Gumby: The Movie | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Art Clokey |
Written by | Art Clokey Gloria Clokey |
Produced by | Art Clokey Gloria Clokey Kevin Reher |
Starring |
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Cinematography | Art Clokey |
Edited by | Marilyn McCoppen Lynn Stevenson |
Music by | Jerry Gerber Marco D'Ambrosio |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Arrow Releasing Inc. |
Release date |
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Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $2.8 million [1] |
Box office | $57,100 [2] |
Gumby: The Movie (referred to as its on-screen title Gumby 1) is a 1995 American stop-motion surrealist claymation adventure comedy film featuring Gumby. [3] [4] The film is dedicated to Sri Sathya Sai Baba. [5]
The film was released on October 4, 1995, and received generally negative reviews from critics; it went on to become a box-office failure, earning $57,100 against its $2.8 million budget at the U.S. box office, [6] [2] although much of its financial failure can be attributed to its very limited theatrical rollout. It has since gained a cult following among fans of the original Gumby.
When the Blockheads' E-Z Loan company threatens to take away the farms belonging to the small farmers due to being unable to make their loan payments, Gumby and his band The Clayboys decide to have a benefit concert to save the farms. However, the evil Blockheads find out that Gumby's dog, Lowbelly, cries pearls when he sees The Clayboys perform. The Blockheads decide to kidnap Lowbelly and force him to cry pearls (initially unaware that Lowbelly is only crying whenever Gumby changes shapes). After discovering that they need Gumby to extract the pearls, they kidnap Gumby and the Clayboys in order to create robotic clones of them.
With the help of Pokey, Prickle, Goo, fans Tara and Ginger, and talent agent Lucky Claybert, as well as his father, Gumbo and his pet bee, Groobee, Gumby takes on his robot clone and is still in time for his videotaping session in agreement with Claybert. At a picnic, Gumby announces that he is opening his own farm-centered loan company that will give reasonable loans for its customers, with the help from Claybert. To punish them for their evil deeds, the Blockheads are forced to weed Gumby's garden. After the successful concert, Gumby and Pokey head back to outer-space feeling triumphant knowing that their efforts have saved the farms. [7]
Production on the film was started in 1988 and completed in 1992. [9] Despite this, Premavision was unable to find a distributor for the film until 1995, when they found a small company named Arrow Releasing (not to be confused with Arrow Films).
The musical score was composed by Jerry Gerber, who previously worked on the television series, and Marco D'Ambrosio. Additionally, Ozzie Ahlers produced the featured songs "Take Me Away", "Ark Park" and "This Way'n That". The lyrics for "Take Me Away" and "This Way'n That" were written by Gloria Clokey. Ahlers was also responsible for hiring frequent collaborator and Starship guitarist Craig Chaquico to play the electric guitar parts. [10]
Gumby: The Movie was released on October 4, 1995, by Arrow Releasing, receiving a limited release in 21 theaters. The film grossed $57,100 at the box office. [2]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 20% based on reviews from 5 critics, with an average rating of 3.8/10. [11]
David Kronke of The Los Angeles Times described the screenplay as "tired and listless", and criticized the dialogue as unsophisticated and hastily assembled. [12]
Barry Walters of the San Francisco Examiner wrote that "although the action is slow by contemporary wham-bam standards, the drama eventually picks up as the kooky plot complications pile up. But the pacing is episodic, and the nonstop whimsy gets to be overwhelming: Every few minutes, you can feel yourself anticipating even hoping for a commercial break." [13] Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that "it should have been silly, kitschy, self-spoofing fun, but instead has a sad, enervated quality and frequently inept results." [14]
Common Sense Media rated the movie a two out of five stars, stating, "The animation in this feature film edition might feel old-fashioned and clumsy; the story bland and simplistic. It's slow going, not terribly funny, and it's repetitive. Still it has a quirky charm that kids respond to, especially the grown-up "kids" who are long-time fans and enjoy the memories that repeat viewings provide." [15]
Several critics focused on the animation, particularly how it incorporated less advanced technology than films like Toy Story , Pocahontas (both 1995), and stop-motion features like The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). [16] [17] [14]
A positive review came from Marylynn Uricchio of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , who wrote that it "is nothing more than an elongated version of the TV episodes that run on Nickelodeon, but that's not a criticism. With Gumby, anything is a pleasure." [18]
The film was released on home video on VHS by KidVision [19] and Astral Home Video on December 26, 1995; it would be the former company's final release before becoming defunct. The next year, Warner Home Video released the film on VHS, which became a top-10 seller, selling about one million copies overall on this format in total. [20] [21] It was released on DVD by Classic Media on April 22, 2008. [22] NCircle Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray on September 5, 2017. [23]
RiffTrax released their own commentary of the film on May 28, 2021. [24] [25]
The film also achieved a cult status among its fan base [21] to the point where it received a 2007 remastered showing at the Tribeca Film Festival. [26]
Gumby is a cartoon character and associated media franchise created by Art Clokey. Gumby is a blocky green humanoid made of clay.
Arthur Clokey was an American animator, director, producer, and screenwriter. He was pioneer in the popularization of stop-motion clay animation, best known as the creator of the character Gumby and the original voice of Gumby's sidekick, Pokey. Clokey's career began in 1953 with a film experiment called Gumbasia, which was influenced by his professor, Slavko Vorkapich, at the University of Southern California. Clokey and his wife Ruth subsequently came up with the clay character Gumby and his horse Pokey, who first appeared in the Howdy Doody Show and later got their own series The Adventures of Gumby, from which they became a familiar presence on American television. The characters enjoyed a renewal of interest in the 1980s when American actor and comedian Eddie Murphy parodied Gumby in a skit on Saturday Night Live.
Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay.
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Dallas Raymond McKennon, sometimes credited as Dal McKennon, was an American actor. He had a career lasting over 50 years. McKennon's best-known voice roles were Gumby for Art Clokey, Archie Andrews in several different Archie series for Filmation, and the primary voice of Buzz Buzzard in the Woody Woodpecker cartoons.
The Puppetoon Movie is a 1987 animated film written, produced, and directed by Arnold Leibovit. It is based on the Puppetoons characters created by George Pal in the 1930s and 1940s which feature the eponymous Puppetoon animation, and features Gumby, Pokey and Arnie the Dinosaur, who host the framing story. Its framing story stars the voices of Dick Beals, Art Clokey, Paul Frees and Dallas McKennon as the main characters.
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Events in 1995 in animation.
Events in 2010 in animation.
Ozzie Ahlers is an American songwriter and music producer who plays the keyboard, guitar, and bass. In addition to a solo career, he has played keyboards with Van Morrison, Jerry Garcia. and Craig Chaquico.
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Gumby 1 is dedicated to SRI SATHYA SAI BABA 'Love All; Serve All'