Foosball

Oscar®-winner Juan José Campanella’s first animated film obliterated box office records in his home country of Argentina and puts Hollywood on notice that high-end CGI is not the exclusive purview of the major US studios. Amadeo spends his time ruling the foosball table in the back room of his parents’ café, where he has customized the tiny footballers with little uniforms and hairstyles, and individualized personalities to match. What he lacks in social skills, he more than makes up for in foosball chops — an early gameplay sequence where he humiliates local bully Grosso is a tour-de-force of animation art direction and a teaser for more to come. Flash forward several years, Amadeo is still languishing in his parents’ bar while Grosso has gone on to soccer super-stardom — and now returns with bulldozers and wrecking crews to exact his revenge by demolishing the little town that was the scene of his only defeat. With all seemingly lost and his beloved foosball table turned to rubble, Amadeo sheds a single teardrop — rendered in amazing detail — and brings to life the tiny captain, who then sets off to reunite the rest of the team. Voiced by Argentine comedians who improvised much of the dialogue, the players’ rapid fire banter provides non-stop amusement as they join together in a showdown match to save the town.