The anti-Hitler satire follows the titular Jojo, a member of the Hitler Youth camp whose blind devotion to fascism is shaken when he starts to befriend a young Jewish girl.
- Sep 4, 2019
AceShowbiz - Taika Waititi presents the cruel fascism of Nazi in such a humurous way in the first official full-length trailer of "Jojo Rabbit". Presented from the point of view of a 10-year-old boy, the story confronts someone's blind devotion to the cruel nationalism of the Nazi party with childhood innocence.
Waititi himself stars as an imaginary Adolf Hitler, who is often presented as a conflicting idea in the titular character's mind. The movie follows a lonely German boy, Jojo, (Roman Griffin Davis) whose world view is turned upside down when he discovers his single mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a young Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) in their attic. Aided only by his idiotic imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler, JoJo must confront his blind nationalism.
"I'm the enemy," Jojo tells Elsa at one point in the trailer, seemingly as a warning. But she responds, "You're not a Nazi, Jojo, you're a 10-year-old kid who likes dressing up in a funny uniform and wants to be part of a club." It appears that their friendship will change Jojo's view of the world as he confesses to one of his camp buddies that "nothing makes sense anymore." The friend agrees as saying, "Yeah, it's definitely not a good time to be a Nazi."
The trailer teases some slapstick humors that are often executed so innocently by the young characters, who are trained for war at the Hitler Youth camp. Jojo is tormented by the other kids at camp for being a bit of a wuss, hence his nickname "Rabbit."
The movie also stars Sam Rockwell as a Nazi captain at a Hitler Youth camp, Alfie Allen as his second-in-command, Rebel Wilson as a brutish camp instructor, and Stephen Merchant as a Gestapo agent.
Waititi previously said his character Hitler is "a lonely boy's best version of his hero, which is really his dad." The character was further described, "This is not the Adolf we know and hate, this guy is goofy, charming, and glides through life with a child- like naivety."
Waititi directs the movie and adapts Christine Leunens' book Caging Skies for the movie. The anti-hate satire is set to have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8 before opening wide in the U.S. on October 18.
