Our shortfilm ‘The Princess, the Prince and the green-eyed Dragon’ by Bin-Han To and Jakob Schuh will be shown at this year’s O-TONi Filmfestival for Children and Teenager in Breest, Germany. It will be part of the Animation Shortfilm section supported by AG Kurzfilm starting at 14:00 CET on August, 25th. If you pass by Burg Klempenow, you should consider to attend – a castle seems to be a proper location for watching a movie about a princess, a prince and a green-eyed Dragon.
We have some good news from Hungary and Korea:
Our film ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ by Johannes Weiland and Uwe Heidschötter was awarded at this year’s Kecskemét Animation Film Festival (KAFF) in Hungary and Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival (SICAF) in Korea. Congratulations to the whole Team!
If you haven’t had the opportunity to watch our latest shortfilms yet, you can make good for that soon. Within the next days, KIKA will show ‘Die Prinzessin, der Prinz und der Drache mit den grünen Augen’, ‘Das Bild der Prinzessin’ and ‘Schrecken ohne Ende’ within the children’s series ‘Siebenstein’:
Thursday – 18/07, 9:10am – ‘Die Prinzessin, der Prinz und der Drache mit den grünen Augen’
Friday – 19/07, 9:10am – ‘Das Bild der Prinzessin’
Monday – 22/07, 9:10am – ‘Schrecken ohne Ende’
Here are two pictures of one of our current projects. Directed by Johannes Weiland and Klaus Morschheuser, designed by Sandra Brandstätter, the film is about trials and tribulations of a girl, a mountaintop and a lion in a ballet tutu.
It will have its premiere this autumn within the ZDF kids series ‘Siebenstein’.
If you are wondering whether we did anything else besides ‘Gumball’ and ‘Schrecken ohne Ende’ last year, the answer is yes! We were allowed to dip into the land of Ooo to create 3D Animations, Models and Rigs for the ‘Adventure Time’ Episode ‘The Glitch’.
Many thanks to our colleagues Tobias von Burkersroda, John Coomey, Mark Feller, Robert Lehman, Parzival Röthlein, Peter Ruschel, Jakob Schuh and Max Stöhr who worked on this project.
If you attend this year’s ‘Goldener Spatz’ in Erfurt and Gera, you might want to take a chance watching ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’.
It will be screened twice within the category ‘Animation’. The first screening is on May, 28th at 15:30 at UCI 4 in Gera. The second one is on May, 30th at 11:15 at CineStar 4 in Erfurt.
If you are lucky, it might give you a fresh winter breeze on a hot sunny day.
Photo by ITFS
The Trickfilmfestival in Stuttgart ended with a very nice surprise. Our short film “Schrecken ohne Ende” was awarded in the category Tricks for Kids. Congratulations to the directors Max Stöhr and Michael Sieber as well as the whole team. For a complete list of the credits go to Soi’s website and click on the very first picture in our work-section.
If you haven’t seen it yet, you can watch the complete film online on the ZDF’s website.
Our latest short film “Schrecken ohne Ende” as well as the Gumball episode “The Job” will be screened at this year’s ITFS on Sunday, 28th of April, 2:00 pm at the Metropol. In the same screening last year’s BBC 1 Christmas special “Room on the Broom” will be shown for the first time in Germany.
Also, there is the chance to watch “Der Kleine und das Biest” on April, 27th at 9:00 pm at the special jubilee screening “20 Festival – 20 Filme”. Furthermore you will have the chance to watch “The Gruffalo’s Child” in the open on Thursday 25th at 3:00 pm on Schlossplatz.
Finally, two of our co-founders, Saschka Unseld and Jakob Schuh, will give an insight on their work on April, 26th. At 2:00 pm Saschka will present Pixar’s most recent short film “The Blue Umbrella” at the König-Karl-Halle as part of the FMX. Jakob will talk about the work on his movies at 8:00 pm at the Metropol.
