The Three Robbers (Die drei Räuber in German) is a 2007 animated film directed by Hayo Freitag, based on Tomi Ungerer's 1961 children's picture book The Three Robbers about three highwaymen who abandon their criminal ways the days they find an orphan little girl and decide to take care of her.
It was released in America by The Weinstein Company under the title Trick or Treaters.
Tropes specific to this film:
- Adaptation Expansion: The film considerably expands the story, for the book is quite short.
- Adaptational Context Change: The Weinstein Company released it in the USA under the title Trick or Treaters, and the original material was shortened and reworked into a Halloween story.
- Adaptational Hairstyle Change: The three robbers are clearly bearded here, while in the book it's not the case.
- Adaptational Location Change: In the book, the three robbers buy a castle with the money and gold they stole and turn it into an orphanage. Here, the place is turned into an Orphanage of Fear that's not this anymore by the end.
- Canon Foreigner: The film adds many new characters like a policeman, a frog-like coachman, and a evil witch who runs an Orphanage of Fear that the robbers later buy with their gold.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: The film adverts this by having them show their faces and each of them having a different personality.
- Named by the Adaptation: The film gives names to the three robbers — Felix (the one with the pepper blower), Maximus (the one with the double sided axe) and Dominik (the one with the blunderbuss).
- Shout-Out: Like with all the animated movies the Weinstein Company produced or imported, the American dub of the film adds multiple pop culture references.
- Sinister Schnoz: The film gives a pointy nose to all three of the robbers.
