In 2012, while American animation fans were enjoying the usual handiworks of DreamWorks, Pixar, Disney, Sony and Fox, Spanish audiences chose to take in a home-grown feature about a Peruvian treasure hunt called Tad, the Lost Explorer. Directed by Enrique Gato, the film has made $24 million at the box office, making it the highest-grossing Spanish animated feature of all time. The pic’s original title Las Aventuras de Tadeo Jones is a wink at the Indiana Jones franchise.
Distributed by Paramount, the 3-D comedy adventure follows a construction worker who becomes a daredevil treasure hunter in Peru. Tad debuted in Spain on August 31 and opened in Russia on Dec. 6. It will also roll out in Eruope and Brazil in the first few months of 2013.
Based on the 2007 short Tadeo Jones and the Basement of Doom, the film was produced by El Toro Pics, Lighting Ent. and Ikiru Films, alongside Telecinco Cinema (Mediaset) and Telefonica Productions and Media Networks. Mediaset Espana helped with the film’s promotion by advertising it on its seven channels. Tad is also the most popular Spanish movie of the year and the number-two best-selling feature of the year, right under the number-one pic, the live-action tsunami movie The Impossible, which has made close to $53 million in Spain.
Here is the trailer:
