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'It's silly:' Director of Bigfoot movie thanks Alberta energy centre for controversy

EDMONTON — The director of a children's movie about Bigfoot wants to thank the Alberta government's energy centre for starting a "ludicrous" fight over the film.


Ben Stassen laughed several times as he told The Canadian Press that the animated "Bigfoot Family" had dropped from the top 10 list of most-viewed films on Netflix about 15 days after its February debut. 

After the controversy earlier this month, "it went back up to number eight and stayed there until last Sunday," Stassen, who also produced and wrote the movie, said from his home in Brussels.


"There were probably between 30 and 50 million people who saw the film on Netflix over the last four weeks," Stassen said.

"I don't know to what extent, but the controversy helped the film rather than hurt.

"Thank you for doing it."



The energy centre, which is informally called the "war room," is funded by the province to challenge false reports on the oil industry. 


Stassen, who may be best known for his work on other animated movies such as "A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures" and "Fly Me to the Moon," said Netflix has received about 3,400 letters as part of the centre's petition.

He said he first learned about the criticism when the movie's script writers emailed him news stories.

"It's just that it's silly," he said. "This is ludicrous. How can politicians get involved in the controversy about a kids' cartoon?


He said the movie is the sequel to the 2017 film "The Son of Bigfoot."


"So that was the idea, nothing, you know, specifically for or against the oil industry."


"The CEC’s campaign received support from people concerned about mistruths presented to kids, and from energy workers who felt attacked," said Tom Olsen.



"Shrugging it off as just a kids movie is a dodge."

Stassen said he found it funny when he learned that in the 1950s Alberta actually approved a project dubbed "Project Cauldron," which was to detonate a nuclear bomb to liquefy the thick oilsands near Fort McMurray. The provincial government's website details the proposal and says it was eventually quashed. 

"I know nothing about the oil industry, but I'm not that stupid to think that you extract oil by exploding a megaton bomb on the ground," Stassen said.


"It's just entertainment. It has nothing to do with Alberta," he said. "Why they felt targeted by the film, that I do not know."

He added that he's proud about possibly raising awareness of how bad drilling can be for wildlife.

"That's the only thing that I was hoping people would get out of it."

Stassen said he doesn't know if there will be a third bigfoot movie, but if he gets the opportunity, he'll take it.

"What would the next Bigfoot be? Maybe I'll take him to Africa."




Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press