I'm amazed that there has been made an animated Norwegian film with such a large budget. But to mention; the total cost ended up almost three times as much as the original budget, and the film took a lot longer than expected to make. But it was worth the wait.
First I must comment on the amazing visuals. It may not be the total state-of-the-art within computer animation, but it's close enough. Director and writer Christoper Nielsen makes comics, and some of the main characters has also had their own small animated TV-series earlier. What makes it so good visually is it's special mood, lighting, fancy camera angles/animation and style of animation. If you would compare the visuals to other animation feature films like Shrek and similar, a big difference is the textures. They have spent much time on "mudding" up the textures making it look more gritty, more real and detailed.
When it comes to the style of the film, it has a lot of fresh camera angles, and it's very special style. You'll see this in the characters, and how they are animated. Take their appearances for example, some with enormous chins, reminding me of the villain of Shrek 1, but with much more exaggerated features. Others characters are made playing on and referring to cultural and ethnic stereotypes; the daft and lazy main-characters, the crazy and not-too-bright moose-hunters from Trøndelag, the fanatic animal-activists with various emotional problems and hangups, and of course; the samii-mafia riding their Motorcycles with red-eyed glowing skulls like some hardcore MC-club. Hysterical!
The humor of the film is somewhat special, and may not appeal 100% to everyone. A friend of mine said "it was too much flirting with narcotics". True, the main character Jimmy is a drug-addicted circus-elephant, whom is kept drugged down to stay calm off stage, and gets fed speed to go on stage. The different drugs are kept in shopping bags. To separate them the shopping bags are of course different. One of them is called Come'n'Shope, while the other one is called ... Shop'n'Come. The whole drug/alcohol thing is done in a very funny and exaggerated way, at the same time it has serious tones to it, like Jimmy's poor state of health, as he is skinny and worn with large wrinkles under his eyes from the drug abuse, and during drug-abstinences is very weak. Notice also that the film is dedicated to a Norwegian artist who died after many years of using drugs.
Although the humor might not appeal totally to you, there's many moments; like the windshield-moment and when Geir is high on speed. Cannot be fully explained. Must be seen!
Recommended!
First I must comment on the amazing visuals. It may not be the total state-of-the-art within computer animation, but it's close enough. Director and writer Christoper Nielsen makes comics, and some of the main characters has also had their own small animated TV-series earlier. What makes it so good visually is it's special mood, lighting, fancy camera angles/animation and style of animation. If you would compare the visuals to other animation feature films like Shrek and similar, a big difference is the textures. They have spent much time on "mudding" up the textures making it look more gritty, more real and detailed.
When it comes to the style of the film, it has a lot of fresh camera angles, and it's very special style. You'll see this in the characters, and how they are animated. Take their appearances for example, some with enormous chins, reminding me of the villain of Shrek 1, but with much more exaggerated features. Others characters are made playing on and referring to cultural and ethnic stereotypes; the daft and lazy main-characters, the crazy and not-too-bright moose-hunters from Trøndelag, the fanatic animal-activists with various emotional problems and hangups, and of course; the samii-mafia riding their Motorcycles with red-eyed glowing skulls like some hardcore MC-club. Hysterical!
The humor of the film is somewhat special, and may not appeal 100% to everyone. A friend of mine said "it was too much flirting with narcotics". True, the main character Jimmy is a drug-addicted circus-elephant, whom is kept drugged down to stay calm off stage, and gets fed speed to go on stage. The different drugs are kept in shopping bags. To separate them the shopping bags are of course different. One of them is called Come'n'Shope, while the other one is called ... Shop'n'Come. The whole drug/alcohol thing is done in a very funny and exaggerated way, at the same time it has serious tones to it, like Jimmy's poor state of health, as he is skinny and worn with large wrinkles under his eyes from the drug abuse, and during drug-abstinences is very weak. Notice also that the film is dedicated to a Norwegian artist who died after many years of using drugs.
Although the humor might not appeal totally to you, there's many moments; like the windshield-moment and when Geir is high on speed. Cannot be fully explained. Must be seen!
Recommended!