Line #28 Trivia/FoodFight


1	* AllStarCast: The film has actors such as Creator/CharlieSheen, Creator/WayneBrady, Creator/HilaryDuff, Creator/EvaLongoria, Creator/EdAsner, and Creator/ChristopherLloyd, and that's ''before'' the product placement. It has also veteran voice actors in the form of Creator/JeffBennett, Stephen Stanton, Creator/JeffBergman, and Creator/JamesArnoldTaylor, among others.
2	* {{Blooper}}:
3	** When the store's parking lot is revealed in the opening scene, one street lamp should be in front of the car, but overlaps it instead.
4	** As the hairless hamsters fall from the sky, they are flattened before hitting the ground.
5	* BoxOfficeBomb: During its limited theatrical run, the film made back less than 1% of its estimated $50 million dollar budget.
6	* ColbertBump: Interest in the film increased substantially after WebVideo/JonTron and WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic [[Recap/TheNostalgiaCriticS7E7 reviewed it]]. And before that was the (still somewhat obscure)[[note]]partially due to its unlisted status after the film's American release[[/note]] riff of the movie by WebVideo/TheAnnotatedSeries.
7	* CreatorBacklash: Most of the staff who worked on the film regrets being involved with it, as they weren't aware that they were turning in a final product, and at least one member admits that they don't include it on their resume.
8	* CreatorsFavorite: Cheasel T. Weasel was reportedly Larry Kasanoff's favorite character, with him frequently talking in the character's voice in the office and putting extra attention into his design.
9	* CreatorKiller: While Lawrence Kasanoff was eventually able to continue his producing career, he hasn't worked as a director since this film. Likewise, Kasanoff and co-writers Joshua Wexler and Rebecca Swanson have no further writing credits after this, while the other two credited writers, Sean Catherine Derek and Brent V. Friedman, have only been able to find work in television (and in Friedman's case, video games) after this film. Kasanoff's proposed treatment for a ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' "epic science fiction trilogy" went nowhere and the rights were picked up by Apple to do [[Film/Tetris2023 something else]] and produced another critically panned animated product placement film called ''Bobbleheads: The Movie''.
10	* DelayedReleaseTieIn: Things like toys and children's books were created for the film's mid-2000s release, but as production spiraled downward, they eventually leaked out into the wider world long before 2012.
11	* DescendedCreator:
12	** Larry Kasanoff, the director and producer, is also the voice of Cheasel T. Weasel.
13	** Co-writer Sean Catherine Derek voices a mother.
14	* DevelopmentHell: From 2002-2008, and even after that, it wouldn't be released until 2012.
15	* DirectToDVD: Although originally planned for a wide theatrical release, it only ended up getting a limited theatrical release in the UK and being released direct-to-DVD everywhere else.
16	* ExecutiveMeddling:
17	** According to one animator, the bulk of the more vulgar and offensive jokes were at the insistence of director Lawrence Kasanoff (who also served as the film's producer, co-writer, and the voice of [[CreatorCameo Cheasel T. Weasel]]). Plus, there's a review of the film on the British version of Amazon that's very similar to the testimony above... and the reviewer claimed to have worked on the film.
18	** In a [[https://youtu.be/xgBO9c3WKII?si=7ebNlek0-PGrU2JJ documentary video]] by ''Ok So...", an employee on the film dismissed Kasanoff's claim that the hard drives containing the original version of the film was stolen, pointing out that the film had multiple backups in multiple locations, one of which was in a bank vault, meaning that it was impossible for someone to just sneak in and grab them. Instead, the employee assumes that Kasanoff made up the story to appease investors due to the film being more than six months behind on the promised milestone calendar.
19	* HarpoDoesSomethingFunny: A lot of Vlad's dialogue is clearly improvisation recorded separately from the other actors, as other characters don't verbally respond to it.
20	* HeAlsoDid:
21	** Co-writer Sean Catherine Derek wrote for ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' and ''WesternAnimation/PacManAndTheGhostlyAdventures'', while two of the other co-writers, Brent V. Friedman and Joshua Wexler, worked on the script for ''Film/MortalKombatAnnihilation'' (another film produced by Lawrence Kasanoff).
