| Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw | |
|---|---|
Original theatrical poster |
|
| Directed by | Pierre DeCelles |
| Produced by | Donald Kushner Peter Locke |
| Written by | Jim Carlson Terrence McDonnell |
| Starring | Brennan Howard B. J. Ward Nancy Cartwright Tony Longo |
| Music by | Richard Kosinski Sam Winans Bill Reichenbach Jr. Ashley Hall Bob Mann |
| Editing by | John Blizek |
| Studio | Carolco Pictures Atlantic/Kushner-Locke Family Home Entertainment The Maltese Companies Cuckoo's Nest Studio Wang Film Productions Tonka Worldvision Enterprises |
| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures |
| Release date(s) | March 18, 1988 |
| Running time | 78 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $586,938[1] |
Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw is a 1988 animated feature film distributed by TriStar Pictures. The film is based on the Tonka/Mattel toy line and Hanna-Barbera television series of the same name. It was directed by Pierre DeCelles, and stars the voices of Brennan Howard, B. J. Ward, and Tony Longo.
The film's story centers on a magical artifact called the Bone of Scone, a reference to the Stone of Scone in Irish and Scottish Legend that gives "Puppy Power" to the Pound Puppies (dogs) and Pound Purries (cats). However, a villain named Marvin McNasty plans to take it and use it for world domination. Without the Bone of Scone, humans will not understand what the animals are saying and, if it is broken, Puppy Power will forever be lost.
The Legend of Big Paw was the last theatrically released animated feature from the late 1980s to promote a major toy line, a common trend in the American cartoon industry during that time. The film did not fare well with critics or audiences during its original release, and grossed only US$500,000 domestically. It premiered on DVD in North America on October 24, 2006.
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In present-day 1988, Whopper is taking his niece and nephew to the museum. Along the way, he tells them the origin of Puppy Power, the ability of humankind to understand the Pound Puppies and Purries. In the Dark Ages (circa 950 AD), a young boy named Arthur pulled the mythical sword Excalibur from the magical Bone of Scone, which his dog Digalot had disabled, and Arthur immediately discovered the dog could talk.[2] Sir McNasty, who had witnessed the withdrawal of Excalibur and Arthur's coronation as King of England, planned to conquer the world by retrieving the Bone. However, it was kept hidden by the giant guardian, Big Paw.
Whopper's story continues in 1959, when the town museum exhibits the Bone of Scone in honor of its 1,000-year anniversary. The Puppies and Purries, along with teenagers Tammy and Jeff, will be holding an Adoption Bazaar the following day. The Pound Puppies, led by Cooler, visit the exhibit, where Whopper, then a pup, and Bright Eyes, a cheerleader, stray away from the group. Unknown to them, Marvin McNasty is inside plotting his domination. Some moments later, a nurse called Florence tells the Puppies and teenagers that Collette is having Puplings. They rush out of the exhibit, along with the Purries, Hairball and his girlfriend, Charlamange, in order to see them all. But after Collette and the rest bless them in song, McNasty comes to the Pound to adopt four other young dogs in advance. Whopper and the new mother worry about his namesake and stingy attitude. Before McNasty can have the pups, Tammy and Jeff inform him, he has to sign adoption papers. He soon does so and quickly goes off. A suspicious Whopper goes after him over Collette's objections. Whopper follows him to his truck near the museum, in which his henchmen, Lumpy and Bones, are eating sandwiches. The pup finds out what McNasty is going to do with the four puppies. With his Mean Machine, McNasty will transform them and the rest of the Pound into vicious guard dogs. Whopper goes and tells Cooler, but Cooler does not take him seriously. Disguised as janitors, Lumpy and Bones enter the museum and suck up the Bone with a vacuum cleaner. The Bone goes through a complicated series of contraptions, and Lumpy smashes it on Bones' head. With the henchmen in pursuit, Whopper runs back to the Pound with one half of the Bone. However, the henchmen catch Whopper and Collette and return to their boss.
Meanwhile, the Bone has lost its magic, and with neither Puppies or humans able to communicate, the Adoption Bazaar will have to be canceled. Cooler tells Howler to tell all of the town dogs that two dogs have been kidnapped and taken to the nearby woods, where McNasty operates. The Pound Puppies, and Purries, set off to rescue them. Soon, Collette and Whopper escape from their cage inside McNasty's laboratory, and briefly reunite with the rest of the Puppies. However, Lumpy and Bones snatch them back. The Puppies give chase, but nearly all of them end up in a rat-infested cave, hanging on a rope, before the Purries pull them up to safety. The Puppies and Purries continue looking for their friends. When they get caught in a patch of mire, they are saved by the legendary Big Paw, who agrees to find the Bone with them. Later, McNasty's henchmen transform the Puppies into guard dogs, save for Cooler. Big Paw brings him and the Purries back to town to stop the evil trio, as the trio's truck heads to the Pound. At the exhibit, Lumpy and Bones help crown Marvin. As they glue back the Bone together, "Puppy Power" returns, and Cooler can finally understand Tammy and Jeff. They head back to the museum to chase off McNasty via a tunnel that Big Paw has dug up, followed by the transformed Puppies. While encaged in a dinosaur exhibit, Cooler and Big Paw see one of Collette's Puplings tell her "I love you". Thus, she is changed back to good, and Cooler whispers the same thing to his friend Reflex, whose kisses bring the other Puppies back to normal. Big Paw and Cooler chase McNasty and his henchmen all over town and eventually back to the museum and their Mean Machine, which turns them into good men. A moment later, Big Paw and Nose Marie finally get back the Bone of Scone. The next day, a reformed Marvin, Lumpy and Bones go to the Pound and celebrate the Adoption Bazaar along with the Puppies, Purries, Tammy and Jeff.
