Khan Kluay is a 2006 Thai 3D computer-animated action-adventure comedy film set in Ayutthaya-era Siam about a Thai elephant who wanders away from his mother and becomes the war elephant for King Naresuan. Based on "Chao Praya Prab Hongsawadee" by Ariya Jintapanichkarn, the film was released as Jumbo in India and The Blue Elephant in the United States. Its sequel, Khan Kluay 2, is about Khan Kluay's two elephant children, another attack by the Hongsawadi, and the choice between living with his wife or fighting the Burmese. Khan Kluay is directed by Kompin Kemgumnird, an animator who had worked on Disney films such as and Tarzan and Blue Sky Studios' Ice Age. Produced by Kantana Animation, it was the first Thai 3-D animated feature film and the first animated Thai feature film released since The Adventure of Sudsakorn, a 1979 cel-animated film by Payut Ngaokrachang. Khan Kluay took three years to make, and was released in Thailand on May 18, 2006. An animated television series, The Adventures of Khan Kluay, was produced by Kantana Animation Studio and broadcast on BBTV Channel 7.
Plot
Characters
Khan Kluay, the title character, was born in the wild. His mission is to find his father, who is evidently dead and cremated.
Naresuan, king of the Ayuttahaya Kingdom, is the first human Khan Kluay befriends.
Chaba Kaew is a pink elephant with a flower on her left ear.
Khan Kluay was directed by Kompin Kemgumnird, an animator who had worked on the Disney films Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Dumbo, The Lion King, and Tarzan, and Blue Sky Studios' Ice Age. Produced by Kantana Animation, it was the first Thai 3-D animated feature film and the first animated Thai feature since Payut Ngaokrachang's cel-animated The Adventure of Sudsakorn. Khan Kluay took three years to produce.
Releases
Khan Kluay was released in Thailand on May 18, 2006, and the film was shown to an audience of Asian elephants and their mahouts in an outdoor screening in Ayutthaya Province on June 6 of that year. It was released in September 2008 on DVD in the United States as The Blue Elephant.The Indian production Percept Picture Company bought the rights to the film and released a Hindi-language version, Jumbo, on December 25, 2008; Indian actor Akshay Kumar voiced the main character, Jumbo.
United States
The film was released in the US on September 2, 2008, by the Jim Henson Company and the Weinstein Company as The Blue Elephant. Like other foreign animated films which have been dubbed into English, it was released direct-to-video. The film was re-dubbed with celebrity voices, including Martin Short, Miranda Cosgrove and Carl Reiner. Some scenes were deleted for the US version, and character names were changed.
India
The film released in India on December 25, 2008 as Jumbo by the Percept Picture Company. It was re-dubbed with a cast which included Akshay Kumar and Rajpal Yadav.
2007 Golden Elephant International Children's Film Festival
* Opening film
Television
An animated television series, The Adventures of Khan Kluay, was produced by Kantana Animation Studio and is broadcast on BBTV Channel 7. Khan Kluay featured in animations broadcast in 2016 as the lead-in to Thailand Move Forward, a government-information program which all television stations in Thailand are required to broadcast at 6 pm.
