In Czech culture, Pat & Mat has become synonymous with DIY gone wrong; next to Zdeněk Miler’s little mole Krtek, the stop-motion handymen might be the country’s most beloved animated characters.
In 2016, Pat and Mat turn 40; they were created by Lubomír Beneš and Vladimír Jiránek back in 1976, first appearing in the short Kuťáci before landing their own series.
And to celebrate the occasion, Pat & Mat are getting their own feature film. Simply titled Pat & Mat ve filmu (Pat & Mat: The Movie), the 80-minute film will premiere in Czech cinemas in just a few weeks, on March 31.
The movie has been written and directed by Marek Beneš, son of original creator Lubomír Beneš, whose work on the show dates back to 1992; he saved the series after his father’s company went into bankruptcy in 1995.
While Pat & Mat is a Czech creation, like many children’s shows (Shaun the Sheep, Ozzy and the Cockroaches) it is mostly dialogue-free, making it ideal fare for audiences of any language.