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JOURNEY TO YOURLAND OPENS ZLÍN FILM FEST

A new 3D animated feature film, Journey to Yourland, will be released this summer. The film is telling the story of ten-year-old Riki, his cheeky new friend Emma and Tidling the monkey as they embark on an adventurous journey to Yourland. The fantasy world comes alive with the distinctive voices of actors such as Jan Cina, Jan Vondráček, Klára Issová, Martin Myšička and Václav Neužil. Before the Slovak-Czech-Belgian film can be seen in cinemas across the country from August 11, the special world premiere of the film can be watch at the opening ceremony of the International Film Festival for Children and Youth in Zlín on Thursday 26 May.

Far beyond the playgrounds of children, there is an amazing world of fantasy – Yourland. Here, monkeys and ravens speak human language and incredible machines walk across the golden deserts, working in perfect harmony with nature. Ten-year-old Riki escapes to Yourland from his real-world home because he picks up a signal sent by a mysterious glowing pebble. This stone, a source of great power that everyone wants to obtain, hides in Riki’s heart. The protagonist must then carefully decide with whom to share this secret – whether with his new friend Emma, the monkey General Tidling, the robot and advisor to President of Yourland, Metalman, or even the captain of the steam ship. So begins Riki’s thrilling journey to save his own life and the world of fantasy. The trailer for the film features the song “In the Stars” by Celeste Buckingham,.

“Working on Journey to Yourland has meant 4,324 days of pure joy for me and I’m very excited that the film will finally be seen by audiences young and old. It’s a thrilling story in which the main character Riki has many adventures and meets new friends and worlds. It’s like a roller coaster ride full of excitement and unexpected twists and turns,” says director Peter Budinský.

Produced by Peter Badac and Barbora Budinska, the ambitious feature film with a budget of CZK 94 million has been screened at festivals in Croatia, Switzerland, Germany and France and has been worked on by more than fifteen artists and animators from all over Europe, from Ireland to the Czech Republic. Journey to Yourland thus stands out for its sophisticated art style with detailed backgrounds evoking the epic video game feel so appealing to young viewers already looking for something more than “kiddie” animation. The film’s visual concept draws on stop-motion visuals, which inspired the stylization of characters and environments and the creation of textures. However, the visual concept is transferred to a digital environment and the film is animated like a classic CGI 3D film. The uniqueness of the technology lies in the use of the Unity game engine in the finalisation of the film and rendering.

The film was co-produced by plutoon (Slovakia), BFILM.cz (Czech Republic), The Pack (Belgium) and RTVS, supported by the Audiovisual Fund, the State Cinematography Fund, the Belgian screen.brussels fund, the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic, the Flemish Film Fund VAF, the MEDIA programme and the Bratislava Region.

Trailer here: https://youtu.be/iI-q8N33ST0