On display since Wednesday, “Les Jokes de Toto 2 – classe verte” allows us to find the facetious little boy and his comrades during a stay in the countryside.
What is it about ? Toto and his comrades are back, heading to the campaign for a green classroom! But, if for the other students, this is the opportunity to discover life on the farm, for Toto, it is above all the perfect opportunity to invent new jokes and live crazy adventures. Especially since the farmers who welcome them seem a little dodgy, and it is said that a ghost is lurking in the area… Toto intends to investigate, and he has more than one trick up his sleeve. !
And 2!
As its title indicates, Les Jokes de Toto 2 – classe verte is the sequel to Les Jokes de Toto, which attracted more than a million viewers when it was released in 2020. Its director Pascal Bourdiaux is once again at the helm of this second part: “It was my producers who offered it to me quite quickly and I really wanted it because I had a lot of fun shooting this first film with the actors and the children…”
A new Toto
In the role of the famous little boy, Hugo Trophardy succeeds Gavril Dartevelle. Nearly 1400 children were seen in casting to form the group of five and also find the interpreter of Toto there. Pascal Bourdiaux remembers: “Hugo arrived during the 14th or 15th casting and immediately I perceived this little something extra, this smiling eye, this energy essential for the role. We then rehearsed a lot with him and Gael Raes who plays the character of Igor to see if it stuck between them… Then we went to the countryside to make them refine their text.” He adds about his main actor: “Hugo had only shot a short film before this film. He is lively, mischievous and has a great range of acting. He is a child who is both spontaneous and thoughtful….”
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ecology
Ecology is at the center of this comedy. It was the scriptwriter, Mathias Gavarry, who had the idea of sending Toto and his friends to a green classroom to discover the countryside and the farm animals. “The fact of taking this small band out of its urban universe triggered the intrigue around pollution, waste reprocessing, organic farming…”, says the director. For Pascal Bourdiaux, this made it possible to deal with deep subjects in a light tone: “All of this is seen by children who are, as we know, more and more concerned and involved in these subjects. Even 10-year-old children talk to you about ecology, it’s pretty crazy. We see that they have taken stock of the problem…”
The farm
The team had difficulty finding the farm that would serve as the film’s location because the filming took place in the summer, when the farmers are very busy with the harvest. Eventually, the farm was unearthed in Belgium. The team got permission to break down one of its walls, which they later rebuilt. The director says: “This allowed us to be able to shoot with this magnificent valley and a small mountain in the background… Nature is therefore almost in all the shots of the film, especially in the scenes with the parents hidden in the woods.”
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The castle
The abandoned castle that Toto and his friends discover does exist but is in perfect condition! It was therefore necessary to “age” it thanks to digital special effects, “by collapsing its tower, closing its shutters, damaging its facade, etc… I wanted this castle to be a little scary so when the children discovered it, we darkened the sky, added crows that ‘fly away with special effects’reveals the director.