This weekend, I went to see Metegol (Foosball), a Spanish-Argentine animated film with a group of friends. We thought that a kids' movie was probably appropriate for our Spanish level-- even though I can take university classes and function in day-to-day activities, I have a hard time with slang words, adult humor, and fast speakers. After dealing with the unpleasant ticket man ("¿Sabés que la película es en castellano? You know the movie is in Spanish?"), I found my assigned seat and put on my 3D glasses.
The story follows Amadeo, a talented foosball player at a local bar. (In Argentina, bar has a different connotation than in the U.S.- anywhere that sells food and where you can sit for a while can be classified as a bar.) The town bully, Grosso (his name is Argentine slang for "awesome;" this is foreshadowing), challenges Amadeo to a game of foosball and loses. This loss is the catalyst for Grosso teaming up with a local soccer manager and becoming a buff, futuristically-clad ladies' man/soccer player with a vengeance. Grosso returns to the town and takes it over to build a giant soccer stadium, but in a strange turn of events, Amadeo challenges him to a soccer game to save the town from destruction. A few scenes later, in a moment of desperation, Amadeo's tears bring his beloved foosball players to life, and everyone comes together for the soccer game. There's also Laura, Amadeo's love interest and fellow foosball enthusiast.
The film is important because it is one of the first animated films created in Latin America. Last semester, I took a global animation class where we examined production of these kinds of films around the world. It is prohibitively expensive to make an animated film, and a 3D one is a multi-million dollar investment. Metegol is the most expensive film in Argentine history, and I can see why-- very little animation of this kind comes out of Latin America. And the animation was excellent- to show age on the foosball players, each had little chips and other marks on their bodies. Likewise, the story is very regional- they used Rioplantense Spanish (linguistic variation from parts of Argentina and Uruguay) and the plot elements were very local. For example, in an American film, a bad guy can't just take over a town with no government intervention. There was no police or governmental force in the film at all.
The film also broke the bank, with the highest opening weekend box office totals of any Argentine film. The proucers smartly chose to release the film on the first day of winter break here, and that investment has seemed to pay off. (A similar strategy was employed with the release of Aladdin in Southeast Asia in the '90s.) From news articles I looked at, they are working to get the film released in the United States soon.
Overall, I really enjoyed the film. While it did have the gratuitous 3D moments ("Whoa, watch out, here comes a soccer ball in your face!"), I thought it was visually very stunning. I felt similar to Amadeo assessing his rag-tag soccer team, "To see, you've got to believe." He uses this phrase to show his optimism that his team, made up of all the men in the town and one unfortunate-looking woman, can overcome the obstacles and beat the professional soccer players. I came to the movie with a good attitude, and I was mostly just excited to be able to follow the story. I didn't get all the jokes and didn't catch every word, but I followed a story! I guess this puts my Spanish comprehension level around the level of a ten-year-old, but I'll take that for now.