Free Jimmy (2006)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Expected more

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

The first few minutes of this seem like something out of Spike & Mike's Sick and Twisted. Adult language and situations with gangsters and drug use and circuses felt like it was going to spin out quickly and do its thing. Didn't help that I thought when initially watching it that I was getting ready to view a short film.However, it turns out to be quite the production in the long run. The English speaking voice cast is filled with stars and character actors, and the dialog is written by Simon Pegg. Fitting it into the Norwegian original is probably why it's a bit chatty at certain parts, and the movie is somewhat slow paced for what it's trying to be, but that has more to do with what was obviously a long process of animation. This movie doesn't come out to be as striking of an independent animation as something like Fritz the Cat, but by the time you're a good half hour into it you realize you're seeing something unlike any other.Jimmy the Elephant is a drugged up dragged out old circus elephant addicted to the drugs they feed him to keep him trapped and performing, and unfortunately for him he becomes wanted by a wide array of sketch characters. There's the deadbeats lead by Arnie to work at the circus so that they can have access to a special package hidden in Jimmy's rump; bumbling animal's rights activists that end up killing more animals and making more speeches than effectively doing anything; Asian jester bike gang sent by the Russian mob to hunt down Arnie, only to find that Arnie's interest in Jimmy is even more valuable; and an angry fat hunter wanting a prize kill. Via various escapades they end up in the Moors and vie for a variety of positions very violent, resulting in mayhem. Poor Jimmy has to recover from his drug problem and survive in the wild in the middle of it.It's the latter point where the movie gets a heart, a surprising one, but probably the thing that pulls the movie together the most. The rest is slapstick comedy and the adult humor can drag a bit at times (especially in the dialog) but suddenly when you see a moose befriend Jimmy and put him through recovery, you get this strangely wonderful, wonderfully absurd, and absurdly powerful recovery plot that sticks. The music is a little hokey, yeh, but the character animation and how they personify the characters of the moose and Jimmy is pitch perfect.So, that only leaves the trouble of where the heck did this come from? An 80 minute animation from Norway with a story like that was not only a movie I didn't expect to stumble upon (currently it is playing for free on Mubi.com), less do I understand why I wouldn't have heard somethings about it. This is certainly currently an undiscovered gem--flawed, not exactly the best movie out there, but something different. Maybe star power behind the voice actors will bring it a little more attention.--PolarisDiB

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)

i have never heard about this movie, but after reading the plot and looking at some clips thought that it could be really interesting. all Nordic products always seem to have an interesting point of view, novelties and stuff, the English version involves some very very intriguing collaborators and i said to myself ; what the hell, this must be really something, i don't care about the contradictory reviews, i will watch it... unfortunately, though all the aspects could lead this movie to a classic cult, something was lost in the way, a few ( well, quite a lot actually) details were overlooked and the result is a film 'that could have been excellent' but it came out boring and digestible just as soon as the end credits begin. i really cannot understand how this really beautiful idea, all this money and all this people who worked their b**ts off for this film, ended up with this flop... pity pity pity

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.