the Detectives feel like a Berlin vacation, the film loses sight of its plucky protagonist in favour of Gustav and raises the stakes far too dramatically (child murder?!)