Enchorde Recap: Roy Arnie recruits his small time crook friends to work with him at a rundown Russian circus touring in Norway. There all the animals are medicated with heavy drugs to get them to perform. Worst of is Jimmy, an elephant. Addicted to both heroin and speed he soon get to be the center of attention. A militant terrorist group of animal activists try to set him free and get him into rehab. Some mobster motorcycle gang Sami want to make money on him and a bully violent hunter want him as a trophy kill. Comments: An animated movie listed as a comedy. But don't get the wrong idea. This is certainly not for kids and not really funny either. Not unless you find drug abuse and addiction combined with violent battery and murder amusing. You need something else, some twisted extra scenes to make a comedy out of such a setup, Free Jimmy just doesn't have it. I read that the movie was an homage to the directors dead brother who lost his battle with drugs. If true, it is all very well. But it isn't enough to make a movie good or entertaining and has really no bearing on how it should be regarded.When I read the plot summation I thought it was a promising idea. But I imagined something else entirely. I expected a fast paced whacky comedy that centered on the animals at the circus and how they conspired to break free. Free Jimmy got nothing of that. The pace is slow and dull. Long stretches are focused on Jimmy and a moose, but since they are denied to communicate verbally the long scenes soon become pointless and boring. It is not whacky at all. At best it can be described as a dark comedy, but I think that is to stretch the truth a bit too far. It certainly is dark though. And the animals have no standing at all in the movie. The animation in itself is poor and in line with the rest of the movie it can be described as dark and gloomy at best. The words I would like to describe it is oily and rubbery. No texture at all (to costly is my guess) and hair and fur, when allowed, looks like the characters wear rubber wigs. Everything is bouncy as a rubber ball. It is not very realistic. It is not part of some humor and caricature. It is not cute or cuddly. It is just plain bad. Too much of what can be rendered on a home computer and not really worthy of a feature film.However, the worst mistake is the characters. There is not one that is in the least likable, even less one able to sympathize with. Most of them, all of the main characters, deserve lengthy jail times. Actually, it almost shames me to admit, that jail would be a fate too good for them, and some of them do get what they deserve.In all fairness, taste is personal. And obviously someone must have liked this so much they gave it an award. But to me that is a mystery. I can't see anything good in Free Jimmy.2/10

kristian_stenersen Some of you who have commented on this movie obviously don't know the background for this movie. Christopher Nielsen who made this movie is brother of one of the most known dead punk rock stars in Norway, Joakim Nielsen. Who played in Jokke & Valentinerne, which is one of the most influential band in Norwegian punk.! And this movie is in a way Christophers' feelings, about how he feel how Joakims' life went. The way showbiz "drugged" Joakim(jimmy), so he would shut up and earn them some money. And most of the animated characters in the movie are ego's of people in the real life who were around Jokke. But i have to admit that a lot of the humor in this movie is directed to Norwegian viewers.

kosmasp And pun not intended, because I'm talking about "politically correct" (which the movie isn't) and not about how it was made! The graphics might not have the standard a big budget animation movie has, but then again, it wouldn't be good to compare this with "family" entertainment! It clearly aims for an adult audience and achieves it's goal, by being incredibly dark humored.There will be people out there, that won't like it because of it and there will be people out there, that love because of it (I'm in the latter group). So be aware that this is as far from Disney as it can be and you might enjoy the movie (I did ... until the ending ruined a bit of my enjoyment ... the movie ran a bit out of steam quite some times)

Tenate9 This film should be getting far more attention, as a warning to all who take an idea for a 10 minute short and stretch it until it snaps, leaving the original idea lifelessly limp. It's truly the Heavens gate of animation - A movie so loathsome it has coined it's own genre 'Uglymation'. There is not one frame that can be considered as anything other than repugnant. The characters, the plot and the direction, all repulsive. If it had either polarity of an underlying relentless nihilism peppered with humour or under the dirt a little bit of uplifting sentimentalism and a 'film with a big heart' approach, having either would have salvaged it. Unfortunately it's just inane drivel. Simple 'off-the-shelf' style models animated by hacks with no feeling for animation or talent for bringing life to vector graphics. The rot is indicative as with rest of the team - the texture mappers seem obsessed by scatology and grime.It is telling that as a cliché, Norway is seen as a mostly dark, cold and bleak country and if true that clichés have a glimmer of veracity about them then maybe it is a very informative film about living in Norway. As a nation Norway has the highest literacy, educational average per capita, income per capita etc, etc... in the world and their major animation achievement is this movie ? The peak of European artistry makes this ? Nine years in the making - must have felt like being imprisoned for a whole decade while working on this 'Uglymation' epic. Imagine the money wasted that could have driven other artistic projects.It's not funny, It's not been art directed and it is obvious that it was made by a group of mostly untalented nine to five artisans. Fine in a short, but as a cinematic statement of national identity or artistic expression - shameful. If you have a team of beginners 'don't start by making a feature' should be the only reason why this film is remembered.