.Westerns...All'Italiana!: New German film release “Das Kanu des Manitu”

Thursday, August 14, 2025

New German film release “Das Kanu des Manitu”

The canoe of the Manitu movie review

Vienna On Line

August 12, 2025

[Already stupid if you have only brought two matches to the peace piping shop – and the first breaks through when lighting …]

“Avatar-Departure to Pandora” may be the most successful film to date, but in Germany “The Shoe des Manitu” has lured even more visitors to the cinemas in 2001: With 11.7 million viewers, the Winnetou parody of director, author and leading actor Michael Bully Herbig (“Ballon”) is still the most successful German box since the beginning of the official count. In 1968. For comparison: “The School of Magic Animals 3”, the most successful German film of the past year, broke the 3 million mark. But if you wanted to know how successful the film was really, you only had to attend a schoolyard like that:

After the theatrical release there was no longer a long break for months, in which Winnetouch not at least once (“nice slowly, Jaqueline, otherwise you will piss again”), Santa Maria (“All again on the toilet, and then let's ride”) or ranger (“I am dissatisfied with the overall situation”). Usually a quick sequel would have been a clear thing with such a megahit – but instead Michael Bully Herbig, Christian Tramitz and Rick Kavanian had the audience voted on their sketch show “Bullyparade”, whereupon (democratically legitimized)”

To avoid spoilers, Michael Bully Herbig did not even show his actors completely before the world premiere. So we keep ourselves more vague at this point: Because they are accused of murder from the one -eyed sheriff (Friedrich Mücke) and his lovesickness plagued Deputy (Rick Kavanian), Abahachi (Michael Bully Herbig) and Ranger (Christian Tramitz) should dangle on the gallows. But apparently all of this is just a sophisticated plan by Boss (Jessica Schwarz) and her previously nameless gang of seven, in order to still get to the fabulous canoe of the Manitu. Because a first attempt ended with the separated leg of a ballet dancer.

Meanwhile, Dimitri (also Rick Kavanian) in Mexico is currently opening a second branch of his Greek restaurant – and the multilingual Mary (Jasmin Schwier) is the first employee. However, the opening actually planned for tomorrow has to be postponed: Because when Dimitri learns about the impending death sentence of his friends in the newspaper, he naturally immediately swings on his stubborn donkey Apollo 14, in order to avert the execution in the last second …

Timeless despite the zeitgeist

When looking at “The Shoe of the Manitu”, it is particularly noticeable how timeless humor is – because despite its huge footprint in German pop culture, there are very few jokes and allusions that actually locate the film during its time. Nevertheless, “the shoe of the Manitu” has been unquestionably overtaken by the political and cultural zeitgeist in the past 24 years – and in fact it takes a few seconds in “The Cane of the Manitu” until Abahachi is asked by a surprised fortune teller about why he has made blood brotherhood with “a white old man”. But don't worry: Michael Bully Herbig and his co-authors Christian Tramitz and Rick Kavanian take care of the now adult themes without hitting themselves directly …

… And as in the original, they do not allow too much zeitgeist to overshadow the humor: Instead of making fun of Netflix or Trump, two of the best punch lines go to the account of “Jim Knopf and Lukas the locomotive guide”. In contrast to other bloated legacy sequels, “The Canoe of the Manitu” remains less than 90 minutes again-and despite the extended cast, cut again so quickly that there is guaranteed that there is no boredom. This does not come about to the predecessor, but nobody was allowed to count seriously anyway – but most gags sit, and the numerous newcomers are also largely an enrichment.

[For Dimitri (Rick Kavanian), the sequel even has a love story.]

The biggest role of the newcomers plays Jasmin Schwier (“The history of mankind – slightly shortened”), who, after a family unveiling, falls the relationship between Abahachi and Ranger into difficulties, but also brings a fantasy language, in which you break your tongue when you listen. The seven new members of the gang also provide all sorts of variety-but the most impression is playing “The Discounter” star Merlin Sandmeyer as Wolfgang, a comparse that was only hired because gangs have always had to have seven members since “The Glorious Seven”.

“The canoe of the Manitu” has even stronger than the predecessor of a humor that brings the fourth wall-and thus moves a little closer to such US parodies as “the naked cannon”, which only turned out to be much better than was expected to be expected from such a late new infusion. Especially on the home stretch, your own status as a Western comedy with a “organic German” in Apache-Outfit is also the focus-but not clumsy at all, but almost touching.

Well invested extracols

Michaell Bully Herbig told us that “the canoe of the Manitu” cost about four times the “The Shoe of the Manitu”: Even if you calculate inflation, the sequel is still (financially) more complex than the original. And you can also see that, for example at the “Indiana Jones” memory scenes on a moving train or on the Tom-Cruise-like underwater scene for Rick Kavanian, which was already planned for “the shoe of the Manitu”, but then had to be deleted for cost reasons.

Above all, however, Bully also issued the Extraeld for the shooting of a very special scene in the USA that is directly related to the greatest turn of the film: Because the film, which one must have seen alone in order to be able to have a say, “The Canoe of the Manitu”, which will certainly be filled from online fold to the leading medium in the weeks after cinema.

Conclusion: Such a permanent pop -cultural footprint such as “The Shoe des Manitu” will certainly not leave the late sequel. But “the canoe of the Manitu” is quite funny even without quotations for eternity, whereby fans in particular will get their money's worth thanks to the many nostalgic back references!

We saw “The Canoe of the Manitu” at the world premiere in the Munich Mathäser Film Palace – that is, that performance with a total of 3,000 guests, in which Michael Bully Herbig showed the film outside of his very narrowest circle for the first time.

Abahachi, the chief of the Apaches, and his white blood brother Ranger fight tirelessly for peace and justice - but a new, up-and-coming gang makes life particularly difficult for them! They lure Abahachi and Ranger into a trap to get to the legendary "Canoe of Manitu". Only at the last second can they be saved by their faithful companion, the lovable Greek Dimitri, and his new specialist Mary. But as it turns out, this was all part of a big plan and also just the beginning. With combined forces (and all kinds of disagreements and misunderstandings), the heroes plunge into their greatest adventure - and find surprising answers to life's most important questions!

Trailer link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgCTu1F8pRE