Animalympics (1980)

Director:

Steven Lisberger

Writers:

Steven Lisberger (character development and story) &
Roger Allers (character development and story) ...

Release Date:

15 May 1980 (West Germany)

Genre:

Animation | Family | Sport

Plot:

The animal kingdom stages its own olympic games.

Plot Keywords:

Olympics | Skiing | Turtle | Swimming | Olympics Parody

Cast

Gilda Radner	...	Barbra Warblers / Brenda Springer / Cora Lee Perrier / Tatyana Tushenko / Dorrie Turnell (voice)
Billy Crystal	...	Rugs Turkell (voice)
Harry Shearer	...	Keen Hacksaw (voice)
Michael Fremer	...	Henry Hummel / René Fromage / Kit Mambo / Bolt Jenkins / Joey Gongolong (voice)

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Finland:S

Company:

Lisberger Studios

Trivia:

Conceived in 1976 to parody the hype surrounding the Olympic Games. Creator Steven Lisberger made a 7-minute short for the film with a $10,000 dollar grant from the American Film Institute. He decided the idea could be expanded, so he got backing from NBC to produce the film, and, obtaining a 7-figure budget, moved his studio from his Boston loft to California. Lisberger and NBC produced two 30-minute parts: "Animalympics: Winter Games" and "Animalympics: Summer Games." Only "Winter Games" aired in 1979, but "Summer Games" never aired, due to the United States boycotting the Olympics when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The next year, both parts were edited together with new footage. The resulting feature film, known simply as "Animalympics," aired only on HBO, where it enjoyed a cult following for years to follow.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Kit starts to move to catch up to Rene during the Marathon, Barbara Wabbler states she's "currently in a disappointing fifth position", yet she passes four runners before catching up to Rene (leader), which would have put her in sixth position, not fifth.

Quotes:

Lodge Turkell: I'm Lodge Turkell bringing you me...

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Det sjunde inseglet (1957)

Soundtrack:

Away From It All

Satirical fun that's wasted on children.

A splendid satire on the Olympic industry and TV sports programmes. Plenty of recognisable types amongst the furry cast from the gushing bimbo interviewer to an intense USSR gymnast to a deadpan turtle anchorman. The animation is above average for TV but lacks the richness of Bluth or Disney. However that hardly matters because the real pleasure lies in the smart script, engaging vocal performances and first rate character design. Quite a lot of the more adult humour will sail over the heads of the young but older viewers can watch this movie again and again to pick up on the jokes they missed last time. An extremely underrated cartoon gem.