Benjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins
Encyclopedia
Benjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins is an Australian feature film inspired by the Kermode and Mayo film review programme. It is a parody of Harry Potter
/Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief as well as containing several jokes related Kermode and Mayo's programme.
, introducing the audience to Benjamin Sniddlegass (Andrew Griscti), a nerdy redheaded orphan from Cockfosters, UK, who lives with his domineering Aunt David Morrissey (Linda Newstead).
After discovering his Aunt has been hiding packages addressed to him, he sneaks down to the mailbox one morning and finds an envelope containing an iPhone, which transports him to Lunar Park
in Sydney, Australia. He's met by Mr. Pentangle (Alec Doomadgee), an imposing Aboriginal man, who reveals that Ben is part of an ancient magical sect of Wittertainers.
The pair journey to a small island off the Australian coast, which is home to Fairport Academy, the magic school that Ben will be attending. While moving into his dorm, Ben meets Scarlett McKenna (Catherine Davies), a gorgeous co-ed a few years his senior, who casts a spell curing his near-sightedness.
At the school assembly, Ben is ignored by the student population, but Scarlett comforts him. The new principal, Bavarian filmmaker Werner Herzog
(Dorian Newstead), gives the opening address, warning the students that changes will be made with him in charge.
A musical montage shows the next three months Ben's school life. His initial classes with Professor Mumblecore as a disaster, and Ben is the subject of humiliating gossip among his fellow students. He takes advantage of a history project to deliver a presentation on his idol, skiffle
legend Johnny Leroy, which wins over his classmates, who applaud him enthusiastically.
A chat between Ben and Scarlett shows their relationship beginning to grow closer, as Ben's confidence has grown. He is outfitted with a new wardrobe, and is given a suit belonging to his father as a going away present from Pentangle, who is swimming to Germany to take up his new post as headmaster of Werner Herzog's Rogue Film School.
Ben visits Principal Herzog, curious about the history of his family. Herzog tells Ben of his early life, fighting along Ben's father Percy (also Andrew Griscti), a secret agent employed by the British government. Percy's career was focused on defeating the machinations of the sinister Lord Emmerich, a vicious mastermind with the head of a gorilla.
In flasback, we see Ben's mother Lucy (Sarah Linnegar) held hostage by Lord Emmerich in his lair, inside a hollowed out Icelandic volcano. Percy breaks into the facility and confronts Emmerchi, defeating him and rescuing his bride. Sensing his defeat, Emmerich sets the self-destruct sequence, causing the volcano to erupt and kill them all.
Ben relates his troubles to Scarlett over a game of billiards
in the Fairport Academy bar. She reveals she lusted after Ben's father when she was growing up, and they trade innuendo as she beats him decisively. As they get more and more drunk, she delivers a rambling speech to him about hero worship and they almost kiss.
The next morning, Ben invites Scarlett down to the disused concert hall, and shows her his plan to resurrect the school's tradition of concerts, which used to be filled by the ghosts of dead rock stars. Ben's strategy is to run school talent quests, then start to bring in notable living performers, like Bruce Springsteen
. An impressed Scarlett joins Ben on the stage and they perform a duet of the Fairport Academy School Song.
The print becomes scratchy and is replaced by a technical difficulties card. The projectionist (Max Newstead) phones the director of the film (Jeremy Dylan) and explains that he's lost the next two reels of the film. Dylan is concerned that this skips a number of important plot points, but they conclude that no one will notice. Kenneth restarts the projector.
Elvis Costello
and Paul McCartney
have just left the stage as Ben concludes his performance at the school talent quest to rapturous applause. Later, Ben sleeps uneasily.
Ben dreams he's back in the concert hall, watching Johnny Leroy and the Impulsives perform on stage. In the second verse, Leroy transforms into the Lord Emmerich, who leaps down from the stage and menaces Ben, demanding to know the 'secret of the cauldron of penguins'.
Ben awakes with a start. Scarlett comes to his door to check on him, but Ben assures her it was merely a bad dream. A concerned Scarlett calls Pentangle in Germany and relays the news.
Ben is plagued by another dream involving Lord Emmerich and the Cauldron of Penguins, this time more violent, and awakes in a panic. Scarlett comes to his door again, more concerned, and they sit together in his room and resolve to go to Principal Herzog for advice. She comforts him and they have sex
.
In his office the next morning, Herzog tells Ben of his concern that Emmerich is using Ben's dreams as a way to regain a footing in the physical world. The only solution is to keep Ben away indefinitely and Herzog concocts a mixture of energy drinks, coffee and cocaine that Ben reluctantly drinks.
He heads to the school library with the mixture, researching penguins in hopes of discovering the solution to the mystery of the cauldron. As he ingests more the mixture and stays awake longer, he begins hallucinating a talking stuffed penguin (Lauren McKenna), who mocks him. Ben punches him repeatedly in the face.
