Back in 2010 it was reported that Juan Jose Campanella, director of the breathless, Academy Award-winning whodunit “Secret In Their Eyes,” would next set his sights on an animated project called “Metegol” (aka “Foosball”). Well, today a brief teaser has appeared (via Animatie) and it seems charming enough. The original logline was 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." You don’t really get that from the teaser, but then again, it is only a minute long.
The teaser starts off with a braggart football (or, if you’re American, soccer) star talking about what it’s like being on the sidelines, about all the goals he’s scored and… the camera pulls back, revealing that our subject is not a full-sized football player but actually a tiny foosball figure. “Football is football, and that’s as true as it gets,” the little player says, as a giant human looks down to investigate (we imagine this is the character who needs to save the village).
Campanella clearly loves the sport (see also: that amazing shot/scene from “Secret In Their Eyes” that takes place at a soccer stadium) and the design of "Foosball" looks quite striking and stylized, even in these brief moments. In 2010 Campanella was quoted as saying about the look of the film, "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." That effort seems to have paid off. The modestly budgeted film was originally slated to star Spanish-language talent including Pablo Rago, Fabian Gianola, Miguel Angel Rodriguez, Horacio Fontova and David Masajnik, but the teaser is in English, utilizing a British actor for the narration/dialogue. We’re pretty sure the original Spanish cast remains and this is just an English dub version, but who knows, anything is possible.
While the teaser just says that the movie is coming “soon,” we’re pretty sure that means “later this year” and not “before the robot apocalypse.” Color us intrigued.
