The film is a series of vignettes presented as the broadcast of the first animal Olympic Games through the fictional ZOO television network. The Games combine summer and winter Olympic events.
Unlike the real Olympics, continents are represented rather than countries. The continents featured are North America, South America, Eurasia, Europe, Africa, Australia, and Asia. Eurasia represents the USSR, whereas Europe represents Western and Central Europe.
The only mention of areas other than continents are the New York City Rats soccer team, Dean Wilson being from California, a Central American marathon runner named Pepé Repanosa, an Acapulco cliff diver named "Primo Cabeza", marathon runner Terry Hornsby being from Boulder, Colorado, René Fromage being from France, and Kurt Wüfner appearing at the downhill event right before a Scandinavian is given a gold medal.
Although many of the segments stand alone, there are some recurring events and important characters. The largest such story is the coverage of the marathon, where competitors René Fromage and Kit Mambo are the favorites to win. Both are determined to win – Fromage having devoted his entire life to the marathon, Mambo determined to make a name for herself – they find themselves surprised when their minds wander to thoughts of mutual admiration and then to love, culminating in the pair holding hands for the rest of the race and crossing the finish line together. Another important story is that of Kurt Wüffner, a West German dachshundskier, and his disappearance to Dogra-la during a mountain climbing expedition shortly after the slalom event.
There are even cases of players attempting to cheat in the games, only to end up losing disgracefully while their honorable opponents take home the victory. During the ice hockey game, the Eurasian Longhorns have rigged the entire ice rink with explosives in order to help take out their rivals; the North American Kodiaks, led by their coach Bear McLane. Yet in spite of the foul play, the Kodiaks still emerge victorious due to the efforts of their star player Guy Lafluke. With the boxing game, viscous brawler Janos Brushteckel is known for overpowering his opponents with excessive force; yet aspiring boxer Joey Gongolong manages to outmaneuver him with clever strategy and out-boxer style to wear him down and ultimately deal the winning blow. For the fencing game, Count Maurice Boar-Deaux uses underhanded moves to take out all other fencers; only to be outsmarted by The Contessa whose graceful moves and style help her to adapt to the Count's actions and ultimately overcome him, avenging all the players whom he wronged.
A minor story features an alligator named Bolt Jenkins. He was "born as a handbag" and told that he would never walk again. A song during his story reveals that he lives in the sewers. After seeing a frog named Boris Amphibiensky break the world record for the high jump, Jenkins has an epiphany, and becomes determined to break the record. Jenkins goes on to set world records in the high jump, the pole vault, and later the 100-meter dash. Jenkins sacrifices his gold medal in the hundred meter dash to an African competitor and favorite whom Jenkins considers to be his superior.
Gilda Radner as Barbra Warblers / Brenda Springer / Cora Lee Perrier / Tatyana Tushenko / Dorrie Turnell / The Contessa
Billy Crystal as Rugs Turkell / Joey Gongolong / Art Antica / Bruce Kwakimoto
Harry Shearer as Keen Hacksaw / Mayor of Animalympic Island / Burnt Woody / Mark Spritz
Michael Fremer as 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 / Mamo Ululu
However, from its conception, producer Donald Kushner and director Steven Lisberger intended the project as a feature-length theatrical release (complete with Dolby surround sound via 35mm film), even though The Winter Olympics special was already considered for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film nomination.[7]
Among those who worked on Animalympics were art director/animator Roger Allers, animation director Bill Kroyer, and animator Brad Bird. Allers, who animated Kit Mambo, the lion star of Animalympics, went on to direct The Lion King.[8] Kroyer later wrote and directed the Oscar-nominated short Technological Threat and the animated feature FernGully: The Last Rainforest.Brad Bird went on to work as story editor of The Simpsons, and later achieved even greater success writing and directing The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Director Lisberger went on to conceive, co-write and direct the science fiction cult classicTron, which some of the Animalympics crew were involved in. Its soundtrack supervisor was Michael Fremer, who was involved in Animalympics as a co-writer, voice artist, dialogue/music track editor and sound mix supervisor. Fremer also went on to supervise the soundtrack to Tron as well.[9]
A&M Records in the US, and Mercury Records in Europe released an Animalympics soundtrack album, which has long been out of print.[11] The music on this soundtrack was written and produced by Graham Gouldman, who performed the tracks himself along with other members of 10cc (Gouldman is the bassist and co-founder of the band).[12] The soundtrack was recorded primarily in Strawberry Studios North and South, used extensively by 10cc, as well as in Los Angeles.
[13]
Alan Barson, Chris Nagle, Larry Forkner – engineering
Tony Spath – engineering, mix-down engineer
Melvyn Abrahams – mastering and half speed mastering at Strawberry Mastering and Sheffield Lab Matrix
Release
Despite the 1980 NBC premiere being cancelled midway, Lisberger Studios prepared a theatrical version for overseas markets by editing together the Summer and Winter Olympic Games sections, alongside other additions and changes to increase its run-time for theatrical exhibition. Though Animalympics never found a theatrical distributor in the U.S., Telepictures did acquire US home video and pay-TV distribution rights to it shortly after the NBC cancellation. It eventually got a full US TV premiere on NBC affiliate WPTZ on July 4, 1982. Animalympics also aired in its theatrical form on HBO[17][18][19] and Showtime nationwide in summer 1984,[20] as well as intermittently during the early to mid-1990s on The Disney Channel.[21]
On April 3, 2018, Hen's Tooth Video put out the first-ever region 1 DVD release.[25][26] In 2019, German label WinklerFilm put out a remastered DVD alongside the first-ever Blu-ray release worldwide.[27]
