User reviews

The story's about the life of a junkie circus elephant and the filth of the human society who want to make money off him.

The movie is quite sad and will bring out emotions in the viewer which are normally not associated with animation. Animation does seem to be the right medium for this real-life inspired tragedy.

Its a tribute from the director to a brother who lost his life to drugs. Obviously once one knows the history this movie is borne out of, it becomes easier to appreciate the story.

Joachim Nielsen, rest in peace. If you are up there watching this, i hope you enjoyed it as much as i did.

Isn't it annoying how film reviewers describe unusual films often as (insert film title here) on drugs? So LIFE OF BRIAN is THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD on dope, MEET THE FEEBLES is MUPPETS on acid, and perhaps JAWS once was FLIPPER on steroids. Having said that, FREE JIMMY literally is DUMBO on speed. No, really: Jimmy is a circus elephant that's kept quiet with downers and pushed with uppers for the show. And that old pachyderm is wanted by many groups. Smalltime crooks want to retrieve heroin sewn under the animal's skin, the Lappland mafia wants the same, militant animal activists want to free the tortured beast, and drunk Swedish game hunters look for anything as big as a moose to shoot in the Scandinavian outbacks. Doesn't sound like your run-off-the-mill blockbuster, and it isn't. FREE JIMMY is a CG-animated Norwegian film, skillfully voiced by Woody Harrelson, Kyle McLachlan, Samantha Morton, Simon Pegg, Jim Broadbent and others. It's wickedly non-pc, with a number of hilarious scenes, and sometimes reminds one of FRITZ THE CAT with the sex and suffering animals shown. It works as a FREE WILLY spoof, not sparing any of Jimmy's pursuers from scoff and mockery. It's not as insanely funny as THE FEEBLES were, but a good nasty laugh nonetheless. 7/10

This sure is an odd piece of work. It's the best Norwegian animated feature since the extremely well made Pinchcliffe Grand Prix, but in the end it doesn't even reach up to the knees of the old classic. However, that's not saying it's bad. It's good, but it's just not perfect. I really got quite sentimental about that old junkie elephant, but then it hit me - it's just a lump of pixels. The set detail is all very gritty and gloomy, just like junkie life is supposed to be, but at some points the quality of the graphics take me a bit out of the story. Or possibly the story dragged a bit on some points, and that made me think about the graphics. I don't know, but there's something that didn't feel right. Still the film kicks back a few quite memorable laughs. But while the film has a really serious topic of drug use, I feel like it's handled a bit superficially. The reason for it I think is what seems to be the need to fill out the film with action and Brit-like complication humour all the time. I don't know, or maybe the creator was on speed when he made it... The speed scene, bye the way, is one of the funniest in the film. Most of the humour is low key and dark, but at some points it's just plain hilarious. Just the thought of a Sami biker mafia is bound to make you chuckle. Not all of the humour hit home, though, like when Nielsen (the director) tries to do a Tarantino on you. Still, the budgetary lapse of this production was worth it, because for every fault this film has, there are at least two things that makes up for it. So, if you're in for something dark, strange and funny - go see it! Or like Timothy Leary would have said it: "Turn on, tune in, drop out."

I would be wasting my time and breath on explaining the trouble with critic reviews. This film was described as "insufficiently funny" -- I am not sure why it is listed as a comedy, but it is certainly not one. With that said; this movie is FANTASTIC! It has funny moments in the sick and twisted fashion of life handing you lemons, however, it is beautifully and deliciously dark and twisted. VERY DARK, VERY WELL WRITTEN AND DIRECTED. Is this film for kids? NO. Is this film for teenagers, adults, and fans of good movies? YES! I hope this film finds it's English speaking market. I think the fans will love this film and I that one day it will reach the cult status it deserves. Great job!!

I have to admit I needed about 15 minutes to get used to the style of this animation. I like that for a change we get to see something different than your average Pixar happy ending movies (which is also nice, but it needed balancing out).It reminds me a little of the short movie "Fallen Art" which to me is brilliant. To draw a comparison with Pixar: Pixar always succeeds in getting the audience to love or hate their characters and feel for them. This team did a good job with Jimmy and I just want to adopt him. For me that makes a good movie. The movies contains a bit of humor (however black it may be) and it makes this entertaining if you take to time to get past the first 15 minutes. Like the graphics and characters set up.

Being one of, if not the most expensive movie in the history of Norwegian film, in addition to getting great reviews in every single newspaper, I had quite high expectations for Free Jimmy. The over-hyping alone might've been a problem, with TV spots, interviews and the fact that the movie had been in production since 1998, but it still should've been funny - at least once. I can admit that I smiled a couple of times, but I never laughed - unlike the guy next to me at the cinema, who even burst out in laughter between scenes.

