Prop Og Berta

What do you do if your neighbor is a witch whose greatest wish is to become the most evil creature in the world? This is the problem that good Prop faces when he inherits a humble cottage in the forest. Not only is the witch out to get him; the local villagers aren't keen on his presence either, because the witch's ire also affects them. However, Prop is fond of his new home, and decides that it is worth fighting for. Luckily he can call on his friend Berta, the temperamental talking cow, for assistance, and four small trolls, the Cranburpers, as the witch has plenty of wicked spells up her sleeve. Prop and Berta incur the wrath of the wicked witch and the whole town, while all they wanted was the best for everyone. In this escapade, the forces of good battle forces of evil, and humor usually wins the day.

Prop, Berta, Witch, Mayor, Elderly Woman, The Four Cranburpers, Police Commissioner, Villagers

Puppet animation.

Completed in 2000, but not released until 2001.

From an interview with director Per Fly:

"There's an old guy in Denmark, Bent Solhof. He had told almost 30 stories about these characters, he goes around telling these stories by word of mouth, in kindergartens and schools. He makes CDs and tapes of them, and they sell them in the supermarket. The story in the film is built around four or five of these stories.

"Actually, it was very cheap. We worked with such good animators, it didn't cost very much. Our animation director is from Latvia, and the animators have all been in the business for the long time, 30 years. They were all trained in Russia. I am not an animator, so my primary input was as director. I worked with the characters, deciding what they would be like. My main focus was on pre-production, what the characters were going to look like, what the storyboards looked like.

"It took three years to make the film. Since we were living in different countries, we corresponded by e-mail, and we got about five to 10 seconds of animation that we could actually use every week."

Financed by the Danish Film Institute, the Norwegian Film Institute, Cinematograph, Memfis Film & TV and the Swedish Film Institute.