Trivia / The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure

• Box Office Bomb: According to Kenn Viselman and other reports, the film was made on anywhere between $12 to $20 million, possibly only $3 million with tax credits and incentives. While that's considerably lower than the 60 million dollar budget it was originally said to have, it still only made $1,065,907 from being shown on over 2,000 screens, which broke Delgo's record.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Christopher Lloyd was originally considered for Bobby Wobbly.
• Colbert Bump: It was the focus of a sketch on Conan, thereby raising awareness of the movie among his viewers.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: Both Goobie and Toofie are voiced by women. Their suit performers are also women.
• Divorced Installment: Kenn Viselman initially devised The Oogieloves as a film adaptation of Teletubbies, but after multiple disputes with creator Anne Wood for refusing to allow this, those plans fell through.
• Early Draft Tie-In: Two public service announcements ("Stomp Out Bullying" and another PSA about the Haiti earthquake) were produced around the time the film was supposed to be released in theaters.
• Fake Nationality: American actors Christopher Lloyd and Jaime Pressly play a Mexican couple in a flying sombrero.
• He Also Did: Alongside marketing Teletubbies, Kenn Viselmann was also behind marketing merchandise for series like Eloise, Shining Time Station and The Noddy Shop.
• Inspiration for the Work: After seeing Madea Goes to Jail in a theater, where he saw how the audience members would shout out advice to the characters on screen, Ken Viselman was partially inspired to create a children's film in the vein of Teletubbies with the interactive aspect, allowing the children to sing, dance, and respond to the characters on screen. He felt that "the idea of interactivity isn't new, but the idea of interactivity in a theater is."
• Invisible Advertising: This is what Viselman says killed the film's success, rather than its poor reception. He claimed to have had 20 to 30 million dollars for marketing from investors, but the account was frozen a week before the movie release for undisclosed reasons, meaning the film had no advertising aside from one internet trailer. Exactly why the filmmakers decided to wait until only a week before the premiere to start its advertising campaign was never explained.
• Money, Dear Boy: Cloris Leachman has publicly admitted she only did this movie for the money. This has to explain the presence of all the recognisable names.
• No Export for You: This was unsurprisingly not released in any form in the UK.
• Playing Against Type: Chazz Palminteri, who's always noted for his dark and sinister roles (primarily mob bosses), plays the jolly good milkshake clerk, Milkie Marvin.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: Production was completed in 2009 and a "Stomp Out Bullying" PSA came out around the time it was supposed to be released, but the film sat on the shelf for three years, because the producer wanted to patent the film's method of providing visual cues and synchronizing house lights for a semi-interactive experience. Young viewers are encouraged to get up and dance when butterflies fly across the screen, and sit down when turtles appear.
• Stillborn Franchise: Despite the film's failure, Viselman was determined to make it into the next big preschool phenomenon, claiming in 2013 that he had scripts for two sequels and was close to securing funding from overseas backers. He also suggested that he might try to pitch the series to Netflix. However, as of yet, nothing new has come from the Oogieloves franchise aside from the first film.

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