Animal Crackers (2017 film)


Animal Crackers is a 2017 American-Chinese 3D computer-animated comedy-fantasy film directed by Scott Christian Sava and Tony Bancroft, and written by Sava and Dean Lorey, based on the animal-shaped cookie and loosely based on the graphic novel by Sava. The film stars the voices of John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Danny DeVito, Ian McKellen, Sylvester Stallone, Raven-Symoné and Patrick Warburton.
The film premiered at Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 12, 2017. It was released in China on July 21, 2018. Initially set to be released in the United States on multiple release dates through various distributors, who faced financial difficulties.
It was officially released on Netflix on July 24, 2020 and received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

In 1962, brothers Bob and Horatio Huntington run a traveling circus, remaining on good terms despite carrying different ambitions. During a performance in San Jose, California, their gypsy partner Esmerelda introduces them to her niece Talia. The two brothers are instantly infatuated by her, but Talia gradually ends up falling for Bob, slowly infuriating Horatio. When he finds out about their engagement, Horatio tells Bob to either choose between Talia or himself to spend his future with. Bob ultimately decides to stick to his heart and marries Talia. On their wedding day, Esmerelda gives the couple a mysterious box as a gift, which allows for them to open a new circus; Buffalo Bob's Rootin' Tootin' Animal Circus, known for their magical animals performing defying stunts.
Years later, Bob's young nephew Owen falls for a girl named Zoe during a performance at the circus. When they grow up, Owen proposes to Zoe with a clown's red nose in the middle of the circus ring. Everyone at the circus is initially excited, until Zoe's father Mr. Woodley persuades Owen to come work at his dog biscuit factory, where he is given the position of taste testing. Meanwhile, Horatio, whose success has depleted since his split with Bob, begins sneaking into Bob's circus at night, trying to find the secret to the magic animals. One night, he gets into a scuffle with circus pets Old Blue the Bloodhound and Zena the cat when they discover him, and accidentally starts a fire that burns down part of the circus. Owen later learns that Bob and Talia died in the fire, and he and Zoe, along with their daughter Mackenzie, attend their memorial service at the burnt down circus. Horatio makes an unexpected visit at the service, announcing that he's going take over the circus because of Bob's apparent "betrayal" for choosing Talia over him years before. He and his henchmen engage a fight with the performers, causing Owen and his family to leave the service.
Before the Huntingtons leave, Old Blue and Zena give them the mysterious box that opened the circus. In the car, Owen discovers that the mysterious box holds animal crackers. During a stop, Owen inadvertently eats one of them and turns into a hamster. To figure why, they return to the circus after finding a note explaining the cookies. They learn from clown Chesterfield that the animal crackers are the secret to the circus; they'll turn the user into the animal they eat, and that it always remains full of an unlimited amount of animals, but there's only one human cookie for each to change them back to their normal selves. Later, he tells the couple they've inherited the circus. While Zoe is excited, Owen, still wanting to prove himself to Mr. Woodley, is reluctant, and decides to remain at the dog biscuit factory. He continues his job there while Zoe restores the circus. Mr. Woodley, angered that his daughter left her job, begins to consider her fellow employee, egotistical saboteur Brock, to become his successor.
Zoe persuades Owen to come to the grand re-opening of Buffalo Bob's Rootin' Tootin' Animal Circus. However, it turns out to be a disaster when the audience finds out that there are no animals at the circus. Owen is at first reluctant to do anything, acknowledging he is not a performer, but is persuaded by Mackenzie, the other performers, and the dying audience. While he is at first suspicious of performing stunts as an animal, he soon grows to enjoy it, and by the end of the day, Owen decides to quit the dog biscuit factory, declaring that the circus is his family. However, as he finishes his packing up at the factory, Brock takes the animal cracker box, unwittingly eats one of the cookies and turns into a mandrill. To catch up with Brock, Owen turns into a lion, but Brock falls out of a window, where Horatio's henchman, Mario Zucchini, takes the box before Owen comes out and scares him away, forcing him to leave it behind and take an unconscious Brock in the process.
Returning home, Owen discovers he has lost his human cookie, meaning that he'll be an animal forever. Zoe doesn't accept this, but has hopes that Owen can adjust to life as a certain animal. Woodley's employee Binkley, who has been trying to come up with a new type of dog biscuit, discovers the magical animal crackers, and she persuades Mr. Woodley into going to the circus to see his family. Weeks pass, and Owen can not find a suitable animal to remain as, and his relationship with his family starts to suffer. One night, during a circus performance, Horatio arrives with Owen's human cookie, offering to turn him back to normal as long as he gives him the circus. Owen refuses, believing that he remain an animal as long as it'll keep his family together. Angered, Horatio forces Owen into the deal, while also bringing in his henchmen, now mutated into animal hybrids from the broken pieces of animal crackers brought by Mario along with the human cookie previously.
The circus performers discover Horatio's presence immediately afterwards and work together to stop the henchmen, and give Owen back the box. However, Horatio, dissatisfied with how they use the animal crackers, eats the remaining broken cookies he has and turns himself into a chimera. Old Blue and Zena then reveal themselves to be Bob and Talia; they explain that they escaped the fire, but their human cookies were destroyed, meaning they can never be human again. They ask Horatio to stop and redeem himself for his evil deeds. Horatio refuses, and flies up into the air with them. Owen, Zoe and Mackenzie work together to save Bob and Talia and capture Horatio and his henchmen, with Owen turning the former into a hamster as punishment. Mr. Woodley, who saw the performance, reevaluates his views on the circus and allows Owen and Zoe to continue working there. He and Binkley decide to rework the failed dog biscuit experiments into a new circus souvenir; animal crackers that temporarily turn the eater's skin into animal patterns. Owen and Zoe now work happily at the circus, with Owen going on the stage once more as a new transformation: a dragon.

