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| La gran aventura de Mortadelo y Filemón | |
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| Directed by | Javier Fesser |
| Written by | Javier Fesser Guillermo Fesser |
| Produced by | Luis Manso Marina Ortiz |
| Starring | Benito Pocino Pepe Viyuela |
| Cinematography | Xavi Giménez |
| Edited by | Ivan Aledo |
| Music by | Rafael Arnau Mario Gosálvez |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Warner Sogefilms[1] |
Release date |
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Running time | 103 minutes |
| Country | Spain |
| Language | Spanish |
| Box office | €22.8 million (Spain)[2] |
Mortadelo & Filemon : The Big Adventure (Spanish:La gran aventura de Mortadelo y Filemón) is a 2003 Spanish-language comedy film based on the popular Spanish comic book seriesMortadelo y Filemón byFrancisco Ibáñez Talavera. It also included characters from13, Rue del Percebe, another comic by the same creator. The film was directed byJavier Fesser and starsBenito Pocino andPepe Viyuela. It became the second highest-grossing Spanish film of all time.
The adventure begins when a spy breaks into Professor Bacterio's lab and steals some of his inventions from the T.I.A. headquarters (Técnicos de Investigación Aeroterráquea, "Tía" being the Spanish word for "Aunt", thus a spoof of theCIA). Mortadelo and Filemón who work for the T.I.A. are put on the case, but Fredy, another agent, decides to beat them to it. One of the inventions is aweather control machine which the spy decides to sell to the President of Tirania, a smallEastern Europeandictatorship. There are numerous clashes between the spy, Fredy, and Mortadelo and Filemón (who Fredy seems to want to kill). Our heroes end up in prison after accidentally beating up the local cop once too often. They escape, Filemon's mother gets kidnapped by Fredy and taken to Tirania. The spy is killed in Fredy's place as Fredy ingratiates himself with the President, while having Filemón's mother tortured. The heroes arrive and there is a big battle where Filemón is apparently killed. Then Mortadelo receives a mortal wound, but Filemón gives him a cup of water, which turns out to be theHoly Grail, Mortadelo drinks it and heals quickly, while Fredy gets hisjust deserts. Mortadelo and Filemón return home, their mission successfully accomplished.
The film set an opening weekend record for a Spanish film with a gross of €5.1 million, second only toHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.[3] It grossed 22.8 millioneuros in Spain, becoming the second highest-grossing Spanish film of all-time behindLos otros (2001).[4][5][2]
A second film titledMort & Phil. Mission: Save Earth[6] was announced and released in 2008, it featured most of the same cast reprising their roles with the exception of Benito Pocino as Mortadelo, it was panned by critics and fans for its humor and writing while the performances were praised.