Collection: Animalympics Biography and Art Gallery Collection

Animalympics was a 1980 animated television film produced by Lisberger Studios and released by Warner Bros. It was the third animated feature film presented with Dolby sound. Originally commissioned by the NBC network as two separate specials, it spoofs the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, and features the voices of Billy Crystal, Gilda Radner, Harry Shearer and Michael Fremer. The Animalympics film is a series of vignettes presented as the broadcast of the first animal Olympic Games through the fictional ZOO television network. The Games combine summer and winter Olympic events.  The continents featured are North America, South America, Eurasia, Europe, Africa, Australia, and Asia. Also, in Animalympics Eurasia represents the USSR, whereas Europe represents Western and Central Europe.

Animalympics was originally commissioned by NBC in 1978, it was produced as two separate shows intended to air along with the network's 1980 summer Olympics coverage. However, only the half-hour winter show made it to the small screen, as the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan caused President Jimmy Carter to boycott the Moscow Summer Olympics. As America stayed away, NBC canceled its Olympic coverage, and Lisberger's hour-long companion special along with it. However, from its conception, producer Donald Kushner and director Steven Lisberger intended the project as a feature length theatrical release. The resulting version, recorded and mixed in Dolby surround sound via magnetically striped 35mm film, had its debut at the 1980 Miami Film Festival, where it was well received. It was released in various countries overseas during the summer season that same year. Though it never found a theatrical distributor in the U.S., Animalympics was soon acquired by Warner Bros. for home video and pay-TV release. The film aired in summer 1984 on HBO and Showtime nationwide, as well as intermittently during the early to mid-1990's on The Disney Channel, and also on Philadelphia's PRISM. It was also shown on an NBC affiliate WPTZ on July 4, 1982.

Although many of the story segments in Animalympics stand alone, there are some recurring events and important characters. The largest such story is the coverage of the marathon, where competitors René Fromage and Kit Mambo are the favorites to win. Both are determined to win Fromage having devoted his entire life to the marathon, Mambo determined to make a name for herself, they find themselves surprised when their minds wander to thoughts of mutual admiration and then to love, culminating in the pair holding hands for the rest of the race and crossing the finish line together. Another important story is that of Kurt Wüffner, German dachshund skier, and his disappearance to Dogra-la during a mountain climbing expedition shortly after the slalom event. A minor story features an alligator named Bolt Jenkins. He was "born as a handbag" and told he would never walk again. After seeing a frog named Boris Amphibiensky break the world record for the high jump, Jenkins has an epiphany, and becomes determined to break the record. Jenkins goes on to set world records in the high jump, the pole vault, and later the 100-meter dash. Jenkins sacrifices his gold medal in the hundred meter dash to an African competitor and favorite whom Jenkins considers to be his superior.