Eberhard Junkersdorf, the Munich-based producer whose credits include The Tin Drum and Marianne and Julianne, travels uncommon ground with the poduction of the US$15 million animated feature The Fearless Four. With a theatrical release in Germany scheduled for early 1997, Junkersdorf confirmed negotiations with a US player for international ralease.
Combining traditional cel animation with digital created 3D elements, the story is roughly based on the Grimm fairy tale The Bremen Townmusicians.
The fact that he's an absolute newcomer in the animation business hasn't stopped the German producer from trying to reach, as he calls it, "a quality equql to Disney's" and delivering the goods with a fast-paced action-adventure story and several musical scenes - including one memorable seauence sung by Luciano Pavarotti. "If you don't seriously set out to win over an international audience you should get out of the game," he said. To win such an audience he has assembled an international crew of animators and artists led by creative director Michael Coldewey and animation director Jürgen Richter, who got his training at Steven Spielberg's Amblimation. The script, co-written by Junkersdorf, who will also share a director's credit, has the luck-seeking quartet - a donkey, a dog, a cat and a cock - leaving their country homes and reaching the city of Bremen, which is under the spell of the power-crazed magnate, Dr Greed. All characters are created by Spanish artist Carlos Grangel, who went on to work for DreamWorks.
The production benefitted greatly from the rapid price cuts in computer hard- and software. "A project with a budget like this would not have been possible thre years ago," said Junkersdorf, "because the software was too expensive and the computers were too big. Now we can have these incredibl fast machines at merely one tenth of the price." Furthermore, Munich Animation profits from an exclusive deal with the Canadian company Softimage which provides them with their newest software to experiment with.
Production of The Fearless Four is scheduled to wrap December 1996 with a theatrical release planned for Germany.
Eckhard Vollmar