Using technology from 1998, the movie looks dated. I wasn't expecting Pixar quality, of course, but the movie looks too... well... 1998. Norway does look like Norway, in a comic-style nutshell, with a color palette consisting of brown, brown, brown and grey. And there are quite a few nice details, like rust, cracks and dirt, but it just feels wrong. I usually enjoy gritty movies, but in this case it just made the visuals boring to look at. Sure, it is a film about drugs and society's outcasts, but variety would be nice.

And then we have characters and dialogue. The characters themselves are quite well-developed from the beginning, with different personalities, but they don't "grow" during the film, and are all regional stereotypes. However, what this film really lacks is good dialogue. It relies on the dialects of the characters, combined with moaning and swearing, but no real humour. The (Norwegian) voices were given by talented people, but like usual, Norwegian dubbing comes out forced. There are a couple of exceptions, like radio host Are Sende Osen, but all in all, the film was like a nightmarish version of the dubbed Disney VHS cassettes of my childhood. I would actually prefer to watch the English version, even though an English speaking sami wouldn't make much sense.

To sum it up, Free Jimmy was a disappointing 80 minutes long version of "To Trøtte Typer", that was over before anything really happened, and had an ending that felt rushed. While Terry Gilliam succeeded in making a twisted and enjoyable flick about drugs and strange characters with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Christopher Nielsen's Free Jimmy doesn't quite cut it.

First, I must warn non-Scandinavian viewers (primarily thinking of viewers who are neither Norwegian nor Swedish) as there are some jokes in the flick which allude to local stuff such as the 'Lappmafia'. Hence everyone may not understand all the jokes due to them being unknowing of the contexts of the jokes. At any rate, this is a hilarious flick! I think they nailed all the characteristics of the drug abusers, animal rights activists, the Russians and many more in a great ironic way (people who consider themselves to belong to any of these groups with a lack of self-distance might find this flick offending at times). Not to mention the animation itself which is simply awesome with its wonderfully depicted scenery whether the characters roam in the late-night city or take a hike in the mountains. I am impressed! I would not consider this flick to be much of a stoner movie, as a newspaper chose to put it, since there is a lot more to the flick than simple pot romance. Anyone who has a predilection for irony will probably find this piece entertaining! Lovely! 7/10

I've heart the rumors and read the reviews,, so, I really was expecting something special.

But, Just because you do 33% shrek, 33% Tarantino and 33% lock, stock and 2 smoking barrels doesn't mean you got a great film. Money and talent was probably there, and also the benefit and freedom of combining animation and adult target audience.

All together the movie for me is lacking anything that makes you care. With the exception of the moose, everyone else is flat. For me, it's something like a carton version of 3000miles from Graceland, a lot of everything but nothing that really matters. Smiled on occasion but all in all, it was just to obvious and lacking to deserve a recommendation.

Many nice stories and ideas here. Like the sami/lapp mafia, the elephant on drugs, the straight edge activists, etc. Problem is, it is all cramped together on too little time.

In almost every situation in the film, there's a guy talking, someone talking/whining in the background, and then there's some additional sound effect. This adds to the general feeling of lack of focus I'm going to talk more about below.

The underground cartoon this animation is based on, is GREAT, and one of the things it does best is character building. Actually, in my opinion, the cartoon has the best character building I have ever seen in any medium; book, film etc. This film however, is the opposite of that. Most of the lines seem rushed, both from the manuscript side, and from the dubbing actors side. I agree with another commenter here, both me and my girlfriend wanted to watch it in English in stead. The norwegian dubbing is just half-hearted and most actors don't attempt to find and build up the characters at all. Just reading lines and making voices.

As for the CG, some of it is great (the rocky brown autumn nature for instance), some of it not so good. What fails is mostly lighting and animations/dynamics. Some of the coolest graphics in the film are Christopher Nielsens own (hand drawn) animations.

I like the "untraditional" story curves a lot myself, problem is, this never finds a story curve of it's own either. It just stumbles past you, the scenes don't find their "form" in any way. The humor could also be better. It is really funny at one or two occasions.

As a general observation, "Free Jimmy" just left me feeling empty (?) and half annoyed. It felt unprofessional and just badly put together, radiating a lack of experience high up in the production hierarchy. On too many occasions, you can see through the seams of the movie, so to speak. And when people die, in stead of feeling something, you kinda go "eh, what was the point of that".

