TV
Northern Stars
Pinchcliffe Grand Prix
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ver the past 25 years, Norwegian animation studios and individual artists have been a regular fixture on the festival, TV and feature film circuit. However, few realize that the Land of the Midnight Sun has had a consistent animation tradition for almost a century. In fact, the country will celebrate this 100-year landmark this November. According to Gunnar Strøm, one of the top animation experts in the region and founder of the well-regarded animation school in Volda, Norway had a very strong political and comic cartoon following back in 1913. “The first animated short was the two-minute-long Fanden i nøtten (The Devil in the Nut), which was based on a Norwegian folktale and animated by Ola Cornelius in 1917,” says Strøm. “The short was inspired by both the Swedish and American animation industry. Then from the early ‘20s through the early ‘60s, commercial cartoons took over the scene, with about 200 films produced by Bjørn Aronsen, who also worked on Disney’s Sleeping Beauty in 1959.” One of the country’s animation pioneers and best-loved figures was Ivo Caprino (1920-2001), who produced 12 successful puppet animated films based on folk tales in the early ’50s. As John M. Jacobsen—who produced the first CG-animated project in Norway, Elias, the Little Rescue Boat, as well as live-action favorites such as the 1988 Oscar-nominated feature Pathfinder and the 2010 cult hit Trollhunter— points out, “We were enthusiasts ourselves. There was really no animation industry back then. There were only amateurs. People called [Caprino’s] movies ‘puppet movies’ and he hated that. He always said, ‘I am an animator.’ Caprino worked in a very small community: It was just him and his collaborators. They did not really build 20 www.animationmagazine.net november 13
an industry, but had their own little industry. Everything stopped after he stopped making movies.” In 1968, Caprino and his team of eight people began working on what would become a major icon of the country’s animation industry: the 88-minute feature Flåklypa Grand Prix (Pinchcliffe Grand Prix), which premiered on August 28, 1975. (A fully restored version was released in 2005, and a new Blu-ray version of the film will be available this Christmas, featuring archival footage as well as a documentary about the animator.)
Much More Than a Puppeteer “I would say Caprino was a puppeteer, in the beginning animation was not that important to him,” says Strøm. “He wanted to bring puppets to life. Caprino developed an ingenious method to use the puppets in live action, in real time.” There is nothing like Flåklypa. It had a huge impact and was seen by more than 5 million Norwegians in the cinema. It became the best selling film on video, DVD and spin-off
Our European correspondent catches up with some of Norway’s top animation figures as the country prepares to celebrate a century of the artform. by Peter Schavemaker. videogames. Even today, the film is still shown on TV every year during Christmas. Caprino’s legacy is kept alive by his son Remo and grandson Mario. “Initially, there were plans to create a TV series based on his characters, but after a year of working on the puppets, the Norwegian broadcaster NRK wasn’t happy with the results. My grandfather was disappointed,” says Mario. Nevertheless, Pinchcliffe’s popularity grew beyond Norway and also spread to Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Soviet Union and Japan. Because of his contribution to the animation landscape, Caprino earned the nickname “The Walt Disney of Norway.” Mario says his grandfather took it as a great compliment. “Disney wanted to buy the studio, but my grandfather said no, he wanted to work on his own,” he recalls. “Caprino Studios has always been a little bit isolated from the rest of the industry, and we like to work on our own. We are not involved in the rest of the industry.” Strøm adds that just like Disney, Caprino made films for the whole family.
Solan and Ludvigs Christmas
TV Elias, Gurin and the CG Era In 1998, John M. Jacobsen directed the first Norwegian animated feature called Solan, Ludvig og Gurin med reverompa (Gurin with the Fox-Tail), based on characters by Kjell Aukrust, which were also used in Flåklypa Grand Prix. “Of course it was a challenge. It was expensive, but we had the advantage of using characters that were so popular, and the author was an icon. It was likely that the film would be a financial success, so that made it easier to raise money for it.” Looking back, Jacobsen admits that the film looks a bit primitive 15 years later. “It was the best movie we could make at that time, considering that it had never been done in Norway before. When I grew up in the 1950s, there was only Walt Disney. We felt like pioneers in 1998.” Today, the country’s leading animation studio is Oslo-based Qvisten, which was founded in 1994 by former Volda University College students Rasmus A. Sivertsen and Ove Heiborg. Like some of the studios from the early days of the century, Qvitsen began its life by producing animated commercials. “Animated commercials for Levis and Coke inspired us to educate our agencies to use animation in commercials. Before that, animation was only produced for children,” says Heiborg. This November, Qvisten Animation will release a new stop-motion animated feature titled Solan and Ludvig’s Christmas (Jul i Flåklypa), a new version of the popular Aukrust Pinchcliffe characters. “We could have done a tremendous Solan and Ludvig in CG, but we felt that they really belong to the stop-motion universe,” says Heiborg. “It feels kind of safe to bring this to the public here, because you know it is going to be successful. The audience loves these characters, but we know we also will receive lots of criticism.” Qvisten is also behind the boxoffice hit Pelle Politibil på sporet (Ploddy the Police Car) and three live-action/CG feature films about Knerten, a lively twig branch that befriends a mischievous young boy, based on the books by Anne-Cath Vestly. Heiborg says it was important for him to preserve and promote Norwegian culture and heritage. Strøm says that Knerten is a great example of the Nordic storytelling tradition. “The series follows the tradition of Swedish author Astrid Lindgren. With the use of CGI, Knerten becomes believable. They did a great job of bringing that to life. I am absolutely sure the new Solan and Ludvig will be a smash hit. People will consider this as the new Flåklypa.” The production pipeline for the new feature Jul i Flåklypa is also completely based in Nor-
The Danish Poet
Torill Kove
Hocus Pocus, Alfie Atkins
way. Heiborg adds, “I think that is very important, too. We want to keep the small industry, our family, in Norway running.” Jens Johnathan Gulliksen, one of Norway’s successful stop-motion animators who worked on blockbusters Koala Brothers, Corpse Bride, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Frankenweenie outside the country, was hired as supervisor. “Pinchcliffe is the only animation franchise we have in Norway. These are characters the entire Norwegian population has a relationship with. When I started working on the new version, I was afraid I would mess it up. You really need it to be right. Working on it felt like a duty.” Gulliksen acknowledges the fact that it is a risk to create a new feature about the beloved characters. “It’s a challenge as you don’t know how the audience will react to this new interpretation. I wanted to stay as close as possible to the traditional feel.”
