Checker Tobi und das Geheimnis unseres Planeten (2019)

Checker Tobi finds a message in a bottle in the sea containing a multi-part riddle: “Look into the heart of the Earth, awaken the eight-legged bear, read the memory of the world, gather India’s most precious treasure, and you will unlock the secret of our planet.” To solve the four parts of the riddle, which at first make no sense to him at all, he goes on four journeys. On an island in Vanuatu, he climbs a volcano and looks into the glowing lava in its crater—the “heart of the Earth.” He learns that Earth was a hostile fireball before there was water, and that water may even have been brought to the surface from the planet’s interior by volcanoes. On a dive off Tasmania, he is shown tardigrades (the “eight-legged bears”). One tardigrade, dried out and lifeless in cryptobiosis, is brought back to life by a drop of water. At a research station in Greenland, he sees ice cores made of snow that fell thousands of years ago. The air bubbles trapped inside them can reveal clues about the history of our planet—the “memory of the world.” In Mumbai, he learns that the water supply for the city’s millions of residents depends entirely on the monsoon rains, which everyone is eagerly awaiting. The rain is therefore more precious than any other treasure. When it finally comes, the children dance for joy in the street. Tobi realizes that all four parts of his riddle have to do with water: water is the secret of our planet, because without it, life is impossible.