''Kooky'' ( cs, Kuky se vrací, literally "Kuky returns", a pun on '' Lassie se vrací'') is a 2010 Czech

action comedy film Action comedy is a genre that combines aspects of action and comedy. The genre is most prevalent in film with action comedy films, though several TV series fit this genre. Film The action comedy film is a film genre that combines aspects of actio ...

directed by

Jan Svěrák Jan Svěrák () (born 6 February 1965 in Žatec) is a Czech film director. He is the son of screenwriter and actor Zdeněk Svěrák. He studied documentary filmmaking at the FAMU. He and his films have received awards including the Academy Award, ...

. The film combines techniques of

puppet animation Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

and

live action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...

. It tells the story of a six-year-old

asthmatic Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, cou ...

boy whose parents throw his favorite toy away, an old

teddy bear A teddy bear is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently simultaneously by toymakers Morris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff under his aunt Margarete Steiff's company in Germany in the early 20th century, the teddy bear, ...

named Kooky. The boy, however, secretly sneaks out of the house at night (without his boots and being dressed only in his pajamas), to retrieve Kooky from the garbage can and bring him back home. Due to that, the boy gets ill. In his feverish dreams, Kooky comes to life in the

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...

, escapes into a mysterious forest and begins its journey amongst the rough-and-ready creatures of the forest.

Background

Jan Svěrák initially planned to create a film depicting the world viewed from the perspective of a dog who survives

floods A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrolog ...

; however, he changed his plans after he retold parts of the story to his son Ondřej. The film was inspired by the works of the Czech sculptor and painter František Skála, who refused to participate in the production. Svěrák offered collaboration on the technical development of puppets and visual effects to

Jakub Dvorský Jakub Dvorský (born August 19, 1978) is a designer and video game creator from Brno, Czech Republic. In 2003, he founded Amanita Design, a small independent game developing studio based in the Czech Republic. Life and career Between 1994–1997 ...

from the video game company

Amanita Design Amanita Design is a Czech independent video game developing company founded in 2003 by Jakub Dvorský and headquartered in Brno, Czech Republic. The company has created award-winning games including ''Machinarium'', the ''Samorost'' series and ...

. The puppets in the film were manipulated by the members of the ensemble ''Buchty a loutky''. During the post-production process, Svěrák and his team concentrated on removing the strings and wires with the help of

computer animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes (still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refe ...

. Kooky is technically the most complicated film by Svěrák; it contains three times more

visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action foota ...

than ''

Dark Blue World ''Dark Blue World'' ( cs, Tmavomodrý svět) is a 2001 film by Czech director Jan Svěrák, the Academy Award-winning director of ''Kolya'', about Czech pilots who fought for the British Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. The scre ...

'', the most expensive Czech film up to that point. In addition to fictional puppet figures, the film makes use of real animals (

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

snail A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastro ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

etc.) ''Kooky'' was shot at various locations in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

: the winter scenes were filmed at

Ještěd Ještěd (; german: Jeschken) is the highest mountain of the Ještěd–Kozákov Ridge in the north of the Czech Republic, at . It is the symbol of the city of Liberec. On the summit is the Ještěd Tower restaurant, hotel and television tower, ...

, the forest background was shot near to

Bechyně Bechyně (; german: Bechin, Beching or ''Bechingen'') is a town in Tábor District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 4,900 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban ...

and in the National Nature Reserve

Voděradské bučiny Voděradské bučiny (Voděrady Beechwood) is a National Nature Reserve located near the town of Černé Voděrady in the Prague-East District, Central Bohemian Region, Czech Republic. The area of the reserve is 658 ha. There are natural beech fo ...

, and the scenes containing sandstone rocks were filmed in

Drábské světničky Drábské světničky is a ruin of a 13th-century rock castle in the Czech Republic. It is located about northeast of Mnichovo Hradiště on the ragged edge of a sandstone cliff high above surrounding landscape. The castle covers a group of sev ...

