This is one animated movie that I've always enjoyed watching, though it was aired a few times on HBO every 4 years to celebrate the olympics. Mr. Lisberg, and a whole team of animators had animated this movie originally in parts back in the 1970's, to air on NBC, whenever they did news reports on sports. If you noticed that the movie has some dazzling lazer-like effects, which Mr. Lisberg had animated himself and were not done on a computer. Then in 1979, roughly Mr. Lisberg had decided to clip together all his animated segments on the olympics and decided to call it Animalympics. Back then, it wasn't shown in theaters as there was some conflict with Moscow, and the movie involves olympics events around that area. Anyway, all of the characers and athletes are all animal characters, but some are a character of famous sports announcers, athletes, etc, which I found enjoyable, once I was able to get the idea on the personality that animal. With the assistance of voice talents like Gilda Radner, Harry Shear, Billy Crystal, they came up with some of the most memorable voices for all of the characters.
You're given a tour and all the news on this olympic event at ZOO tv station by a turtle named Mr. Henry Hubble. During the movie, he gives the news reports on the spefic event and comments on how the athlete has done in the event. Mr. Henry Hubble is assisted with famous reports like a female ostrtich named Ms. Barbra Warblers, who reports the progress on the main event of a marathon run, and two individual animals of Ms. Kit Mambo, who is a female Cougar or tiger, and Mr. Rene Formage a male goat, all very athletic and have one thing on their mind of crossing the finish line and receiving the gold. Various other sporting events are shown like Figure skating where a famous female Flamingo named Ms. Dorie Tourrnel, puts on a wonderful and dazzling ice skating act, which wins her the gold and she becomes very, very happy upon receiving it and cries up a storm. Other famous reporters like Mr. Keen Hacksaw, a bulldog who reports the more athletic events of gymnastics, Ms. Brenda Springer, a female poodle, who reports on the more frigid events of skiing and slopes. There's tons of action and laughs as each of the challengers and competitors do their best in attempting to win the gold. Most of the teams are Eurasia, US. and Moscow, but with the various accents heard as some of the athletes spoke, it's difficult to tell where they were from.
I thought it was creative that each of the animals were given a human-like appearace, while maintaining their animal appearance. It's one of those movies that inspires you to achieve your goals in life, even if it's not athletic. Throughout the movie, famous singer Mr. Goldman had sung many songs that are memorable, as they remind the athletes to keep going and go for the gold, even since you've been struggling all your life and spent years training for this big olympic event. It's either now or never, and go and win the gold. One song he sung that got me thinking was when Mr. Rene Formage is dreaming he's in France running and training and the song
is sung that illustrated Rene's training and his obsession on running and running, but not taking the time out to find your love. Turns out that the race between Mr. Rene and Mrs. Kit Mambo had gone in hand to hand instead of head to head, as they fell in love with each other and finished the race together. This brought the whole event upside down. Mrs. Barbra had interviewed each of the trainers for Kit and Rene. After Kit Mambo's coach commented on Kit's progress on the race, Rene's coach thought that Kit was cheating and wanted to call for blood tests, as he heard rumors of Kit Mambo using "Cat Nip". for the reason why Kit had the ability to run that race without stopping.
Yes, the movie was made in the 1970's, so there's a ton of references of the 1970's as well as the female characters looking more womanly and sexy in their outfits. Love and sex was big in the 1970's, and I think that the movie put it greatly, as I remember that being a kid in the 70's. Some of the jokes in the movie will make you roll your eyes and maybe make you laugh or feel offensive. Within one of the later events of Boxing, a sports announcer of Mr. Don Turkel interviews famous boxer Mr. Joey Gongalong, who talks like famous boxer Mr. Muhamid Ali. He fights against a giant bull, which was a really short fight, as Mr. Gongalong knocked him out very quickly. Now in terms of attempting to win the gold, and all the years it took for these athletes to train to win it, some of them can't afford to lose, and will do anything, including cheating. In one event of Fencing, a famoust fencer named Mr. Count Bourdeux, who is a warthog, was desperate to prove his power and really wanted to win the gold. His last competitor Mr. Duke Travis, a flying squirrel was the last hope in defeating the Count. So during the battle, he cheated by stomping his foot to hold down Duke's tail so he couldn't get up, and was given the foil tip to win the match. It looked like the Count was about to receive the gold medal, when suddenly, an unexpected last minute challenger had entered. It was the famous Contessa, who was a female red-tailed hawk, who planned to teach the Count a lesson in cheating. She came swooping down and the battle began. It looked like the Contessa was going to beat the Count, but since the Count didn't want to lose, he pushed her to the floor, and began to make his move by runnig to her and giving her the foil.
However, the Contessa had other plans, as while on the floor, just as the Count came to her, she then used her feet to flip the Count into the air and against the wall. While cornered, the Contessa used her foil to whack the Count's foil right out of his hand before he could pick it up. The really funny part was toward the end as the Contessa begins to point her foil tip and spinning it around to the Count's big belly, he attempts one final defense by bringing his bulge up hoping she would miss. But "Bzzzzz" The Contessa defeats the Count and taught him a serious lesson on cheating. And just before she left, Duke Travis tosses the gold to the Contessa, and she claims it on ther foil and smile in victory. When it comes to being athletic and attempting to win the gold, there's no room for cheaters.
Back then, I was hoping for the movie to be availble on VHS (before DVD), and looked in video stores for it. No such luck. In terms of merchandising, I once saw a board game of Animalympics with all the characters on it, but the front box had the message saying that this is not related to the movie, blah blah. I saw it only once, and I guess it was taken away for infringing. However, In 1994, after all these years, I was in Walmart, and suddenly saw the movie available on VHS for the first time. With a colorful cover featuring the characters of the movie, I looked at it and to my surprise, it was released by a video company of UAV gold. What?! I knew that Lisberger made the movie, and wondered if they bought the rights or just decided to put it on the market. So at the time, I bought it to bring back the memories. It was good, but after many years, I tore up the VHS as I figured that it was a ripoff, plus I was then switching to DVD. So far, I've noticed that there's a DVD version being sold on EBAy but it's not in English. I'll wait if I have to, and maybe someday it will be available on DVD or digital download in Itunes. From what I understand, Warner Bros, now has the rights to that movie, so it will be up to them what they decide.
The only other authorized merchandise I have purchased was an out of print book of the guide to the olympics featuring the movie Animalympics. all the illustrations were perfect scenes of the movie as each of the events were described and explained. It's a great momentum. I think it would've been fun to see this movie in the theaters, as it would've been fun to hear the people's response to the movie with laughs, gasps, groans, and perhaps a bunch of whistles for the female athletes and characters. I would've whistled big time for the Contessa, as I still think that she's sexy and good looking. Postively a great movie, and all of the characters are great too.
