A sexy cartoon character, lioness Kit Mambo, that falls somewhere between Jessica Rabbit and Lola Bunny
Today on Classic Movie Review, we are taking on Animalympics (1980). Before we get going, I want to shout out to Secretariat Guy for his comments on Breaker Morant (1980) and ButchNackley for his comments on The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954).
Today’s film is a great animated movie that originally aired on NBC. This television film set the stage for a pivotal sci-fi blockbuster. I will discuss this sci-fi connection in the conclusions. As the title implies, it is about the animal kingdom having its own Olympic games[1]. I figured with the fiasco (2020 Olympic in 2021) going on in Tokyo now, I thought this would be an excellent time to review this movie.
This film was initially conceived as two thirty-minute specials, one about the summer Olympics and the other about the winter Olympics. It was combined into a single 78-minute combination Olympics[2]. There are a few leftover phrases from the short versions.
The film was conceived at the time of the 1976 Olympics, and a lot of the humor and characters are based around that era. The winter portion of the film was not shown after the USA decided to boycott the Winter Olympics in Moscow over their invasion of Afghanistan. Ironic, isn’t it. The combined film was reworked and shown beginning in 1980.
On iMDB.com, this movie has a decent 6.8[3] score. On Rottentomatoes.com, there is no Tomatometer score, but the audience approval is at 88 percent[4], showing the quality and humor of this film.
Actors – Animalympics (1980)
A fantastic cast of mostly comedians lent their voice talents and stock characters to this film. In short, the great comedian Gilda Radner gave voices to Barbra Warblers, Brenda Springer, Cora Lee Perrier, Tatyana Tushenko, Dorrie Turnell, and The Contessa.
Funny guy Billy Crystal voiced Rugs Turkell, Joey Gongolong, Art Antica, and Bruce Kwakimoto.
Harry Shearer voiced Keen Hacksaw, Mayor of Animalympic Island, Burnt Woody, and Mark Spritz.
Michael Fremer voiced Henry Hummel, René Fromage, Kit Mambo, Bolt Jenkins, Kurt Wuffner, Dean Wilson, Mele, Count Maurice Boar-Deaux, Jackie Fuelit, Bear McLane, Guy Lafluke, Bjorn Freeborg, and Mamo Ululu. He also was a scriptwriter and musical editor.
Story – Animalympics (1980)
This movie beginnings with some laser-type animation. This animation now looks pretty familiar. An animal of some type climbs Mount Olympus and steals the flame from a sleeping dragon to light the Olympic torch. Animals such as polar bears and coyotes relay the torch across their environments.
The narration tells that animals from most of the continents will be competing in the Animal Olympics. The five rings of the paw print represent the games, and the network producing the show is ZOO.
Henry Hummel, the anchor turtle, begins the broadcast from Animal Olympics Island. Teasers from major venues and stories are shown. The torch arrives at the stadium.
The 14-day marathon is about to begin. Anchor Barbra Warblers, read Barbara Walters previews the two main contestants. The champion is an old French goat named René Fromage. Goat cheese. Get it. His competitor is a sexy cartoon character, lioness Kit Mambo, that falls somewhere between Jessica Rabbit and Lola Bunny.
The next event is gymnastics. Tatyana Tushenko, an otter, is the odds-on favorite. I assume she is based on Nadia Comăneci, the first gymnast to score a perfect 10[5]. Tatyana wows the crowd, and her coach prepares to hang himself before her score of a perfect 10 is posted. They make some fat jokes while showing a hippo character. Bruce Kwakimotom, a penguin from Asia, completes next.
A Russian elephant begins to compete on the uneven parallel bars. The bar comes loose, and it ends poorly. Tatyana wins the gold for women’s gymnastics. Kwakimotom wins the men’s competition.
A tour if given of the island showing the marathon course. Kit Mambo passes René Fromage. The challenge of feeding all of these animals is highlighted. Ells power the structures built on Atlantis Island.
Barbra Warblers describes the athletics clothing. The next event is ice skating. A snake and chicken couple skate first. Dorrie Turnell, a flamingo, is expected to win. She cries when she wins and is a spoof of Dorothy Hammel. Dorrie Turnell spins and loses all her feathers. She wins the gold and cries.
Up next is track and field. The anchor is a turtle. An alligator, Bolt Jenkins, with the voice of John Travolta, is highlighted. The character is based on Bruce Jenner. Bolt was born a handbag but became a champion after seeing Boris Amphibiensky compete. Bolt now faces Boris in the competition.
Boris fails to clear the high bar. Bolt clears it easily. Bolt is the only competitor that can pole vault 180 feet. He immediately goes to endorsing toasted gecko flakes.
A montage of polar bear discus throwers, ant-eating bicycles, bison shot putters, and hyena relay runners is shown.
Continuing in track and field, the next event is the 100-meter dash. Bolt beats a horse, a cheetah, and a rabbit. It is run as a drag race. Bolt gives his medal to the cheetah, saying that he was better.
One thousand kilometers into the marathon, Rene and Kit are running side by side. They both focus on victory.
Random animals are shown dancing at the Noah’s Ark Disco. Bolt is dancing on a lite floor while he wears a white suit.
The soccer competition is featured. The dogs beat the rats. The llamas face off against the dogs. The dogs win on a bicycle shot.
At the 2000-kilometer mark of the marathon, Kit and Rene are starting to have feelings for each other. Rene is featured in a song showing his single-minded devotion to running until Kit appears.
