The 50th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival will present the global debut of Takahide Hori’s latest stop-motion project JUNK WORLD, a prequel to his 2021 creation JUNK HEAD, within the Midnight Madness screening segment.
TIFF’s upcoming run is scheduled from September 4 to 14, with full program details becoming available August 12.
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The movie began its theatrical run in Japan on June 13.
According to festival notes:
A sudden assault disrupts a partnership expedition uniting humans and liberated clones, forming an unexpected catalyst for a dimension-crossing, temporal narrative that unfolds over a thousand-year timeline earlier than JUNK HEAD’s original subterranean setting.
Set 1,042 years before the events of JUNK HEAD, the film explores synthetic being Robin, formerly known as Parton in previous iterations. Human and artificial teams venture into enigmatic phenomena at a supposedly abandoned underground city.
Production announcements for this follow-up occurred in 2023, followed by a three-year creation period led by the sole visionary.
Creative funding initiatives connected to the production included two crowdfunder campaigns. Initial fundraising raised ¥13,663,200 (approximately USD$97,260), with a subsequent campaign collecting ¥13,054,400 (USD$92,926). The filmmaker stated production would continue regardless of total earnings.
Hori personally oversaw all aspects including direction, narrative construction, character visuals, post-processing, audio composition, framing sequences, figure creation, and vocal performance.
Anime Limited handled home media distribution for Hori’s inaugural cinematic creation JUNK HEAD.
The 2021 version shown under animated feature program March that year had limited theatrical exposure. When Fantasia Festival’s 25th edition resumed presentations in August 2021, this re-edited version received its North American presentation, later earning animation honors at Strasbourg’s European Fantastic Film Festival.
Fan exposure to alternate narrative threads first occurred in 2017 via initial showings.
News Source: Animenewsnetwork.com
