Le olimpiadi della giungla

Animalympics, one of the very few movies directed by Steven Lisberger. Featuring the voices of Billy Crystal and the late Gilda Radner, adding their classic touch to several characters in the film.

Story is about animals all over the world gathering for an Olympic event. With striking similarities to events and people from the Olympics in the 70's.

The whole film begins and ends like a televised Olympic event. With several music-video like scenes here and there. The animation is good, done in that classic 70's style American animation. The cartoon animation style is comparable to Ralph Bakshee and Don Bluth movies.

I first saw ANIMALYMPICS back in the day when HBO was first getting started. I would see it pop up here and there on NBC around Olympic time or when they needed to fill in space in a really cruddy hour version.

If you've got HBO FAMILY, try to catch this funny and entertaining movie. It's pretty much of a cult item since the songs were done by 10CC (Gee, aren't WE dating ourselves with even KNOWING about 10CC) but the songs are prett good in the context on the story (especially the song that Kit Mambo and Rene Fromage run to)

The voices are mostly provided by Billy Crystal and Gilda Radner, which adds to the semi-cult status of the full-length version. It's a really good movie..trust me.

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.

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.

I saw this film as a kid and really loved it, mainly because of the imaginative and funny uses of different animals competing in certain sports (i.e. Squid in the Bobsled, Otter for the swimming, Frog for the high jump, Bull in the boxing etc etc etc) but also because of the terrific soundtrack and songs by Graham Gouldman of 10CC. Watching it again as an adult on video I realised that there is so much more going on in the film - mainly that it was far wittier than i could have imagined as a child. The animals in many cases are affectionate digs at real sportsmen (i.e. the Hare competing against the Bull smacks of Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier), and the nationalities of the animals reflects brilliantly on their characters as well (in the marathon, the only frequently repeated event in the film, the goat is French and the puma is African (they fall in love!) the otter is Californian (of course) and surfs about on his tail. This is a wonderful film - expertly voiced over by Billy Crystal, Gilda Radner and Harry Shearer (of Spinal Tap / Simpsons fame) - full of humour and genuine affection towards sports, animals and animation (which is top quality throughout it should be noted) and as i mentioned before the songs are great - perhaps a bit dated now with the late 70s/early 80s production, but then a great tune never fails to touch you somehow, no matter how it is presented. This is recommended to fans of animation firstly, also to lovers of track and field events (they're all there) and to any fans of the previously mentioned artists (Crystal, Shearer, Gouldman). Here's awaiting a DVD and full critical appraisal!