This Norwegian animated feature splits the difference between cautionary health class lesson and gross-out comedy, and in the process loses some of its intended effect on both tracks, but it’s still an inventive and funny film. Most of if takes place within two human bodies, those of teens Jens and Lisa, who are on an adult-sanctioned camping trip together and tacitly decide this is the perfect opportunity to lose their virginity. However, their intentions are less crucial to the story than those of Jens’ gonads, where thousands of spermatazoa anxiously await the coupling because that will provide them with the whole purpose of their existence, which is to impregnate an egg. 

Besides its sympathetic—some might say “northern European”—attitude toward consensual sex between adolescents, the movie makes a strong impression with the completeness of its coverage, so to speak. It goes without saying that the squiggly single-cell organisms, which have individual personalities of their own, are bent on creating a baby in the long run, while the two humans who are the objects of their instinctual drive need to be careful how they do the deed, so there are lots of comic references to spermicides, condoms, and other obstacles (“I don’t want to end up as just a stain on the sheets”). But there are also biological details that even I wasn’t aware of, such as how sperm deposited in the rectum could actually still make its way to the vagina through the proper canals. That particular piece of intelligence is mainly wielded as a kind of forward-moving plot device, but it also gives you an indication of how far the directors, Rasmus A. Silversten and Tommy Wirkola, are willing to go with their concept. More squeamish audience members may think they go too far when one spermatazoa is confronted with some aggressively amorous fecal matter, but that’s the tone that carries the movie. The sperm are binary and have punny names like Simen and Cumilla, and the requisite cultural jokes take in everything from over-familiarity with Pornhub to the MCU (one macho spermatazoa named Jizzmo dresses like Iron Man before the big event). There are also hit-or-miss musical interludes that probably could have been dropped without any loss of clarity. I’ve already read somewhere that the movie is a cult hit in some territories, and I’m guessing the U.S. isn’t one of them. It’s either too graphic for some American tastes or too self-consciously edifying for others. Porn Pixar isn’t for everyone, but maybe Japan will get the joke. 

In Norwegian and English with Japanese subtitles and Japanese dubbed versions. Opens Feb. 13 in Tokyo at Human Trust Cinema Shibuya (03-5468-5551), Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho (03-6259-8608), Shinjuku Piccadilly. 

Spermageddon home page in Japanese

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