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Samson & Sally

Original title: Samson og Sally
  • 1984
  • Not Rated
  • 59m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
890
YOUR RATING
Samson & Sally (1984)
AnimationFamilyRomance

Samson is a young whale that doesn't have friends. He spends his time listening to his mother's stories about the legendary whale Moby Dick. Samson becomes fascinated about it and decides to... Read allSamson is a young whale that doesn't have friends. He spends his time listening to his mother's stories about the legendary whale Moby Dick. Samson becomes fascinated about it and decides to go on a journey to find Moby Dick.Samson is a young whale that doesn't have friends. He spends his time listening to his mother's stories about the legendary whale Moby Dick. Samson becomes fascinated about it and decides to go on a journey to find Moby Dick.

  • Director
    • Jannik Hastrup
  • Writers
    • Bent Haller
    • Jannik Hastrup
    • Li Vilstrup
  • Stars
    • Jesper Klein
    • Helle Hertz
    • Per Pallesen
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.0/10
    890
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Jannik Hastrup
    • Writers
      • Bent Haller
      • Jannik Hastrup
      • Li Vilstrup
    • Stars
      • Jesper Klein
      • Helle Hertz
      • Per Pallesen
    • 10User reviews
    • 2Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos13

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    Top cast19

    Edit
    Jesper Klein
    • Samson
    • (voice)
    Helle Hertz
    • Sally
    • (voice)
    Per Pallesen
    • Seagull
    • (voice)
    Bodil Udsen
    • Samson's mother
    • (voice)
    Poul Thomsen
    • Samson's father
    • (voice)
    Kirsten Peüliche
    • Dolphin
    • (voice)
    Berthe Qvistgaard
    • Tortoise
    • (voice)
    Claus Ryskjær
    • Baleen whale
    • (voice)
    Preben Neergaard
    • Moby Dick
    • (voice)
    Ole Ernst
    • Captain
    • (voice)
    Kathleen Fee
    • Seagull
    • (English version)
    • (voice)
    Staffan Hallerstam
      Mathias Henrikson
      Mathias Henrikson
        Heinz Hopf
        Heinz Hopf
          Ingvar Kjellson
          Ingvar Kjellson
            Louise Ræder
              Marilyn Schreffler
              Marilyn Schreffler
              • Sally
              • (English version)
              • (voice)
              Meta Velander
              Meta Velander
                • Director
                  • Jannik Hastrup
                • Writers
                  • Bent Haller
                  • Jannik Hastrup
                  • Li Vilstrup
                • All cast & crew
                • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

                User reviews10

                7.0890
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                Featured reviews

                10robert-793

                A beautiful, touching movie

                I remember seeing this movie on TV when I was about 6-7 years old and how It moved me back then. The love story is so cute! The movie's similar to Watership Down in it's seriousness and environmentalist message....feels like they don't make movies like this anymore. An intelligent movie. However, there is just a little bit of humor too,albeit ironic and dark. The walrus song in the middle is absolutely hilarious! The animation may not be on par with Disney, sure, but hey, it's from Scandinavia. Some parts containing music and performing crabs in the water felt similar to "under the sea" from The Little Mermaid(and this was before that movie).

                Parents, don't underestimate a kids intelligence. I strongly recommend this movie.
                10amethyst2

                delightful,thoughtful,sad

                This animated movie is one of the best ones I've seen. Forget Disney movies - although the animation may not match that of Disney cartoons, this one has much more to offer otherwise: messages of love and unity, of loneliness and contentedness and much more. It also points to man's folly of whale hunting and thus it somewhat resembles Melville's Moby Dick. I recommend this to anyone and everyone.
                10emmyhouston

                My favourite childhood film

                I feel truly blessed to be in possession of an uncut copy of this film in English (UK distribution with parkfield publishing). This seems to be a rare thing to still exist, which is a shame.

                I found it among other tapes in my roof space and today watched for the time in maybe 20 years. It did NOT disappoint.

                This film makes you smile, it make you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you shout "no" at the screen. It is an emotional story with plenty of humour between. True, compared to modern children's films, it is a bit dark and between whalers, oil slicks, radioactive waste,an underwater war arms dump and the fact that New York is now under water... it comes with LOTS of hard hitting environmental commentary. But back then, a lot of kids films had dark and scary parts, think Watership Down, The Black Cauldron etc, even in the Lion King it gets dark at times. It makes you feel empathy and compassion in a way that happy clappy films just don't.

                I highly recommend you to let your children watch this if you ar every lucky enough to get your hands on it.
                9spunkle07

                So what if it's traumatizing?

