A Norwegian Escapade

This week, I'm attending Fredrikstad Animation Festival. Time to put forward one of Belgium's beautiful collaborations with Norway and Mikrofilm studio, Titina!

Thanks to the lovely invitation by Festival Director Anders Narverud Moen, I’m currently attending Fredrikstad 30th Animation Festival, where I’ll moderate two Masterclasses by animation talents Patrick Imbert (The Summit of the Gods) and Izabela Plucińska (Joko, Jam Session and many more claymation shorts).

And what better way to mark this event that to share the growing love between Norwegian and Belgian animation?

Vivifilm productions and its affiliated studios - Studio Souza in Brussels and Creature in Ghent - are at the forefront of this, with The Polar Bear Prince already released in Norway and coming to Belgium this winter.

Meanwhile, Titina, the first feature film collaboration made between Vivifilm and Norwegian studio Mikrofilm, was the closing feature of Anima 2023.

I reviewed the film for Skwigly, UK’s leading online animation magazine, and here’s an excerpt of the text below. I hope you enjoy this reading, and in the meantime, feel free to subscribe and share this newsletter.

Have a great animated weekend,

Kevin

Titina – “A tale of little men and their little feelings in gigantic landscapes”

Based on the true tale of friendship and rivalry between Umberto Nobile and Roald Amundsen, Titina is the first animated feature film by Norwegian acclaimed director Kajsa Naess, whose films Deconstruction Workers and It’s Up to You won numerous awards and festival selections.

Co-produced by Naess’ own Mikrofilm studio and Belgian Vivifilm, this whole new story brings us to the North Pole for an epic expedition. But is Titina the icy and heartfelt family adventure you’ve been looking for, or does it rather fall flat on account of its complex narrative arcs and slow pacing?

I had personal expectations regarding this film. The thought of going back to the barren white plains of the Pole, after Rémi Chayé’s delightful Long Way North, drove me to Titina’s screening with high hopes.

Here, we follow the struggle between the two male characters who fight for fame and glory. An already told story, but in Titina Kajsa Naess manages to twist this problem by telling us this tale through the eyes of one cute puppy named Titina, a seemingly tiny shift that provides in fact a truly refreshing perspective.

By putting this real-life story through the pet’s flashback, Naess gives it a comical and heartwarming tone, along with a nostalgia that creates a nice and cozy atmosphere around this tale of hardship.

It’s truly this choice that carries the emotional weight of the story, making you relate to the characters and events that unfold in Titina.

As Naess puts it, “it’s a tale of little men and their little feelings in gigantic landscapes, and the story of the dog who lived to tell it”. Building around this idea, the production was handled between Norway and Belgium where Naess spent months working closely with animation director Marie-Laure Guisset and her carefully selected team of animators.

One of the key aspects was – following the directors’ comments – their will to restrain the movements and emotions of the main characters to the essential, providing a slower pace to the movie. Thus allowing us to experience deeper emotions, delving into the two main characters, Umberto Nobile and Roald Amundsen, and their rivalry.

Young Umberto Nobile was, as we quickly discover, one eccentric engineer flying around Italy in his airship. As he wanders the streets of Rome, he encounters Titina, a clumsy Fox-Terrier who he adopts immediately, charmed – as we are – by her silly attitude.

Though they don’t know it yet, they’ll soon fly together to the North Pole on an expedition with Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who desperately wants to be the first man to reach both the South and the North Pole.

To continue reading this review, and learn more about animation as a whole, visit Skwigly.co.uk where I babble about the medium and my coups de coeur, be them Belgian or not.