First off: I am Hungarian so I might seem to be partial. And I am. If you watch this movie you might sense some Hungarian scent to it. When I started watching it I thought: what a lame cat (Dönci), nothing is happening but when I finished watching my opinion completely changed (not about the cat). Some shots are really ingenious (I think): the light-bulb vs wrench, the Pluto scene with the suit up, the tricycle scene etc. But what really did catch me is the sync between the music/sound and the story. It really puts you in the mood. And yes, the movie is a bit childish but also has some strong saying: Our Solar System and Earth is so beautiful (as the whole Universe) so don't frak it up (BSG rulez)- save it! What is interesting that this movie still haunts me. The music (Ice Cold Space, Galactrip, Back to Earth, Mourning) and some scenes are still coming back. After watching this I have had feelings like after A.I, Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5. A bit sentimental, hopeful, sometimes tensed but then relaxed. Remember when you watch the 10 Years After scene. Great movie, try it out.
4 Reviews
great animated movie with a different approach from Hollywood
agnese33717 January 2008
I highly recommend this Hungarian film to anyone who likes 3D animated adult-tales. Although many scenes are childish-cute but not sentimental at all. rather funny.
the story is simple but contains some thought provoking elements delivered in a tasteful way. the figures, scenes and all the design is superb.
a bunch of enthusiastic bloke have forged this movie in a cellar in north-east Hungary. they have worked on it for 6 years.
watch this film if you like these: ant z, monster inc., toy story
do not watch this film if you like these: ice age, lilo & stitch, the omen (2006)
the story is simple but contains some thought provoking elements delivered in a tasteful way. the figures, scenes and all the design is superb.
a bunch of enthusiastic bloke have forged this movie in a cellar in north-east Hungary. they have worked on it for 6 years.
watch this film if you like these: ant z, monster inc., toy story
do not watch this film if you like these: ice age, lilo & stitch, the omen (2006)
A nicely animated 3D space journey for everybody in this world
DonBattery25 October 2011
Warning: Spoilers
This marvel of Hungarian animation came out in 2007, a year before the over-hyped and terrible-in-all-way Kis Vuk http://www.IMDb.com/title/tt0830861/ (sink that to the bottom of IMDb, and forget it for eternity). So when I was dieing from the brain-cancer Kis Vuk gave me, I discovered the fact: it wasn't the first Hungarian full-feature 3D animation. Then I watched Egon & Dönci, and it gave back my faith in humanity.
The creators were young animators from the advertising industry, with high technical knowledge and skills. But this film was "just" a garage-project, with lot of love, passion, and family-support. So they did not have a large company and strong hardware-park behind them, but still they made an excellent work.
!!!WARNING!!! ----- THIS PARAGRAPH CONTAINS SPOILERS ----- !!!Warning!!! The story fallows the adventure of Egon (the amateur inventor and astronaut), and Dönci (his silly cat) trough space. They live on a nice little planetoid, a bit bigger then the one in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince. One day they find a spacecraft from earth, and they decide to go on a journey, to find out where it came from. They have a beautiful trip all around our solar system, only to have a hard land in Earth's hard future.
!!!SAFE!!! --- NO MORE SPOILERS --- !!!SAFE!!! The visuals are brilliant (almost Pixar quality, except the character animation, witch is a bit puppet like, but still cute), during some scenes I felt, the creators want to show us how many visual tricks are in their bag (but it is not overdone). The film has many video clip-like scenes, where the music plays important role too. And by music I mean real music. I still have almost all the themes from this title on my mp3-player. The characters communicate with each other via childish sounds, and half words (so it could be understood by anyone).
The story is simple, but clever and thoughtful. It can entertain little children (and maybe teach something to them), but contains some serious message about humanity for the older audience. It has almost zero violence, and many cute and funny parts.
Watching this film has restored my faith in humanity (witch has been lost during the horrors of Kis Vuk). There are still good animators in Hungary, and they are working for us, and for our children. This film, and it's soundtrack can be downloaded from their site, in excellent quality, for free of charge! What a gift! I want to shake every last hand of them! All in all Egon & Dönci is a lovely film for everyone, especially who is interested in space-travel, our solar system, humanity, quality animation and funny cats.
The creators were young animators from the advertising industry, with high technical knowledge and skills. But this film was "just" a garage-project, with lot of love, passion, and family-support. So they did not have a large company and strong hardware-park behind them, but still they made an excellent work.
!!!WARNING!!! ----- THIS PARAGRAPH CONTAINS SPOILERS ----- !!!Warning!!! The story fallows the adventure of Egon (the amateur inventor and astronaut), and Dönci (his silly cat) trough space. They live on a nice little planetoid, a bit bigger then the one in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince. One day they find a spacecraft from earth, and they decide to go on a journey, to find out where it came from. They have a beautiful trip all around our solar system, only to have a hard land in Earth's hard future.
