La leyenda del Charro Negro

Legend Quest: The Legend of the Black Charro (released in Latin America as La Leyenda del Charro Negro) is a 2018 Mexican animated action-horror-comedy film, produced by Ánima Estudios.[3]

La leyenda del Charro Negro
Theatrical release poster
SpanishLa leyenda del Charro Negro
LiterallyThe Legend of Charro Negro
Directed byAlberto Rodríguez
Produced byFernando de Fuentes
José C. García de Letona
Written byAlberto Rodríguez
David Israel
Based onCharacters
by Ricardo Arnaiz
StarringBenny Emmanuel
Eduardo España
Mayte Cordeiro
Erick Elías
Herman López
Emilio Treviño
Andrés Couturier
Annie Rojas
Óscar Flores
Music byLeoncio Lara
Edited byAlberto Rodríguez
Production
company
Distributed byVideocine
Release date
  • January 19, 2018 (2018-01-19)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryMexico
LanguageSpanish
Box officeMX$100.8 million[1][2]
US$5.3 million

The fifth installment of the Leyendas series of animated films and directed by Alberto Rodríguez, the film's story is focused on the "Charro Negro" historic figure, but also references story elements from the past installments.[4][5][6]

The film was released in Mexico on 19 January 2018, opening to a commercial success.[7][8] The film has grossed a total of $100.8 million pesos (est. US$5.3 million),[1][2] making it the highest-grossing film in the Leyendas but actually the sequel made the viewers so negative with reviews. It is the final film in the series to be directed by Alberto Rodriguez.[6]

The film was released in limited release in the United States on 23 March 2018, distributed by Pantelion Films and Tribe Releasing (under its Latin-themed label, Cinetlan).[9][10]

Plot

In an unknown location, the Aztec indigenous spirit Xochitl is taken hostage by a shadowed figure on a horse. She is held taken to a door by a familiar henchman. The henchmen leaves her there and she is taken away by a mysterious creature with a mask.

Picking up from the events of Chupacabras, Leo and his brother Nando are returning home to Puebla. Along the way, Leo encounters the Charro Negro who confuses him and results in a girl being cast into the underworld. To undo his mistakes, Leo enlists the help of his friends.

Voice cast
  • Benny Emmanuel as Leo San Juan
  • Eduardo España as Evaristo
  • Mayte Cordeiro as Teodora
  • Erick Elías as Charro Negro
  • Herman López as Alebrije
  • Emilio Treviño as Fernando "Nando" San Juan
  • Andrés Couturier as Don Andrés
  • Annie Rojas as Xochitl
  • Óscar Flores as Rupertino
  • Andrea Arutti as Beatríz

Production

Development of the film took place for two years and has wrapped in September 2017, with 300 filmmakers involved.[7] The film was long rumored since the release of Momias in 2014, and has even been believed to be the next film after (Chupacabras was the true successor and released in 2016 before Charro Negro).[6]

The "Charro Negro" figure was considered to be included in the franchise for a while.[6] In an interview with Proceso, director Alberto Rodríguez said that the company Ánima Estudios has been working on the Leyendas films for 10–15 years, leading up to Charo Negro, with the same team of "different abilities".[11] "[W]e have been working for ten years in these films, [and] we already understand each other very well. Our production structure is very solid, the artists understand the needs of the project," added Rodríguez.[11]

For the "Charro Negro" figure, the filmmakers has considered including him in the franchise for a while.[6] Rodríguez called the figure a "very powerful and seductive character", making the character "dangerous".[11] "It's interesting how Leo San Juan, our main character, is going to deal with this dark and powerful force," said Rodríguez.[11] The filmmakers wanted to give the figure a more 'Mexican' taste to match the national cinema's 'golden age' by giving him an attractive personality and arming him with golden spurs.[6] "It's a historical character," said Rodríguez. "We have it in the psyche of the Mexican. We have it very present. [..]It is these people who exploit the needy, and I believe that the Mexican people have suffered a lot from that, from people who are constantly oppressing them."[6]

Alberto Rodríguez, who has also co-written the past installments (excluding Nahuala), has penned the script and story with David Israel.[11] "It was what I wanted to tell and we hired David Israel to write the script for us," Rodríguez said. "At the beginning[,] it was a lot of anguish when creating these feature films, now I have a lot of fun."[11]

In order to meet the fans' expectations, the past installments' characters, such as Don Andrés, were brought back for the film, and features references and cameos from the previous films.[4]

Animation

The film is animated in flash animation. Director Alberto Rodríguez stated that the process was "difficult", calling it a "complex process". "Animation is a very complex process that requires too much knowledge, not only at the level of the animators but at the level of the production structure," he said.[11]

Casting
Despite difficulties in developing the voice for Charro Negro, Erick Elías has expressed his satisfaction in working in the animated film.