As soon as the story ends, Whopper and his niece and nephew Puplings find themselves in the museum. The Bone of Scone has returned for another visit, and Whopper introduces Big Paw as a little surprise for the young ones, who did not believe before that he was real. As long as he is here to protect the Bone, Whopper says, Puppy Power will never be lost again.
Bone of Scone. Voiced by Brennan Howard
The music for The Legend of Big Paw was directed by Steve Tyrell, with the original score composed by Richard Kosinski, Sam Winans, Bill Reichenbach Jr., Ashley Hall and Bob Mann. The film's six songs, which are influenced by popular songs and standards from the 1950s and after,[5]:209 were composed by Ashley Hall and Steve Tyrell, written by Stephanie Tyrell, and recorded at the Tyrell-Mann and Tempo Recording Studios in Los Angeles.
| Track listing | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Song | Music | Performer(s) | |
| "At the Pound" | Based on "At the Hop" by David White, Arthur Singer and John Medora | Ashley Hall | |
| "Now That You're Here" | Ashley Hall | Cathy Cavadini | |
| "The King of Everything" | Ashley Hall and Steve Tyrell | George Rose | |
| "All in Your Mind" | Based on "Who Do You Love?" Ashley Hall and Steve Tyrell | Ashley Hall | |
| "I'm a Puppy Too" | Based on "Duke of Earl" by Earl Edwards, Eugene Dixon and Bernice Williams | Mark Vieha | |
| "Puppy Power's Back" | Based on "Jailhouse Rock" Ashley Hall and Steve Tyrell | Cast | |
Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw was produced by Carolco Pictures and Atlantic-Kushner-Locke along with The Maltese Companies, financed by Tonka, the original owners of the Pound Puppies franchise, and distributed by TriStar Pictures.[6] The film's director, Pierre DeCelles, was also an art director and directing storyboard artist during production.
According to DeCelles, the film took 5½ months to complete, starting in the fall of 1987.[7] The first 2½ months were spent on preparing its layouts and storyboards, and the remaining time on the animation, backgrounds and shooting. The overseas work was done by Wang Film Productions and Cuckoo's Nest Studio, two Taiwanese companies known for their contributions to children's animated series.[8]
The film's animation and character design were different from what was featured in the Hanna-Barbera series, and did not contribute to the latter's continuity. A new set of characters were introduced for the film: Pound Puppies Collette, Beamer, and Reflex, and the Pound Purries Hairball and Charlamange, along with two teenagers, Tammy and Jeff, that replaced the 11-year-old Holly.
During its short run in theaters, The Legend of Big Paw played mainly in matinees[9] and only grossed US$586,938.[10] It was distributor TriStar's only animated feature until 2001's The Trumpet of the Swan. The film was among the last in a line of 1980s animated productions for the big screen which featured established toy properties as their main characters. Previous examples included movies that were based on the Care Bears, My Little Pony and Transformers.[5]:xv–xx
Family Home Entertainment, a division of IVE, the distributor of Carolco's films, released Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw in VHS format on September 14, 1989. Its successor, Lionsgate, released the film on DVD in the United States on October 24, 2006.[11] Like the Hanna-Barbera TV show before it, the film also aired on the Disney Channel during the early to mid-1990s.[12]
Critical response to The Legend of Big Paw have been negative during its theatrical run. The Hollywood trade magazine, Variety, called it "uninvolving and endlessly derivative".[5]:209 The Sacramento Bee deemed it "miserably drawn" in comparison to what Disney was offering at the time,[13] and the San Francisco Chronicle gave it an "empty chair" rating.[14] A reviewer in the Detroit Free Press found it "dull and unoriginal", but praised the songs that were written for it.[15]
Martha Baker of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch also denounced it and began her review thus:
If you're in your 40th year and not your fourth, Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw requires the extra dosage of insulin reserved for such treks into celluloid and commercial [sweetness]. But even 4-year-olds have trouble swallowing this cartoon whole.[6]
Writing for The Animated Movie Guide by animation expert Jerry Beck, Stuart Fisher gave the film one star out of four, and saw the film's artistic quality as "a mixed bag". "[While] the backgrounds are somewhat imaginative and colorful, the character animation is flat and lifeless. Rapid cuts to new angles of the same shot seem to try to cover up limitations of the animation technique," he continued.[5]:209 Moreover, Fisher and the Philadelphia Inquirer took note of its purpose as a toy commercial,[16] a trend that was prevalent in the animation industry during the late 1980s.