The Trouble With Terkel

In this hilarious dark comedy, a sixth-grader becomes popular after a girl commits suicide as a result of his bullying. But when he starts to receive death threats as a result, he must turn to his flaky teacher for solace., Though done in a seemingly family-friendly visual style with outwardly adorable CG-animated characters (its trailer sarcastically boasted, “Eureka proudly presents the cutest family film of the year”), this English-language production from Denmark travels the South Park and Meet the Feebles route. In other words, directors Stefan Fjeldmark, Kresten Vestbjerg Andersen, and Thorbjørn Christoffersen contrast the movie’s innocent appearance with the crude, violent, and occasionally gory antics of its nutty characters, to ironic (and blackly comic) effect. The story concerns Terkel, a sixth-grade pariah who gets taunted and tormented by two relentless bullies, until he figures out a cunning way to vent his rage by poking fun at his best friend’s obese girlfriend. She responds by jumping out a window to her death, but this has the unforeseen effect of increasing Terkel’s popularity. Terkel takes to chugging booze and wielding firearms, and life seems like it couldn’t get any better. But when he begins receiving bizarre anonymous death threats, and finds that he can’t confide in his obnoxious sister or drunken uncle, he’s forced to turn to his stoned-out hippie teacher for solace and direction.