Update:
Shortly after the start of this year’s ITFS, we have a little update on our blog posting. The short films ‘Schrecken ohne Ende’ and ‘Room on the Broom’ will be screened on Sunday, 28th at 4 pm at the Mercedes-Benz Museum. ‘The Job’ will be shown at 2:30 pm at Metropol.
Besides that you can also watch ‘Schrecken ohne Ende’ on April, 27th at 3 pm at Gloria and on April, 28th at 4 pm at the Mercedes-Benz Museum.
Saschka will also give an insight of his work on ‘The Blue Umbrella’ as part of the Pixar studio presentation on the ITFS at Gloria at 5 pm on April, 27th.
Picture by Malte Christians
After having its German TV premiere at Christmas 2012, our movie ”The Gruffalo’s Child’, directed by Johannes Weiland and Uwe Heidschötter, was awarded with the EMIL award on 21st March.
Here is an extract from the jury decision: ‘The Gruffalo’s Child is one of the rare sequels exceeding the prequel. Softly and lyrically the film describes a journey through a snowy and nightly forest. Rhymed commentaries and dialogues humorously question the prequel’s story.’
For all German speakers, here is the complete jury statement:
Kinder müssen Fehler machen dürfen, um zu lernen. Manchmal müssen sie sogar die Fehler ihrer Eltern wiederholen, um selbst Erfahrungen zu sammeln. Genau darum geht es im Kurzfilm „Das Grüffelokind“.
Wie schon im Vorgänger „Der Grüffelo“ haben die Animatoren die Illustrationen des Kinderbuchs liebevoll in dreidimensionale Figuren übertragen. Der Grüffelo ist inzwischen Vater geworden. Mit Unbehagen erinnert sich das Waldmonster an seine Begegnung mit der „großen bösen Maus“. Doch der Nachwuchs zweifelt: Gibt es im Wald wirklich ein mächtigeres Ungeheuer als den wuchtigen Papa? Das Grüffelchen büxt aus, um es herauszufinden.
Das Grüffelokind“ zählt zu jenen raren Fortsetzungen, die den ersten Teil übertreffen. Leise und lyrisch schildert der Film die Reise durch den verschneiten, nächtlichen Wald. Gereimte Kommentare und Dialoge hinterfragen gewitzt die Geschichte des Vorgängers.
Doch vor allem das ambivalente Finale hat die EMIL-Jury beeindruckt. Natürlich atmet man auf, wenn die Maus das Grüffelokind ebenso austrickst, erschreckt und verjagt wie einst dessen Vater. Aber: Insgeheim tut einem das tapfere, wissbegierige Grüffelchen auch ein bisschen leid.
This Sunday, the 17th of February, our latest shortfilm ‘Schrecken ohne Ende’, also known as ‘Nearest and Dearest’, celebrates its TV premiere as part of the TV kids show ‘Siebenstein’.
The directors Max Stöhr and Michael Sieber tell a story about a little boy who tries to work out a good plan to prevent his big sister from moving away.
To find out whether this plan is successful or not, turn on the TV this Sunday 10:35 on ZDF.
On Sunday as part of the children’s show Siebenstein our very first shortfilm “Torvald und der Tannenbaum” will be shown at 10:35 am on KiKa in HD.
In the morning of the 24th the ZDF will show our half-hour-special “Der Güffelo” at 10:10 am
followed at 10:40 by “Das Grüffelokind” which airs for the first time on German television.
Have a HAPPY CHRISTMAS everyone!
For the second time, “The Amazing World of Gumball” is nominated for an Annie Award this year. The episode “The Job” is up for “Best Television Production for Children” and all of us here at Soi are keeping our fingers crossed for February 2nd, 2013.
After winning two Children’s Baftas in 2011, last night Ben Bocquelet and “The amazingly goodlooking Team of Gumball” graciously accepted yet another two golden masks for their genius and hard work, again in both nominated categories, “Writing” and “Animation”. We congratulate Ben, Mic, Aurelie, Joanna, Daniel and their whole amazing crew, well deserved everyone, we raise our glasses!
