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🇲🇽 Mexico /Culture & Society

“Gungo and the Caveman Games,” the Film the Riva Palacio Brothers Carved Out Last Century

From El Universal · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

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  • Mexican filmmakers Rodolfo and Gabriel Riva Palacio developed the idea for “Gungo and the Caveman Games” from a comic character Rodolfo created at university decades ago.
  • The film follows Gungo, a young caveman who must win a series of contests to return to his village after being exiled.
  • The brothers describe the production as the technical culmination of Huevocartoon’s blend of hand-drawn 2D animation and CGI.

The Riva Palacio brothers first imagined “Gungo and the Caveman Games” decades ago, when Rodolfo Riva Palacio Alatriste was still at university and drawing a comic strip about a short, hairy, bearded caveman named Gungo.

The original concept was a prehistoric world built around deliberately absurd sporting events: husband throwing, saber-toothed tiger chases, carnivorous-plant jumping and synchronized swimming in quicksand. “We thought we had to do something about the caveman world, and it would be fun for it to have games like husband throwing, saber-toothed tiger chases, carnivorous-plant jumping or synchronized swimming in quicksand,” Riva Palacio recalls.

We thought we had to do something about the caveman world, and it would be fun for it to have games like husband throwing, saber-toothed tiger chases, carnivorous-plant jumping or synchronized swimming in quicksand.

· Rodolfo Riva Palacio AlatristeHe recalls the original idea for the film’s prehistoric sporting events.

The project had to wait. The brothers became known first for their animated eggs, which moved from internet popularity in the early 2000s to a successful run in cinemas. Before returning to their caveman story, they made five egg films and one about aliens. “You see how life is, things do not always happen as you want, and it made us do five egg movies and one about Martians first, before we could do what we had thought,” Riva Palacio says.

That delay ends this Thursday, when the animated film reaches cinemas. In the story, Gungo has not decided what to do with his life and is eventually expelled after his father, the tribal chief, runs into problems. To return home, he must compete against cavemen who are stronger, more skilled and faster than he is.

You see how life is, things do not always happen as you want, and it made us do five egg movies and one about Martians first, before we could do what we had thought.

· Rodolfo Riva Palacio AlatristeHe explains why the brothers made other films before completing the caveman project.

Ricky Limón voices Gungo, with Karen Torres as Yahi and Joaquín Cosío as the antagonist, Krull. Humberto Vélez plays the tribal chief, Silvia Navarro plays his wife, Daniel Sosa voices another exile named Aysitú, and Mario Filio plays the powerful Trompo.

For the filmmakers, the project represents Huevocartoon’s greatest technical evolution. It combines the essence of traditional hand-drawn animation with the depth and realism of computer-generated 3D imagery. Riva Palacio calls it “the culmination of the mix of 2D animation with CGI, many colors.” The long production process, he says, allowed the brothers to mature as filmmakers while making a modern film set in prehistoric times.

The culmination of the mix of 2D animation with CGI, many colors.

· Rodolfo Riva Palacio AlatristeHe describes the film’s animation style and its place in Huevocartoon’s technical development.
About this summary

Originally published by El Universal in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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