Jens Møller

Jens Møller started his career in animation in his native Denmark, where he worked on internationally successful productions such as HUGO, DAS DSCHUNGELTIER – FILMSTAR WIDER WILLEN (1996), DAS MAGISCHE SCHWERT – DIE LEGENDE VON CAMELOT (QUEST FOR CAMELOT, 1998) and HILFE! ICH BIN EIN FISCH (HELP, I’M A FISH, 2000). He then worked as a layout designer on the television series HUGO, DAS DSCHUNGELTIER (Jungledyret, 2003) and layout supervisor on the films ASTERIX UND DIE WIKINGER (ASTERIX AND THE VIKINGS, 2006) and MULLEWAPP – DAS GROSSE KINOABENTEUER DER FREUNDE (2009).
Among his credits as art director are LEGO STAR WARS: DIE YODA CHRONIKEN (2013/14) and NINJAGO: MASTERS OF SPINJITZU (2011-18).
Møller was also the director of eleven episodes of NINJAGO: MASTERS OF SPINJITZU, of several episodes of the series BIBI BLOCKSBERG (2006) and LEGO STAR WARS: DIE ABENTEUER DER FREEMAKER (2016). Before working on THE OGGLIES Møller was co-director of the Dutch animated theatrical feature DE FABELTJESKRANT – DE GROTE DIERENBOSCHS-SPELEN (2018).

Toby Genkel

Toby Genkel's career started in the early 1990s at Hamburg's Trickompany animation studio, as a background designer on DER KLEENE PUNKER (1992). Following which, first as a layout artist and later layout supervisor, he worked on productions like the TV-series OTTIFANTEN (1993) the theatrical features FELIDAE (1994), WERNER – DAS MUSS KESSELN!!! (1996), KLEINES ARSCHLOCH (1997), WERNER – VOLLES ROOÄÄÄ!!! (1999), WERNER – GEKOTZT WIRD SPÄTER! (2003), DERRICK – DIE PFLICHT RUFT! (2004) and WERNER – EISKALT! (2011). On WERNER – GEKOTZT WIRD SPÄTER! and for the OTTIFANTEN feature KOMMANDO STÖRTEBEKER (2001) Toby Genkel was also co-director.
Among his directorial works are DIETER – DER FILM (2006), DAS DOPPELTE LOTTCHEN (2007) and THOR – EIN HAMMERMÄßIGES ABENTEUER (2011).
With OOOPS! DIE ARCHE IST WEG... (OOOPS! NOAH IS GONE...2015) Toby Genkel landed an international audience success with the film winning Best Animated Feature at the "Goldener Spatz" Children's Film Festival.
Toby Genkel's film ÜBERFLIEGER – KLEINE VÖGEL, GROSSES GEKLAPPER (2017), which had its premiere at the "Generation" children's and young adults' sidebar festival at the Berlinale 2017, also won an international audience and was accoladed with the Golden Goblet for Best Animated Film at the Shanghai International Film Festival.
Alongside his work on THE OGGLIES - WELCOME TO SCHMUDDELFING, his most recent credits include OOOPS! 2 – LAND IN SICHT (2020) and YAKARI (2020). He is currently working on the animated film MAURICE, DER KATER (THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS) from the book by Terry Pratchett.

Director’s statement - Jens Møller
“Fact is I barely knew the Ogglies’s stories, but I quickly understood why these characters are so popular. And I really fell in love with the fantastic way the Ogglies see our well-ordered and hectic world from their own special perspective.
The Ogglies are a very special family: they're warm hearted and are very close to one another. At the same time they are so unique that people find them richly weird. The way they go about things and don't get stressed out shows us how much we let our everyday lives get pushed around by unnecessary cares and stress.
The film is a wonderful tale of friendship, which tells how you can fight evil by uniting forces – but the film's message is especially about accepting and taking in people whom you maybe don't understand straight off and find strange. In a way, it's a story about migrants who are looking for a new home and just want to live a normal life. And the story also tells how people should overlook superficial differences so they understand just how much we can help each other.”

Director’s statement - Toby Genkel
“The Ogglies, through their supposedly strange or sometimes completely weird behavior, are just holding the mirror up to us. You might turn up your nose at them but when it comes to sticking together as a family, tolerating the unfamiliar and the new, to creativity and loyalty, nobody can tell our green heroes how to do it, quite the opposite: we can learn a lot from them!
The exciting thing with the Ogglies is that yes, they live in our 'normal' world and show us it's not so normal at all, or at least should not be normal. Because the Ogglies live out values like respect, tolerance and sticking together, often much better than us humans. [...] The film's story revolves around the word "home". Where do we belong? Who decides where we can stay? In the end the film's beautiful message is as simple as it's utopian: be open, don't be scared of the things you don't know, help people in trouble – then in the end everybody wins.”