''Goat Story – The Old Prague Legends'' () is a 2008 Czech animated

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

produced and directed by

Jan Tománek Jan Tománek (born 14 February 1978) is a Czech movie director, writer and artist. He is the creator of animated movies ''Goat Story: The Old Prague Legends'' and '' Goat Story with Cheese''. Biography Tománek graduated from the High School ...

and written by Tománek with David Sláma. The first Czech-produced feature-length computer-animated film, it features animation by Art And Animation studios, and was released on 19 May 2010 in the United States. The film features the voices of

Jiří Lábus Jiří Lábus (born 26 January 1950) is a Czech actor, comedian and voice actor. Career Jiří Lábus was born on 26 January 1950 in Prague. From a young age, Jiří Lábus was fascinated by theatre and cinema, often attending performances and l ...

Matěj Hádek Matěj Hádek (born 29 November 1975 in Prague) is a Czech actor. He starred in the film ''Operace Silver A'' under director Jiří Strach Jiří Strach (born 29 September 1973) is a Czech film director and actor. He is considered one of the mo ...

, Mahulena Bočanová, Michal Dlouhý, Petr Pelzer, Jan Přeučil,

Viktor Preiss Viktor Preiss (born 13 March 1947 in Prague) is a Czech actor. He popularly known for his roles in ''Hospital at the End of the City'' or ''Give the Devil His Due''. He starred in dozens of Czech films and television programs, including the film ...

Miroslav Táborský Miroslav Táborský (born 9 November 1959 in Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech actor who has appeared in Czech television series, as well as in American films. Táborský studied physics at the University of Hradec Králové, and then graduated ...

Karel Heřmánek Karel Heřmánek (17 October 1947 – 24 August 2024) was a Czech actor. He appeared in more than forty films between 1976 and 2008, including the role of Lucifer in 1984's '' S čerty nejsou žerty'' (''Give the Devil His Due''). Heřmánek di ...

Petr Nárožný Petr Nárožný (born 14 April 1938) is a Czech actor, television presenter, comedian, and entertainer. Life and career As a boy, Nárožný spent part of World War II in Germany, where he experienced Allied bombings. He graduated from the Facu ...

, Dalimil Klapka, Pavel Rímský, Ota Jirák, Filip Jevič and Justin Svoboda. Produced over the course of five years with a budget of $1.8 million, only about ten animators and

3D graphic 3D computer graphics, sometimes called Computer-generated imagery, CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional Computer-generated imagery, computer graphics, are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian coor ...

designers created it. ''Goat Story'' was released in theatres in the Czech Republic on 16 October 2008 by Bontonfilm, and it won the main prize at the 2010 Buenos Aires International Children's Film Festival, and received nominations at other film festivals. A

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music, or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

, ''

Goat Story 2 ''Goat Story 2'' is a 2012 Czech animated comedy feature film (). Directed by Jan Tománek and produced by Art And Animation studio, it is a sequel to the 2008 film ''Goat Story''. The film was animated by a changed team from the first film, wit ...

'', was released in 2012.

Plot

The story takes place in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

during the reign of Charles IV, when the

Charles Bridge Charles Bridge ( , ) is a medieval stone arch bridge that crosses the Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic. Its construction started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV, and finished in the early 15th century.; The bridge replaced ...

and

Prague Astronomical Clock The Prague astronomical clock or Prague Orloj ( ) is a medieval astronomical clock attached to the Old Town Hall in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. Description The Orloj is mounted on the southern wall of Old Town Hall in the Old ...

were still undergoing construction. A villager named Jemmy arrives in the capital from the

countryside In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically describ ...

with his

Goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

. A poor

student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most The Commonwealth, commonwealth countries, a "student" attends ...

named Matthew arrives Prague to study with . Jemmy and Goat stay in Prague to do work on the bridge. It is here that Jemmy meets Katie for the first time, and immediately falls in love with her. Katie is a city girl who supplies forged nails for the bridge's construction. Jemmy ends up causing the scaffolding on a side of the bridge to fall due to his carving of a statue of Katie from a support beam. He and his goat are banned by the workers. In the meantime, Master Hanuš looks for sculptors and carvers for the Astronomical Clock statues. He catches a glimpse of Jemmy, and is interested with his natural woodcarving talent. Matthew, being the target of ridicule by other students because of his poverty, studies with Master Hanuš, too. He has gained his teacher's trust, and oversees the plans of the Astronomical Clock. Since Matthew has nowhere to sleep, he finds the Faust House in Prague, already abandoned at the time. Thanks to his classmates' frequent ridicule, he succumbs to the lure and then picks up a grey

tolar The tolar () or Jáchymovský tolar was a silver coin minted in the Kingdom of Bohemia from 1520 until 1672 in Jáchymov (German: ''Joachimsthal''). The obverse of the coin depicts Saint Joachim with the coat-of-arms of the noble family Schlik ...

in Faust's house to pay for his classmates' drinks and fit in with his peers. However, they deceive him and destroy the plans to the Astronomical Clock while they are unguarded. The unsuspecting Matthew gives the ruined plans back to Master Hanuš. The Prague

councillors A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or regi ...