22	** The film was composed by Walter Murphy of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' fame.
23	** Some of additional lighting and texturing services for the film were provided by Creator/XingXingDigitalCorporation, the same company that did seasons 6-10 of ''WesternAnimation/FiremanSam''.
24	* MissingEpisode: The original footage that was allegedly stolen. [[https://lostmediawiki.com/Foodfight!_(partially_found_early_version_of_CGI_animated_film;_2002) Read more about it here.]]
25	* MissingTrailerScene: The original trailer has a Chester Cheetah cameo that's not in the final film. In fact, all of the original trailer could count, since it was made with the footage that got deleted, none of which made it into the finished movie.
26	* NoBudget: Even though this film started in the early 2000s with a budget of $25 million, the completed animation was scrapped and production was restarted several times. [[DevelopmentHell Over the next several years, Threshold Animation raised somewhere between $20-$40 million towards redoing the movie with the aid of motion capture technology]], [[WhatCouldHaveBeen along with numerous rewrites to accommodate the drop of sponsors]]. Eventually, the production spiraled out of control for director Lawrence Kasanoff, who was kicked off by investors that quickly rushed the film out to the public.
27	* PlayingAgainstType: Creator/EdAsner is most famous for playing grouchy, cantankerous roles. In the film, he voices Leonard, the store manager who is a very kind and soft-spoken person.
28	* ShortRunInPeru: The film had a brief theatrical release in the UK, Dubai, and Russia before going straight to DVD in other markets. This was done purely to fulfill a contractual obligation.
29	* StillbornFranchise:
30	** Had the film been a hit, the creators had plans to turn it into a major franchise. [[{{Defictionalization}} Real-world food products based on those seen in the film]], a web series, stage shows (including ''Foodfight! on Ice''), Videogame tie-ins, A TV series, Spin-Offs, and of course, sequels. All of these were planned long before the film's TroubledProduction, however. It's like they put more thought into the theoretical franchise than the movie itself...
31	** According to this [[https://youtu.be/xgBO9c3WKII?si=kWPaUR8LyMgnwySA video]] detailing the history behind the film, Threshold was planning to make more animated films that rehashed ''Foodfight!''’s concept of things coming to life at night, such as ''Arcade!'' with arcade characters (which would have predated ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph''), ''Mascot'', with Football Mascots, and a third one, ''Comic Strip Capers'' but with comic strip characters. Most notably, Larry constantly badgered ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'' creator Berkeley Breathed (as the company have adapted his book ''Edwurd Fudwrapper'' into a short film) until he told him to “shut the fuck up” right in the middle of the studio. Of course, ''Foodfight!''’s failure ensures that none of those films would come to fruition.
32	* TechnologyMarchesOn: The animation was the first to use the then state-of-the-art MotionCapture animation from IBM. The age[=/=]crudeness shows as the film was released a decade after the [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings tech]][[WesternAnimation/ThePolarExpress no]][[Film/{{Avatar}} logy]] [[GrowingTheBeard matured]], though the the original animation being scrapped didn't help, either.
33	* TroubledProduction:
34	** Originally set for a 2003 release, the film was initially delayed to 2005, then became even further delayed when the hard drives containing all the animation files were supposedly stolen (or so Kasanoff claimed) and the studio started over again using motion capture. What was eventually released in 2012 was given [[ShortRunInPeru a very small and limited theatrical release]], done solely to fulfill contractual obligations, eventually emerging directly to video in other markets in 2013.
35	** According to [[https://youtu.be/xgBO9c3WKII?si=7ebNlek0-PGrU2JJ this video]] cover the film's production, Larry Kasanoff had no knowledge of how animation worked and ignored anyone who attempted to educate him. The film reportedly didn't have storyboards until five years in because Kasanoff didn't understand the need for them. He would often give vague instructions like "make it 30 percent better" and refused to give proper clarification on what he wanted. He also seemingly didn't understand that different animators did different things and would fire employees if they complained that their assigned tasks were outside their responsibilities or skillset. Furthermore, he would often decide on a whim to redesign characters, resulting in existing animation and design work needing to be thrown out and redone.
