Hilfe, ich hab meine Freunde geschrumpft (2021)

The ancient and cantankerous teacher Hulda Stechbarth makes another attempt to take control of Otto Leonhard High School. Using a recipe from the school’s founder Otto Leonhard’s notebook, she plans to drive his ghost out of the school forever. But the school ghost, Otto Leonhard, gets ahead of her and teaches Felix how to shrink people to the size of dolls. Ella has fallen in love with Felix, but repeatedly fails to tell him how she feels. Like the rest of the class, she is suspicious of the new student Melanie, since things keep going missing, including Felix’s fountain pen and Mario’s phone. She is also jealous because Felix, the only one who stands by Melanie, thinks he has fallen in love with her. At Melanie’s suggestion, the class goes on a school trip to Otto Leonhard’s birthplace, to his old house, which is said to be haunted. The class is supposed to bring the entire collection with them, including the notebook. In reality, Melanie is Hulda Stechbarth’s secret agent, assigned to get close to Felix. Michi and Lukas, who are also Hulda’s accomplices, give everyone except Felix and his friends Ella, Mario, Chris, and Robert—who happen to be absent—a sleeping potion, allowing Melanie to steal the notebook unnoticed. Melanie realizes that she really has fallen in love with Felix and no longer wants to take part in Hulda’s plan, which Hulda is forcing her to carry out. She asks Felix to meet her and wants to tell him everything. Because Felix initially refuses to believe his friends when they say Melanie is responsible for the thefts, he shrinks them so they cannot interrupt his meeting with her. They argue, and Melanie rides away on her bicycle, supposedly to her old family home. Felix wants to make his friends big again, but discovers that the magic orb needed for this has disappeared. Suspecting that Melanie may really be the thief, he goes to find her. She admits that she really did steal his fountain pen, Mario’s phone, and the orb, but says nothing about the notebook. She explains that she suffers from kleptomania and feels compelled to steal something whenever she is stressed. Felix is about to drink from the bottle of sleeping potion. To stop him, Melanie drinks from it too, and just before the two kiss, they fall asleep. When Felix wakes the next morning, he looks out the window and spots Hulda Stechbarth. He realizes that his friends were right all along and turns away from Melanie in disappointment. When he returns to his friends, he finds that Michi and Lukas have kidnapped them. To rescue them, he shrinks himself and gets into the house through the dog flap, where Hulda and her helpers are holding his friends captive. He manages to find and free them. When he tries to use magic to make himself and the others big again, he realizes that he no longer has enough power to set the magic orb in motion. He tells his friends that he, not Otto Leonhard’s ghost, shrank them, and this causes a rift between him and Ella. Meanwhile, Hulda and her helpers have finished preparing the magic potion and are planning to take it to Otto Leonhard’s school. Felix and his friends manage to sneak onto the car. Felix and Ella make up along the way. Ella tries once again to tell him she is in love with him, but Felix misunderstands her again and now believes that he is in love with Melanie, despite her betrayal. He calls Melanie, who is still being forced by Hulda to go along with her plan. Melanie sneaks him and his friends into the school and joins forces with them. Hulda nevertheless succeeds in driving Otto Leonhard’s ghost out of the school and taking his powers for herself. Finally, after Melanie tells him that his imagination has not shrunk and that he has enough power, Felix manages to use magic to make his friends and himself big again. He then shrinks Hulda Stechbarth to a tiny size and defeats her. The school can continue to be run in Otto Leonhard’s spirit. With the help of a glowing bracelet, Felix finally realizes that he is not in love with Melanie, but is actually in love with Ella, and the two get together. Just before they kiss, Felix seemingly shrinks the film’s viewers through the fourth wall.