Terkel in Trouble

Terkel is a boy attending 6th grade at a secondary school together with his best friend Jason, who carries an iron pipe with him at all times. One day during recess, Terkel and Jason sit on a bench playing on their Game Boy. They are approached by a man in a green sweater who tells Terkel that he sat on a spider. Terkel shakes it off, saying his jeans can be easily washed. The man, named Gunnar (Justin in the UK dub, Dick Balsac in the US dub) introduces himself as the schools new substitute teacher and promptly leaves. Later during Terkel's Danish class, Gunnar walks in. He informs the class that the previous teacher, Yvonne, has been fatally run over by a car. The class cheers at the news, and Gunnar becomes the new class teacher.

Terkel's parents Sheila and Leon get married. During the wedding reception, two bullies from Terkel's school, Sten (Nigel in the English dubs) and Saki, manipulate Terkel into stealing beer for them. When Terkel's short-tempered, alcoholic and violent grand-uncle Stewart Stardust notices, he beats up the bullies. Sten and Saki blame Terkel, and proceed to bully him for it, for which Terkel receives little help. One day an overweight girl in the class, Fede Dorit ("Fat Doris") approaches Terkel with a love letter. Sten and Saki notice, and start teasing the two of them, calling them a couple. Terkel feels conflicted on weather to defend Dorit or to go along with the bullies. He goes with the latter, saying he would never "love that fat cow". Dorit gets so upset that she jumps out the window on the fourth floor and dies. After this incident, Sten and Saki become much closer to Terkel, with them now respecting him. Terkel's relationship with Jason however, becomes much more strained. Terkel starts receiving multiple death threats both at home and at school. He again receives no help, and he becomes increasingly paranoid about the world around him.

One day, Gunnar takes the class on school trip to the woods to go study salamanders. On the bus there, Sten and Saki invite Terkel to sit down with them. He does so, angering Jason. When in the woods, Terkel tries to reconcile with him, but fails, with Jason calling Terkel a sell-out. Terkel proceeds to sleep in Sten and Saki's tent. Terkel says that Jason has been acting strangely aloof, and Sten tells him that Dorit was Jason's sister. Terkel is terrified, thinking all the death threats were from Jason, as revenge for his sisters suicide. As they go to bed, Terkel finds a dead cat in his sleeping bag and he receives a text message from Jason's phone saying "I'm coming to kill you". Sten and Saki advise Terkel to tell Gunnar, which he does.

Wanting to be safe from Jason, Terkel insists that Gunnar comes with him into the woods where he explains everything. Terkel now feels more secure and calls Jasons phone to tell him he's in safe hands. To his horror, he hears ringing sounds coming from Gunnar's pocket. It turns out Gunnar sent all the death threats and messages as revenge for Terkel sitting on the spider when they first met, even killing his teacher Yvonne just so he could get closer to him. Terkel flees, and a race through the woods commences. Just as Gunnar has Terkel cornered, he is saved by Jason, smashing his iron pipe through Gunnar's head, presumably killing him. Terkel and Jason reconcile, and walk back towards the sunrise. The camera moves back, showing that Gunnar is still alive.

Subsequent dubs of the film retain the feature of one actor portraying most or all of the roles. This was done for the Norwegian (Aksel Hennie), Swedish (Felix Herngren) and German (Bela B.) dubs of the film.[10] This was however not done for the Italian, Ukrainian and the two English dubs, which all feature multiple actors.

The characters in the film were conceived by stand-up comedian and rapper Anders Matthesen. The character of Grand-uncle Stewart Stardust had been featured previously in Matthesens show Fra ende til Anden in 1999.[12] In 2001, Matthesen and composer Bo Rasmussen created a radio play on DR children's radio called Arne fortæller... Terkel i knibe (Arne tells... Terkel in trouble), a sequel to the previous radio play Hva' snakker du om.[2] Arne fortæller would be released as an album the same year. The album sold 35,000 copies[13] and received the award for "Entertainment Release of the year" at the Danish Music Awards in 2002.[14] The album did however not do as well as Matthesen had hoped.[15]

A. Film was looking to produce a film that was much cheaper than previous efforts like Help! I'm a Fish, as well as something more "crooked and different". Stefan Fjeldmark, co-founder of the studio, had previously listened to Arne fortæller and approached Anders Matthesen to potentially turn the album into a film.[11] Matthesen was very proud of the album despite its mediocre success and accepted the offer immediately.[15][2] Fjeldmark had grown frustrated with trying to adjust the studios films so they could appeal to an American audience, after Help! I'm a fish had been refused American distribution multiple times. Terkel in Trouble would be a way for the studio to make a film without compromise.[11]

To help convince A. Film, two animators at the studio, Kresten Vestbjerg Andersen and Thorbjørn Christoffersen created a short pilot for the film. It was well received and production on the film began in 2003, with Andersen, Christoffersen and Fjeldmark leading the project.[11] The audio play script would be re-written to fit a film format. Andersen, Christoffersen and Fjeldmark would help with developing the script, pushing some of the comedy and horror elements.[1] Terkel in Trouble would become Christoffersens directorial debut[16] and Matthesens screenwriting debut.[17]

DR was first asked to help finance the project. They were initially interested, but ended up refusing the offer.[11] TV 2 was then approached. They were hesitant at first, but eventually changed their mind.[2] The film would end up with a budget of 10 million DKK ($1.6 million),[1] to which the Danish Film Institute provided half.[18] Due to the small budget, the animation crew developed a crude style for the characters in the film, inspired by South Park, The Simpsons and The Muppets. This sped up production significantly, also helped by then recent advancements in animation technology.[1] By mid-November 2003, half of all animation had been completed.[11] With a crew of 12-15 animators, the film took just four months to animate.[1]

Terkel in Trouble premiered at the NatFilm Festival on 20 March 2004.[19] It was then released in Denmark nation-wide on April 2, 2004. The film sold 64,000 tickets in its first three days opon release,[18] and over 375,000 in its entire theatrical run,[3][20] grossing a total of 17,9 million DKK ($2.9 million). It became the fourth highest grossing Danish film in Denmark for 2004, and the seventh over all.[3]

Critical response

Anders Matthesen received acclaim for his voice acting in the film.[21]

Terkel in Trouble received positive reviews upon its initial release.[5] Writing for Berlingske, Ebbe Iversen called the film "a milestone in film history", and "incredibly entertaining".[22] Palle Schantz Lauridsen of Kristeligt Dagblad wrote "It's one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time - and I knew the story beforehand."[21]

Reviews from other Scandinavian countries were likewise positive. Einar Guldvog Staalesen of Norwegian broadcasting company NRK gave the film a full 6 out of 6 stars,[23] and in a review for the Swedish Newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, Karoline Eriksson wrote that "Terkel in trouble is yet another example of the Danes still totally having us [Swedes] fooled when it comes to making films." [24] While many critics considered the film's animation sub-par, its humor, writing, and Anders Matthesens voice acting received praise, with Palle Lauridsen describing Matthesen as having a "great and unmistakable satirical talent".[21] The actors for the Norwegian and Swedish versions of the film, Aksel Hennie and Felix Herngren, received praise for their dub work.[23][25]

With the release of the English dub in the United Kingdom in 2006, reviews were less favorable. Phelim O'Neill of The Guardian gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, criticizing the animation, and stating that besides the films shock value, "[it] often has little else going for it." He did however say the film did not "ooze smug complacency from every pixel like the recent, lazy Cars"[26] Writing for Empire, Sam Toy likewise also gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, criticizing the lack of a clear target audience, but praising the British dubbing cast.[27]

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