!!!SAFE!!! --- NO MORE SPOILERS --- !!!SAFE!!! The visuals are brilliant (almost Pixar quality, except the character animation, witch is a bit puppet like, but still cute), during some scenes I felt, the creators want to show us how many visual tricks are in their bag (but it is not overdone). The film has many video clip-like scenes, where the music plays important role too. And by music I mean real music. I still have almost all the themes from this title on my mp3-player. The characters communicate with each other via childish sounds, and half words (so it could be understood by anyone).
The story is simple, but clever and thoughtful. It can entertain little children (and maybe teach something to them), but contains some serious message about humanity for the older audience. It has almost zero violence, and many cute and funny parts.
Watching this film has restored my faith in humanity (witch has been lost during the horrors of Kis Vuk). There are still good animators in Hungary, and they are working for us, and for our children. This film, and it's soundtrack can be downloaded from their site, in excellent quality, for free of charge! What a gift! I want to shake every last hand of them! All in all Egon & Dönci is a lovely film for everyone, especially who is interested in space-travel, our solar system, humanity, quality animation and funny cats.
Interesting premise, poor execution.
lagrammairienne15 March 2010
I became interested in seeing this film after I heard that its story was told entirely without dialogue, and that it was made in Hungary, a country which has a long history of producing high-quality animated features. However, if you're expecting Egon & Donci to compare favorably with the likes of Vuk, Son of the White Mare, or Cat City, you're likely to be disappointed.
Although the lack of dialogue makes the film unique, it is also the film's biggest problem. This is because, in place of spoken words, the characters spew out a multitude of non-verbal noises, and they do it constantly. There is scarcely a moment where the characters aren't hemming, hawing, oohing, ahhing, gasping, squeaking, mumbling, chuckling, grunting, gurgling, or making other unnecessary, unintelligible noises. This gets irritating VERY fast.
The story, such as there is, involves the titular Egon and Donci finding a crashed spacecraft in their backyard and building their own rocket so they can visit the planet it came from. Even with the film's slight running time of seventy-five minutes, it feels like it takes forever for them to get there, and after the confusing beginning, we are treated to seemingly endless scenes of the two characters having minor misadventures in their spaceship and engaging in unfunny slapstick. In the end, the discovery the main characters make on the new planet is so underwhelming, and the ending is so vague, that I was left completely unaware of what the film's point was supposed to be.
That being said, it's obvious that a great deal of work went into the design of the film, and most of the environments are beautifully rendered, with fantastic color. In addition, some of the music is moderately catchy, and the film's best moments come when the characters stop babbling and the music and visuals take over.
Overall, however, I think the one word that can sum up the experience of watching this film is "tedious." The gibberish dialogue is annoying, the story is barely understandable, the characters have no memorable qualities, the humor is completely flat, and the film as a whole is curiously lacking in the charm that is so abundant in Hungary's earlier animated productions. If you like obscure animated films, my suggestion would be to sit back and enjoy some of the brilliant films that the Panonia studio produced in the 1980s, and skip this.
Although the lack of dialogue makes the film unique, it is also the film's biggest problem. This is because, in place of spoken words, the characters spew out a multitude of non-verbal noises, and they do it constantly. There is scarcely a moment where the characters aren't hemming, hawing, oohing, ahhing, gasping, squeaking, mumbling, chuckling, grunting, gurgling, or making other unnecessary, unintelligible noises. This gets irritating VERY fast.
The story, such as there is, involves the titular Egon and Donci finding a crashed spacecraft in their backyard and building their own rocket so they can visit the planet it came from. Even with the film's slight running time of seventy-five minutes, it feels like it takes forever for them to get there, and after the confusing beginning, we are treated to seemingly endless scenes of the two characters having minor misadventures in their spaceship and engaging in unfunny slapstick. In the end, the discovery the main characters make on the new planet is so underwhelming, and the ending is so vague, that I was left completely unaware of what the film's point was supposed to be.
That being said, it's obvious that a great deal of work went into the design of the film, and most of the environments are beautifully rendered, with fantastic color. In addition, some of the music is moderately catchy, and the film's best moments come when the characters stop babbling and the music and visuals take over.
Overall, however, I think the one word that can sum up the experience of watching this film is "tedious." The gibberish dialogue is annoying, the story is barely understandable, the characters have no memorable qualities, the humor is completely flat, and the film as a whole is curiously lacking in the charm that is so abundant in Hungary's earlier animated productions. If you like obscure animated films, my suggestion would be to sit back and enjoy some of the brilliant films that the Panonia studio produced in the 1980s, and skip this.
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