Checkered Ninja

Checkered Ninja is a Danish animated adventure comedy about Aske, a boy who receives a checkered ninja doll as a gift from his uncle, just back from Thailand. The doll turns out to be alive, and it offers Aske a deal: it will help him stand up to his troubles at school and at home if he helps it complete a mission. That mission is revenge for the killing of a poor child who was exploited in a factory. The arrangement turns into an unlikely friendship between a shy boy and a foul-mouthed toy with fighting skills and a score to settle.

The film was directed by Thorbjørn Christoffersen and Anders Matthesen, with Matthesen also writing the screenplay. It followed Christoffersen's Ronal the Barbarian and preceded Checkered Ninja 2 and Checkered Ninja 3; for Matthesen it stands first in the same series of three films. Matthesen voices a role, alongside Alfred Bjerre Larsen as Aske and Emma Sehested Høeg as Jessica, with Herman Flesvig voicing the Norwegian version. Produced in Denmark by A. Film Production, Pop Up Production and Sudoku, it runs 83 minutes. It holds a 7.1/10 rating on IMDb from roughly 7,500 votes and a 7.5/10 on TMDB from a much smaller number of votes, indicating a solidly liked film among those who have seen it.