. Production began in autumn of 2008. It was planned for 35 days but difficulties extended the duration of the shoot to 100 days. It is now available to watch on iTunes. The movie was also available as part of the Humble Botanicula Debut.

Characters

Kooky

Kooky (voiced by Ondřej Svěrák) is a stuffed

, the only fictional character in the film connected with the "human world". The other puppet characters are supposed to recall forest creatures rather than toys. Kooky's puppet is 21 cm tall; it was manufactured in 18 versions for the purpose of filming all the technically complicated scenes. Kooky's face is lacking

facial expression A facial expression is one or more motions or positions of the muscles beneath the skin of the face. According to one set of controversial theories, these movements convey the emotional state of an individual to observers. Facial expressions are a ...

Captain von Hergot

Captain von Hergot (voiced by

Zdeněk Svěrák Zdeněk Svěrák (born 28 March 1936) is a Czech actor, humorist, playwright and scriptwriter, and one of the most well-known and popular Czech cultural personalities. Since 1968 he has appeared in 32 films. Career In 1958, he graduated in Czec ...

) is an old forest guardian who seeks to protect Kooky. The manufacturing of Hergot's puppet was complicated; Jakub Dvorský drew hundreds of sketches of the character. The final visual appearance of the puppet is similar to a

root vegetable Root vegetables are underground plant parts eaten by humans as food. Although botany distinguishes true roots (such as taproots and tuberous roots) from non-roots (such as bulbs, corms, rhizomes, and tubers, although some contain both hypocotyl a ...

Nightshade

Nightshade (in Czech: Anuška, voiced by

Jiří Macháček Jiří Macháček (born 6 July 1966 in Litoměřice) is a Czech actor and singer. Education Macháček graduated from high school in Prague before attending Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory, the Law Faculty at Charles University in Prague, and th ...

) is an

antagonist An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the chief foe of the protagonist. Etymology The English word antagonist comes from the Greek ἀνταγωνιστής – ''antagonistēs'', "opponent, competitor, villain, enemy, riv ...

fighting against Captain von Hergot, as he himself wants to become the forest guardian. The puppet has a big mouth and it likes to eat

slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a smal ...

s. Nightshade is the only puppet character moving its mouth during speaking and swallowing.

Pytlík Vidlička and Pytlík Zapík

Pytlík Vidlička (voiced by

Petr Čtvrtníček Petr Čtvrtníček (born 5 April 1964 in Prague) is a Czech actor and comedian. Selected filmography * '' Kouř'' (1991) * ''Fany'' (1995) * '' Tomík'' (1997) * '' Česká soda'' (1998) * ''Mazaný Filip'' (2003) * '' Ivánku, kamaráde, můž ...

) and Pytlík Zapík (voiced by

Jiří Lábus Jiří Lábus (born 26 January 1950, in Prague) is a Czech actor. His brother is the Czech architect Ladislav Lábus. In 1973, he graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and joined the theatre Studio Ypsilon, where he remains ...

) are the landfill guardians. They chase Kooky, who escaped from the landfill. The puppets are made of deformed

plastic bottle A plastic bottle is a bottle constructed from high-density or low density plastic. Plastic bottles are typically used to store liquids such as water, soft drinks, motor oil, cooking oil, medicine, shampoo, milk, and ink. The size ranges from v ...

Releases, awards and nominations

''Kooky'' was chosen as the official Czech Republic contestant film for the 45th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Crystal Globe and won the Special Jury Prize. Thereafter it won 6 more awards and 4 nominationes in various international film festivals.Awards on IMDb
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References

External links

* {{Teddy bears 2010 films 2010s Czech-language films Films directed by Jan Svěrák Puppet films Czech animated action films Czech animated films Czech Lion Awards winners (films) Golden Kingfisher winners Czech Film Critics' Awards winners Fictional teddy bears Films about dreams Films based on fairy tales Czech animated comedy films