As the previous installments' current voice cast reprise their respective roles, among the newcomers is Erick Elías as the voice of Charro Negro.[6][12] Elías shared his experience on working in the film, stating that he's satisfied with the work, despite some difficulties in developing a matching tone for the character.[12] "[I]t is a pride that I have been invited to be part of this [made] by Mexicans, for Mexicans[.] I feel identified with everything that happens with this Leyenda," he said. "I faced great difficulties because I had to give him that personality only with his voice," he said. "We had an arduous table job with the director, finding the "norteño" tone with that serious accent. To achieve it was a very fun and complicated process, but in the end I liked the experience."[12][13] Elías had previous voice-acting experience prior to Charro Negro, including that of the Spanish-dubbing versions of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and its sequel both produced by Sony Pictures Animation.[12] Elías said his voice work experience in Charro Negro is "different" from his dubbing roles Meatballs films. "It was very different for me," he said. "[I]t's completely different from what I had done in dubbing, [which is] another process, because here I was given the freedom to create this [C]harro and I'm happy, I think it's going to be fine."[13] Elías also stated that the film has made him 'happy' since his work in an animated production has helped him reunite with his family. "I was flattering that they called me for this, [and] I really like that my daughters are part of something I do[;] not many times I can bring them to the movies and this can be seen," he said at the premiere at the Cinépolis Oasis Coyoacán theater.[14]

Alberto Rodríguez said he was also satisfied and shared the same difficult but satisfying experience with working with Elías. "We looked for a lot of people, but he gave us that malice that we wanted to impregnate the character because [he] is evil, [and] is possessing the manipulative tone as a particular smirk that gives an ideal scorn to act. We found the balance to be very bad and very nice at the same time," said the director.[13]

Release

The film was released theatrically in Mexico on 19 January 2018, unlike past installments which were released on an October.[7] It was originally planned for release in December 2017.[3]

Box office

On its opening weekend in Mexico, the film opened at #3 behind The Commuter and The Shape of Water, earning at least $29 million pesos (approx. $1.6 million USD).[15] The film moved up to #2 behind Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water, earning at least $24 million pesos (approx. US$1.3 million) and grossing a total of $63.4 million pesos (est. US$3.4 million).[16] On its third week, the film moved back down to the #3 rank grossing $12.29 million pesos ($0.6. million USD), bringing a total $82.39 million pesos (est. US$4.4 million) with a total of 1.9 million viewers.[17] To date the film earned a total of $100.8 million pesos.[1]

U.S. release

The film has received a limited theatrical release in the United States on 23 March 2018, distributed by Pantelion Films and Tribe Releasing. Eduardo España, the voice of Evaristo, said that he was "very happy" about the film's U.S. effort due to the empathy of the Hispanic viewers, and said that "values and roots are reinforced with humor and endearing stories."[18]

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Nominees Result
2018 15th Premios Canacine Mejor Película de Animación
(Best Animated Film)		 La leyenda del Charro Negro Nominated[19]
2019 61st Ariel Awards Mejor largometraje animado
(Best Feature Animation)		 Alberto “Chino” Rodríguez Nominated[20]

Follow-up prequel
Further information: Las leyendas: el origen

A new installment with an origin story, focused on Finado and Moribunda, has been announced and was planned to be released around April 2020,[21][22][23] but consequently pushed the release date to September 18, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[24]

gollark: ↓ palaiologos
gollark: Yes. However, your message (reasonably) provides no information, making the utility to anyone dubious.
gollark: I don't see how it was at all important to say that.
gollark: You don't actually need photonics, GTech™ has very high throughout sonic communication systems thanks to modern compression/FEC algorithms.
gollark: The first one, but with two layers of brackets for safety.

