Mio in the Land of Faraway - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Mio in the Land of Faraway is a 1987 fantasy film

Fantasy film

Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...

directed by Vladimir Grammatikov and starring Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee

Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...

, Christian Bale

Christian Bale

Christian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor. Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in both big budget Hollywood films and the smaller projects from independent producers and art houses....

, Nicholas Pickard, Timothy Bottoms

Timothy Bottoms

-Early life:Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara, California, the eldest son of Betty and James "Bud" Bottoms, who is a sculptor and art teacher. He is the brother of actors Joseph Bottoms , Sam Bottoms and Ben Bottoms . In 1967, Bottoms toured Europe as part of the Santa Barbara Madrigal...

and Susannah York

Susannah York

Susannah York was a British film, stage and television actress. She was awarded a BAFTA as Best Supporting Actress for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe for the same film. She won best actress for Images at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival...

. Based on the 1954 novel Mio, my Mio
Mio, my Mio
Mio, My Son is a children's book by the author of the famous Pippi Longstocking books, Astrid Lindgren. It was first published in 1954 in Sweden, with the Swedish title Mio, min Mio. The writing is stylised and the story strongly reminiscent of traditional fairy tales and folklore...

by Astrid Lindgren

Astrid Lindgren

Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren , 14 November 1907 – 28 January 2002) was a Swedish author and screenwriter who is the world's 25th most translated author and has sold roughly 145 million copies worldwide...

, it tells the story of a boy from Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

who travels to an otherworldly fantasy realm and frees the land from an evil knight's oppression.

Mio in the Land of Faraway was co-produced by companies from Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

and the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

with a budget of about fifty million Swedish kronor

Swedish krona

The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...

, making it the most expensive film adaptation of an Astrid Lindgren book during her lifetime. It featured an international cast consisting largely of British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n and Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

n actors, while its filming locations included Stockholm, Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, Crimea

Crimea

Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...

in Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

, and Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. The film was shot in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

and subsequently dubbed in Swedish and Russian. Its special effects were created by Derek Meddings

Derek Meddings

Derek Meddings was a British television and cinema special effects expert, initially noted for his work on the "Supermarionation" television puppet series produced by Gerry Anderson, and later for the 1970s James Bond films and the Superman film series.-Early years:Both Meddings' parents had...

. The film's theme song, "Mio My Mio", was composed by two former ABBA

ABBA

ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog...

members, Benny Andersson

Benny Andersson

Göran Bror "Benny" Andersson is a Swedish musician, composer, a former member of the Swedish musical group ABBA , and co-composer of the musicals Chess, Kristina från Duvemåla, and Mamma Mia!...

and Björn Ulvaeus

Björn Ulvaeus

Björn Kristian Ulvaeus is a Swedish songwriter, composer, musician, writer, producer, a former member of the Swedish musical group ABBA , and co-composer of the musicals Chess, Kristina från Duvemåla, and Mamma Mia!...

, and performed by the Swedish band Gemini.

Released in 1987, the film saw Nicholas Pickard's debut as an actor and marked Christian Bale's first appearance in a feature film

Feature film

In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...

. It won the Cinekid Film Award in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, while its theme song became a top three hit in Sweden. However, Swedish reviewers received the film unfavorably, criticizing it as a poor adaptation of Lindgren's novel.

Plot

The film opens in modern Stockholm. Orphaned by his mother's death and father's disappearance, Bosse (Nicholas Pickard) suffers neglect by his guardians Aunt Edna (Gunilla Nyroos) and Uncle Sixten, as well as abuse from bullies. His best friend is Benke (Christian Bale

Christian Bale

), whose father Bosse envies. Running away one night to seek his own father, Bosse meets the kindly shopkeeper Mrs Lundin (Linn Stokke), who gives him an apple and asks him to mail a postcard. The postcard is addressed to the Land of Faraway, informing its King of Bosse's impending journey there. After Bosse mails the postcard, his apple turns golden. Dropping the transfigured apple in shock, Bosse stumbles upon a genie

Genie

Jinn or genies are supernatural creatures in Arab folklore and Islamic teachings that occupy a parallel world to that of mankind. Together, jinn, humans and angels make up the three sentient creations of Allah. Religious sources say barely anything about them; however, the Qur'an mentions that...

(Geoffrey Staines) trapped in a bottle and frees it.

