Snowtime!

Snowtime!
Film Poster
La Guerre des tuques 3D
Directed byJean-François Pouliot
Written byNormand Canac-Marquis
Roger Cantin
Danyèle Patenaude
Paul Risacher
Based onThe Dog Who Stopped the War
by Rock Demers
StarringFrench version:
English version:[1]
Edited byRobert Yates
Music byJorane
Éloi Painchaud
Production
company
CarpeDiem Film & TV
Distributed byLes Films Séville
Entertainment One
Release date
  • November 13, 2015 (2015-11-13)
Running time
82 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguagesFrench
English
Budget$12.5 million
Box office$3.36 million (Canada)[2]
CN¥31.5 million (China)[3]

Snowtime! (French: La Guerre des tuques 3D), also released as La Bataille géante de boules de neige in France and Cleo in the United Kingdom,[4] is a 2015 Canadian animated comedy-drama film from Quebec.[5] Directed by Jean-François Pouliot, it is an animated remake of the 1984 film The Dog Who Stopped the War (La Guerre des tuques).[6]

The film inspired the spinoff television series Snowsnaps (Les Mini-Tuques) that premiered in September 2018. A sequel film, Racetime (La Course des tuques), was released in December 2018.[7]

Plot

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In a small village, a group of children get the idea to plan and stage a giant snowball fight during winter break over a snow fort, with the group who controls the fort by the end of the break winning. One boy, Luke, is decided to lead one team, but the group cannot decide who will be the opposing team. The group attempt to provoke two other kids, Piers and Frankie, into being the opposing team by pelting them with snowballs, but accidentally pelt Sophie, the new girl, whom Luke has a crush on. Infuriated, Sophie accepts leadership of the opposing team and has Frankie construct an elaborate snow fort.

On the first day of battle, Luke's team is successfully repelled. The following day, one boy, Chuck, constructs snowballs coated with ice, but the team decides not to use them. However, Sophie's younger sister Lucy discovers the iceballs and informs Sophie, spurring her to stage an ambush using snowballs filled with paint. During the attack, Sophie's team manages to steal Luke's bugle, an instrument he kept in memory of his father, who died during a war. Sophie's team gets into an argument with her, resulting in her not showing up the following day, allowing Luke's team to successfully infiltrate the fort and drive off its defenders. Learning of this, Sophie sneaks into the fort at night and takes their flag, despite being ambushed by Luke's group.

To get the feuding groups to reconcile, Nicky and his cousin Daniel feign injury to get the groups to unite. The two groups decide to abandon the war, but Sophie convinces Luke to return the fort to her side for one last battle, as she'd been absent when they first took it. Luke's group recruits the first graders to assist in the assault and utilizes Frankie's stolen plans to bombard the snow fort with giant ice blocks. In the battle that ensues, the fort collapses, crushing Piers' dog Cleo, killing her. A grief-stricken Piers blames Luke for taking the game too far. A remorseful Luke sounds a bugle call as the kids bury Cleo. The two teams, realizing they had let the game divide them, reconcile and tear down the remains of the fort together.

Production

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Having earned $3,359,425 in 2015, the film was the highest-grossing Canadian film at the domestic box office during the calendar year, thus winning the Cineplex Golden Screen Award conferred by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.[8][9] It had its American premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.[10] The film was released in English Canada on February 12, 2016 and the United States on February 19, 2016.[2]

The soundtrack features many songs by various artists, including two recordings of "L'hymne" by Celine Dion, one English rendition as a solo artist and one French rendition recorded as a duet with Fred Pellerin.

Characters

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Characters Voiced by
Original English Original English
Luc Luke Nicholas Savard-L'Herbier Angela Galuppo
Sophie Mariloup Wolfe Lucinda Davis
François Les Lunettes Four-eyed Frankie Hélène Bourgeois Leclerc Sandra Oh[11]
Pierre Piers Sébastien Reding Ross Lynch[12][13]
Lucie Lucy Sophie Cadieux Angela Galuppo[14]
Maranda Manolo Anne Casabonne Sonja Ball
Jacques Jack Catherine Trudeau
Henri Leroux Henry André Sauvé Heidi Lynne Weeks
Georges Leroux George
Chabot Chuck Gildor Roy Don W. Shepherd
Ti-Guy La Lune Nicky Hugolin Chevrette-Landesque[citation needed] or Aline Pinsonneault[citation needed] Elisabeth MacRae [15]
France Fran Aline Pinsonneault Jenna Wheeler
Daniel Blanchette de Victoriaville Daniel Blanshire from Victoriaville Esther Poulin Holly Gauthier-Frankel

Reception

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The film has grossed over $13 million worldwide, including CN¥31.5 million in China.[7][3]

Reviews

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On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 71% based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10.[16] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score 52 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[17]

References

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  1. ^ Linda Barnard (11 February 2016). "Snowtime! packs a message: review". Toronto Star. Retrieved 22 February 2016. With the voices of Sandra Oh, Angela Gallupo, Lucinda Davis and Ross Lynch.
  2. ^ a b Etan Vlessing (February 2, 2016). "Canadian Screen Awards to Honor 'Snowtime!' as Biggest Homegrown 2015 Box-Office Hit". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
  3. ^ a b "冰雪大作战（2017）". cbooo.cn (in Chinese). Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  4. ^ "Cleo (2015)". British Board of Film Classification. 15 January 2016. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  5. ^ "La guerre des tuques 3D réussit son pari". Ici Radio-Canada, November 3, 2015.
  6. ^ "La Guerre des Tuques takes aim at a new generation". Q, December 16, 2015.
  7. ^ a b Cocherel, Par (June 6, 2018). "Le film "La course des tuques" est lancé". HuffPost. Verizon Communications. Retrieved September 1, 2018.
  8. ^ Barry Hertz (4 February 2016). "A Canadian box-office battle between Snowtime! and Brooklyn". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  9. ^ "Brooklyn Tops Canadian Box Office". Northernstars. 4 February 2016. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  10. ^ "Animated La Guerre des Tuques 3D will screen at Sundance Film Festival". Montreal Gazette, September 9, 2015.
  11. ^ Linda Barnard (12 February 2016). "Snowtime! movie lets Sandra Oh get animated". Toronto Star. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  12. ^ Maxime Demers (4 November 2015). "À la conquête du monde". Le Journal de Montréal (in French). Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  13. ^ Brendan Kelly (11 November 2015). "Movie review: La guerre des tuques 3D reanimates spirit of original". Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  14. ^ Scott Tobias (28 January 2016). "Sundance Film Review: 'Snowtime!'". Variety. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  15. ^ Sheri Linden (19 January 2016). "'Snowtime!': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  16. ^ "Snowtime! (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved September 1, 2018.
  17. ^ "Snowtime! reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
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