Two weeks later, a concerned Pentangle arrives at the library, searching for Ben, who has become totally unhinged. Pentangle cleans him up and tells him that Scarlett and Herzog have been kidnapped by Lord Emmerich, and together they search for clues where they were last seen. Ben finds an iPhone
and uses the transporter app to follow them.
He appears in Lord Emmerich's hollowed out Icelandic volcano lair, an exact replica of the room where he faced off with Ben's parents. Scarlett is bound and gagged on an operating table and Emmerich stands over her, threatening them with a pistol. He removes his gorilla mask to reveal that he is really Werner Herzog, who created the fictional persona of an eccentric Bavarian filmmaker to escape the authorities after surviving the destruction of his old lair. He reveals his overly elaborate plan in a long-winded speech, then prepares to shoot them both dead. Ben, remembering the layout from the earlier flashback sequence, activates the self-destruct sequence and transports him and Scarlett to safety
remarked that it was so similar to the Harry Potter
franchise that it may as well have been called 'Benjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins'. His co-host Simon Mayo
declared that he wanted to see that film.
In Australia, music video director Jeremy Dylan created a mock poster for the film and uploaded it to a blog at benjaminsniddlegrass.com, which was discovered by fans of the show, who sent it in, along with Dylan's subsequent mock press releases about the film, into the show
. Mayo read some of Dylan's work out on February 26 and he and Kermode encouraged Dylan to make the film.
Assembling a cast made up of performers from amateur musical theater societies around Sydney and penning the screenplay himself, Dylan and his production team started shooting on June 6, 2010 and shot the film over seven days between June and mid-October. Locations included The Exchange Hotel, Epping Boys High School
and a motel which was used for the school dormitories.
Stephen Fry
is a known listener to the Mayo and Kermode show and when he traveled to Sydney in August 2010, Jeremy Dylan approached him about narrating the film by passing a copy of the screenplay to him at the end of his one man show at the Sydney Opera House
. The show was filmed by the ABC
and Dylan can be seen doing so in the television special made of the show. Two days later, Fry emailed Dylan and invited him to come to his hotel with his recording equipment. The narration was recorded that afternoon.
The film's score was provided by Mike Carr, a Golden Guitar
winning singer-songwriter active in the country music industry. Carr also wrote one of the original songs featured in the film, 'Famous'. Along with 'Bad Man', the main title theme, and 'Judgement Day', another skiffle song, the original songs were recorded in a studio in Riverwood, produced by Dylan and the engineer, Jeff Cripps. The songs were performed live by the actors who portray Johnny Leroy and the Impulsives in the film, in an attempt to emulate the early Elvis Presley Sun Studio recordings.
The cinematographer, Yavor Dimitrov, was studying at UTS
when the film was in production, and owned the camera the film was shot on. He became a producer on the film as production wore on.
When the film was completed, Dylan was interviewed on the Mayo/Kermode show, promoting the film's theatrical premiere in Sydney the following week. The premiere was held on January 31, 2011, at the Dendy Cinema, Newtown, to a sold out house, and the DVD and digital download of the film became available immediately afterward. The film was subsequently screened at the State Theatre in Hobart.
Harry Potter (film series)
The Harry Potter film series is a British-American film series based on the Harry Potter novels by the British author J. K. Rowling...
/Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief as well as containing several jokes related Kermode and Mayo's programme.
Plot
The film opens with a prologue narrated by Stephen FryStephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
, introducing the audience to Benjamin Sniddlegass (Andrew Griscti), a nerdy redheaded orphan from Cockfosters, UK, who lives with his domineering Aunt David Morrissey (Linda Newstead).
After discovering his Aunt has been hiding packages addressed to him, he sneaks down to the mailbox one morning and finds an envelope containing an iPhone, which transports him to Lunar Park
Lunar Park
Lunar Park is a novel by Bret Easton Ellis with elements of faux autobiography and pastiche. It was released by Knopf on August 16, 2005. It is notable for being the first book written by Ellis to use past tense narrative.-Plot summary:...
in Sydney, Australia. He's met by Mr. Pentangle (Alec Doomadgee), an imposing Aboriginal man, who reveals that Ben is part of an ancient magical sect of Wittertainers.
The pair journey to a small island off the Australian coast, which is home to Fairport Academy, the magic school that Ben will be attending. While moving into his dorm, Ben meets Scarlett McKenna (Catherine Davies), a gorgeous co-ed a few years his senior, who casts a spell curing his near-sightedness.
At the school assembly, Ben is ignored by the student population, but Scarlett comforts him. The new principal, Bavarian filmmaker Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog Stipetić , known as Werner Herzog, is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and opera director.He is often considered as one of the greatest figures of the New German Cinema, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner...
(Dorian Newstead), gives the opening address, warning the students that changes will be made with him in charge.
