Juan Jose Campanella, the Argentine who won the  foreign-language Oscar in 2009 for his film The Secret in Their Eyes, has decided to make his first animated feature.  His film has been titled Metegol, or Foosball, and only has a budget of $9.75 million if you can believe that.

The film “follows an underdog who, with the help of foosball figures that come to life, must take on a star soccer pro to save their village.”

I for one think this is an interesting storyline.  It reminds me of The Indian in the Cupboard except there seems to be a lot more at risk if an underdog has to challenge a pro to save his village.  I wonder how they are going to set up that village angle.

Campanella stated that “we are finding a visual style that we haven’t seen before in an animated movie. We are putting a lot of effort in that.”  I guess this is the only way you can make an animated feature for that budget.  Maybe it’s along the same lines as the Oscar nominated Irish feature, The Secret of the Kells.

According to Variety, Campanella brought in some top local talent to do the voiceovers for the film including “including Pablo Rago (“Secret”), Fabian Gianola (“The Super Agents: New Generation”), Miguel Angel Rodriguez (“Dad for a Day”), Horacio Fontova (“Goodbye, Dear Moon”) and David Masajnik (“Son of the Bride”).”

The film is expected to get a release at some point in 2012.

Source: Variety