{mosimage}Produced by the director's production company Biograf Jan Svěrák s.r.o. (www.sverak.cz), Kuky Returns, a movie filled with special visual effects, is change of pace from past Svěrák production such as the 1996 Oscar winner Kolya, or the 2007 smash hit Empties from 2007, with 1.2 million admissions, making it one of the most successful movies in Czech history.
The story about a lost toy, an ugly old pink teddy-bear called Kuky who was tossed into the garbage for causing an allergic reaction in his six-year-old owner, was a dream project for Svěrák.
{mosimage}The shooting of Kuky Returns took almost a year. Svěrák´s own son Ondřej plays the main character, an asthmatic boy who is sad about his loss and imagines what action adventures his teddy-bear might be experiencing. The live action cast includes Kristýna Nováková and Oldřich Kaiser, while Jiří Lábus, Zdeněk Svěrák, Petr Čtvrtníček and Jiří Macháček dubbed the puppet voices.
"I always wanted to combine a feature live action film with a puppet animation, and focus on the microworld of nature. This is why I decided to make a toy as our hero," Svěrák explained. He shot most of the movie on locations in the forests of South Bohemia and Liberec.
{mosimage}"We used nature as our unstudied, naturalistic set. Roots of trees are our decorations, raspberry bush works as properties. It was a very amusing experience for someone who usually works in studios most of the time," said Svěrák.
Falcon (www.falcon.cz) will distribute Kuky Returns in Czech cinemas.
{mosimage}Production information:
Biograf Jan Svěrák s.r.o.
Pod Svahem 7
Praha 4, 147 00
Phone: 420-244468 100
{mosimage}Fax 420-244 467 9094
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