Ever wanted to see what would happen if you parodied the Olympics with a cast of anthropomorphic animals? You'd get the obscure early 80s television movie Animalympics. Co-written and directed by filmmaker Steven Lisberger, who would later end up making Disney's Tron, the film was initially commissioned by NBC as two separate specials meant to air alongside the 1980 Winter and Summer Olympics. After those plans fell through, it was recut as a 78 minute long feature. Despite fading into obscurity, it soon found a fanbase amongst the furry community, and it's easy to see why it's been cherished since then.
Now given the aforementioned context of this being intended to pair up with the Olympics, it's easy to call the film a package feature rather than a linear narrative. At its core, Animalympics is a parody of the Olympics in both sport and presentation, as it mocks the commercialism around it as much as the athletic aspect of it all. In addition to having well known comedians like Gilda Radner, Billy Crystal and Harry Shearer perform as individual announcers and commentators, the film showcases a wide variety of vocal talent coming from said cast and co-writer Michael Fremer as nearly all the athletes. While there are some running arcs here and there like that of two rival country track stars coming to terms with each other, most of what occurs on screen consists of sequence after sequence of different animal athletes competing against each other in different ways. Perhaps the gimmick can get a little redundant due to a lack of conciseness, but the visual gags and stunt choreography are impressive enough to keep the momentum in each segment going for as long as the runtime allows for.
Speaking of choreography, the actual character animation is far above the standards of television animation for the feature's time. In addition to a lot of appealing anatomy and design work on the individual animals themselves, a lot of the motion done on them is smooth and bouncy enough to let their stunts and action leap off in flying colors, as well as occasionally being timed to Graham Gouldman's dynamically dated score. Throw in some off the walls effects and lighting animation and you've got yourself a faithfully exaggerated tribute to Oympian showmanship. What's interesting to note is that a lot of the animation crew would go on to do wonders in animation, including animation director Bill Kroyer, art director Roger Allers, and animators Dan Haskett and Brad Bird. Next to their extraordinary work, the soundtrack contains some notably amusing parodies of intense sports and disco themed musical numbers that come off as arguably stronger parodies than the commentary provided. The soundtrack slaps in more ways than one, and not just through composition alone.
Although an unapologetic time capsule, Animalympics is a fascinating take on Olympic filmmaking thanks to some strong commentative humor, a funny cast, gorgeous animation and hysterical songs. This film is worth checking out not only for sport and cartoon fans, but also to those in desperate need of their fix in early 80s animation not seen by the general public in decades. While those involved in the making may have gone on to bigger and better things, the feature alone should stand as a unique artifact from a time when this type of humor was far more common than it is nowadays.
Now given the aforementioned context of this being intended to pair up with the Olympics, it's easy to call the film a package feature rather than a linear narrative. At its core, Animalympics is a parody of the Olympics in both sport and presentation, as it mocks the commercialism around it as much as the athletic aspect of it all. In addition to having well known comedians like Gilda Radner, Billy Crystal and Harry Shearer perform as individual announcers and commentators, the film showcases a wide variety of vocal talent coming from said cast and co-writer Michael Fremer as nearly all the athletes. While there are some running arcs here and there like that of two rival country track stars coming to terms with each other, most of what occurs on screen consists of sequence after sequence of different animal athletes competing against each other in different ways. Perhaps the gimmick can get a little redundant due to a lack of conciseness, but the visual gags and stunt choreography are impressive enough to keep the momentum in each segment going for as long as the runtime allows for.
Speaking of choreography, the actual character animation is far above the standards of television animation for the feature's time. In addition to a lot of appealing anatomy and design work on the individual animals themselves, a lot of the motion done on them is smooth and bouncy enough to let their stunts and action leap off in flying colors, as well as occasionally being timed to Graham Gouldman's dynamically dated score. Throw in some off the walls effects and lighting animation and you've got yourself a faithfully exaggerated tribute to Oympian showmanship. What's interesting to note is that a lot of the animation crew would go on to do wonders in animation, including animation director Bill Kroyer, art director Roger Allers, and animators Dan Haskett and Brad Bird. Next to their extraordinary work, the soundtrack contains some notably amusing parodies of intense sports and disco themed musical numbers that come off as arguably stronger parodies than the commentary provided. The soundtrack slaps in more ways than one, and not just through composition alone.
Although an unapologetic time capsule, Animalympics is a fascinating take on Olympic filmmaking thanks to some strong commentative humor, a funny cast, gorgeous animation and hysterical songs. This film is worth checking out not only for sport and cartoon fans, but also to those in desperate need of their fix in early 80s animation not seen by the general public in decades. While those involved in the making may have gone on to bigger and better things, the feature alone should stand as a unique artifact from a time when this type of humor was far more common than it is nowadays.