The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix
This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2009) |
The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix | |
---|---|
Norwegian | Flåklypa Grand Prix |
Directed by | Bent Fabricius-Bjerre |
Production company | Caprino Filmcenter a/s |
Release date |
|
Running time | 88 minutes |
Country | Norway |
Language | Norwegian |
Box office | $6,439,069[citation needed] |
The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix (
It is the most widely seen Norwegian film of all time, having sold some 5.5 million tickets since its release to a population which currently numbers just over 5 million.[1] The film sold 28 million movie tickets in the former Soviet Union.[2]
Plot
In the village of Flåklypa, (
History
In 1970, Ivo Caprino and his small team of collaborators started work on a 25-minute-long TV special, which would eventually become The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix. The TV special was a collection of sketches based on Aukrust's books, with no real storyline. After 1.5 years of work, it was decided that it didn't really work as a whole, so production on the TV special was stopped (with the exception of some very short clips, no material from it has ever been seen by the public). About one year after the rejection, Ivo Caprino's son, Remo Caprino, got the idea to make the sketches into a full-length film. Kjell Aukrust, Ivo Caprino, Kjell Syversen, and Remo Caprino began at that point to write the script for what would later become The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix.
The film is heavily inspired by the birthplace of Kjell Aukrust's father, Lom. The Flåklypa-mountain is a stylized version of a real mountain, where the valley underneath it is named Flåklypa. It is also widely believed that the characters are caricatures of real persons.
The film was made in 3.5 years by a team of approximately five people. Caprino directed and animated. Bjarne Sandemose (Caprino's principal collaborator throughout his career) built most of the props, sets, and cars and was in charge of the technical aspects of making the film. Ingeborg Riiser designed the puppets and Gerd Alfsen made the costumes and props. Charley Patey was the cameraman.
When it came out in 1975, The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix was an enormous success in Norway, selling 1 million tickets in its first year of release.[citation needed] It remains the biggest box office hit of all time in Norway[citation needed] (Caprino Studios claim it has sold 5.5 million tickets to date) and was also released in many other countries. The film held the record for the highest grossing stop motion animated film until it was surpassed in 1993 by The Nightmare Before Christmas. The film was shown in cinemas every day of the week for 28 years, from 1975 until 2003—mainly in Norway, Moscow and Tokyo.[citation needed] A real Il tempo gigante car was used to promote the film, e.g. driving around the Hockenheimring between races.[3] The car originally had a 250 hp Cadillac engine but when Niki Lauda saw it he provided them with a 7.6 L, 550 hp, big-block Chevrolet. The car also has an auxiliary jet-engine, but due to EU restrictions the vehicle is barely permitted to be used at all save for exclusive TV cameos.[citation needed]
The UK release featured the voice of well-known Formula One commentator Murray Walker. There is also a US dubbed version.
The film was first released on DVD in 2001. In 2005, a digitally restored 30th-anniversary DVD was released which featured soundtracks and subtitles in five languages including English.
The film aired every Christmas Eve in Norway for several years, until a change of channel from
It was released on 8 May 1980 in Australian theaters by Filmways Australia and released in US and Canada in 1981.
Subsequent films based on Aukrust's Flåklypa universe
- Gurin with the Foxtail (1998)
- Solan og Ludvig - Jul i Flåklypa (2013)
- Solan og Ludvig: Herfra til Flåklypa(2015)
- Månelyst i Flåklypa(2018)
Other works inspired
In 2000, a computer game based on the film was released. The game was created by Tyr Neilsen who was Creative Director and in charge of production at Ingames Interactive until a debilitating accident ended his video game career. The project was taken over and completed by Caprino's son Remo, while his grandson Mario was lead programmer. The lead designer was Joe Dever. The game was ported to Nintendo DS in 2010 and sold over 380,000 copies in Norway.[4]
The film inspired a young Christian von Koenigsegg to create the Koenigsegg CC, the first of the Koenigsegg line of supercars.[5]
Norwegian
See also
- List of animated feature films
- List of stop-motion films
References
- ^ "Pinchcliffe Grand Prix".
- ^ "Горелов о советских хитах "Гран-при"".
- ^ "Il Tempo Gigante".
- Gamasutra. April 5, 2020. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
- ^ "Pagani vs Koenigsegg: the bosses talk". TopGear.com. BBC.
- ^ "WhoSampled.com entry for Multicyde sample from film's theme". WhoSampled.com. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
External links
- The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix at IMDb
- Official website (in English)