Las vacaciones del Pequeño Nicolás

An appealing summer tale, exuding French lightness and flashes of its excellent literary source material. However, it suffers from the fact that the first part relied more on the titular hero, while the sequel focuses half of its attention on his parents. Thanks to the fabulous duo Valérie Lemercier-Kad Merad, they easily find their way back into the hearts of the audience, but that irresistible Mardi Gras magic is slowly fading away. (16.07.2014)

I was surprised what a sound beating this film received on this site from local know-it-alls. At one point it even seemed like the ratings fell short of less than 50%, which is definitely much less than this movie deserves. Nicholas on Holiday is by all means not a bad movie. Definitely not. But it’s not the first installment in this series, and it focuses less on Nicholas and more on his parents, which is less entertaining. To perceive life with a child’s and adult eyes is very different, and combining these two perspectives is not possible. And that’s what I consider the main issue of this film. Otherwise it was fine and I chilled nicely while watching it. (19.12.2014)

It's still good, don't worry and don't look at the ratings here. Just be prepared for the fact that Nicholas on Holiday pays more attention to Nicholas's parents, but that's not a bad thing at all, because whether we're watching children or adults, it's still a great, well-acted, sunny comedy with extremely beautiful colorful sets and good humor from start to finish. If the writers had wanted to at least close the mini-story with the beautiful German tourist and if they hadn't stuffed everything (the police phalanx, the hunters, the castle full of ammunition) into the finale, or if at least some of it had made sense and hadn't just appeared, I would have given it a fifth star. (02.10.2016)