discover the damaged plans, and demand punishment of the problem. Matthew is placed in a pillory for one day. Because he never knows what he did wrong, he plans to take revenge on Master Hanuš. When Master Hanuš and Jemmy complete the Astronomical Clock, they get no respect or recognition. The Chinese ask Master Hanuš to make an astronomical clock in their city, too. Matthew glimpses this discussion, who meanwhile signed his contract with Satan. He writes a letter to Prague councillors explaining to them that Hanuš is a traitor. The mayor entrusts the executioner Mydlář to cut out Hanuš's eyes. Hanuš wants to take revenge for this violence, and ruins his own astronomical clock by sabotaging the gears. Jemmy, as his assistant, is commissioned to fix the astronomical clock under Katie's threat being executed if he fails to do so in time. Jemmy fixes the astronomical clock at the last minute but arrives at the gallows too late, and Katie has been hanged already. Jemmy is at a church praying to God to give Katie back to him. It is at that moment that Katie comes into the church. Later, it is revealed that Jemmy's goat disguised herself as Katie, and was

hanged Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

in her place. As the goat falls from the gallows, it is revealed that she had an iron tube in her throat the whole time, and it meant her neck was never snapped and survived the hanging.

Voice cast

as Goat *

/ Mike Buffo (English version) as Jemmy * Mahulena Bočanová / Jo-Anne Krupa (English version) as Katie * Michal Dlouhý as Matthew * Petr Pelzer as Master Hanuš * Jan Přeučil as Purkmistr *

as Konšel *

as Priest Ignác *

as Devil / Leader *

as Beggar * Dalimil Klapka as Beggar * Pavel Rímský as Beggar * Ota Jirák as Taverner * Filip Jevič as Student * Justin Svoboda as Student *

Luba Goy Luba Goy (; born November 8, 1945) is a Canadian actress, comedian and one of the stars of '' Royal Canadian Air Farce''. Life and career Goy was born in Haltern, Germany, to Ukrainian parents and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. They immigra ...

as Cořum (English version)

Production

Production started in 2003 at

's family Art And Animation studio.

along with David Sláma co-wrote the script for the film. The film budget was just $1.8 million for release in 2008. Czech actors were:

, Mahulena Bočanová, Michal Dlouhý, Petr Pelzer, Jan Přeučil,

, Dalimil Klapka, Pavel Rímský, Ota Jirák, Filip Jevič and Justin Svoboda. David Solař wrote the music for the film. Development, animation, lighting, color and storyboarding of the film was done in

Prague, Czech Republic Prague ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan area is home to approximately 2.3 m ...

. The Czech distributor was Bontonfilm. Mike Buffo and Jo-Anne Krupa joined the cast on 9 July to supply the voices Jemmy and Katy in the English version which was produced by Karl Hirsh in 2008. The US sales agent was

Phase 4 Films Phase 4 Films was a Canadian film distribution company headquartered in Toronto. It had two branches in the U.S.: Los Angeles, California and Fort Mill, South Carolina. Its subsidiary, Kaboom! Entertainment markets children's entertainment with c ...

, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, but all of the rights are now owned by Art And Animation studio.

Release

''Goat Story'' received a theatrical release on 16 October 2008 by Bontonfilm.

Marketing

The film appeared on the cover of the March 2008 edition of American publication ''

Animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

''.

Home media

The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

on 10 April 2009 by Bontonfilm. In 2015, the producers uploaded both ''Goat Story'' and its sequel on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Reception

The film did not fare well with some Czech critics. Reviewers criticized it for the fact that most of the jokes fell flat, is chauvinistic, sexist and thus not very suitable for children. Despite this, in 2009 the film was awarded the annual

Febiofest The Prague International Film Festival (), also known as Febiofest, was a film festivals in the Czech Republic. It presented a wide spectrum of contemporary and retrospective examples of high-quality film including alternative, film-school and a ...

Kristián award for Best Animated Film by journalists.

Box office

The film grossed $1.3 million in the Czech Republic. With admission 350.000 just in the Czech Republic it became the most successful Czech animated film of all time.

Awards

Reference in popular culture

In the summer of 2023, 14 years after the film's premiere, snippets from the film began to circulate on foreign internet accounts, especially scenes featuring the character Máca, often in the form of

memes A meme (; ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ...

. They were primarily shared on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

and

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

, but also on other mainstream social networks. What caught the attention of internet users the most was especially the portrayal of Máca (and other women) with large

breast The breasts are two prominences located on the upper ventral region of the torso among humans and other primates. Both sexes develop breasts from the same embryology, embryological tissues. The relative size and development of the breasts is ...

s and

buttocks The buttocks (: buttock) are two rounded portions of the exterior anatomy of most mammals, located on the posterior of the pelvic region. In humans, the buttocks are located between the lower back and the perineum. They are composed of a lay ...

, as well as the explicitness of nudity and violence. In an interview with ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'', the film's director, Jan Tománek, stated that his intention was not to sexualize the character Máca, but to embody the Czech term “krev a mlíko” for a woman with a fuller figure, consistent with the overall exaggerated style of the film.

Sequel

A sequel, ''