We interviewed the extremely talented guys from Machinarium before and as it seems, their talent overflows from game development and encompasses into the art of telling a good story.
With Machinarium telling the story of a robot through grunts, quirky animation, and speech bubbles, Kooky’s Return is told using the age old ‘Labyrinth’ style with a combination of puppets and live actors. No David Bowie here tho.
Kooky´s Return (Kuky se vrací) is a combined puppet and live action feature based on a child’s fantasy. A seven year old boy whose teddy bear Kooky has been thrown away wonders what his toy is up to in the big world out there, imagining Kooky as he tries to find his way back home. The film was written and directed by Czech Oskar winning director Jan Svěrák and production design was created by Jakub Dvorský (Amanita Design). Coming in May 2010.
On a side note, it seems that either their studio is located in a forest or all the dev photos were taken while the movie was in production. If you’re trying to figure out the subtitled version, Jakub and the gang requests your patience as that’s also in the works.
Wow, that looks amazing!
I definitely agree that using real puppets, rather than just CG, adds a lot of spirit and character to a movie. Check out these Labyrinth puppets – it just wouldn’t work with CG.