Tow Truck Pluck


Tow Truck Pluck, also known as Pluk and his Tow Truck is a 2004 Dutch comedy musical family film directed by Ben Sombogaart and Pieter van Rijn. It's an adaptation of the 1971 children's book Pluk van de Petteflet by Annie M.G. Schmidt, starring Janieck van de Polder as the titular character.
The film was released in the Netherlands on 17 November 2004 by Warner Bros. Pictures. It received a Golden Film in 2004 and a Platinum Film in 2005.

Production

The film was originally planned to be a stop-motion animated film, but was scrapped in favor of live-action with puppetry due to budget constraints.
Janieck van de Polder, Suzanne Zuiderwijk, Hanneke Riemer, Arjan Ederveen, Erik van Muiswinkel, and ex-politician Erica Terpstra were cast in March 2004. Filming took place at NOB-Studios in Almere.

Release

The film held its premiere on 16 November 2004 at the Tuschinski Theatre in Amsterdam, with Queen Beatrix in attendance.

Video game

A video game tie-in developed by Ijsfontein was released in 2005 for PC and Mac. A Nintendo DS version developed by Triangle Studios was later released in 2009.

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews from critics.

Home media

The film was released on DVD by Warner Home Video on 13 May 2005. The DVD releases includes extras such as "Pluk Sjoernaals", songs from the film and various trailers.