Cast

Development and writing

In 2010, Scott Christian Sava wrote a screenplay for Animal Crackers but was unable to garner any interest. In June 2013, Harvey Weinstein had seen a short film of the screenplay made by Sava and two months later the Weinstein brothers made an offer to buy the rights to Animal Crackers. Sava co-directed the movie with Tony Bancroft and co-wrote the screenplay with Dean Lorey.
Financing the movie were executive producers Mu Yedong on behalf of Wen Hua Dongrun Investment Co., La Peikang, board chairman of China Film Co., and Sam Chi for Landmark Asia.
Despicable Me character designer, Carter Goodrich, was hired in October 2014.

Pre-production

The voice cast was completed by casting director Jamie Thomason.
In the last week of October and throughout November, 2014, Sava via the Animal Crackers Facebook page, there were sneak peeks to the look of some characters along with announcing the voice cast for those characters Kevin Grevioux as Samson the Strong Man, James Arnold Taylor as Buffalo Bob, Tara Strong as Talia, Harvey Fierstein as Esmerelda the Fortune Teller, Gilbert Gottfried as Mario Zucchini, and Raven-Symoné as Binkley.
On November 6, 2014, Blue Dream Studios announced Sylvester Stallone, Danny DeVito, and Ian McKellen as lead voice cast. On February 3, 2015, John Krasinski and Kaley Cuoco joined the cast as Owen and Zoe Huntington, respectively. On March 30, 2015, Emily Blunt replaced Cuoco due to a scheduling conflict.
"When I was writing Animal Crackers I had specific voices in my head. Certain characters I wrote with actors in mind. Horatio was always Sir Ian McKellen. Brock was totally Patrick Warburton. Bullet-Man could be no one else but Stallone! To find out that each and every one of these actors have agreed to come on board this film and bring these characters to life… I'm flipping out," said Sava.
It was announced via Sava's Facebook page that his son, Brendan, would play 12-year-old Owen Huntington and his wife, Donna, would play the Fat Lady. On May 22, 2015, it was revealed that Wallace Shawn had been cast as Mr. Woodley, Zoe's father.

Filming

On January 27, 2015, Sava announced on Facebook via the Animal Crackers page that first day of "studio sessions with the actors" began in Los Angeles.

Music

The film's original score was composed by Bear McCreary, and its soundtrack includes original songs by Toad the Wet Sprocket, Huey Lewis and the News, Howard Jones, and Michael Bublé.

Soundtrack

Score

All tracks written and composed by Bear McCreary.

Release

The film had its world premiere in competition at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival on June 12, 2017. The film was originally set to be released on April 28, 2017 by Relativity Media, however, a financial crisis within the company prevented them from releasing the film. It was then set to be released on September 1, 2017 by upstart film studio Serafini Releasing before they also shut down. A few months later, in November 2017, it was announced that Entertainment Studios would distribute the film worldwide. In April, Sava posted on Facebook that film was set for a release date of August 10, 2018. The deal with Entertainment Studios was dropped in June 2018.
Eventually, the distribution rights were bought by Netflix and the film was released on July 24, 2020 on the platform. It was the second-most streamed film on its opening weekend.

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 58% based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 6.02/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".