Runt: Instagram sensation Celeste Barber joins TV stars to bring kids’ book to life
Viral comedy sensation Celeste Barber went over and above to keep your kids entertained during the school holidays.
She ate flies. Plural.
“Let me tell you about flies – they taste as bad as they are annoying,” Barber tells The Sunday Times.
Eating insects isn’t some new bit to entertain her 9.6 million followers on Instagram, it was an unexpected side effect of making a movie in the WA town of York.
Barber, Suicide Squad star Jai Courtney, Aussie screen icon Jack Thompson, Matt Day and Deborah Mailman were among the big names to descend on the Wheatbelt with a single mission — to bring Craig Silvey’s best-selling kids’ book, Runt, to life.
Under the direction of John Sheedy, who was previously in WA to make H is For Happiness, Barber and Courtney play Susie and Bryan Shearer, parents of Annie (Lily LaTorre) and Max (Jack LaTorre), in the fictitious outback town of Upson Downs.
Their bucolic existence gets a little more exciting when the family adopts the town’s resident stray dog, Runt, who will only obey Annie’s commands, and when absolutely no one is watching.
It’s an odd quirk, to be sure, but it’s only a minor inconvenience when the biggest challenge they face is retrieving wayward sheep from the neighbour’s property.
When said neighbour, the dastardly Earl Robert-Barren (Thompson), concocts a scheme to buy the Shearers’ farm out from under them, Runt’s idiosyncrasies become a little more significant.
Camera IconCeleste Barber. Credit: Ryan Heywood/Ryan Heywood
You see, Annie and Runt must compete in an international dog agility competition to win the huge cash prize that will save the farm, but to do so will require a bit of luck and a whole lot of support from their family and friends.
It’s a classic set-up, and echoes classic Aussie feel-good family films of the past.
“It’s so full of heart, and I really think it’s a film that the world needs now,” Barber says.
Sheedy couldn’t agree more, and he thought that from the moment Silvey gave him the finished screenplay, which the author penned himself.
“When I first read the script, it was full of heart, full of charm, everything we need to see and experience today,” Sheedy recalls.
“We’re going to save the world. This film will save the world,” Barber adds with a laugh.
Barber, who achieved global fame lampooning the thirst traps of Kardashians and influencers, was herself influenced by Aussie comedies such as Kath and Kim and Full Frontal, and, when it comes to Runt, cited Babe as an inspiration.
“We’re really hoping that this has the same heart and the same response that something like Babe had, and I really think it does,” Barber says.
“Yeah, it has that fable, storybook quality, and that was really important for me, going into the film, and with the creative team, to create that world for our audience, so it has a timeless feel,” Sheedy agrees.
“When you got a villain called Fergus Fink, you gotta put him in glitter and do a big hairstyle … and we did talk about Babe quite a bit, and how it had that lovely storybook approach to it, too.”
On the topic of Fergus Fink, Day looks like he’s having the time of his life in that role, playing Annie’s fiercest (and very unsporting) rival in the dog competition.
Every time his dog competes, it’s Fink who steals the show, with exaggerated theatricality, set to a a different Oz rock banger, such as The Angels hit, Take A Long Line.
“I will say, though, when Matt did all that physical stuff, he came to set the next day limping,” Barber reveals.
“As an ex-dancer, I was like, ‘You need to stretch, girl’, but it was funny watching him limp in the next day.”
The end result is a film that delivers laughs and a heartfelt message about the importance of family — both found and the one you’re born into.
Runt isn’t the only movie to be hitting cinemas during the school holidays, and, in fact, there are a number of options for an easy day out. And one of them just might turn out to be an Academy Award winner next year.
Transformers: One
The eighth film in the multi-billion-dollar Transformers franchise ditches live action in favour of a fully animated feature. Given it’s set on the alien planet Cybertron, with no human characters, it would’ve all been CG effects anyway, so the decision makes a lot of sense. As for the movie itself, Transformers: One is a prequel that explores a time when Autobots leader Optimus Prime was just a humble mining bot named Orion Pax, voiced by Chris Hemsworth.
Back then, he couldn’t transform and spent most of his time in a bromance with D-16 (Bryan Tyree Henry), who, spoiler alert, will one day become his arch nemesis, Megatron. When these friends encounter something rotten on their planet, they must embark on a quest that will change their lives for ever — and not just because they’ll gain the ability to literally change (you know, the whole “robots in disguise thing”). The voice cast also includes Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi, Jon Hamm and Keegan-Michael Key.
The Wild Robot
Based on the beloved kids’ book of the same name by Peter Brown, The Wild Robot is a genuine masterpiece. Put it in the same category as Wall-E and Up as animated features that thrill kids and also provide poignant moments of introspection for parents. Directed by Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch), the film tells the story of Roz, a service bot that finds itself marooned on an uninhabited island, in the wildest of wild environments.
Programmed to need a prime directive, Roz becomes the adoptive parent of an orphan gosling, and must raise the little guy and keep him safe from the many dangers they encounter. Jaw-droppingly gorgeous to look at, The Wild Robot is also a fascinating examination of our relationship with the natural world. It’s all-star voice cast includes Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Bill Nighy, Catherine O’Hara and Mark Hamill.
Harold and the Purple Crayon
Adapted from the 1955 children’s book of the same name by Crockett Johnson, this film is probably not in the same class as The Wild Robot, but might offer a fun diversion for the kids. Shazam! star Zachary Levi plays Harold, a bloke whose purple crayon makes whatever he draws come to life. It’s a simple premise, but the film makes it a little more complicated than it needs to be, although there are fun elements of this tale of adventure. Zooey Deschanel, Lil Rel Howery and Flight of the Concords star Jemaine Clements are along for the ride.
#Runt #Instagram #sensation #Celeste #Barber #joins #stars #bring #kids #book #life