It turns out that this spirit has travelled from the Land of Faraway to seek Bosse, and that the golden apple is Bosse's identifying sign. With the boy clinging to his beard, the genie transports Bosse to the Land of Faraway and sets him down on Green Meadow Island. There, Bosse discovers that his real name is Mio, and that his father is the King (Timothy Bottoms

Timothy Bottoms

). Treated with love and indulgence, Mio leads an idyllic life on Green Meadow Island. He receives the horse Miramis as a gift from his father and makes friends with the local children. The latter include the farm boy Jiri, the shepherd boy Nonno, and the royal gardener's son Jum-Jum, who turns out to be Benke's double

Look-alike

A look-alike is a person who closely resembles another person. In popular Western culture, a look-alike is a person who bears a close physical resemblance to a celebrity, politician or member of royalty. Many look-alikes earn a living by making guest appearances at public events or performing on...

. Together, Mio and Jum-Jum learn to play pan flute

Pan flute

The pan flute or pan pipe is an ancient musical instrument based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting usually of five or more pipes of gradually increasing length...

music from Nonno.

However, not all is well. From a whispering well, Mio learns that an iron-clawed knight from the Land Outside, Kato (Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee

Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...

), has been kidnapping children and making them his servants by ripping out their hearts and replacing them with stone. Those who refuse to serve him are transformed into birds and condemned to circle his castle in flight. Even his name induces terror when spoken.

With Jum-Jum and Miramis, Mio leaves Green Meadow Island and journeys to the Forest of Mysteries, where he tears his cape on the briars. The Weaver Woman (Susannah York

Susannah York

) receives the boys at her house, mending Mio's torn cape and sewing a new lining into it. Hearing the Bird of Grief lament for Kato's victims, and told that the Weaver Woman's daughter Millimani is among them, Mio gradually learns of his long-prophesied destiny to confront Kato in the Land Outside.

Journeying to the Land Outside, Mio and Jum-Jum meet Eno (Igor Yasulovich), a hungry old man living in a cave, and offer him food. In gratitude, Eno tells them to seek a weapon against Kato from the Forger of Swords, who has been imprisoned and enslaved by Kato in the Blackest Mountain beyond the Dead Forest. Meanwhile, Kato's servants capture Miramis. The boys are forced to continue their journey on foot, pursued by Kato's servants through the Dead Forest and the Blackest Mountain. Separated in the mountain's tunnels, the boys find each other by playing their pan-flutes. They finally reach the Forger of Swords (Sverre Anker Ousdal

Sverre Anker Ousdal

Sverre Anker Ousdal is a Norwegian actor born in Flekkefjord, Norway.-Biography:Ousdal made his debut in 1965 at Den Nationale Scene in Bergen...

), who tells the boys about Kato's stone heart and provides Mio a sword capable of penetrating it.

Mio and Jum-Jum journey to Kato's castle, where they are captured and imprisoned. Kato throws Mio's sword into the lake outside the castle. However, Mio discovers that his newly-lined cape turns him invisible when worn inside-out, and reclaims his sword with the help of Kato's birds. Armed and invisible, he escapes and makes his way to Kato's chamber, eluding the castle guards. Taking off his cloak, Mio challenges Kato to combat and eventually slays him. Turning into rock, the dead knight crumbles into pieces. Mio picks up Kato's stone heart and holds it outside a window, where it transforms into a bird and flies away.

Kato's birds turn back into children, Jum-Jum and Miramis are freed, and Kato's castle collapses into ruin. The Dead Forest begins to revive. Returning to Green Meadow Island, the children rejoin their families, and Mio rejoins his father. On this happy note, the film ends.

