''The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix'' () is a 1975 Norwegian

stop-motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animation, animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appe ...

-animated sports film directed by

Ivo Caprino Ivo Caprino (17 February 1920 – 8 February 2001) was a Norway, Norwegian film director and writer, best known for his puppet films. His most noted film, ''Flåklypa Grand Prix'' (Pinchcliffe Grand Prix), was made in 1975. Early life Cap ...

. It is based on characters from a series of books by Norwegian cartoonist and author Kjell Aukrust. It is the most widely seen Norwegian film of all time, having sold some 5 million tickets since its release to a population which currently numbers just over 5 million. The film sold 28 million movie tickets in the former

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Plot

In the village of Flåklypa, ( En. Pinchcliffe), the inventor Reodor Felgen ( En. Theodore Rimspoke) lives with his animal friends Ludvig ( En. Lambert) (a nervous, pessimistic and melancholic hedgehog) and Solan Gundersen ( En. Sonny Duckworth) (a cheerful and optimistic magpie). Reodor works as a

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...

repairman; one day, the trio discovers that one of Reodor's former assistants, Rudolf Blodstrupmoen ( En. Rudolph Gore-Slimey), has stolen his design for a race car engine and has become a world champion Formula Seven driver. Solan secures funding from Arab oil sheik Ben Redic Fy Fazan ( En. Abdul Ben Bonanza), who happens to be vacationing in Flåklypa, and to enter the race, the trio builds a gigantic racing car: ''Il Tempo Gigante''. Reodor ends up winning despite Blodstrupmoen's attempts at sabotage.

History

In 1969, Ivo Caprino and Kjell Aukrust started work on a 30-minute-long TV special entitled ''Flåklypa Radio Norway'' based on Aukrust's books and commissioned for the

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

. Puppets were designed by Ingeborg Isdahl Riser, with the star vehicle ''Il Tempo Gigante'' being built by

Bjarne Sandemose Bjarne Walter William Sandemose (17 April 1924 – 21 April 2013) was a Norwegian of Danish descent. He was born in Denmark as a son of writer Aksel Sandemose. The family migrated to Norway in 1929. He is best known for his cooperation with Ivo Ca ...

(who used entirely house-found material in its construction). Despite major publicity, the NRK were unsatisfied and ceased production; another factor was difficultly adapting the original material (with the exception of some very short clips, no material from it has ever been seen by the public). A year later, Caprino and Aukrust announced that it would be adapted into a feature-length film. The film is heavily inspired by

Lom Municipality Lom Municipality () is a frontier Municipalities of Bulgaria, municipality (''obshtina'') in Montana Province, Northwestern Bulgaria, located along the right bank of Danube river in the Danubian Plain (Bulgaria), Danubian Plain. It is named after ...

, where Aukrust had roots. The Flåklypa-mountain is a stylized version of a real mountain, where the valley underneath is named Flåklypa. Other names, including Reodor and Blostrupmoen, were taken from the village of Alvdal. The film was made in 3 years by a small team of set builders and camera operators; Caprino directed and animated.

Release and reception

''Flåklypa Grand Prix'' was originally released in Norway on 28th August 1975. Following its immense success,

NRK1 NRK1 (pronounced as ''"NRK en"'' or ''"- ein"'') is the main television channel of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). History Test broadcasts started on 12 January 1954, regular test broadcasts began on 13 April 1958, and regular bro ...

, later

TV 2 Direkte TV 2 Direkte ('' English: TV 2 Live'') is a Norwegian terrestrial television channel. Its headquarters are located in Bergen. TV 2 began test broadcasting on 13 November 1991, and a year later, it was officially launched on 5 September 1992, bec ...

, began broadcasting the film every year on

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and

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A liturgical feast central to Christianity, Chri ...

respectively, a tradition which continues into the present day. To promote it, a life-size replica of ''Il Tempo Gigante'' was created. In 2013, the film was released on

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and finally available in high definition, the restoration process having began in 2005 for DVD and further enhanced for a theatrical 2010 rerelease. The first English-language release occurred in 1981, distributed by G.G. Communications with a dub recorded in

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. In the

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another dub premiered on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

in 1983; it is this version that is available on Norwegian home video releases.

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 designers were

Joe Dever Joseph Robert Dever, also known as Joe Dever (12 February 1956 – 29 November 2016) was an English fantasy author and game designer. Originally a musician, Dever became the first British winner of the ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' Championship ...

and Terry Greer. The game was ported to

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

in 2010 and sold over 380,000 copies in Norway. The film inspired a young Christian von Koenigsegg to create the Koenigsegg CC, the first of the

Koenigsegg Koenigsegg Automotive AB () is a Swedish manufacturer of high-performance sports cars based in Ängelholm, Skåne County, Sweden. Koenigsegg cars have on several occasions broken various production car speed records. Company The company w ...

line of supercars. Norwegian

hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...

duo Multicyde based their 1999 single "Not for the Dough" on a sample from the film's soundtrack and featured excerpts from the film in the song's music video.

References

External links

*
Official website
(in English)
History of Caprino Studios' portfolio
(in Norwegian

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pinchcliffe Grand Prix 1975 animated films 1975 films 1970s Norwegian-language films Norwegian animated films Norwegian children's films 1970s stop-motion animated films Animated sports films Norwegian auto racing films Animated films about auto racing Animated films about automobiles Films directed by Ivo Caprino