The
Flåklypa
storyreallybegan in the late1960s, in the imaginationof
painter,authorandcartoonistKjellAukrust.He’dfirstdrawnReodor,
SolanandLudvigseprately foranewspaper,butwithverydifferent
temperaments tothosemostNorwegiansnowknow.Solanwasasomewhat louche
characterwhodrankCognacandsmokedcigars;Ludvig,who lived inacuckoo
clock,wassour,cynicaland,accordingtoRemo,“notparticularly lovable”.
IvoCaprino,meanwhile,hadbeenmakingfilmswithdollssince themid-1940s.
Hismother, IngeborgGudeFolkestad,designedpuppets forapuppet theatre,
which inspired Ivo toattempttomakefilmsusinghismother’screations.After Ivo’s
well-receivedfirstshortmovie, 1949’s
TimogTøffe
(
TimandTeddy
),he’dgoonto
specialise inanimatedversionsof the19th-centuryNorwegian folk talesbyPeter
ChristenAsbjørnsenandJørgenMoe– like
VeslefrikkmedFela
(
LittleFreddyand
hisFiddle
) in1952,or1955’s
KariusogBaktus
(
CariesandBacterium
),about twotiny
trolls living inaboy’s teeth.
“Itseemsobviousnow that thiswaswhathewoulddo,”saysRemo.“Buthe’d
studiedarchitectureandhadgoneon tomake furniturewithmygrandfather [Mario
Caprino’sdesignsnow fetchhighpricesatauction].Atonepoint,mygrandfather
askedhim: ‘Areyougoingtodosomeseriousworkorspendyourwhole lifeplaying
withpuppets?’Hechosethe latter.”
During themakingof
TimogTøffe
,Caprinohadcreatedacrude formof
animatronics–asortofwoodenkeyboardwithwiresthrough thepuppets from
behind,whichallowedhim toplaypuppetmasterwithoutanyvisiblestrings.
“Everyonewantedtoknowhowwedid it,”saysRemo,“andeveryone inthestudio
wassworn tosecrecy.”Butbythe late1950s,Caprino foundhisown invention
restrictive,andmovedtothetraditionalstop-motiontechniqueofmovingpuppets.
Thistime, thesecretwassimplyhardwork: shooting24 framespersecond,moving
charactersveryslightlyforeveryexposure.“Eventhoughwekeptupthe ideathatthe
processwassomehowmagic, inreality itmeant itwashugely laborious,”saysRemo.
“We’dconsider itasuccessfulday ifwemanaged togetfivesecondsof footage.”
By the timeCaprinoandAukrustfirstmet,atOslo’sTheatercafeen in1969,films
like
TheFox’sWidow
(1962)and
TheAshladandtheHungryTroll
(1967),allbasedon
Norwegian fairy tales,hadalreadymadeCaprinoaminorcelebrity.“My fatherwas
ThethreeIl
TempoGigantes
Two Il TempoGigantes
weremade for the film.
Onewas 1.5m long, in
proportion to thesize
of thepuppets,while
theotherwas25cm
long, andused for the
racesceneswithwide
shots. After the film’s
release, a full-sized,
6.5mcarwasbuilt to
takeonapromotional
tour. Initially, ithad
abog-standard
Chevroletengine, but
whenF1aceNiki Lauda
saw itatacarshow, he
insistedon fitting itout
withaV8 raceengine.
This page
⁄
Theremote-
controlledversion
ofthe famous Il
TempoGigante
Opposite page
⁄
Lambert inthe
originalfilm; the
crewatworkon
thehighlytechnical
orchestrascene; Il
TempoGigante,as it
appeared inthefilm;
thetriowatchingTV
inthemovie
054\
n
