The Abrafaxe – Under The Black Flag

The Abrafaxe – Under The Black Flag (German: Die Abrafaxe – Unter schwarzer Flagge and also known as The Pirates of Tortuga: Under The Black Flag) is a German film directed by Gerhard Hahn [de] and Tony Power. It was released in 2001 and is based on the popular and long running German comic strip series Die Abrafaxe by Lona Rietschel and Lothar Dräger.

The Abrafaxe – Under The Black Flag
German theatrical release poster
Die Abrafaxe – Unter schwarzer Flagge
Directed by	Gerhard Hahn [de] Tony Power
Production companies	Universal Pictures Produktion[1] Abrafaxe Trickfilm[1] Hahn Film[1]
Distributed by	United International Pictures[1]
Release date	25 October 2001 (2001-10-25)
Running time	81 minutes
Country	Germany
Language	German

Plot

The lead characters are three kids Abrax, Brabax and Califax (Alex and Max in English). They sneak into the back of the museum where they find a rare golden Aztec bowl. While playing with it a bit, its layers moved, and they were transported back in time. Both Abrax and Brabax landed in cargo space of Spanish galleon under captain Don Archimbaldo.

Califax landed in pirate city of Tortuga governed by legendary beautiful and dangerous pirate Anne Bonny. Her father Shanty was killed by Blackbeard on story progression. At the end, Anne Bonny together with Abrax, Brabax, Califax and her crew uncover the secret island and treasure of El Dorado.

Then Abrax, Brabax and Califax decide that it is time to go home, so they used that rare Aztec golden bowl to get back home to the museum where they put back the bowl. But they were caught by a security guard and the museum tour guide, then released. Just when they were outside of the museum, they saw a light similar to the one before when they were travelling, but now on top of the museum, as the story ended. (It is known that by accident the security guard of museum and the museum tour guide travelled in time, with a new adventure beginning where the old one left off.)

Cast and characters

Original German version

• Kim Hasper – Abrax (Alex in the English version)
• David Turba – Brabax (Max in the English version)
• Ilona Schulz – Califax
• Nena – Anne Bonny
• Helmut Krauss – Blackbeard
• Santiago Ziesmer – Don Archimbaldo
• Wilfried Herbst – Prado
• Ulrich Voß – Shanty
• Michael Pan – Carlos
• Stefan Friedrich – Juan

English-dubbed version

• Justin Bradley – Califax
• Holly Gauthier-Frankel – Anne Bonny
• A.J. Henderson – Blackbeard/Prado
• Rick Jones – Don Archimbaldo
• Susan Glover – Museum Curator

Release

The film was released on DVD in the United Kingdom in 2007 by Brightspark Productions.^[2] In 2012, Brightspark re-released the film under the name Pirates! as a way to piggyback on the release of The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!.^[3]