Luckily, "Free Jimmy" doesn't annoy everyone, especially when people pick this up as an unknown/underground production in some video store, in stead of watching it as a hyped up "expensive" film. I'm glad people are enjoying it and that the producers are getting money for this. For me, it was half disappointing.. just as it was half everything else.

A cartoon about a drugged up elephant doesn't sound like it could be serious, but this was. I am a big Simon Pegg fan and was expecting something quite good with this. Unfortunately it was very slow moving, very unfunny, far too serious and overall, a bitter disappointment.

The plot was ridiculously shallow, making it difficult for the movie to find any pace. The storyline wasn't overly intricate or clever and any jokes that were present were able to be picked a mile off, and then they still took ages to get to the punchline.

Whilst I could have handled the low brow ideals of a movie like this if it had substance or humour, Free Jimmy didn't have either, so the low brow plot angle was just not acceptable.

Not a movie Simon Pegg lovers should waste their time on. 3/10 is probably being a bit generous.

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.

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)

Actually I was expecting quite something of this movie. The story of a junkie-elephant, militant animal rights people and several edgy characters making fun of several groups sounded promising. The animation sure is great but it lacks in one thing which drags the whole movie down along with its slow pacing, lack of real jokes and totally unclear direction. The characters just down get to you... they are nicely down but there is no aura except for the voicing maybe. You just watch puppets walk around being stereotypes, trying to be politically incorrect here and there and basically thats it. After a real long time the movie ends and Jimmy who could have been a nice cartoon-character is nothing but a nice modeled polygon-mesh. The mix of making fun of drugs and then switching to a halfhearted thing right the other direction makes the movie even worse. I was really annoyed sitting through this seemingly endless movie and I'd rather watch a politically correct Pixar-Movie since at least they got consistent storytelling and catchy characters.

Fritz the cat was one of the first 2D-animated cartoons for adults. Over twenty years later comes the first adult 3D-animated film. (For those of you who didn't already knew it, Nielsen is actually a big fan of Crumb)This is a film I've been waiting on for several years now. And I must say it was defiantly worth the wait. Director/writer Nielsen's film is controversial, tragic, violent and very funny. One of the best things of the film is the "ugly details" such as cracks on the walls, unclean skin, unshaved faces, blood shot eyes, rust marks on the cars etc. I also love the character designs, some of them have already appeared in Nielsen's comic books(Like the drug-users and the hunters) while there are some new ones as well. But all of them have a individual look and behavior and offers plenty of good lines and jokes. It would've been funny to see a sequel, but I highly doubt it will ever happen considering how much trouble and problems the filmmakers went through in order to finish this one.

Two of the main characters from this movie is based on a Norwegian underground cartoon made by Christopher Nielsen. The cartoon is brilliant, and therefore I was looking forward to the film version of the cartoon. The film itself was a bit disappointing, but it was totally worth the cinema ticket, much because of the great characters in the film, and an excellent lineup on the Norwegian version! I haven't seen the English version yet, but I'm sure that it good too.

This film is the most expensive animated film made in Norway ever, and I think the money was well used. The style of the film is very like the original cartoon as well.

Perhaps the Norwegian version comes across differently, but I am an American and saw the English version and honestly I just didn't get it. I didn't laugh once during the entire film. I saw this as more of a drama/thriller. The film was quite sad and dark.

I think some well thought out editing could have improved the experience some. The film seemed to drag on aimlessly at points and i remember thinking, "wow, this is a long movie" which is never a good sign.

I expected a lot of this film because of my great admiration of the cast, but was sorely disappointed. I found this to be a typical drug-themed film along the lines of Requiem for a Dream. The only slightly original aspect of this was that it was animated. I haven't seen an animated film of this type being made in the last 30 years. Although I do remember watching some 2D movies very similar to this that were made in the 1970's.

I think this film was worth watching for conversation sake, but if you expect too much from it you may be let down as I was.

I had never even heard of this film before I watched it, and I must say, I understand why the movie wasn't hyped here in the Netherlands. It is an extremely bad movie. The occasions where I actually laughed at a joke were extremely rare. I have heard that a lot of the jokes were especially targeted at the Scandinavian audience, but I do not recall hearing any jokes which I did not get (although perhaps some words may have several meanings in the Norwegian version). The only reason I gave this movie two stars rather than one (as 0 is not a possibility) is because the animation was actually really well done (although the character models were a little too over the top in my opinion). I strongly recommend people who have not yet seen this movie, to keep it that way. I honestly feel that the time I spend watching this film was completely wasted. Too few laughs, Flat story and immature comedy make this movie, which in essence could've been entertaining, in to a complete failure.

