Animalympics (1980) Review
March 18th 2010 21:02
As mentioned in the last review, Animated movies often wind up unknown and forgotten, no matter how much innovation, star power, and loving care go into them. As with 1980's Animalympics, from Lisberger studios. The story within the film itself is somewhat less interesting that the strange story behind the film. Animalympics had such a turbulent production process, it's amazing that anyone ever saw it. Over it's production the film was defunded, stolen, canceled and boycotted but it still managed to reach audiences thanks to the tenacity of it's producers and directors.
The film is an animated version of the Olympics, featuring an all animal cast. It's presented like news coverage from the fictional ZOO sports network. The film has a cast of lovable zany characters based on many real celebrities,
commentators and athletes. What delights me about this film, is that the animation is classic squash and stretch Loony-Tune style wackiness. The characters are lovable and the animation is delightful with hand-painted backgrounds and colorful characters. In 1980 many animators were cutting corners but none were cut here, the animation is on par with anything from animation's Golden age. The film employed many animators who would later become legends, like Brad Bird, Roger Allers and Bill Kroyer and the voices were provided by the likes of Billy Crystal, Gilda Radner and a pre-spinal tap Harry Shearer. The catchy soundtrack included some original songs from Graham Gouldman of British rock band 10cc.
This films turbulent history started when Steve Linsburger, an animator who worked on
commercials and sports broadcast graphics was hired to make a series of animated sequences for the 1980 summer and winter Olympics. The Olympic committee chipped in the initial funds allowing animation to get started. Production was running smoothly until the USSR decided to invade Afghanistan causing the USA to boycott the 1980 games along with 64 other countries, cutting off the funding for the US broadcast. Overnight, the Animalympics budget disappeared and what animation was done was in danger of being abandoned. Luckily, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts allowed the production to continue, with hopes of releasing the film as a feature. While the budget was enough to keep animation going, most of the voice actors lined up couldn't be kept on and were replaced by the overworked Mark Fremer, a sound technician for the studio that took over almost every role In the film that hadn't yet been recorded, including a number of female characters.
With a product ready to go, producers took the film to the 1979 Florida Animation Festival. They were sure investors and critics would be delighted being that the film had a then rare Surround sound feature. Sadly, before the film could be screened for reviewers, investors and distributors the surround sound reels were stolen! The producers had to have a rough cut of the film (in mono), shipped in. The big wigs at the festival were only moderately impressed, and Animalympics got a very limited release, and was later broadcast on HBO and on the Disney channel. Whoever out there has the surround sound version of Animalympics sitting in their attic needs to apologize and return it immediately.
The weird, and wonderful story of Animalympics doesn't end there. In the 1980's we saw the beginning of the infamous furry fandom with the First ConFURence Furry convention. During the con, someone who had an 8mm copy of Animalympics screened it for the attendees,and it was a hit. From there, the movie became the “Rocky Horror” of the furry fandom, Animalympics has become a semi-cult classic. In fact The first time I saw this movie was in a crowded video room at Anthrocon 2004, where it seems I was one of the few people not wearing a faux tail or a mascot outfit. Everyone sung along with the songs, laughed a the jokes, cheered at the good guys, and even jeered the bad guys. God knows I love weird and obscure movies but to be in an audience of fellow fans (in costume, no less) was possibly one of the more surreal experiences of my life.
If your a fan of classic loony tunes or MGM shorts, Animalympics is your kind of movie. It may be hard to find, but it's possibly the last great gasp of the golden era of cartoons. It's charming,cute, and some of the jokes will make you laugh out loud. If your like me you'll find yourself watching it again and again. Even if the first time you saw it you were sitting next to 300 pound man dressed as a teddy bear.
The film is an animated version of the Olympics, featuring an all animal cast. It's presented like news coverage from the fictional ZOO sports network. The film has a cast of lovable zany characters based on many real celebrities,
Rene Fromage and Kit Mambo from the Marathon event, believe it or not this Lady Lion's voice was provided by a man!
The Analympics Album, harder to find than the movie itself.
With a product ready to go, producers took the film to the 1979 Florida Animation Festival. They were sure investors and critics would be delighted being that the film had a then rare Surround sound feature. Sadly, before the film could be screened for reviewers, investors and distributors the surround sound reels were stolen! The producers had to have a rough cut of the film (in mono), shipped in. The big wigs at the festival were only moderately impressed, and Animalympics got a very limited release, and was later broadcast on HBO and on the Disney channel. Whoever out there has the surround sound version of Animalympics sitting in their attic needs to apologize and return it immediately.
The weird, and wonderful story of Animalympics doesn't end there. In the 1980's we saw the beginning of the infamous furry fandom with the First ConFURence Furry convention. During the con, someone who had an 8mm copy of Animalympics screened it for the attendees,and it was a hit. From there, the movie became the “Rocky Horror” of the furry fandom, Animalympics has become a semi-cult classic. In fact The first time I saw this movie was in a crowded video room at Anthrocon 2004, where it seems I was one of the few people not wearing a faux tail or a mascot outfit. Everyone sung along with the songs, laughed a the jokes, cheered at the good guys, and even jeered the bad guys. God knows I love weird and obscure movies but to be in an audience of fellow fans (in costume, no less) was possibly one of the more surreal experiences of my life.
If your a fan of classic loony tunes or MGM shorts, Animalympics is your kind of movie. It may be hard to find, but it's possibly the last great gasp of the golden era of cartoons. It's charming,cute, and some of the jokes will make you laugh out loud. If your like me you'll find yourself watching it again and again. Even if the first time you saw it you were sitting next to 300 pound man dressed as a teddy bear.
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