The Flight Before Christmas
The Flight Before Christmas (Finnish: Niko – Lentäjän poika, aka Niko & The Way to the Stars) is a 2008 computer animated Christmas film directed by Michael Hegner and Kari Juusonen. It revolves around a young reindeer named Niko who must overcome his fear of flying by heading to Santa Claus' fell to save him and his fleet of flying reindeer from a pack of wolves. The film was a Finnish production with co-producers in Denmark, Germany and Ireland. It was produced by Anima Vitae, Animaker Oy, A. Film A/S, Ulysses Films, and Magma Films. The animation was produced in Finland, Germany and Denmark, with post-production carried out in Ireland. A 45-minute television edit in American English, was produced in the United States for CBS under the title The Flight Before Christmas. A sequel, Little Brother, Big Trouble: A Christmas Adventure was released in October 2012 in Finland. It is one of the most expensive Finnish films.
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| Produced by | Hannu Tuomainen
Petteri Pasanen |
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| Written by | Mark Hodkinson
Marteinn Thorisson Hannu Tuomainen |
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story by
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based on
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narrated by
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| Music by | Stephen Mckeon
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cinematography
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edited by
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animation by
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layouts by
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backgrounds by
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| Distributed by | Telepool (Munich)
The Weinstein Company (US) |
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| Running time | 80 minutes
45 minutes (TV Version) |
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| Country | Finland
Denmark Germany Ireland |
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| Language | Finnish
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| Budget | €6,100,000
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| Box office | $21,822,495
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Essie: Yes?
Rimppa: I would never eat you.
Essie: That's... sweet.
- This is the most expensive Finnish animated film.
- The film was animated to fit the English language, using a temporary voice track recorded by Irish actors. It was then dubbed to other languages.
- In earlier drafts, Niko was named Rusty. He was also called Pietu and/or Pyry.
- In the original Finnish storyline Niko goes to korvatunturi, a fell where Santa lives according to Finnish folklore, but in the English version he goes to north pole.
- This film was the first voice acting role for Finnish actor Hannu-Pekka Björkman.
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