A musical montage shows the next three months Ben's school life. His initial classes with Professor Mumblecore as a disaster, and Ben is the subject of humiliating gossip among his fellow students. He takes advantage of a history project to deliver a presentation on his idol, skiffle
Skiffle
Skiffle is a type of popular music with jazz, blues, folk, roots and country influences, usually using homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a term in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, it became popular again in the UK in the 1950s, where it was mainly...
legend Johnny Leroy, which wins over his classmates, who applaud him enthusiastically.
A chat between Ben and Scarlett shows their relationship beginning to grow closer, as Ben's confidence has grown. He is outfitted with a new wardrobe, and is given a suit belonging to his father as a going away present from Pentangle, who is swimming to Germany to take up his new post as headmaster of Werner Herzog's Rogue Film School.
Ben visits Principal Herzog, curious about the history of his family. Herzog tells Ben of his early life, fighting along Ben's father Percy (also Andrew Griscti), a secret agent employed by the British government. Percy's career was focused on defeating the machinations of the sinister Lord Emmerich, a vicious mastermind with the head of a gorilla.
In flasback, we see Ben's mother Lucy (Sarah Linnegar) held hostage by Lord Emmerich in his lair, inside a hollowed out Icelandic volcano. Percy breaks into the facility and confronts Emmerchi, defeating him and rescuing his bride. Sensing his defeat, Emmerich sets the self-destruct sequence, causing the volcano to erupt and kill them all.
Ben relates his troubles to Scarlett over a game of billiards
Billiards
Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...
in the Fairport Academy bar. She reveals she lusted after Ben's father when she was growing up, and they trade innuendo as she beats him decisively. As they get more and more drunk, she delivers a rambling speech to him about hero worship and they almost kiss.
The next morning, Ben invites Scarlett down to the disused concert hall, and shows her his plan to resurrect the school's tradition of concerts, which used to be filled by the ghosts of dead rock stars. Ben's strategy is to run school talent quests, then start to bring in notable living performers, like Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
. An impressed Scarlett joins Ben on the stage and they perform a duet of the Fairport Academy School Song.
The print becomes scratchy and is replaced by a technical difficulties card. The projectionist (Max Newstead) phones the director of the film (Jeremy Dylan) and explains that he's lost the next two reels of the film. Dylan is concerned that this skips a number of important plot points, but they conclude that no one will notice. Kenneth restarts the projector.
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
and Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
have just left the stage as Ben concludes his performance at the school talent quest to rapturous applause. Later, Ben sleeps uneasily.
Ben dreams he's back in the concert hall, watching Johnny Leroy and the Impulsives perform on stage. In the second verse, Leroy transforms into the Lord Emmerich, who leaps down from the stage and menaces Ben, demanding to know the 'secret of the cauldron of penguins'.
Ben awakes with a start. Scarlett comes to his door to check on him, but Ben assures her it was merely a bad dream. A concerned Scarlett calls Pentangle in Germany and relays the news.
Ben is plagued by another dream involving Lord Emmerich and the Cauldron of Penguins, this time more violent, and awakes in a panic. Scarlett comes to his door again, more concerned, and they sit together in his room and resolve to go to Principal Herzog for advice. She comforts him and they have sex
Sex
In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...
.
In his office the next morning, Herzog tells Ben of his concern that Emmerich is using Ben's dreams as a way to regain a footing in the physical world. The only solution is to keep Ben away indefinitely and Herzog concocts a mixture of energy drinks, coffee and cocaine that Ben reluctantly drinks.
He heads to the school library with the mixture, researching penguins in hopes of discovering the solution to the mystery of the cauldron. As he ingests more the mixture and stays awake longer, he begins hallucinating a talking stuffed penguin (Lauren McKenna), who mocks him. Ben punches him repeatedly in the face.
Two weeks later, a concerned Pentangle arrives at the library, searching for Ben, who has become totally unhinged. Pentangle cleans him up and tells him that Scarlett and Herzog have been kidnapped by Lord Emmerich, and together they search for clues where they were last seen. Ben finds an iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and uses the transporter app to follow them.
He appears in Lord Emmerich's hollowed out Icelandic volcano lair, an exact replica of the room where he faced off with Ben's parents. Scarlett is bound and gagged on an operating table and Emmerich stands over her, threatening them with a pistol. He removes his gorilla mask to reveal that he is really Werner Herzog, who created the fictional persona of an eccentric Bavarian filmmaker to escape the authorities after surviving the destruction of his old lair. He reveals his overly elaborate plan in a long-winded speech, then prepares to shoot them both dead. Ben, remembering the layout from the earlier flashback sequence, activates the self-destruct sequence and transports him and Scarlett to safety
Cast
- Stephen FryStephen FryStephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
as the NarratorNarratorA narrator is, within any story , the fictional or non-fictional, personal or impersonal entity who tells the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story, he or she is sometimes known as the viewpoint character. The narrator is one of three entities responsible for...
