The Emperor's Secret | |
---|---|
Finnish | Keisarin salaisuus |
Directed by | Riina Hyytiä |
Written by | Aleksi Bardy Mika Ripatti Seppo Vesiluoma |
Based on | The Autocrats TV series created by Olli Haikka and Riina Hyytiä |
Produced by | Aleksi Bardy Olli Haikka Riina Hyytiä |
Starring | Mika Ala-Panula Anna Bentley Heikki Hilander Erja Manto Jukka Puotila Krisse Salminen |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Finnkino (Finland) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 85 minutes |
Country | Finland |
Language | Finnish |
Budget | €825,000 [1] |
The Emperor's Secret (Finnish : Keisarin salaisuus), released on 8 September 2006, is the first Finnish computer-animated feature film. [2]
The film stars the familiar characters from the Finnish TV show The Autocrats (a political satire of Finnish politics) in a fairy tale where the inhabitants of a small Finnish village have to defend themselves against a despotic emperor.
Animation is a filmmaking technique by which still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets (cels) to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animation has been recognized as an artistic medium, specifically within the entertainment industry. Many animations are either tradtional animations or computer animations made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Stop motion animation, in particular claymation, has continued to exist alongside these other forms.
Helsinki is the capital and most populous city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About 684,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.26 million in the capital region and 1.6 million in the metropolitan area. As the most populous urban area in Finland, it is the country's most significant centre for politics, education, finance, culture, and research. Helsinki is 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Tallinn, Estonia, 400 kilometres (250 mi) east of Stockholm, Sweden, and 300 kilometres (190 mi) west of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Helsinki has significant historical connections with these three cities.
Mika Toimi Waltari was a Finnish writer, best known for his best-selling novel The Egyptian. He was extremely productive. Besides his novels he also wrote poetry, short stories, crime novels, plays, essays, travel stories, film scripts, and rhymed texts for comic strips by Asmo Alho.
Krisse Salminen is a Finnish stand-up comedian and television talkshow hostess. She is the daughter of game show host Reijo Salminen. Her shtick is to present herself as a cow-eyed and stuck-up, self-centered blonde girly girl, speaking an exaggerated, urban, Helsinki-style nasal accent. She is one of the central figures of the burgeoning Finnish stand-up scene.
Chicken Little is a 2005 American animated science fiction comedy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Mark Dindal from a screenplay by Steve Bencich, Ron J. Friedman, and Ron Anderson, based on a story by Dindal and Mark Kennedy, loosely inspired on the European folk tale "Henny Penny", known in the United States as "Chicken Little". In this version, the title character is ridiculed by his town for causing a panic, thinking that the sky was "falling". A year later he attempts to fix his reputation, followed by an unexpected truth regarding his past being revealed. The film is dedicated to Disney artist and writer Joe Grant, who died before the film's release. This also marked the final film appearance of Don Knotts during his lifetime, as his next and final film, Air Buddies, would be released posthumously.
John Alan Lasseter is an American film director, producer, and animator. He has served as the head of animation at Skydance Animation since 2019. Previously, he acted as the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Disneytoon Studios, as well as the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering.
Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene from its first synchronized sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie (1928). Founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney after the closure of Laugh-O-Gram Studio, it is the longest-running animation studio in the world. It is currently organized as a division of Walt Disney Studios and is headquartered at the Roy E. Disney Animation Building at the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California. Since its foundation, the studio has produced 62 feature films, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to Wish (2023), and hundreds of short films.
The Presidential Palace is one of the three official residences of the president of the Republic of Finland. It is situated in Helsinki, on the north side of Esplanadi, overlooking Market Square.
Mark Dindal is an American filmmaker, animator and voice actor. Best known for his work at Disney, he directed the company's 2000 animated film The Emperor's New Groove (2000), as well as their 2005 film Chicken Little. Prior, he was credited with animation work on the Disney Renaissance films The Little Mermaid (1989) and Aladdin (1992), as well as Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992). In 1997, he briefly moved to Warner Bros. Animation and made his directorial debut with the film Cats Don't Dance, which won an Annie Award for Best Animated Film. Dindal directed the 2024 animated film The Garfield Movie for Sony Pictures and Alcon Entertainment, which was met with commercial success despite negative reviews.
"Hernando's Hideaway" is a tango show tune, largely in long metre, from the musical The Pajama Game, written by Jerry Ross and Richard Adler and published in 1954. It was sung in the stage and film versions of the musical by Carol Haney. The song is about a fictional invitation-only nightclub of the same name where lovers can meet for secret rendezvous. In the few years after the song's release, a number of artists had hit recordings of it, including Archie Bleyer, Johnnie Ray, The Johnston Brothers, and Ella Fitzgerald.
Senate Square presents Carl Ludvig Engel's architecture as a unique allegory of political, religious, scientific and commercial powers in the centre of Helsinki, Finland.
The Autocrats was a Finnish political satire TV series, which took the viewer behind the scenes of the politics of Finland. The series was produced by Filmiteollisuus and was made using 3D computer animation. The original idea for the series came from producer Olli Haikka. 233 episodes – comprising approximately 30 hours of footage – were aired.
Aleksi Bardy is a Finnish television writer, screenwriter and film producer. He has been a political activist on the left of the political spectrum, once standing in elections for the Finnish parliament. Bardy was born in Helsinki.
Sunneva keisarin kaupungissa is a historical novel by Finnish author Kaari Utrio.
Maria Mikaela Markuntytär Ylipää is a Finnish singer and actress, who has starred in the musical Kristina från Duvemåla and acted in the films Keisarikunta (2004) and Pietà (2007). She has also appeared in the television series Rikospoliisi Maria Kallio (2003), Tappajan näköinen mies (2011) and Luottomies (2016) as well as musical theatres Helsinki City Theatre, Tampere Workers' Theatre, Swedish Theatre, Gothenburg opera house and the Stockholm Cirkus.
Quest for a Heart is a 2007 animated film directed by Pekka Lehtosaari. It is based on the Rölli character created by Allu Tuppurainen, and while it is the third Rölli film, it is also the first Rölli animation. It is also one of the first feature-length animated films produced in Finland, before that an animated adaptation of Seven Brothers was released in 1979, Santa Claus and the Magic Drum was released in 1996 and The Emperor's Secret in 2006. With its over 5 million euro budget, Quest for a Heart is one of the most expensive Finnish films.