Animalympics (1980)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

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 | Swimming | Skiing | Turtle | Reporter

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:

We've Made It To The Top

Good fun.

A pretty good animated spoof on the Olympic games (and attendant TV coverage) with the ingenious twist that all the participants are animals! Luckily, the creators were smart enough to explore this idea from every possible angle, so we also get fantasy sequences (styled like music videos, a pretty new idea in 1979), spoof commercials, glimpses into the backgrounds of the characters...the clever touches just keep on piling up! Also, the score by 10CC's Graham Gouldman is top-notch, very catchy and enjoyable. Catch this one if you can, it's a lot of fun.