Animalympics

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 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.

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!

The theme song by 10CC (Graham Gouldman) "Love's not for me" from time to time rings inside my head the past twenty odd years. The melody is lovely and the lyrics is subtle.

I remember I watched this family movie with my mom, my sister and my brother in the small cinema house located inside our housing project. Of course I do remember the scenes and the story but I don't know the voices of Billy Crystal, Michael Fremer, Gilda Radner, Harry Shearer because the voice-over was done by the local professionals in Cantonese. In addition, I was about ten and still learning English, if it were in English, how could I understand it. ^_^.

Another real Olympics is right about the corner, a few good moments for reminiscence is appropriate. Looking back, the travesty is a great one for family, at least I still remember how happy we felt after having seen it two and a half decades ago.

I think the word 'cheesy' can either be an awesome thing or a painfully awful thing. In this movie, it's awesome! 'Animalympics' screams the classic cheesy-ness late '70s, complete with a mostly soft rock soundtrack (which I really love). I saw it quite a bit when it was aired on Disney Channel time and time again during the early-to-mid '90s. I haven't seen it on TV in quite a while sadly.

This movie really sparked my imagination, nearly as much as 'Yellow Submarine' did. Sure, talking animals weren't new in 1979, but I don't think they've ever had so much personality! All the characters were some of the best developed I'd ever seen in a movie.

'Animalympics' is most entertaining before the very ending (after that, it's a tad saggy as the events get less interesting). I think the summer game events are some of the best in the whole movie, and the boxing scenes with the nod to Muhammad Ali are a laugh riot. The voices are brilliant! Gilda Radner and Billy Crystal were awesome in this movie, and I would have loved to see Gilda do more voice work. She was really cut out for it.

'Animalympics' is delightful to kids and adults alike with very sharp humor and exciting events. This was one of my all time favorites as a youngun, and although it's been a while since I've seen it (it's hard to find on video. I'm wishing and hoping for a DVD release), I remember it very fondly and would give nearly anything to see it again. Even though it's a tad expensive and out of print, I think it'll be worth shelling out a bit more than you'd usually pay for a movie.