                Looking back on my favorite movies from my childhood--this, The Brave Little Toaster, Little Nemo--I loved them all so much yet I found them all extremely disturbing. As many other people have implied, this movie is a bit scary, and deals with some pretty heavy themes. But you know what? That's why it's a good movie. That's why, seeing it many years later, it isn't just some crappy kid's movie--this movie and the others I have mentioned have stuck with me my whole life. The fact that they are a bit disturbing is no reason to say that kid's shouldn't see them. Because you know what? I wouldn't be the person that I am if I hadn't seen movies like this as a kid. Movies like this challenge the kid in ways that things like the Care Bears never will, and in the long run, I think that is a good thing.

                That aside though, I really believe that this is a great, beautiful movie. You can tell that the people who made it really wanted to make it--it wasn't just another movie in a long line of movies they were under contract to make, like Disney is today. Even in Disney's glory day's none of their stories were original, and this story is extremely original. I credit the makers of this movie much more than the makers of The Lion King. The animation is quite good and has a very unique look to it, the story is very interesting and has more than one layer at work, the music is beautiful--the tone of the guitar in this movie's soundtrack has stuck with me all these years. The weakest link, probably, is the voice acting, which is by no means BAD. But this movie was in fact translated into English from Danish, so replacement voice crew often loses something.

                All in all, I think this is a wonderful movie. This is the kind of movie I would want to show my kids, because even if its a little traumatizing, well, so is life. To give your kids only some idealized world through harmless movies with little conflict is much more dangerous, in my opinion.
                10leominor

                Amazing!

                This animation based on the book, The Song of the Whale, is probably the greatest animation ever created. Samson is a young whale with a serious personality disorder who, through his lack of friends (besides an annoying sea gull), becomes obsessed with the stories of Moby Dick told by his mother. Basically the plot line is Samson searching for Moby Dick to help save the whales from the iron beasts (whalers). It's a great story and takes us deep into the depths of the ocean where we learn about the fun and danger of being a whale. From playing dead, to pestering polar bears, to oil spills, to a crazy walrus duo messed up on toxic waste doing a dance number and singing in gibberish. This movie definitely gets an excellent review from me, and trust me it's not just a kids movie. I first saw it at the age of 22 and I've loved it every since. I recommend watching it with a good friend with a pure heart and a little green.

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                Storyline

                Edit

                Did you know

                Edit
                • Trivia
                  This film uses an unusual technique for cel animation: after the animation is completed on paper, the drawings are photocopied onto card, colored and painted with oil pastels, Indian ink and acrylic, cut out and applied to the cel using double-sided Sellotape. This technique was used again for Jannik Hastrup's next three films: Subway to Paradise (1987), War of the Birds (1990) and The Secret Weapon (1995).
                • Crazy credits
                  All of the credits are seen only at the start of the film. The music of Fuzzy builds up throughout.
                  • the sea green text ripples in and out as it draws forward.
                  • The opening title design is set below the water surface with the light rays of the sun surrounding it. The design was in white with a red right drop-shadow. Two whales take their places as "S"s. Being as the film's titular whales, Samson winks his right eye and winks again to see Sally. Sally winks her eye twice and looks at Samson. (In the American English-dubbed version, it does not fade out and cuts directly to start the story.)
                  • the two red outlined fish pass by in a diagonal from the bottom-right to the top-left in-between the first two crew credits [the "Adaptors"].
                  • Bubbles burst up at the bottom-right in a transition from "Background" credit.
                  • an orange outlined fish passes by in a diagonal from the near-bottom-right to the top-right.
                  • The zooming ends at the directors' credits, and cuts to the begin the story.
                • Alternate versions
                  The US Just For Kids video release cuts out the Danish opening credits, a scene where a polar bear tries to get a killed seal ashore and a scene where the seagull defecates on the whaler after he is tied up. All other prints of the film keep these scenes intact.
                • Connections
                  Featured in All for One (2011)

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                FAQ14

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                Details

                Edit
                • Release date
                  • November 9, 1984 (United States)
                • Countries of origin
                  • Denmark
                  • Sweden
                • Language
                  • Danish
                • Also known as
                  • Samson & Sally: The Song of the Whales
                • Production companies
                  • Dansk Tegnefilm
                  • Det Danske Filminstitut
                  • Nordisk Film
                • See more company credits at IMDbPro

                Tech specs

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                • Runtime
                  59 minutes
                • Color
                  • Color
                • Aspect ratio
                  • 1.66 : 1

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