Checkered Ninja

In Thailand, Danish businessman Philip Eberfrø arrives to check out his new factory. As a boy accidentally uses his scarf to create a checkered ninja doll, Eberfrø brutally beats him to death. In the same moment a lightning strikes, causing the doll to be possessed by the spirit of Taiko Nakamura. As the ninja ends up on a Danish cargo ship, he is picked up by Stewart Stardust, who gives him as a birthday present to his nephew Aske (Alex in the American dub). After the ninja defends Aske's friend from a bully named Glenn, Aske find out the doll is alive, and the two strike a friendship, as the Checkered Ninja promises to help Aske, in exchange for revenge against Eberfrø (Eppermint in the dub).

Aske and the ninja challenge Glenn to a fight, which Aske wins, causing Aske's love interest Jessica to invite him to her party. However, as the ninja believes they should move on with the mission, Aske joins him unwillingly, and they arrive at Eberfrø's house where the ninja attempts to kill him. Eberfrø escapes, and as Aske becomes angry with the ninja for bring too brutal, the ninja makes Aske seem insane, causing him to be imprisoned in an asylum. While in the asylum they strike a deal to defeat Eberfrø. They insert a packet of cocaine into the ninja doll, and proceed to the airport. As Eberfrø arrives in Thailand, the ninja jumps onto him, the police find the cocaine, and Eberfrø is arrested.

The film currently have an 87% audience response on Rotten Tomatoes.[2] Jordan Mintzner of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, summarising it as "Clever and a bit crude".[3] The film also sold over 1 million tickets in Denmark, making it the highest-grossing Danish film since Op på fars hat from 1986.[4]

The film won three Robert Awards,[5] for best children's film, best adapted screenplay, and best original song (Skubber det sne). It was also nominated for the Bodil Award for Best Danish Film.[6]

Music for the film was composed by Christian Vinten, while six original songs were written and performed by Anders Matthesen, and produced by Kewan Padré.[7] The singles "Pesto" and "Pushing the Snow" was also released independently. The English versions of the songs were sung by the Danish hip-hop singer Waqas Qadri according to the credits of the English dub version of the film.

A sequel, Checkered Ninja 2 (Ternet Ninja 2) is in the works, based on Anders Matthesen's sequel to the original novel which was published in 2019. The film is slated for release on October 7, 2021, and will see Anders Matthesen and Thorbjørn Christoffersen return as directors.[8] The film went into production in late 2019 with a budget of 8,000,000 DKK (1,319,108.80 US dollars) provided by the Danish Film Institute.[9]

• Checkered Ninja at IMDb