Fredrik, dude, you are so wrong... Have you no sense of humor? Have we really seen the same film? I wonder...

This is a fantastic movie in every respect. The animation is state of the art, the story is fun and exciting, dynamite dialogue, and the characters... The characters are AMAZING!!! And yes, they are VERY authentic. Anyone with some knowledge of people like this will testify to that...

I've only seen the Norwegian version so far, but I am confident Nielsen will deliver the goods w/ respect to the English/American voices too. The man is a friggin genius - he is the Ibsen of the Scandinavian underground.

Do yourself a favor and give this one a shot. You won't regret it! K

I can tell you I had great expectations to this film, I'd heard so many words of praises of. To begin with the visuals, well, they are quite good. At least I think. The Norwegian nature is well visualized and beautiful to look at. The plot is not to bad, but the accomplishment of it stagnates very early during the film. The dialog is maybe the worst I've ever seen! It's awful, insignificant and, very spent out from earlier movies, both animation films and in real life films. There were some funny climaxes, but they were unfortunately far away from carrying the entire movie.

Neither do I think it represent the Norwegian types of people

I got to see the British version of this film and yes it was very funny. Be warned though, due to the stereotype that obviously we London Cockney's have got is used to the full in this. The Facking (use a u instead of the a and you get what i mean, if you are a Londoner you will Definitely know what i mean) word gets used quite a lot in this film, nearly all the time. The cream of British talent is in this which was what stood out to me in watching it. Phil "Quadrophenia" Daniels plays a funny foul mouthed cockney junkie in this that really has to be seen to be believed. Simon "Hot Fuzz/Shaun of the Dead" Pegg is the other main characters in this and at times is virtually unrecognisable in this as he is doing a voice and you can only just get that it's him. The one who played the little guy of the group made me laugh the most as he was always doing things wrong. David "The Doctor" Tennant is also in this and made me laugh quite a few times as he uses his original Scottish accent to the full here. Woody Harrelson Plays the American junkie who dreams of having his own circus, Kris "My family" Marshall plays a animal rights crusader, so does Samantha "Band of Gold/Minority Report" Morton plays a emotional and clumsy animal rights crusader. Even Kyle "Twin peaks" Mclachlan turns up in this as the leader of the animal rights crusaders. This movie is a riot from beginning to end but also there is a message in it too. It may be hard to find under the language and the laughs but when the film is finished, it will hit you. There are some very touching scenes in it too. Free Jimmy is a film for Older kids because of the language but if you can by pass that then kids will love it and laugh with you at all the jokes.

The story is a bit slow but the acting and the performances push it through and make it an entertaining movie to watch. Like i said Parents: It's up to you if you want to show this to your kids, mind you kids already know that kind of language nowadays so i don't see why not. It's the kind of cartoon Disney would make if they had the balls.

The problem with modern animation is that the first observations from commentors seem to be about the quality of the animation. It distracts, at least when the film is big budget.

The advantage of this sort of animation for me is that the filmmaker can go further into the extreme, can be more dramatic and large, more risky and imaginative, than the limits of humans and cameras allows. This film means more to me on that account than any of the Pixar projects, and I admire them greatly. But at the end of the day with them, they leave you were they found you, except for their experiments with depth and space.

this instead tries for something deeper, something that matters, the stuff that justifies theater.

The basic spine of this is the filmmaker's brother. He was a performer killed by drugs, like the titular Jimmy. Often violent and pitiful, once you know this fact, the portrayal of the elephant is pretty heartwrenching. Overlayed on it is a vehicle for Nordic humor: stuff an American audience will miss, both because the jokes are beyond us and because the English script is different. There are some engaging episodes here: funny, disgusting, poignant. They are the means used for transporting us, the tricks used to convince us into collaborating on maintaining an alternative world.

Its that world that works for me. Its a mix of the previously mentioned extremes plus three traditional forms. Its a conventional tragedy. Everything grinds toward the inevitable. But its a noir too. There are incredible coincidences brought on by the mechanism of watching. Its a closed world that produces unlikely twists and that captures people in a fate that is for our amusement. And it is folded. Usual folds are simple, with one viewer mechanism. Here there are many viewing agents, each one controlling some element of the noir (except the Norweigians, a joke). Hunters, Laplanders, some Russian circus punks, some animal rights terrorists, and a Moose.

All of these three: tragedy, viewer-incited noir and observer-folding reinforce the story of the lost brother.

This works. Its worthy.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

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.