The next event is Slalom Skiing. A horse that was a European champion is being interviewed. The horse is now acting in movies and appears to be based on Arnold Schwarzenegger. An American frog crashes on his run. The favorite is a European dog, Kurt Wuffner. He is an avid climber. Wuffner wins the slalom.
More of the island features are shown. A news flash comes in that Wuffner is missing on a mountain climb.
At the bobsledding venue, the color commentator St. Bernard says all the competitors are bonkers. The European badgers crash. The Calamari brothers follow the badgers. They wrap their many arms around each other as they fly down the hill.
No evidence of Wuffner has been found. Wuffner is shown collapsing in the snow. A light shines on him, and he sees the entrance to Dogra-La. He finds a beautiful place filled with female dogs. Of course, this spoofs the plot of Lost Horizon (1937), except for the all-female thing. The outside search continues.
At last, ice hockey. It is the Eurasian Shorthorns versus the North American Kodaks. This matchup is clearly the professional Russian team versus the amateur American team. The North American’s wearing red, white, and blue are being beaten badly. It transforms into a war scene, and the Americans win at the cost of one player near demise.
This movie was released on June 19, 1980, after the Miracle on Ice, where the American team upset the favored Soviet team[6] in February 1980. There is a great movie starring Kurt Russell about this upset, Miracle (2004).
The coaches of Rene and Kit are interviewed. Rene’s coach accuses Kit’s coach of using Catnip.
North American surfing and swimmer otter Dean Wilson is favored to win the 100-meter freestyle. A dolphin commentator, Mark Spritz, comes in with a bunch of gold medals, reflecting the famous photo with Mark Spitz showing his medal. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps recreated this photo with his own medals.
Dean is swimming next to an Orca. Dean is behind until the Orca creates a wave that Dean surfs into the finish.
Continuing at the pool is the 100-meter dive. An Acapulco toucan cliff diver takes the lead. However, Dean’s dream sequence dive is better.
The archives are shown with dinosaurs competing in animal events. These images include a T-Rex weightlifting.
The downhill is about to begin, and Wuffner is still missing. The absence of Wuffner makes a boar the favorite. The boar was killed in an accident but revived and healed by scientists. The story mimics the television show “The Six Million Dollar Man” that ran from 1974–1978. The boar crashes badly.
Suddenly, Wuffner flies in on a hang glider. He heads down the slope at a record speed. After he wins the gold, Wuffner vows that he cannot rest until he returns to Dogra-La.
Three quarters through the marathon, the two are tied and vow to run together forever. They hold hands and continue the race. This love is causing worldwide turmoil.
At the boxing venue, a turkey with Billy Crystal voicing Howard Cosell is interviewing a kangaroo named Joey Gongolong. Gongolong is a Muhammad Ali spoof. Gongolong is fighting a Eurasian bull.
Again, the basketball game features a conflict between the North Americans and the Eurasians. The American team is lead by Dr. Abdul Jones. The ball is stolen from the Eurasians by Meadow Fly Larkin (a great Harlem Globe Trotters reference), and the North Americans win.
Gongolong destroys the bull and the turkey disgraces the bull.
In volleyball, the Asian lobsters face the European hens. The hens are destroyed.
Commentator dog Mele goes to the weightlifting venue. A European bull is facing a Eurasian elephant. The elephant is married to the elephant that crashed in the uneven parallel bars. The elephant wins quickly, reflecting Soviet weightlifter Vasily Alekseyev[7].
In the fencing venue, a European boar is facing a flying squirrel. The boar wins easily. Things change when the Contessa, a Eurasian falcon, arrives and easily defeats the boar to win the goal.
All five continents are locked in a five-way tie with only the marathon left. Rene and Kit are still running while holding hands. They run into the stadium and cross the line together. They keep running. Both coaches are heartbroken.
The Olympics are summarized, and the games end for now. The supporting animals are thanked.
I’ll be back with the Conclusions and the World-Famous Short Summary directly.
Conclusions – Animalympics (1980)
Animalympics (1980) is a great movie and has tons of comedic references if you are steeped in sports and trivia of that era. However, what it launched is more important. Art director and animator, Roger Allers, who was responsible for drawing Kit Mombo, went on to direct The Lion King (1994). Animation director Bill Kroyer wrote the environmental children’s move FernGully (1992). Animator Brad Bird worked on “The Simpsons” and later directed The Iron Giant (1999), The Incredibles (2004), and Ratatouille (2007)[8].
However, by far the most important by-product of Animalympics (1980) was that director Lisberger used some of the money from this film to conceive and write and direct the science fiction cult classic Tron (1982)[9]. Michael Fremer co-wrote Tron (1982) and worked on the Oscar-nominated soundtrack for the movie.
There is no doubt that Tron (1982) was an essential sci-fi film helping to lead movies deeply into computer-generated graphics.
World-Famous Short Summary – Olympic animals throw it all away for love
As a technical note, references and citations are listed for each show on the site at classicmovierev.com.
Beware the moors.
[1] https://transcripts.thedealr.net/script.php/animalympics-1980-KUe
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animalympics
[3] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078780/
[4] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/animalympics
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadia_Com%C4%83neci
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_on_Ice
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Alekseyev
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animalympics
[9] https://www.nytimes.com/1982/07/04/movies/special-effects-are-revolutionizing-film.html
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