Global InformationFree Jimmy information
| Free Jimmy | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Christopher Nielsen |
| Written by | Christopher Nielsen |
| Produced by | Håkon Gundersen Lars Andreas Hellebust |
| Starring | English Version Woody Harrelson Simon Pegg Phil Daniels Jay Simpson Emilia Fox Samantha Morton James Cosmo David Tennant Jim Broadbent Kyle MacLachlan |
| Edited by | Alastair Reid |
| Music by | Simon Boswell |
| Distributed by | Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International (Norway) Breakthru Films (United Kingdom) |
Release dates |
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Running time | 86 minutes |
| Countries | Norway[1] United Kingdom[1] |
| Languages | English Norwegian |
Free Jimmy (No: Slipp Jimmy fri) is a 2006 adult animated comedy film first released in Norwegian in 2006, and later in English in 2008. The film was written and directed by acclaimed Norwegian subculture comic book artist Christopher Nielsen and features a number of characters from Nielsen's dark humor-laden comic books. The plot is an adult-oriented black comedy in which different groups of varying nationalities, and motives, all attempt to find a wayward and drug-addicted elephant in the Norwegian wilderness before the others do. The film explores a wide number of themes including addiction, drug abuse, freedom, nature, tragedy, crime, materialism, urban decay, animal cruelty and animal rights.
It was Norway's first computer animated film. Costing in excess of 120 million Norwegian kroner it is the second most expensive Norwegian film to date, behind Max Manus. Several British CGI studios were involved in the production of the film, although the film was mostly a Norwegian production. The voice actors for the original Norwegian version included Kristopher Schau, Jan Sælid, Are&Odin, Egil Birkeland, Terje Ragner, Anders T. Andersen and Mikkel Gaup.
British comedy writer and actor Simon Pegg wrote a screenplay for the wider English-speaking world which was subsequently released straight to DVD on 7 October 2008 by BreakThru Films. The voice actors of the 2008 English-language version is made up of an international ensemble cast that includes Pegg himself, Woody Harrelson, Phil Daniels, Jay Simpson, Jim Broadbent, James Cosmo, David Tennant, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss, Megan Dodds, Douglas Henshall, Kris Marshall, Emilia Fox, Samantha Morton, Kyle MacLachlan and Lisa Maxwell.
The film is dedicated to Joachim Nielsen (1964–2000), the director's brother and a rock musician famous in his native Norway, who had died of a drug overdose after quitting them successfully for many years. Whilst well received in its native country, reception to Free Jimmy has been generally negative in the English-speaking world.
- ^ a b "Things don't add up in Free Jimmy". Evening Standard.