Such concessions were typical of the two years spent negotiating for more than 80 food-industry characters to appear in “Foodfight!,” a computer-animated movie that was announced in 2000 by Threshold Entertainment. The company’s chief executive and chairman, Larry Kasanoff, proclaimed the project, featuring a voice cast led by Charlie Sheen and Eva Longoria, would help make Threshold’s animation arm “the next-generation Pixar.”
He predicted a huge $100 million tie-in merchandising campaign, with the film being promoted by partners like Procter Gamble and Coca-Cola. There would be “Foodfight!” Web episodes, storybooks, plush toys and possibly a live stage show, “Foodfight on Ice.”
That final notion was prescient. Despite Mr. Kasanoff’s track record — a producer on “True Lies,” he was a onetime partner of James Cameron and had control over much of the lucrative “Mortal Kombat” multimedia franchise — “Foodfight!” failed to make a 2002 release, as well as anticipated 2005, 2006 and 2007 dates.
In May, the feature made a muted debut on DVD, where it was quickly seized upon by Internet purveyors of bad cinema and dissected like the Zapruder film.
The animation appears unfinished. The sexual innuendo is flagrant for a film ostensibly aimed at children. And the plot — grocery store mascots come alive at night to fight generic Brand X antagonists intent on taking over the shelves — is impenetrable and even offensive. Dressed in Nazi-inspired regalia, the villains declare their intention to send the “Ikes,” or brand icons, to the “expiration station.”
As Disney’s “Planes” this weekend closes out a summer filled with animated successes — Universal recently proclaimed “Despicable Me 2” the most profitable film in its 100-year history — the torturous production of “Foodfight!” stands as a cautionary tale regarding the pitfalls of a complex industry.
Mr. Kasanoff started Threshold in 1992. Formerly known as Amalgamated Widgets, the company billed itself as an intellectual property hub, harvesting rights to video games like Duke Nukem or Lego animated projects; its subsidiary Threshold Digital Research Labs provided animation and effects work for a variety of clients, including a “Star Trek” attraction in Las Vegas. Threshold also tried to court the young-male demographic of the emerging World Wide Web with content like the series “Bikini Masterpiece Theater.”
In 1999, Mr. Kasanoff and a Threshold employee, Joshua Wexler, conceived a film in which food mascots would come alive when away from prying eyes, much like the playthings in “Toy Story.”
“Imagine,” an information packet for potential licensees later read, “shopping cart chase scenes up and down the aisles in the same manner as ‘Ben-Hur.’ ”
Mr. Kasanoff raised an initial $25 million for production costs in conjunction with a Korean investment consortium and expected the rest of the budget, which Threshold projected at $50 million, would come from foreign presales and loans against those sales. He worked with IBM for on-demand processing power off site, an early precursor to cloud computing that Mr. Kasanoff predicted would save the production millions in operating expenses.
He also decided that he would produce and direct, despite never having supervised a full-length animated feature.
“His approach, because he had gotten the money for it, and no one could say no to him, was very idiosyncratic,” said Kenneth Wiatrak, a layout artist on the project. “You didn’t know from day to day what would occur. Would there be a review? Would he suddenly want to change the whole thing?”
Citing legal reasons, Mr. Kasanoff declined to comment for this article.
With preproduction under way, Mr. Wexler and consultants met with major brands, enticing them with the notion of free on-screen placement in exchange for promoting the film upon its release.
Chef Boyardee, Twinkie the Kid and others were not the stars. Those roles were reserved for original Threshold characters like Dex the Dogtective, a private investigator searching for his missing girlfriend; Sunshine Goodness, a raisin spokeswoman; Daredevil Dan, a squirrel piloting a small-engine airplane and serving as the comic relief. Threshold’s aim was a role reversal: that the proprietary characters would soon be courted to endorse their own breakfast cereals or chocolate bars.
Nothing at Threshold had ever been deemed so crucial to the company’s success. “For us,” Mr. Kasanoff told the press, “this is ‘Casablanca.’ ”
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/11/movies/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-computer-animated-foodfight.html?partner=rss&emc=rss