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Title: THE KROSTONS
Genre: Live Action Animation
Source: 1968 Comic strip of same name
Created by: Paul Deliege and Arthur Piroton
Director: Frederick Du Chau
Producers: Le Studio d’Imagination
Writers: Frederik Du Chau & Jamie Nash
Status: In Development
Budget: $20-$30 MM
LOGLINE
As a middle aged French video game designer struggles to keep her career alive while competing with peers half her age, she and her children accidentally stumble upon a buried chest which contains some tiny medieval characters bent upon conquering the world. Accidentally unleashing these creatures may save both her family and her career.
SYNOPSIS
MAXINE ARIANE and her children LUCAS and CAPUCINE drop their dad PAUL at a technical writing seminar before embarking on an ill-conceived camping trip in the woods of PAIMPONT FOREST. Determined to balance work and her new career as a video game developer, Maxine refuses to cancel the trip in spite of an imminent “pitch” she has been attempting to prepare for her new hipster boss, TOBY, who is half her age and never misses an opportunity to remind Maxine of that fact. After accidentally lighting fire to the entire camp site while talking to her boss on her cell phone, Maxine decides she must not allow this setback to completely destroy her lone remaining opportunity to prove to her children that she is still a good mother. Over the objections of her children, Maxine decides to make the most of the outing and at the very least get in an old fashioned hike up the hills of the forest before surrendering to the situation entirely.
When a heavy rain provides another of many unexpected setbacks to her efforts, Maxine is sent careening into a mud pit after her cell phone, which has flown from her hands in the downpour. Undeterred by the situation Lucas decides to save the day and his mother and does a cannonball into the mud to rescue her and her cell phone, revealing the corner of a small ancient chest protruding ever so slightly from the mud.
Overtaken by curiosity, Lucas and Capucine convince their mother to allow them to take the chest home to be opened. Maxine reluctantly agrees, if only to bring this awful outing to an end.
Upon returning home the trio pry open the chest to reveal an aged leather bound book, covered in dust. Carefully opening it and flipping through the pages, depictions of the brutish and barbaric medieval LORD KOMPASKERN and his small comical sidekicks, THE KROSTONS, are revealed fighting in battle.
Maxine is awed by the intricate artistry of the pictures, but also finds herself focused on the story behind the scenes depicted. As night arrives she falls asleep on top of the book as a tiny glint of the moonlight streams through the window onto the pages, suddenly bringing THE KROSTONS to life in a whirl of dust and light right next to Maxine’s head.
Examining their new surroundings, the three Krostons, BRAINY, BRAWNY, and NERVOUS, contemplate this strange new contemporary land into which they’ve unexpectedly arrived.

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When Maxine awakes and sees the tiny creatures standing in front of her and investigating her, she first believes she must be dreaming and the Krostons are a hallucination. Realizing they’re real, Maxine screams and awakens her children.
Arriving on the scene just as the Krostons hurl small mini-bombs toward Maxine, the children rush to aid their mother in her defense as the Krostons scurry out a nearby open window.
In need of emotional support, and with Paul away at his conference, Maxine scurries to pack up the children and her sketches for her upcoming pitch and scramble off to the GRANDPARENTS house, unwittingly taking the now-2D Krostons along for the ride, perched on the front bumper of Maxine’s car.
Grandma and Grandpa clearly don’t want their ill-mannered grandchildren in the house, but agree to watch them while Maxine rushes to her pitch meeting. While she’s away, the Krostons conduct surveillance of the grandparents and children as if gathering intelligence on a foreign enemy they’re attempting to conquer.
At the office Maxine is confronted by VANESSA, her main competitor for Toby’s loyalty. And as it turns out, Vanessa has taken Maxine’s work and stolen it right out from under her nose, unapologetically presenting it to Toby as her own. Fresh out of any new ideas, Maxine is beside herself when suddenly two of the three Krostons appear and begin creating mayhem. But no one else knows the Krostons are real or that they’re actually in the room, so everyone including Toby believes Maxine’s strange comical behavior and commentary are actually her pitch. They all buy into it completely and Toby provides the exclamation point to the situation by announcing that Maxine will lead the pitch session to the big potential investor looking to buy their company, ANDRE LEBLANC, at the upcoming gaming conference Andre leads annually.