36	** Kasanoff was openly frustrated that he couldn't direct the movie like a live action film and jumped at the chance to redo the film with motion capture, a change-up that caused a large number of the film's original animation staff to be laid off.
37	** Employees would regularly try to tell Kasanoff not to put in film's infamously suggestive scenes and overly pun-filled dialogue but they were ignored. Similarly, a lot of Daredevil Dan's recorded dialogue had to be thrown away after they were deemed too racist to be put in the film.
38	** Kasanoff would often bring his two dogs into the office with him, one of whom he allowed to wander around and eat employees' lunches. Kasanoff would also make film staff walk his dogs and clean up after them.
39	** Mars Inc. dropped out soon after a meeting where they were presented with off-model versions of the M&M spokescandies. More specifically, the female Green M&M was just a reskin off the male Red M&M.
40	** Even after the film's financiers gave the studio until 2008 to finish the movie, Kasanoff still maintained his inefficient style of management and production dragged on. After the deadline passed, the movie was handed over to Fireman's Fund, who quickly finished it and spent years trying to shop it around or auction it off but to no avail. Eventually, they found a distributor who gave the film a brief and limited theatrical run before putting it on home video.
41	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
42	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81uIhu8qrrs The original trailer]] which was published online in 2011 not only looks a lot less ugly than the finished film, but the animation shows much more exaggerated cartoony movements and gags. For instance, Dex's reaction when he drinks a cup of milk in the original animation looked more ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''-esque with his eyes going wide before spitting the drink out, instead of the awkward jerking motion in the final product. The characters look a lot more alive and expressive than they did in the final cut.
43	** Various pre-release hype will tell you that up to 80 mascots and products were originally going to appear in the film. Some of those who didn't appear in the final film include (but are not limited to) the M&M's, Chester Cheetah, the Trix Rabbit, Sugar Bear, the Coca-Cola Polar Bears, the Lucky Charms Leprechaun, Cap'n Crunch, Mr Pringles, The Alpha-Bits Pals etc. Several {{exp\|y}}ies for them appear at the club.
44	** Dex was originally going to be a human, [[http://bp2.blogger.com/_uqbifoYYiK0/RcttwfhoU0I/AAAAAAAAAUg/ac_9rtj1rTI/s1600-h/foodfight_1.jpg as seen in this promotional image from early in development]], which would explain the bestiality undertones with Sunshine Goodness and Lady X in the final film.
45	** A surprisingly large amount of marketing material was planned (such as a spin-off Web series titled "The Pre-Expiration Date Adventures of Dex Dogtective", food products based on the characters, a live stage show, and [=FoodFight=]! On Ice), but when the movie turned out to be a complete critical and BoxOfficeBomb, the plans were scrapped. They even had plans for sequels and spin-off films [[DirectToVideo DTV]] or otherwise and even a animated TV series but those plans also fell through.
46	** One thing that wasn't completely scrapped was the [[http://imgur.com/a/IGlvJ plushies that were made of some characters]]. They were meant to be sold in stores, but when the movie bombed, they were sold off to claw machines and carnivals as prizes.
47	** A demo for a ''[=FoodFight=]'' video game appeared at E3 2006, but nothing more was ever revealed about it. Concept art for the videogame has since surfaced, which can be found [[https://jasonleong.weebly.com/storyboards.html here.]] However it's from 2001 and features Dex as a human, clearly not being from the game seen at E3, but rather a different tie-in game being worked on earlier in the film's development. In 2024 an unofficial fangame was created, which can be found [[https://tiffyamber.itch.io/foodfight-the-video-game here.]]
48	** In 2023, "Foodfight! The Junior Novelization" was found, a tie-in novelization based on an earlier draft of the script. It contains 8 pages of stills from the original "squash-and-stretch" version of the film, was published in 2008 (four years before the movie was finally released), and most puzzlingly of all only one copy has ever surfaced, making it one of the rarest piece of merchandise to come out of the film. In early 2024, the novelization was scanned and uploaded to the Internet Archive, and can now be read in its entirety [[https://archive.org/details/foodfight-novelization-hq-scans here.]]

Context Trivia / FoodFight