See also

References
  1. "Películas Animadas 2000 – 2018". Canacine. Canacine. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
  2. "Videocine on Twitter: "#LaLeyendaDelCharroNegro se convierte en un éxito más de la saga de Las Leyendas. ¡Felicidades @helloanima!..."". Twitter. Twitter. 26 February 2018. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  3. "Ánima Estudios continúa con las películas de leyendas mexicanas". Close Up. CloseUP. 11 September 2017. Retrieved 15 December 2017. In Spanish.
  4. Ortiz, Cesar Huerta (6 August 2017). "Alistan "La Leyenda del Charro Negro"". El Universal. El Universal. Retrieved 23 November 2017. In Spanish.
  5. "La leyenda del Charro Negro estrena en México". e-consulta.com. e-consulta.com. n.d. Retrieved 17 January 2018. In Spanish.
  6. "EL CHARRO NEGRO, ¿LA ÚLTIMA LEYENDA?". Videocine Distrbucion Noticas. Televisa, S.A. de C.V. 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2018. In Spanish. (Note: date not shown on website)
  7. ""La Leyenda del Charro Negro" llega a México el 19 de Enero". Web Adictos. Adictos a la Web, S.A. de C.V. 16 November 2017. Retrieved 23 November 2017. In Spanish.
  8. "PÓSTER Y TRÁILER DE LA LEYENDA DEL CHARRO NEGRO". Videocine Distrbucion Noticas. Videocine. Retrieved 23 November 2017. In Spanish.
  9. "OFFICIAL U.S. TRAILER – "La Leyenda del Charro Negro" hits select U.S. theaters on March 23". Zay Zay.com. Zay Zay.com. 2 March 2018. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  10. "La Leyenda del Charro Negro (English)". Cinetlan. Asia Releasing, LCC. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  11. VÉRTIZ DE LA FUENTE, COLUMBA (24 January 2018). ""La leyenda del Charro Negro" en cines". Proceso (magazine). Proceso Comunicación e Información S.A. de C.V. Retrieved 27 January 2018. In Spanish.
  12. Rosa Camacho, Alma; Lopez, Adolfo (16 January 2018). "Se estrena la cinta La leyenda del Charro Negro". Diario de Queretaro. Editorial Organization Mexicana. Retrieved 28 January 2018. In Spanish.
  13. "Erick Elías se identifica con su personaje de "La leyenda del Charro Negro"". Caras. Editorial Televisa, S.A. de C.V. 15 January 2018. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  14. Gutierrez Segura, Eduardo (13 January 2018). "Erick Elias y Eduardo Espana, orgullosos por su 'Charro Negro'". Grupo Milenio. Grupo Milenio. Retrieved 28 January 2018. In Spanish.
  15. "'La leyenda del Charro Negro' en los primeros lugares de taquilla en México". Televisa. Televisa, S.A. de C.V. 22 January 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  16. Gutiérrez, Vicente (29 January 2018). "La Leyenda del Charro Negro triunfa en la taquilla". El Economista. Periódico El Economista S.A. de C.V. Retrieved 31 January 2018. In Spanish.
  17. Cecilia Mercado Ramírez, Nesy (6 February 2018). ""La leyenda del Charro Negro" logra récord en taquilla". El Occidental. Organización Editorial Mexicana. Retrieved 6 February 2018. In Spanish.
  18. "La leyenda del charro negro, debuta en cines de EU". El Siglo de Durango. El Siglo de Durango. 23 March 2018. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  19. "Nominados Premios CANACINE 2018". Canacine. Canacine. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
  20. Magaña Arce, Arturo (23 April 2019). "Ariel 2019: Lista completa de nominados". Cine Premiere (in Spanish). g21 Comunicación Entertainment. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  21. Pérez, Javier (30 May 2019). "Los estrenos de Videocine para 2019 y 2020". Cine Premiere (in Spanish). g21 Comunicación. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  22. "Cinepolis on Twitter: "¡Algo nuevo de @helloanima se está cocinando! Sigue al pendiente para descubrir nuevas noticias...."". Twitter. Cinepolis. Retrieved 12 November 2018. In Spanish. Date published: 12 November 2018. 10:36am.
  23. "Las Leyendas: EL ORIGEN (TEASER OFICIAL)". YouTube. YouTube. Retrieved 2 November 2019. Upload date: 1 November 2019. In Spanish
  24. "Las Leyendas - El Origen: Teaser trailer". Sector Cine. sectorcine.com. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
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