Cast

Actor	Role
Nicholas Pickard (Swedish voice: Pontus Lantz) (Russian voice: Slava Galiulin)	Mio / Bosse
Christian Bale Christian Bale Christian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor. Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in both big budget Hollywood films and the smaller projects from independent producers and art houses.... (Swedish voice: Max Winerdahl) (Russian voice: Kesha Ivanov)	Jum-Jum / Benke
Christopher Lee Christopher Lee Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films... (Swedish voice: Tor Isedal) (Russian voice: Sergey Malishevsky)	Kato
Timothy Bottoms Timothy Bottoms -Early life:Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara, California, the eldest son of Betty and James "Bud" Bottoms, who is a sculptor and art teacher. He is the brother of actors Joseph Bottoms , Sam Bottoms and Ben Bottoms . In 1967, Bottoms toured Europe as part of the Santa Barbara Madrigal... (Swedish voice: Tomas Bolme) (Russian voice: Timofei Spivak)	The King
Susannah York Susannah York Susannah York was a British film, stage and television actress. She was awarded a BAFTA as Best Supporting Actress for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe for the same film. She won best actress for Images at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival... (Swedish voice: Helena Brodin) (Russian voice: Larissa Danilina)	The Weaver Woman
Sverre Anker Ousdal Sverre Anker Ousdal Sverre Anker Ousdal is a Norwegian actor born in Flekkefjord, Norway.-Biography:Ousdal made his debut in 1965 at Den Nationale Scene in Bergen... (Swedish voice: John Harryson) (Russian voice: Vladimir Antonik)	Forger of Swords
Igor Yasulovich (Swedish voice: Per Sjöstrand)	Eno / Carpetbeater
Linn Stokke Linn Stokke Linn Sem Stokke is a Norwegian actress, author, singer and composer.She is the daughter of Ingebjørg Sem and Tor Stokke, both actors. She had her début at the National Theatre as a child, in 1975, and has since acted in over 25 productions there... (Swedish voice: Lena Endre) (Russian voice: Marina Levtova)	Mrs. Lundin
Stig Engström (Swedish voice: Ulf Håkan Jansson) (Russian voice: Vladislav Kovalkov)	Benke's Father
Geoffrey Staines (Swedish voice: Hans Strååt) (Russian voice: Andrey Tarasov)	The Spirit
Gunilla Nyroos (Russian voice: Nelli Vitepash)	Aunt Edna
Lyubov Germanova	Jum-Jum's Mother
Andrei Petrov	Jiri
Andrei Sergeyev	Nonno
Anna Foght	Millimani

Major themes

As a fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

work, Mio in the Land of Faraway features a number of tropes associated with the genre. These include the hero's travel to a fantasy realm through a magical portal, his discovery of his true name

True name

A true name is a name of a thing or being that expresses, or is somehow identical with, its true nature. The notion that language, or some specific sacred language, refers to things by their true names has been central to philosophical and grammatical study as well as various traditions of magic,...

, and his battle against a Dark Lord figure. In addition, the film's early scenes take the form of an urban fantasy

Urban fantasy

Urban fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy defined by place; the fantastic narrative has an urban setting. Many urban fantasies are set in contemporary times and contain supernatural elements. However, the stories can take place in historical, modern, or futuristic periods...

concerned with a young boy's wishful desires and perceptions.

Production

Various companies from Sweden

Sweden

, Norway

Norway

and the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

were involved in making Mio in the Land of Faraway. It was co-produced by Nordisk Tonefilm International AB and Gorky Film Studio

Gorky Film Studio

Gorky Film Studio is a film studio in Moscow, Russian Federation. By the end of the Soviet Union, Gorky Film Studio had produced more than 1,000 films...

with assistance from the Swedish Film Institute

Swedish Film Institute

The Swedish Film Institute was founded in 1963 to support and develop the Swedish film industry. The institute is housed in the Filmhuset building located in Gärdet, Östermalm in Stockholm...

, Norway Film Development, and Sovinfilm. Its budget was about fifty million Swedish kronor

Swedish krona

, making it the most expensive film adaptation of an Astrid Lindgren book during her lifetime.

Filming took place between March 1986 and July 1986. Helmed by Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n director Vladimir Grammatikov, the project featured an international cast consisting largely of British

United Kingdom

, Scandinavia

Scandinavia

n and Russian actors. Filming locations included Stockholm

Stockholm

, Moscow

Moscow

, the Crimea

Crimea

in Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

, and Eilean Donan Castle in Scotland

Scotland

. The film was shot in English

English language

, and subsequently dubbed in Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

and Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

.

For his role as Kato, Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee

Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...

had to wear a steel hand during filming sessions. In 1997, he recalled various difficulties while shooting the film in Moscow during 1986:

The Chernobyl disaster

Chernobyl disaster

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...

occurred at the same time that the cast and crew were filming scenes in Ukraine, forcing them to evacuate the area and postpone shooting for a month. In a 2008 Details
Details (magazine)
Details is an American monthly men's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications, founded in 1982. Though primarily a magazine devoted to fashion and lifestyle, Details also features reports on relevant social and political issues.-History:...

interview, Christian Bale

Christian Bale

briefly recalled their evacuation and subsequent return: "We knew something had occurred, because production came to us and they said, 'We're done. We have to leave.' A month later we were back. We would have somebody with a Geiger counter

Geiger counter

A Geiger counter, also called a Geiger–Müller counter, is a type of particle detector that measures ionizing radiation. They detect the emission of nuclear radiation: alpha particles, beta particles or gamma rays. A Geiger counter detects radiation by ionization produced in a low-pressure gas in a...

at every dinner, scanning each plate".