Kove’s Treasure Troves By many standards, the past 25 years are considered to be the golden age of animation in Norway. Strøm confirms that the industry began to evolve rapidly in the early ’90s. “We
saw the industry grow and become more professional. The technology changed, and we got involved in producing games and animated music videos. Animation festivals were organized. We began to receive worldwide success with our films, and that brought prestige to our industry. I would have thought this all impossible 25 years ago.” One of the acclaimed projects that brought global attention to Norway was The Danish Poet (Den Danske Dikteren), the 2006 Oscar-winning short by Torill Kove. She was also acclaimed for her previous effort, the 2000 Oscar-nominated My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts. Both shorts were based her family’s stories. “The Danish Poet was a very personal work for me,” says Kove. “The story was not about my life, but my parents’ experiences. I felt I did not have the right to use that material, because I didn’t want to step on any toes. The King’s Shirts has actually more elements of truth in it.” Kove will also release a new short in early 2014, titled Me and My Moulton, which will be by far her most personal work to date. The new november 13 www.animationmagazine.net 21
TV
Angry Man
Elias the Little Resue Boat
Ella Bella Bingo
project centers on a seven-yearold girl whose parents seek to be different from others. “She is essentially me at the age of seven,” says Kove. “It is like a little memoir.” Like her other two shorts, Moulton is being co-produced with the National Film Board of Canada. “Although the films have typical Norwegian content, they seem to strike a chord with the North American audience.” Kove also brings her distinctive style and sensibility to a lovely new animated feature based on another popular children’s property. The 2D-animated feature is titled Hocus Pocus, Alfie Atkins (Hokus Pokus, Albert Aberg). Produced by Maipo Film and distributed by Nordisk Films, the charming tale centers on a resourceful seven-year-old boy who has an imaginary friend, and how he tries to convince his dad that he’s not too young to have a pet dog. Like many of the other popular Norwegian movies and TV shows, the film is based on a children’s book series, this one by Gunilla Bergstrom. Anita Killi’s 2009 short Angry Man (Sinna Mann) is another acclaimed work that received many accolades on the festival circuit a few years ago. The short takes an unflinching look at domestic violence, from a child’s point of view. “After reading the script by [the couple] Gro Dahle and Svein Nyhus, I realized that Sinna Mann was the story I had been waiting for,” recalls Killi. “Children need to see films like Sinna Mann. If you compare the violence that children see daily in games and on TV, that is really violent.” It took Killi six years to create the multi-plane cutouts for
the project. “I am a shy person and used to work on my own.” Strøm says Kove, Killi and Pjotr Sapegin—who won numerous awards with his shorts One Day a Man Bought a House (1998) and The Last Norwegian Troll (2010)—are all part of the talented modern figures who have put Norway on the animation map in recent years. On the TV front, the future of Norwegian animation also seems bright. The current success of animated shows such as Ella Bella Bingo (Elleville Elfrid), co-produced by Frank Mosvold of Oslo-based Kool Produktion and Singapore’s August Media Holdings, is a great indication of things to come. The 2D Flash-animated preschool show has been commissioned by Norway’s NRK and focuses on the daily events in the life of a creative girl named Ella. Also on board as exec producers are August Media’s Jyotirmoy Saha and Ken Anderson. Ella Bella Bingo is billed as the first Norwegian animation production available on all platforms. As Mosvold recalls, he first pitched the idea for the show back in April of 2009. “We received funding within a week from public broadcaster NRK to make the pilot. NRK loved the idea, and the first six episodes of the show were broadcast in December of 2010.” Ella Bella Bingo has been sold to all Nordic countries. The Norwegian animation industry will celebrate the 100th anniversary during the upcoming Fredrikstad Animation festival, held November 7-10. An overview of the history of animation in the region will be presented in a special book and DVD set. ♦
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Ivo Caprino
John M. Jacobsen