Back at the Grandparents house, the children announce the presence of the Krostons believing their grandparents will think they’ve lost their minds entirely. But Grandpa’s eyes grow wide as he stares in disbelief and announces he knows all about the Krostons and the tale of their jailing within the pages of the book his grandchildren have unknowingly uncovered. Grandpa agrees to help them do battle with these tiny creatures, believing it’s the only way to save the modern world from their evil wrath.
Back at the office, as Maxine finds herself overwhelmed by the task of preparing for the “big pitch” to Andre Leblanc during his annual CON-CON event, she is shocked to find that the Krostons have infiltrated her office and are creating havoc all around her in an effort to defeat the modern day wizard Maxine represents to them.
Not knowing the Krostons to be real, and believing them to be a figment of Maxine’s post-menopausal mind, Toby believes the chaos ensuing in the office to be the work of Maxine’s children, and reassigns the big pitch to Vanessa for her supervision. He begins making plans to fire Maxine just as soon as Andre Leblanc buys the company and her product idea from them.
Toby informs Maxine she’s been assigned to desk duty for the big pitch event, believing it will keep her out of his way as he woos Andre Leblanc, and Vanessa is given the spotlight for the big event.
The Krostons in the meantime have discovered they can reproduce themselves in a lower definition format by using the photocopying machine in the office, and set out to build an army of themselves to go to war at the CON-CON event.
As Vanessa prepares for CON-CON and celebrity guests arrive to a red carpet and worldwide news media, the Krostons are in full warfare mode, setting the stage for their overthrow of the wizards who stand in their way of world domination. But Maxine, her children and Grandpa have decided not to sit idly by and watch.

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As comic hijinks and all out chaos ensue at the convention, Maxine and her family begin to slowly round up the Krostons and their army of duplicated soldiers in front of a live television audience who is convinced the chaos is all part of a pitch gone horribly wrong.
When the dust eventually settles, Andre Leblanc announces that he will not do business with Toby or his company, forcing Toby to resign in disgrace. Instead, Andre Leblanc chooses to pursue a deal with the original source of what he views as a brilliant new product, and hires both Maxine and her husband to work with him on a digital story book about the Krostons.
Ultimately Maxine realizes work is less important than family as the whole clan relaxes on a boat provided for their use by Andre Leblanc.
COMMENTS
Based on a 1968 Belgian comic strip that came about during the same timeframe as “The Smurfs” anyone reading this script is immediately struck with the obvious comparison to the more famous characters of that same time period. But it’s also clear that Brainy, Brawny, and Nervous are very much the darker alter egos to their brethren. From the small white skull and crossbones’ insignias on the top of their black-brimmed hats, to the long dark trench coats they wear, it’s nearly impossible to miss the idea that these guys aren’t the same warm and cuddly creatures we’ve seen before.
But with that said, while you know you are supposed to view them as the villains, and you certainly aren’t supposed to like them, you can’t help but find them to be just a little cute and cuddly anyway. Even the small black bombs they routinely hurl throughout the often chaotic storyline they’ve created are far too small to do any real damage. More than anything, they’re an irritant but not a true threat to anyone’s safety.
The story itself is similar in nature to many other animated live action projects, like “The Chipmunks” or “The Smurfs” in that the real people represent a parental influence attempting to rein in the childish nature of the tiny creatures creating all the havoc. And in the process the result is to allow for the development of a true family unit that finds itself reunited out of a spirit of comradery with one another.
The animation is well done, and it’s difficult not to envision every scene of the script actually unfolding in your mind as you read it. And it’s done in a very funny way that keeps you laughing at the various hijinks throughout the story.
The one thing that seems to stick out, in a very small way, is that the stakes aren’t ever really all that high. The Krostons don’t ever really seem to build up to bigger and badder attacks in a way that ever presents any serious danger to Maxine or her family. But even with that small problem, the script is extremely entertaining from beginning to end and will lend itself well to audiences on a wide range of age levels and backgrounds.