Sjors, Sjimmie en de gorilla

Summary

Children’s film about cartoon heroes Sjors and Sjimmie who enlist the help of a friendly gorilla to tackle two villains.

Sjors’ uncle Barend has died and has stipulated in his will that if his nephew wants to get his hands on his inheritance, there are two tasks he will have to complete. The first is to go to an old country house and find a certain document. Cousin Toon also wants a slice of the cake and tries to get to the document first by sending in two thugs by the name of Boris and Pedro. Sjors and his friend Sjimmie, who has come along to help him, soon see them off. The second task it to travel to Africa and find an old gold digger from Texas. Along the way they become friends with a gorilla that has escaped from the circus and who comes in handy when the two thugs turn up again. After an exciting chase, the two are captured and Sjors and Sjimmie return home, leaving a very sad gorilla behind.

Self-taught director Henk van der Linden is regarded as the pioneer of the Dutch children’s film. He made some forty feature length films between 1952 and 1985, often based on popular children’s books and cartoons, such as ‘De avonturen van Dik Trom’, ‘Sjors en Sjimmie’ and ‘Billy Turf’ (Billy Bunter). Van der Linden not only directed, produced and edited the film, he also wrote the screenplay, designed the sets and worked behind the camera.