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:

[the boxing event is about to start. Turkell has Joey Gongolong, a kangaroo with similarities to Muhammad Ali, for an interview]
Lodge Turkell: With me, one of the greatest fighters of this or any other time, Joey Gongolong.
[to Gongolong, who's sparring with the camera]
Lodge Turkell: Champ, shortly you'll be facing the toughest challenge of your long and, I might add, controversial fighting career: the Eurasian, Janos Brushteckel. Champ, take a look at the monitor and feel free, as I'm sure you do, to comment.
[Brushteckel, a bull, appears on screen, already looking dazed]
Joey Gongolong: That face is almost as ugly as yours, Rugs. He's too *ugly* to be champ!
Lodge Turkell: [as a shot of Brushteckel in training appears] True enough. But I've seen that vicious left hook of his, and Champ, you'd better stop fooling around, and take this challenger seriously.
Joey Gongolong: Why you talkin' 'bout takin' me seriously? I did everythin' I could t'get ready for this fight.
[a flashback to Gongolong's training ensues as he describes it in voiceover]
Joey Gongolong: The up 'n down on the hardwood floors... didn't eat no meat, it lays in your stomach, makes ya fat and lazy and heavy.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Det sjunde inseglet (1957)

Soundtrack:

With You I Can Run Forever

Great film, bad timing.

This film was made to co-incide with the 1980 Olympic games in Moscow. Sadly, the boycott over the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan damped much ethusiasm over the games, and this film fell by the wayside.

Now on video, and being marketed for the children's market, this film is a very clever spoof of network coverage of the olympic games, complete with jabs at celebrity worship and product endorsement (In one scene, a pole vaulter makes a record-breaking vault, and lands feet first into a studio set for a breakfast cereal commercial).

This film features the vocal talents of the late Gilda Radner, Harry Shearer (doing an incredible impersonation of Keith Jackson as "Keen Hacksaw"), Billy Crystal (lampooning Howard Cosell) and Michael Fremer. The very 1980's style music is by 10cc member Graham Gouldman.

There is no real "plot" to the film, just a series of linked vignettes about olympic sports (both summer and winter). Very clever.

The kids will love it for the action and animation. The adults will love it for the clever writing. A great film released at a bad time.