The film's special effects were created by Derek Meddings

Derek Meddings

. The film's theme song, "Mio My Mio", was composed by two former ABBA

ABBA

ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog...

members, Benny Andersson

Benny Andersson

Göran Bror "Benny" Andersson is a Swedish musician, composer, a former member of the Swedish musical group ABBA , and co-composer of the musicals Chess, Kristina från Duvemåla, and Mamma Mia!...

and Björn Ulvaeus

Björn Ulvaeus

, and performed by the Swedish band Gemini. The film's background music was composed by Anders Eljas with assistance from Benny Andersson, and performed by the Soviet Film Symphony Orchestra with Sergei Skripka

Sergei Skripka

Sergei Ivanovich Skripka is a prominent Russian conductor, People's Artist of Russia.Since 1979 works at the Russian State Symphony Cinema Orchestra. Since 1993 he is an Artistic Director and Chief conductor....

as the conductor.

This film was Nicholas Pickard's debut as an actor. It was also the feature-film

Feature film

debut of Christian Bale, who reappeared in December that year as the NBR

National Board of Review of Motion Pictures

The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures was founded in 1909 in New York City, just 13 years after the birth of cinema, to protest New York City Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr.'s revocation of moving-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908. The mayor believed that the new medium...

-acclaimed lead of Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg

Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...

's Empire of the Sun
Empire of the Sun (film)
Empire of the Sun is a 1987 American coming of age war film based on J. G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. Steven Spielberg directed the film, which stars Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, and Nigel Havers...

(1987).

Release

The film appeared at the Moscow International Film Festival

Moscow International Film Festival

Moscow International Film Festival , is the film festival first held in Moscow in 1959. From its inception to 1995 it was held every second year in July, alternating with the Karlovy Vary festival. The festival has been held annually since 1995....

in July 1987, with its Russian dub competing in the Children's Films category. The film also appeared at the Norwegian International Film Festival

Norwegian International Film Festival

The Norwegian International Film Festival is a film festival held annually in Haugesund, Norway. The festival goes back to 1973.In 1985, the Amanda award was instituted. The Amanda is awarded every year at the festival in different movie categories...

on 18 August 1987. It premiered in Sweden on 16 October 1987.

The film is distributed in Sweden by Sandrew Metronome

Sandrew Metronome

Sandrew Metronome is a Scandinavian film distributor. It is one of the biggest distributor companies in the Nordic countries. It is owned by the Anders Sandrew Foundation and the Norwegian Schibsted group....

, and in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

by Miramax Films

Miramax Films

Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...

. It was released on DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

by Anchor Bay Entertainment

Anchor Bay Entertainment

Anchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...

in the US during 2001, and by Eureka Entertainment in Britain during 2007.

Box office

In Sweden, the film grossed about 17,800,000 Swedish kronor at the box office. Its screenings were attended by about 450,000 people.

Critical response

In Sweden, the film received poor reviews upon its release. According to a Cinema Journal
Cinema Journal
The Cinema Journal is published by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies . It features articles on film studies, television studies, media studies, visual arts, cultural studies, film and media history, and moving image studies....

article, Swedish reviewers criticized it for being "canned Astrid Lindgren" and "an incoherent jumble of landscapes and cast members, badly dubbed to boot". The Cinema Journal critic also attributed the film's negative reception to its omission of the original work's psychological nuances. Another factor was the film's international eclecticism in its cast and settings, which the Cinema Journal critic characterized as "Anglicizing

Anglicisation

Anglicisation, or anglicization , is the process of converting verbal or written elements of any other language into a form that is more comprehensible to an English speaker, or, more generally, of altering something such that it becomes English in form or character.The term most often refers to...

" and contrasted to the Swedish medievalism

Medievalism

Medievalism is the system of belief and practice characteristic of the Middle Ages, or devotion to elements of that period, which has been expressed in areas such as architecture, literature, music, art, philosophy, scholarship, and various vehicles of popular culture.Since the 18th century, a...

of the better-received Lindgren adaptations The Brothers Lionheart
The Brothers Lionheart (film)
The Brothers Lionheart is a 1977 Swedish fantasy film directed by Olle Hellbom and based on the book The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren...

(1977) and Ronia the Robber's Daughter (1984).

