‘Goat Story’ director talks about his voluptuous heroine Katie who becomes the viral star of Summer

Who is the blockbuster CGI star of the summer? It certainly isn’t Ruby Gillman, the “teenage kraken” that has been bubbling up at the box office this weekend. The little Mermaid? Try again. No, the animated ingenue who has captured the hearts of Internet users is Katie (voiced by Mahulena Bocanová), the buxom blonde amorous of Story of the goat: the old legend of PragueS. And what is it Goat story, you may ask? It is an independent animated film from the Czech Republic released in 2008 which, for some inconclusive reason, became a social media sensation in 2023.

The film, available to watch on youtube, is set in the early 1400s and tells the story of a Czech farmer named Jemmy (Matej Hádek) who comes to Prague with his goat to help build the city’s astronomical clock. (The current watch has since become a tourist mecca for Goat story lovers.) Jemmy meets Katie; Jemmy falls in love with Katie; Jemmy nearly loses Katie to a public execution.

Weird clips of Katie batting her eyelashes and being led to the gallows with a sack over her head have provided Twitter, TikTok and Reddit users with the raw materials for a seemingly endless number of memes, remixes and reaction gifs. Katie’s overwhelming popularity has been attributed to everything from “big boobs tall camp” TO “the way it combines ridiculous hypersexualization with a complete lack of normal sex appeal”.

Whatever the reason, Katie is an unlikely star. For more answers, The Hollywood Reporter tracked down the man who had dreamed of her: Goat story writer-director Jan Tomanek.

I recently started noticing clips of a curvy blue-eyed woman on Twitter. I thought it was from a video game, but my friend told me it’s your movie, Goat story! First of all, what is it Goat story From? And who is this woman, Katie, in the plot?

Katie (Máca in Czech) is the female lead who falls in love with the main character. She is actually a kind of stylized image of a Czech girl – in our country she is called “blood and milk”. (The expression “krev a mlíko” literally means blood and milk and refers to a healthy complexion. It is used to describe rosy-cheeked country girls full of health.)

It’s interesting how many people have a problem with stylizing a character as having big breasts. But with an animated character, the character traits have to be exaggerated. It’s hypocrisy. A big nose isn’t a problem, but big boobs offend some people. Almost all American animated films for children have some violence, people fighting. There is not an iota of violence Goat story yet because of the large breasts, which are natural, she got a PG-13 rating. Yet violence doesn’t matter in America.

How did he do Goat story become?

I’ve spent over five years of my life with each of the two films, and both were made with a small team of people. I wrote the screenplay, directed the films and did the artwork. I set up a 3D graphics studio and also produced and financed both films myself. We did the Goat story movie with only about 15 3D graphics and animators. That’s a number of people who don’t even make Pixar headlines.

But this allowed me True freedom and I was able to make the film I wanted. A huge number of people appreciated it, but a huge number of people just resented that freedom – that I was allowed to do something different than what Pixar does and differently than it should be done.

Was it released in the US?

Yes, the film was sold in about 30 territories, including the United States, and dubbed into six or seven languages. But sales were mainly DVD, VOD and TV. It was only in cinemas in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and then in various international festivals.

What was its original reception?

In the Czech Republic, the film has become the most successful animated film in our history. Both films were seen in theaters by over 350,000 people. The Czech Republic has a population of 10 million, and until then Czech animated films had a peak audience of around 80,000 people.

Since the film wasn’t as top-notch as Pixar, it naturally divided audiences into lovers and haters. Just as is happening on the Internet now.

When did it happen Goat story and Katie begin to develop some kind of ironic reappraisal, shall we say?

I do not know. This doesn’t happen here in the Czech Republic. It’s more of a fad than YouTube in America. Some YouTubers make a meme out of something and others ride the wave. It’s kind of a fad. It’s nice, but it leaves me completely cold.

I’ve been looking around on Twitter and it seems like Gen-Z gays are especially fond of reacting to things using gifs of Katie.

I’m not really in the Generation Z gay community, so I have no idea what’s going on in their heads. I guess you should ask them. (Laughs.)

You made a Story of the goat 2. Could this Goat story the renaissance led to a Story of the goat 3?

Yes the Goat story has a following, Goat Story 2: With cheese, which was thought more with a smaller audience in mind. The film premiered in 2012.

But the state of cinema and society has changed dramatically since then, so much so that you don’t know what the situation will be in two months, let alone five years, which is how much time I’ve devoted to each of the films.

Today I mainly write books, which gives me much more freedom and satisfaction. But you know what they say – “never say never” – or maybe one day I’ll make a sequel with my kids, who are also film and art enthusiasts. By the way, I based the main child characters in Goat Story 2: With cheese on them.