Saturday, September 18, 2021

Animation Celebration Saturday - Freddie as F.R.O.7

Rank Film Distributors, 1992
Voices of Ben Kingsley, Jenny Agutter, Brian Blessed, and Billie Whitelaw
Directed by Jon Acevski
Music and Lyrics by various

The success of Don Bluth's historical adventures and Disney's musical fantasies in the late 80's and early 90's triggered a raft of imitators. It seemed so simple to either grab a familiar fairy tale or rework an older concept and toss in a few big songs in different genres. The effort Bluth and the Disney Company put into their films became more apparently when none of the imitators could match their success. This bizarre entry from England is definitely one of the more unique ones. What do magic, mystery, and an evil sorceress have to do with a giant French frog who saves the world from a super villain? Well...not a whole lot, as we'll learn shortly. Let's start with the young Prince Fredrick (Edmund Kingsley) as he learns about magic from his father the King (Sir Michael Hordern) and find out...

The Story: Fredrick's evil sorceress aunt Messina (Whitelaw) turns him into a frog after she kills his father. He grows up to become a six-foot-tall frog and a modern-day secret agent in France and England under the code name F.R.O.7 (Ben Kingsley). Brigadier G (Sir Nigel Hawthorne) recruits him to figure out who's been stealing all the great landmarks of London. Freddie's joined by lovely female agent Daffers (Agutter) and Scotsman Scotty (John Sessions) to stop super villain El Supremo (Blessed) from stealing none other than Big Ben with Messina's help.

The Animation: Not that far above your average Saturday morning cartoon of the time. The characters move as if they're floating, especially during action sequences. The designs are at least constant, and the backgrounds are colorful and attractive, but the effects animation for the magic and gadgetry looks as cheap as it likely is.

The Song and Dance: Well, you can't say this one isn't original. I don't see many other animated movies spoofing James Bond camp spy capers or sword-and-sorcery fantasy, and certainly not in the same film. You don't often get the Loch Ness Monster doing big chorus routines, either. Nice cast of familiar British character actors, too, including Hordern in his last role. 

Favorite Number: Grace Jones dubs Whitelaw for "Evilmaina," as she describes bad guys through the years, from Nazis to modern super villains and their gadgetry. Nessie (Phyllis Logan) claims she's a "Shy Girl," but there's nothing shy about her big chorus routine with all her grandchildren as they help free Freddie from the lake. "Lay Down Your Arms" is the big action finale, as Freddie, Scotty, and Duffers use anything but guns to take down El Supremo's hoards of gas-mask sporting lackeys.

Trivia: They started planning a sequel, Freddie Goes to Washington, before the movie came out...but it did so poorly at the box office, in England and the US, those plans were cancelled. 

The movie was the lowest-grossing animated film in the US until the release of The Ten Commandments in 2007 and Delgo in 2008. 

What I Don't Like: Uh, yeah, there's a reason it was such a monumental flop. It's pretty bad. The songs are dull, as mentioned the animation isn't great, the dialogue is stiff and silly, and the story has plot holes the size of Canada and doesn't make the slightest bit of sense. The characters aren't much fun, either. Scotty and Freddie are snobbish twits, Duffers is pretty dumb, and the villains are stock tropes whose plot sounds like it came out of Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego. What does the sword-and-sorcery stuff have anything to do with it, and how does Freddie jump from medieval times to 20th-century Europe? It's never explained. There's also the references to Nazis in a few parts that may offend people now, along with some mild sexual gags, mostly aimed at Duffers.

The Big Finale: In the end, I honestly have no idea whom Rank intended this for. Adults who would be interested in the action and spy spoof plot will find it silly, and it'll likely go above the heads of kids who would be interested in a story about a giant frog who saves the world. It's probably just as well that this is very hard to find outside of YouTube. It does seem to have its fans, but for the most part, this is too silly and weird to be of interest.

Home Media: It was on video, but it's never been on DVD anywhere. YouTube is the only place you can find this one at press time.

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