Critical response elsewhere has ranged from mixed to negative. Following the 1987 festival screening in Norway, the film-industry magazine Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

criticized Mio in the Land of Faraway for its unsubtle handling of Lindgren's text and the actors, although it praised the film's appealing appearance and high production values as well as Christopher Lee's performance. Following the 2007 DVD release in Britain, the genre magazine Dreamwatch
Dreamwatch
Dreamwatch was a British magazine covering science fiction and fantasy films, books and television programmes.Published monthly by Gary Leigh and then Titan Magazines , it was a leading genre entertainment magazine, competing with SFX and Cinescape in the genre magazine market.-Overview:The...

characterized Mio in the Land of Faraway as a "strange, otherworldly film" and an "intriguing curio" from the 1980s

1980s in film

The decade of the 1980s in film involved many significant films.----Contents1 Events2 Top Grossing films3 Trends4 List of films: # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z.-Events:...

, but criticized its sentimentality and its "sugary tone and sub-Tolkien dialogue". Following a memorial screening in 2004, the Chicago Reader characterized the film as "unimaginative" and its acting as "wooden", again citing Lee as an exception.

One decade after the film's initial release, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy is a 1997 reference work on fantasy, edited by John Clute and John Grant. Other contributors include Mike Ashley, Neil Gaiman, Diana Wynne Jones, David Langford, Sam J. Lundwall, Michael Scott Rohan, Brian Stableford and Lisa Tuttle.The book was well-received upon...

praised the film's early scenes as a "beautifully effective" urban fantasy, but criticized the later scenes as "cliché-ridden and turgid". Seeing the film as an attempt to emulate The NeverEnding Story
The NeverEnding Story (film)
The NeverEnding Story is a 1984 German-American epic fantasy film based on the novel of the same name written by Michael Ende. The film was directed and co-written by Wolfgang Petersen and starred Barret Oliver, Noah Hathaway and Tami Stronach. At the time of its release, it was the most...

(1984), it summed up Mio in the Land of Faraway as a "tired, imitative and cynical" adaptation of Lindgren's novel.

Soundtrack

In 1987, Gemini released the film's theme song "Mio My Mio

Mio My Mio

"Mio My Mio" is a song performed by Swedish group Gemini for the 1987 film Mio in the Land of Faraway. The song was composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA. The lyrics exist in both English, Swedish and Russian versions.In 1987, Gemini released the song as a single and as part of...

" as a single and as part of their album Geminism
Geminism
Geminism is the second album by brother sister group Gemini, released in 1987. Like their previous album, Geminism features songwriting contributions again from artists such as Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, formerly of ABBA, and Anders Glenmark and Ingela Forsman. The album's material overall...

. It became a hit in Sweden, with the single maintaining top ten position for 5 weeks.

In 1987 and 1988, CBS Records

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

released the film's soundtrack on LP

LP album

The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

and CD

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

. These releases included both "Mio My Mio" and the film's background music. The LP album (CBS 460594-8) contains the following tracks:

"Mio Overture" (Anders Eljas) – 3:16
"Kite-Flying" (Anders Eljas) – 1:26
"Aunt Edna's Waiting At Home" (Anders Eljas) – 0:44
"Bosse Runs Away" (Anders Eljas) – 4:36
"The Journey To The Land Of Faraway" (Anders Eljas, Benny Andersson
Benny Andersson
Göran Bror "Benny" Andersson is a Swedish musician, composer, a former member of the Swedish musical group ABBA , and co-composer of the musicals Chess, Kristina från Duvemåla, and Mamma Mia!...

) — 6:01
"The Shepherd's Flute #1" (Benny Andersson) — 0:27
"Kato's Icy Wind" (Anders Eljas) — 2:09
"The Bridge Of The Morning Light" (Anders Eljas) — 1:46
"The Land Outside" (Anders Eljas) — 1:51
"Miramis Is Captured" (Anders Eljas) — 1:58
"The Hunt For Mio And Jum-Jum" (Anders Eljas) — 1:40
"The Shepherd's Flute #2" (Benny Andersson) — 0:43
"The Sword" (Anders Eljas) — 1:00
"Inside Kato's Castle" (Anders Eljas) — 5:04
"Prisoners Of Kato" (Anders Eljas) — 0:40
"To The Dungeon" (Anders Eljas) — 1:32
"Return Of The Sword" (Anders Eljas) — 0:37
"The Final Battle" (Anders Eljas) — 5:36
"The Reunion" (Anders Eljas, Benny Andersson) — 1:44
"Mio My Mio" (Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus
Björn Ulvaeus
Björn Kristian Ulvaeus is a Swedish songwriter, composer, musician, writer, producer, a former member of the Swedish musical group ABBA , and co-composer of the musicals Chess, Kristina från Duvemåla, and Mamma Mia!...

; performed by Gemini) — 3:55

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See also