User Reviews

"Ritt durchs Riff - Auf den Spuren der Seepferdchen" is a 43-minute live action documentary short film from 2010 that is a television release directed by Sigurd Tesche. The (really long) German title already gives away that the focus here is on sea horses, but not entirely as we also get to see some footage of other fascinating creatures from under the sea. I will admit that I am usually more interested in the furry animals and not too much in fish, but this documentary here makes it very easy to make an exception as sea horses are indeed pretty miraculous little creatures. You will find out many interesting things like about their anatomy, their unique mating and procreation process and for example why they are indeed the chameleons of the seas. Every time the story moves away from them, you want them to return, but still are curious about the fish, snails etc. you find out instead. From the filmmaking perspective, there are many breathtaking shots and recordings in here and the narrator was doing a fine job too. The moments when the film moves out of the water are the weakest I guess and I could have done without the female blonde explaining stuff standing on boats etc. But it's not so frequent that it hurts the film overall a lot I must say in the film's favor. I find it quite a pity that this apparently scored no awards attention at all and has not even been rated by 5 people here on imdb. It is criminally underseen. One of the finest short films and documentaries from 2010 and I highly recommend checking it out. It was very fascinating and beautiful to see and I also kinda liked the environmental statement we find out about in here. What is done to sea horses in Asian traditional medicine is unforgivable. Human, why are you destroying your planet and all the beauty that comes with it. Then again who am I telling this to if we eat fish and meat on a daily basis. As I am drifting away from the subject now, I will come to the end of my review. The good in here is so much more frequent than the bad. You really wanna see this one. Don't miss out.