. - Andrew Griscti as Benjamin and Percy Sniddlegrass
- Catherine Davies as Scarlett McKenna
- Dorian Newstead as Werner HerzogWerner HerzogWerner Herzog Stipetić , known as Werner Herzog, is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and opera director.He is often considered as one of the greatest figures of the New German Cinema, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner...
- Alec Doomadgee as Mr. Pentangle
- Linda Newstead as Aunt David Morrissey
- Sarah Linnegar as Lucy Sniddlegrass
- Jon Sewell as Johnny Leroy
- Lol McKenna as the voices of Lord Emmerich and the Penguin.
- Riley Maher and Tim Sampson as the Impulsives
- Isaac Owen as Professor Mumblecore
- Max Newstead as Kenneth, the projectionist
- Yavor Dimitrov as Asshole
- Jeremy Dylan as himself
Origins and Production
During his February 12, 2010 review of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, BBC radio film critic Mark KermodeMark Kermode
Mark Kermode is an English film critic, musician and a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He contributes to Sight and Sound magazine, The Observer newspaper and BBC Radio 5 Live, where he presents Kermode and Mayo's Film Reviews with Simon Mayo on Friday afternoons...
remarked that it was so similar to the Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
franchise that it may as well have been called 'Benjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins'. His co-host Simon Mayo
Simon Mayo
Simon Mayo is an English radio presenter who has worked for BBC Radio since 1981. As of January 2010, Mayo is presenter of Simon Mayo Drivetime on BBC Radio 2 and, with Mark Kermode, presenter of Kermode and Mayo's Film Reviews on BBC Radio 5 Live.In 2008, Mayo was recognised as the "radio...
declared that he wanted to see that film.
In Australia, music video director Jeremy Dylan created a mock poster for the film and uploaded it to a blog at benjaminsniddlegrass.com, which was discovered by fans of the show, who sent it in, along with Dylan's subsequent mock press releases about the film, into the show
Kermode and Mayo's Film Reviews
Kermode and Mayo's Film Reviews with Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo is a radio programme broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 5 Live every Friday afternoon between 2 pm and 4 pm...
. Mayo read some of Dylan's work out on February 26 and he and Kermode encouraged Dylan to make the film.
Assembling a cast made up of performers from amateur musical theater societies around Sydney and penning the screenplay himself, Dylan and his production team started shooting on June 6, 2010 and shot the film over seven days between June and mid-October. Locations included The Exchange Hotel, Epping Boys High School
Epping Boys High School
Epping Boys High School is a government high school located at Marsfield, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1957. Peter Garrard is the principal.-Achievements:...
and a motel which was used for the school dormitories.
Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
is a known listener to the Mayo and Kermode show and when he traveled to Sydney in August 2010, Jeremy Dylan approached him about narrating the film by passing a copy of the screenplay to him at the end of his one man show at the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
. The show was filmed by the ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
and Dylan can be seen doing so in the television special made of the show. Two days later, Fry emailed Dylan and invited him to come to his hotel with his recording equipment. The narration was recorded that afternoon.
The film's score was provided by Mike Carr, a Golden Guitar
Golden Guitar
The Big Golden Guitar is one of the many "big" attractions that can be found around Australia. Located in Tamworth, New South Wales, the monument is one of the best-known points of interest in New England New South Wales...
winning singer-songwriter active in the country music industry. Carr also wrote one of the original songs featured in the film, 'Famous'. Along with 'Bad Man', the main title theme, and 'Judgement Day', another skiffle song, the original songs were recorded in a studio in Riverwood, produced by Dylan and the engineer, Jeff Cripps. The songs were performed live by the actors who portray Johnny Leroy and the Impulsives in the film, in an attempt to emulate the early Elvis Presley Sun Studio recordings.
The cinematographer, Yavor Dimitrov, was studying at UTS
University of Technology, Sydney
The University of Technology Sydney is a university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The university was founded in its current form in 1981, although its origins trace back to the 1870s. UTS is notable for its central location as the only university with its main campuses within the Sydney CBD...
when the film was in production, and owned the camera the film was shot on. He became a producer on the film as production wore on.
When the film was completed, Dylan was interviewed on the Mayo/Kermode show, promoting the film's theatrical premiere in Sydney the following week. The premiere was held on January 31, 2011, at the Dendy Cinema, Newtown, to a sold out house, and the DVD and digital download of the film became available immediately afterward. The film was subsequently screened at the State Theatre in Hobart.
Reception
The film was reviewed by Kermode the week following the premiere, where he expressed ambivalence about the film, but admitted to laughing 'six or seven times', thus passing his test for comedies. Online reviews have been mostly positive.External links
- BSTACOP at Seven Shells Media.