• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit August 15, 2022
Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature August 15, 2022
BREAKING: U.S. Senate Passes Historic $369B Climate Package August 7, 2022
Researchers Point To ‘Dangerously Unexplored’ Risk of Global Climate Catastrophe August 2, 2022
Koch Network Pressures Manchin, Sinema as Advocates Praise ‘Game Changing’ Climate Deal August 2, 2022
Next
Prev

Bigfoot Director Thanks Alberta’s ‘Ludicrous’ Fossil War Room for Big Publicity Boost

March 31, 2021
Reading time: 4 minutes
Full Story: The Canadian Press @CdnPressNews
Primary Author: Fakiha Baig @FakihaBaig

HippoBiard/Wikimedia Commons

HippoBiard/Wikimedia Commons

 

The director of a children’s movie about Bigfoot wants to thank the Alberta government’s energy centre for starting a “ludicrous” fight over the film.

Ben Stassen laughed several times as he told The Canadian Press that the animated “Bigfoot Family” had dropped from the top 10 list of most-viewed films on Netflix about 15 days after its February debut. 

After the controversy earlier this month, “it went back up to number eight and stayed there until last Sunday,” Stassen, who also produced and wrote the movie, said from his home in Brussels.

He added that the movie also made it on the top 10 most-viewed list for other streaming services, such as iTunes and Google Play, The Canadian Press reports.

“There were probably between 30 and 50 million people who saw the film on Netflix over the last four weeks,” Stassen said.

“I don’t know to what extent, but the controversy helped the film rather than hurt.

“Thank you for doing it.”

The movie follows a character named Adam and his Bigfoot dad as they take on an evil oil tycoon from Texas, who wants to explode a fictional place named Rocky Valley for its oil. 

The Canadian Energy Centre started a petition against the movie, urging people to send Netflix Canada letters saying the film villainizes energy workers and tells lies about the oil sector.

The energy centre, informally called the “war room,” is funded by the province to challenge what it sees as false reports on the oil industry. 

Both Premier Jason Kenney and Energy Minister Sonya Savage have backed its campaign against the film.

Stassen, who may be best known for his work on other animated movies such as “A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventures” and “Fly Me to the Moon,” said Netflix has received about 3,400 letters as part of the centre’s petition.

He said he first learned about the criticism when the movie’s script writers emailed him news stories.

“It’s just that it’s silly,” he said. “This is ludicrous. How can politicians get involved in the controversy about a kids’ cartoon?

“I mean, Bigfoot lives in a house with a bear, you know, with a raccoon. And they all talk to each other. How can you spend public money to go after a family film that has no intention, other than to entertain?”

He said the movie is the sequel to the 2017 film “The Son of Bigfoot.”

“In the first film, Bigfoot survives thanks to nature. So he wants to give nature back what nature had given him to be able to survive all these years in the wilderness,” Stassen said. 

“So that was the idea, nothing, you know, specifically for or against the oil industry.”

The CEO and managing director of the Canadian Energy Centre said in an email that its campaign against the movie has been a huge success.

“The CEC’s campaign received support from people concerned about mistruths presented to kids, and from [fossil] energy workers who felt attacked,” said Tom Olsen.

He said Stassen needs to take responsibility for the messages he is spreading through his work.

“Regarding his thanking us, the movie was performing well before we got involved, and was the subject of complaints from parents.

“Shrugging it off as just a kids movie is a dodge.”

Stassen said he found it funny when he learned that in the 1950s Alberta actually approved a project dubbed “Project Cauldron,” which was to detonate a nuclear bomb to liquefy the thick oilsands near Fort McMurray. The provincial government’s website details the proposal and says it was eventually quashed. 

“I know nothing about the oil industry, but I’m not that stupid to think that you extract oil by exploding a megaton bomb on the ground,” Stassen said.

Despite the similarity to Project Cauldron, he said his movie is fiction.

“It’s just entertainment. It has nothing to do with Alberta,” he said. “Why they felt targeted by the film, that I do not know.”

He added that he’s proud about possibly raising awareness of how bad drilling can be for wildlife.

“That’s the only thing that I was hoping people would get out of it.”

Stassen said he doesn’t know if there will be a third Bigfoot movie, but if he gets the opportunity, he’ll take it.

“What would the next Bigfoot be? Maybe I’ll take him to Africa.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2021.



in Biodiversity & Habitat, Canada, Climate & Society, Climate Impacts & Adaptation, Culture, Energy Politics, Fossil Fuels, Jurisdictions, Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion, Sub-National Governments, Tar Sands / Oil Sands

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

TGEGASENGINEERING/Wikimedia Commons
Energy Politics

EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit

August 15, 2022
748
Steve Jurvetson/flickr
International Security & War

The Other Kind of Climate Change: Even a ‘Limited’ Nuclear War Would Trigger Starvation, Kill Billions

August 15, 2022
2
/Pikist
United States

Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature

August 15, 2022
221

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

TGEGASENGINEERING/Wikimedia Commons

EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit

August 15, 2022
748
Brocken Inaglory/wikimedia commons

State-Wide Megastorm Driven by Global Heating Could Drench California for a Month

August 15, 2022
437
/Pikist

Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature

August 15, 2022
221
Vinaykumar8687/WikimediaCommons

Solar On Track for ‘Staggering’ 30% Growth This Year

August 15, 2022
157
UK Black Tech/wikimedia commons

U.S. Tech Workers Leaving High-Paying Jobs to Focus on Climate Crisis

August 15, 2022
122
United States Marine Core/Wikimedia Commons

Distributed Energy Gains Ground With Mobile Microgrids, Vehicle-to-Grid Technology

August 15, 2022
114

Recent Posts

Steve Jurvetson/flickr

The Other Kind of Climate Change: Even a ‘Limited’ Nuclear War Would Trigger Starvation, Kill Billions

August 15, 2022
2
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Arctic Warms 4 Times Faster than Global Average, Surpassing Estimates 

August 15, 2022
73
rawpixel

Common Medications Foil Body’s Ability to Cope with Hot Weather

August 15, 2022
92
Max Pixel

Slashing Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution Can Improve Crop Yields, Study Finds

August 15, 2022
50
David Hawgood/Geograph

E-Bikes a ‘Faster and Fairer’ Emissions Solution than Electric Cars

August 15, 2022
103
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region/wikimedia commons

Researchers Study Carbon Loss, Forest Impacts of Northwest Territories ‘Zombie Fires’

August 15, 2022
23
Next Post
Scott Morrison MP - ScoMo/Facebook

Australia Swings, Misses on Claim of ‘World-Leading’ Climate Targets

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}