Animal Crackers Information

Animal Crackers is a 2017 American-Spanish-Chinese 3D computer animated comedy fantasy film, co-directed by Scott Christian Sava and Tony Bancroft, and written by Sava and Dean Lorey. The film stars the voices of John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Danny DeVito, Ian McKellen, Sylvester Stallone, Raven-Symon, Patrick Warburton and Wallace Shawn.

The film premiered at the 2017 Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 12, 2017. Originally intended to be released on April 28, 2017, then on September 1, 2017, the film was dropped on both release dates due to the financial difficulties of multiple distributors. It was first released in China on July 21, 2018.

Cast

• John Krasinski as Owen Huntington, MacKenzie"?s father, Zoe"?s husband, Horiato and Buffalo Bob"?s nephew and the circus owner
  • Brendan Sava as a young Owen
• Emily Blunt as Zoe Huntington, MacKenzie"?s mother and Owen's wife
• Lydia Rose Taylor as Mackenzie Huntington, Owen and Zoe's daughter.
• Ian McKellen as Horatio P. Huntington, Buffalo Bob's brother and Owen's uncle.
• Danny DeVito as Chesterfield
• Sylvester Stallone as Bullet-Man
• Raven-Symon as Binkley
• Patrick Warburton as Brock
• Wallace Shawn as Mr. Woodley, Zoe"?s father
• Gilbert Gottfried as Mario Zucchini
• Harvey Fierstein as Esmeralda the Fortune Teller, Talia"?s mother
• Tara Strong as Talia, Esmeralda's daughter and Buffalo Bob's wife.
• James Arnold Taylor as Buffalo Bob, Talia"?s husband, Horiato"?s brother and Owen's uncle and former owner of the circus.
• Kevin Grevioux as Samson the Strong Man

Production

Pre-production

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.

Casting

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-Symon 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 (Blunt) 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.

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, however, it has been since revealed that this was to get the studio's attention in setting up a release date. The deal with Entertainment Studios was dropped in June 2018 and the film is currently without a domestic distributor. The film was released in China on July 21, 2018.

Soundtrack

The film's original score was composed by Bear McCreary. The film will also include original songs by Toad the Wet Sprocket, Huey Lewis and the News, Howard Jones and Michael Bubl.