Curiosidades

Conceived in 1976 to parody the hype surrounding the Olympic Games. Creator Steven Lisberger made a 7-minute short for the film with a $10,000 dollar grant from the American Film Institute. He decided the idea could be expanded, so he got backing from NBC to produce the film, and, obtaining a 7-figure budget, moved his studio from his Boston loft to California. Lisberger and NBC produced two 30-minute parts: "Animalympics: Winter Games" and "Animalympics: Summer Games." "Winter Games" aired in 1979, but "Summer Games" never aired due to the United States boycotting the Olympics when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The next year, both parts were edited together with new footage. The resulting feature film, known simply as "Animalympics," aired only on HBO, where it enjoyed a cult following for years to follow.

Brad Bird, now famous for his work with several great Pixar films, was one of the animators for Animalympics.

Many of the characters are caricatures of real personalities, such as Barbara Warblers = Barbara Walters, Dorrie Turnell = Dorothy Hamill, Henry Hummel = Henry Kissinger, Tatyana Tushenko = Nadia Comaneci, Ruggs Turkel = Howard Cosell, Joey Gongalong = Muhammed Ali, Mayor of Olympic Island = Richard Nixon, Ingmar Birdman = Ingmar Bergman, and Keen Hacksaw = Keith Jackson.

The opening studio credits marked the first appearance of the character "Tron", here as the mascot for the director's company. This version of the character was the first one conceived by Steven Lisberger and looks different from how he appeared later in the movie Tron: Uma Odisseia Eletrônica (1982).

Marathon runner René Fromage's last name means "cheese" in French.