Pelle Svanslös (movie)

Peter-No-Tail () is a 1981 Swedish animated film based on the children's book series by Gosta Knutsson.
Plot
On a Swedish country farm, a cat gives birth to a litter of kittens. One of these cats do not have a tail. The farmer is ordered by the farm owner to get rid of the kitten without the tail. He smuggles the young cat into the car of a family returning to Uppsala after a holiday near the farm. Discovered on arrival at the family's home, the stowaway is named Peter-No-Tail (Pelle Svanslos) by the children Olle and Birgitta. Peter soon settles into his new home, but when Birgitta takes him out for a walk in the following spring, he is chased by a vicious bulldog, and escapes to a town alley where Elaka Mans (Mean Mike) lives. The long-tailed Mans, aided by twins Bill and Bull, is a notorious bully amongst the town cats, so he tricks the naive Peter into singing outside the home of a young female cat named Maja Graddnos (Molly Cream-Nose). Maja's human owners hate cat howling, so Mans expects Peter to be soaked with water in his attempt to impress Maja. But Maja is attracted to the polite and kind-hearted Peter, so she invites him in to share some fish with her; thus it is Mans who ends up getting soaked with a garden hose when he tries to impress Maja himself. At the town cats' spring ball, Mans organises a competition where contestants must answer a mental arithmetic question by showing the winning number with their tails. Peter is given an impossibly hard sum, and the other cats mock him for not having a tail at all to even guess the answer. But a snake that Peter befriended earlier reveals the correct answer, and also bites Mans' long tail, humiliating him in front of the crowd. In revenge, Mans breaks into Peter's home and frames him for eating Olle's birthday cake, so the family locks Peter in the ironing room as punishment. However, when a fire breaks out in the house at night, Peter wakes and alerts the sleeping family with his frantic meowing, so he is redeemed as a hero, and Birgitta gives him a medal for his bravery. When Mans learns of Peter's good deed, he dismisses his medal as worthless, and invents a new sports event called the Cat Championship, where the winning prize is a gold medallion. The challenges include a distance jump, throwing shotput balls, and a hurdle race course. Mans stages each of the challenges so that Peter fails - his spike shoes for the distance jump have the spikes on the inside to hurt his feet, Peter's shotput ball is far heavier than the others, and Mans cheats in the hurdle race to make sure he wins. But when Mans' tricks are discovered, the referee disqualifies him and awards Peter the gold medallion instead. Maja, who has been cheering Peter on throughout the tournament, congratulates him and they celebrate his victory together. Now eager to get rid of Peter, Mans tries to rally his fellow cats into opposing 'country' cats, and he sets loose the dangerous bulldog to chase Peter out of the city. Most of the town cats watch from safety in the trees, but a kitten named Fridolf has strayed onto some high scaffolding platforms, where he is attacked by the bulldog. Peter rescues Fridolf from the collapsing scaffolding and escapes from the savage bulldog, who subsequently chases Mans, Bill and Bull away instead. For saving Fridolf, the town cats praise Peter and finally accept him into their community. At the end of the film, Peter's family take him with them on their next summer holiday, returning to the farm where Peter was born.
Origins
The film is animated and is based on the children's book series by Gosta Knutsson. Class discrimination, bullying and racism play a big part of the story, much like in the books since Peter is at times looked down on for being a "country cat", who is accused by Mans of threatening the livelihoods of the town cats. In the original Swedish dub Mans is played by Ernst-Hugo Jaregard.
Cast
Mats Ahlfeldt - Pelle
Ewa Froling - Maja Graddnos
Ernst-Hugo Jaregard - Mans
Carl Billqvist och Bjorn Gustafson - Bill och Bull
Wallis Grahn - Gammel Maja
Lena-Pia Bernhardsson - Gullan fran Arkadien
Charlie Elvegard - Laban fran Observatorielunden
Ake Lagergren - Murre fran Skogstibble och Kalle Huggorm
Nils Eklund - Rickard fran Rickomberga
Jan Sjodin - Fritz
Gunilla Norling - Frida
Eddie Axberg och Charlie Elvegard - Rattor
Charlie Elvegard - Igelkott
Gunnar Ernblad - Krakan
Kajsa Bratt - Birgitta
Niklas Rygert - Olle
Helena Brodin - Mamma
Axel Duberg - Pappa
Sture Hofstadius - Ladugardsformannen
Sequel
A sequel called Peter-No-Tail in Americat () was released in 1985.
References
Other websites
1981 movies
Swedish movies