Jan Saelid Movies

A drug-addled elephant is on the run from people who either want to help him or kill him in this dark computer-animated comedy that is decidedly not for children. Jimmy is a performing elephant who travels with a third-rate Russian circus run by ringmaster Stromowski (voice of Jim Broadbent). Jimmy's minder is a sleazy American expatriate, Roy Arnie (voice of Woody Harrelson), who keeps the nervous beast pacified with regular doses of heroin. Roy has also hidden a large stash of the drug under Jimmy's skin, but Roy's decided he wants out of circus life and plans to sell the dope and go his own way. However, in order to do that he has to put Jimmy out of his misery, and he recruits three stoner buddies -- Odd (voice of Simon Pegg), Gaz (voice of Phil Daniels) and Flea (voice of Jim Simpson) -- to help whack the elephant. However, it seems Roy is also in debt to some gangsters (voices of Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss and Steve Pemberton) who happen to know that he's hidden the drugs in the elephant, and they're aiming to grab Jimmy before Roy and his pals can. As it happens, they're both beaten to the punch by a group of dim-witted animal rights activists led by Marius (voice of Kyle MacLachlan), who liberate Jimmy and the other circus animals, not realizing they've just sent a junkie pachyderm into the wilds as it's going cold turkey, with only a friendly moose for help. Free Jimmy also features the voice talents of Samantha Morton, Emilla Fox and Lisa Maxwell. Though it was produced in Norway, two versions exist, one with a mostly English-cast (referenced above) and one with a mostly Norwegian cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide