The Animal

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The Animal
The Animal film poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Luke Greenfield
Screenplay by
Story byTom Brady
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Peter Lyons Collister
Edited by
Music by Teddy Castellucci
Production
companies
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date
  • June 1, 2001 (2001-06-01)
Running time
83 minutes [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$47 million [2]
Box office$84.7 million [2]

The Animal is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Luke Greenfield, written by Tom Brady and Rob Schneider from a story conceived by Brady. It stars Schneider in the lead role, alongside Colleen Haskell, John C. McGinley, Guy Torry, and Edward Asner with supporting roles by Michael Caton and Louis Lombardi. The film depicts a police station evidence clerk who is critically injured and is put back together by a mad scientist who transplants animal parts, resulting in strange animalistic changes to his behavior.

Contents

Produced by Adam Sandler's production company Happy Madison Productions in association with Revolution Studios, The Animal was released by Columbia Pictures in the United States on June 6, 2001. The film received negative to mixed reviews.

Plot

Marvin Mange is an evidence clerk at the local Elkerton police precinct who dreams of becoming an officer like his late father. However, he repeatedly fails the physical examination. Marvin receives little respect from the populace and is especially tormented by Sergeant Doug Sisk. He is smitten with environmentalist Rianna Holmes but fumbles on a first encounter with her.

While alone at the station, Marvin receives an emergency call; with no officers available, he responds himself. While on the way, he drives off a cliff and is grievously injured. However, he is rescued by Dr. Wilder, a mad scientist, who saves his life by putting assorted animal organ transplants. Days later, Marvin, unaware of what happened, resumes his normal life but discovers that he can now perform extraordinary physical feats and possesses keen animal-like instincts.

While visiting his friend Miles at an airport, Marvin sniffs out and apprehends a man attempting to smuggle drugs in his rectum. The event garners positive media attention and Marvin is promoted to full-fledged police officer assigned under Sisk.

Over several days, Marvin awakens from bouts of sleepwalking, hearing subsequent reports of attacks in the night being attributed to a savage beast. Wilder introduces himself to Marvin, cautioning him of his rising animalistic urges as side-effects of the operation. Despite continued predicaments and embarrassments caused by his instinctual animal behaviors, Marvin's abilities allow him to excel as an officer and bond with Rianna. However, Marvin is questioned after a brutal attack on a cow; a police sketch implicates Marvin as the culprit. Marvin is subsequently placed on leave.

Afraid of what he has become, Marvin barricades himself inside his home. Rianna arrives to comfort Marvin and the two spend the night together. The following morning, the police raid Marvin's home when they suspect him of mauling a hunter. Marvin escapes and flees into the woods. An armed mob headed by Sisk is formed, while Marvin's friends Miles and Fatty seek to warn him. Marvin encounters Wilder who confides the existence of another patient who had undergone the same procedure; he suspects the other patient is the real culprit.

Sisk's lone pursuit of Marvin results in a near-fatal fall into a chasm, but he is saved by the latter. Despite this, Sisk holds Marvin at gunpoint, but he is suddenly killed by Rianna; revealed to be Wilder's other patient. Rianna confesses that she was responsible for the hunter attack, justifying her actions in protecting an orphaned turkey vulture she reared and released back into the wild. The mob arrives, threatening to kill Marvin. Miles makes a false confession to being the beast to protect Marvin and Rianna. Due to the racial implications in prosecuting Miles, a Black American, the mob casually pardons him.

One year later, Marvin and Rianna have married, starting a family and opening an animal sanctuary. While watching television, they witness Dr. Wilder being awarded the Nobel Prize for his transplantation procedure.

Cast

Additionally, Philip Daniel Bolden, Megan Harvey, Mitch Holleman portray evidence room kids. Fred Stoller cameos as a news reporter. Noel Gugliemi cameos as a gang leader and Norm Macdonald as a gang member. Adam Sandler plays a townie, along with John Farley and Brianna Brown who are part of the angry mob. Wes Takahashi, former animator and visual effects supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic, makes a cameo appearance as a news reporter at Chief Wilson's press conference. [3] Cloris Leachman and Harry Dean Stanton make uncredited cameos.

Production

The script was originally sold to Walt Disney Pictures, who had placed the film into turnaround under new management and sold the script to Revolution Studios. [4]

Reception

Box office

The Animal debuted on June 1, 2001, grossing $19.6 million U.S. in its opening weekend (#3 behind Shrek and Pearl Harbor ). With a production budget of $47 million, the movie grossed $84,772,742 internationally. [2]

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 30% of 84 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.3/10.The website's consensus reads: "While less offensive and more charming than recent gross-humored comedies, The Animal is still rather mediocre." [5] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 43 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [6] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+. [7]

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "An outrageous and imaginative summer comedy." [8] [9] [10] Robert Koehler of Variety magazine wrote: "The Animal is never more nor less than stupid, but stupid in ways that deliver goofiness rather than rampant humiliation." [11]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone described it as "an Adam Sandler reject" and wondered how this "raunchy innuendo wrapped in a PG-13 rating" got past the censors. [12]

Controversy

Despite mostly negative critical reaction, at the time of its release film critic David Manning gave the film critical praise. In late 2001, Manning was revealed to be a fictitious character created by Sony to fake publicity for the film. At the time, Sony claimed that the error was due to a layout artist who entered 'dummy text' into print advertisements during their design, which was accidentally never replaced with real text. [13]

Sequel

In October 2022, it was announced a sequel is in development. In addition to reprising his role from the first film, Rob Schneider will also serve as director and utilize a script that he co-wrote with his wife Patricia Schneider and Jamie Lissow. Schneider will also serve as a producer on the movie alongside Michael McConnell. The project will be a joint-venture production between Content Partners, Revolution Studios, MarVista Entertainment, Zero Gravity Management, and Tubi Original Films. Intended to be released via streaming as an exclusive Tubi movie, the project is near being officially green-lit by the associated film studios. Principal photography commenced in early-2023, with its tentative release which was scheduled for later that year but is currently delayed. [14]

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References

  1. ↑ "The Animal (12)". British Board of Film Classification . July 2, 2001. Retrieved September 13, 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 "The Animal (2001)". Box Office Mojo . Amazon.com. Archived from the original on 2010-09-01. Retrieved 2010-11-23.
  3. ↑ "Subject: Wes Ford Takahashi". Animators' Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 12 August 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
  4. ↑ Fleming, Michael (2000-08-07). "Roth driven by 'Animal' urges". Variety. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
  5. ↑ "The Animal". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved September 13, 2024. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  6. ↑ "The Animal". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. Retrieved September 13, 2024.
  7. ↑ ANIMAL, THE (2001) B+ Archived 2018-12-20 at the Wayback Machine CinemaScore
  8. ↑ Kevin Thomas (June 1, 2001). "Calendar Live - Goofy 'Animal' Has a Nice Bite". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on 8 June 2001.
  9. ↑ Michael O'Sullivan (June 1, 2001). "Schneider's 'Animal' Magnetism". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on March 19, 2020. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  10. ↑ Owen Gleiberman (June 1, 2001). "The Animal". EW.com. Archived from the original on August 25, 2019. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  11. ↑ Koehler, Robert (30 May 2001). "The Animal". Variety. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  12. ↑ Travers, Peter (7 June 2001). "The Animal". Rolling Stone .
  13. ↑ "Official court notice of David Manning settlement" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-02-06. Retrieved 2010-11-23.
  14. ↑ Lodderhose, Diana (October 4, 2022). "'The Animal' Sequel Starring & Directed By Rob Schneider Nears Greenlight By Tubi". Deadline. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
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