03/08/2015 - Norwegian director Rasmus A. Sivertsen, who made the most popular Norwegian film in 2013, will open two new animated features this year

Norwegian director Rasmus A. Sivertsen- whose film Solan and Ludvig: Christmas in Pinchcliffe [+see also:
trailer
interview: Rasmus A. Sivertsen
film profile] was the most popular Norwegian film on the 2013 charts with 853,868 admissions- is set to have another busy year. He will introduce two animated feature films to local family audiences in 2015. 

Co-directed by Rune Spans and featuring a soundtrack by the Knutsen & Ludvigsen duo, Two Buddies and a Badger premieres on 26 September. Then, Solan & Ludwig have a new adventure in The Big Cheese Race, which debuts on Christmas Day (25 December) in Norwegian cinemas.

Two Buddies and a Badger features a digitally animated pair of “guys who live in a tunnel,” based on the Knutsen & Ludvigsen performers, who were world-famous in Norway during the 1970s-1980s and are still part of local popular culture. Scripted by Øystein Dolmen and Thomas Moldestad, and animated by Sivertsen’s Qvisten animation, it was produced by Tordenfilm, and will be distributed by Norsk filmdistribusjon. 

In The Big Cheese Race, Solan and Ludvig are in trouble because Solan has drunkenly bet their home and Reodor Felgen’s workshop that Pinchcliffe will win the annual Big Cheese Race against Slidre. Suddenly the victory does not seem as certain as she thought. Scripted by Karsten Fullu and produced by Maipo Film, this feature will be released domestically by Nordisk Film Distribusjon.

While the Solan & Ludvig films are based on Norwegian author Kjell Aukrust’s Pinchcliff universe, Sivertsen will bring the characters of Norwegian playwright-songwriter-illustrator Thorjørn Egner (1912-1990) to the screen in his next film, The Forest of Huckybucky. Scripted by Fullu, the puppet-animated production will also be staged by Qvisten Animation.