JoJo is a ten-year-old German boy living in the last years of World War II. His imaginary best friend is Adolph Hitler and he wants to be a Nazi more than anything, specifically one of Hitler’s personal guards. He attends a Nazi Youth camp hoping that will be the first step towards becoming a real Nazi, but an accident derails his plans. He ends up spending most of the time at home, while his mother Rosie is out secretly helping the Resistance.
One day he hears noises upstairs and discovers, Elsa, a teenage Jewish girl who Rosie is hiding. As JoJo gets to know Elsa better and learns more about what his mother is doing he becomes disenchanted with the Nazi Party.
That sounds like it could be a very grim and serious movie, and there are some very dark moments. But the whole movie is surprisingly light-hearted, there are a lot of jokes throughout. Another way the movie keeps a lighter tone is by showing the good in a lot of characters, even some of the Nazis.
It’s definitely an odd but entertaining movie.