Animalympics

1980

Action / Animation / Comedy / Family / Sport

19
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 88% · 500 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.8/10 10 2302 2.3K

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Plot summary

Animalympics is all about the Animal Olympics Contest where all the animals around the world gather to take part in everything from skiing in North America to the very long marathon race in humid conditions.


Uploaded by: FREEMAN
May 17, 2019 at 10:15 AM

Top cast

Billy Crystal as Rugs Turkell / Joey Gongolong / Art Antica
Harry Shearer as Keen Hacksaw / Mayor of Animal Olympic Island / Burnt Woody / Mark Spritz
Gilda Radner as Barbra Warblers / Brenda Springer / Cora Lee Perrier / Tatyana Tushenko / Dorrie Turnell / The Contessa
John Sessions as Various
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
676.64 MB
988*720
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 18 min
Seeds ...
1.26 GB
1472*1072
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 18 min
Seeds 2

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by GazHack 8 / 10

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.

Reviewed by IonicBreezeMachine 6 / 10

While a showcase for impressive animation, this material was clearly never meant to be a feature film.

A series of vignettes are presented as the broadcast of the first animal Olympic Games through the fictional ZOO television network. The Games are staples of the summer and winter Olympic events.

Produced and directed by Steven Lisberger, Animalympics was intended to cut in with NBC's coverage of the Olympic games where every so often the Olympic Games commentators would break from their coverage by saying "let's check in on how the animals are doing" or something to that effect. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan Jimmy Carter boycotted the Moscow held Olympic games and NBC scrapped their coverage and airing of Animalympics. Animalympics was structured in such a way that it could be shown theatrically as a film and was shown as such in overseas markets. No distribution agreement ever happened for Animalympics in North America and aside from some airings on cable TV and VHS releases it never made much impact. The film did boast some early work by animation specialist who would go on to bigger work such as Brad Bird, Roger Allers, and Bill Koyer and as expected there's some really good animation on display. While technically speaking Animalympics is a nice looking production with above average animation, it's also a flabby directionless mess with no driving engine and many of the events are lacking in identity because they feel like (and are) a series of shorts based on formula that don't lend themselves to a feature film format.

Animalympics does technically have characters as the "athletes" are given talking head segments where they discuss their backstory or personalities. One of the few that standout is an alligator named Bolt Jenkins who's a strange hybrid of Bruce Jenner and John Travolta (complete with a similar delivery to Travolta's Welcome Back Kotter role) and it's more head scratching than genuinely funny. Other athletes are more or less the same with Eurasian Athletes being parodies of typical Soviet archetypes and other athletes being less engaging. Connecting the segments is color commentary by voice actors such as Harry Shearer, Gilda Radner, and Billy Crystal doing parodies of Barbara Walters and Howard Cosell which are done well enough but their not all that funny or unique. The one element I can say is good without reservation are the musical segments where the film showcases the most impressive animation sequences alongside some fairly good music (as far as adult contemporary goes).

It's probably unfair to judge Animalympics as a movie since it was intended to be shown chopped up in 5 to 10 minute segments in between the actual Olympics, but because it was released as a movie it needs to be judged as one. Animalympics is style over substance with good animation in service of what's rather traditional cartoon antics with basic satire of the 70s Cold War geopolitical climate. As a time capsule and point of interest for animation enthusiasts I can recommend it on that level, but most of the vignettes are so similar there will be long stretches where even the most patient viewer's patience will be tested.

Reviewed by MartianOctocretr5 8 / 10

Hidden treasure

Beatfully executed parody of the Olympic games, with animated animals as the athletes, coaches, sports announcers and other characters. Imitation is the sincerest form of adulation, and this affectionate satire is as much a tribute as it is a satire to the Games.

All the signature elements that we've seen over the years of network coverage of the Olympics are sent up in sweet and playful fashion, and the animal versions of the wide array of both Summer and Winter events are applied ingeniously. Even those bio/interview spots they always do on athletes to show you the arrogant, the hopeful, the ones who "carry the dreams of a nation," and so on; it's all here.

It's put together to mirror the real thing so well, with some amusing and lovable characters. Gilda Radner's classic Bawbwa Wawa impression is utilized perfectly as a wacky sportscaster, and the voice talents doing Jim McKay and Howard Cosell had them down perfectly. Many of the athletes are colorful and cleverly written in spite of their brief screen appearances. Probably best is the recurring marathon story which eventually unfolds a sweet subplot with a cool and unexpected happy ending.

Copies are hard to find; but this rare treasure is worth the looking.

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