Doug's 1st Movie

Doug's 1st Movie
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Maurice Joyce
Produced by David Campbell
Melanie Grisanti
Jim Jinkins
Bruce Knapp
Jack Spillum
Written by Ken Scarborough
Based on Doug
by Jim Jinkins
Starring
Music by Mark Watters
Edited by Alysha Cohen
Christopher Gee
Production
company
Distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Release date
 March 26, 1999 (1999-03-26)
Running time
 83 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $5 million
Box office $19.4 million[1]

Doug's 1st Movie is a 1999 animated film based on the Disney version of the Nickelodeon television series Doug. The film was directed by Maurice Joyce, and stars the regular television cast of Tom McHugh, Fred Newman, Chris Phillips, Constance Shulman, Frank Welker, Alice Playten, and Guy Hadley. It was produced by Walt Disney Television Animation and Jumbo Pictures, and released by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution on March 26, 1999. In theaters, the Disney short "Opera Box" from the television series Mickey Mouse Works was featured before the film; the short featured Donald and Daisy Duck. Despite the title and its success at the box office, no further movies based on Doug were made. It serves the series finale of the entire Doug series for Nickelodeon and Disney.

Plot

Doug Funnie (Tom McHugh) and Skeeter Valentine (Fred Newman) discover a monster (Frank Welker) that lives in Lucky Duck Lake. Believing the monster is evil, they are scared of him at first, but later on, they find him to be nice. Despite this, however, the monster is proof that their friend Beebe Bluff's wealthy father, Bill Bluff (Doug Preis), owner of Bluffco Industries, is polluting the lake, which was what created this monster. The monster almost eats the book Moby Dick, but Skeeter stops him and says, "Stop! You almost ate Herman Melville! You don't eat books, that is a NO!" and the monster returns it to them as an apology, so they name him Herman Melville after the author of the book, and the monster takes a liking to the name. Mayor Tippy Dink (Doris Belack) advises Doug to keep this a secret or Mr. Bluff will kill Herman. Unfortunately, all of this commotion with the monster makes Doug forget that he was supposed to meet Patti (Constance Shulman) at Mr. Swirly's (Bruce Bayley Johnson), the owner of the local ice cream factory. When he remembers this at the last minute, he runs to Swirly's as fast as he can using the quickest shortcuts that he knows. Once he gets there, Patti is nowhere to be seen. He asks Mr. Swirly if he's seen her, and he says that she was here for a while and looked very upset, and then left with a guy who kept talking about his big plans for a dance. When Doug heard this, he knew that this guy was no one else but Guy Graham (Guy Hadley), a snobby upper class man who wants Patti. Meanwhile, Roger (Chris Phillips) and the AV nerds are building a robot (Eddie Korbich) to kidnap Herman, but when they build the robot it acts like a babysitter to Roger, much to the latter's dismay and annoyance.

Doug then rushes to the Funky Town night club, where Guy and Patti are working on the dance. He apologizes to Patti there and she accepts his apology, but Guy cuts in and says that Doug is "just a stupid little kid." Doug, very angry now and going against Mayor Dink's warning, says that he has proof that Mr. Bluff is evil and is polluting the lake. Guy then calls Doug a liar. Doug then invites them both to the report that is being held in front of his next-door neighbor and husband to Mayor Dink, Bud Dink's (also played by Newman) house about Herman and the pollution and hopes to get back at Guy. Doug then leaves, but the picture of the monster falls out of his pocket without him knowing. Guy picks up the picture and realizes that Doug was telling the truth; however, he calls Mr. Bluff, whom he has connections to. At the reporting, Doug sees that a news reporter's camera is inflatable. He then realizes that the news company is a fake, that it is supporting Mr. Bluff, and trying to capture the monster. Doug then has to tell everyone that there has been a mistake, Patti gets mad at him, thinks that he is a liar, and walks away with Guy.

That night, Mr. Bluff finds the boys with Herman and kidnaps the monster. The next morning, Doug knows that this is his last chance to save Herman. He goes to the school newspaper room, hoping to find Guy who can lead him to Mr. Bluff. Guy isn't in the room, but Doug sees a newspaper article that says that Mr. Bluff and his men blew a monster to smithereens at a school dance. Doug is at first sad and believes that Herman has died, but he then realizes that the school dance isn't until tonight and that this is what is being planned, so Doug and Skeeter call the Sleech twins Al and Moo (also voiced by Korbich) to help.

At the school dance, Doug has to save Herman rather than being with Patti. When he does the former, Mr. Bluff catches Doug and Skeeter in front of Crystal Lake (a cleaner lake) after Herman escapes into it and plans to enslave them, but is stopped by Beebe and Mayor Dink. Beebe forces her father off of the scene to defend her friends, while Mrs. Dink hints at Mr. Bluff facing the wrath of the federal government if he does not clean up Lucky Duck Lake, which could bankrupt him and Bluffco due to lawsuits. Doug then finds Patti in front of the woods and tries to tell her he is in love with her, but is interrupted by Herman. With the return of Herman and a copy of the newspaper, Patti sees that Doug had been telling her the truth all along and dumps Guy for lying to her about all of this. Also, Skeeter gives Herman the Moby Dick book for something to eat in the lake and Herman also gives Doug a flower to give to Porkchop (also played by Newman) to which Porkchop comes running out of the woods into Herman's arms (earlier in the film, Porkchop was opposed to Herman, but softened up when the Monster gave the dog a gift). The kids say goodbye to Herman; after Herman jumps back into the lake, Doug tells Patti he likes her and Roger almost becomes friends with Doug, but is interrupted by Robocrusher. Doug starts dancing with Patti and Skeeter dances with Beebe as the music continues in the background. Doug closes his journal that even though he was worried about being a big loser, but he learned to do the right thing which is important. He also states that things are a little bit better in Bluffington. Mr. Bluff has volunteered to clean up Lucky Duck Lake, and he and Patti danced on the dock under the moon for quite some time. He wouldn't mind if it had gone on forever. Some huge bubbles from the water at the pond burst open on the surface once more.

Cast

Additional voice artists

Production

Nickelodeon was originally going to set out on doing a Doug film back in 1993, when they made a deal with 20th Century Fox, to make films based on their properties along with films like Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show, but the plans fell through when the deal expired in 1995, and the films were never produced (with the exception of Rugrats, which got a theatrical film by Paramount Pictures in November 1998).[2][3]

In 1996, when Disney bought Jumbo Pictures along with the cartoon, they decided to re-circle the project for the Doug film.[4][5] This film was originally planned as a direct-to-video release under the title The First Doug Movie Ever as shown in trailers, but due to the success of The Rugrats Movie, they decided to make it a theatrical release.

Release

Critical reception

The film garnered a 26% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with 9 of a total 34 reviews being determined as positive.[6] Critics were harsh to Doug's 1st Movie when it was released theatrically. Many noted that the film felt too much like an extended episode of the show (story and animation-wise) and many mention that the film should have stayed a direct-to-video release. Screenit.com awarded the film 4 out of 10. The reviewer mentioned it was mediocre and did not have "that magic or cinematic feel to warrant the big screen treatment" and it felt like the regular series.[7]

Box office

Doug's 1st Movie opened at #5 in its opening weekend with $4,470,489, for an average of $1,971 from a very wide 2,268 theaters. While this may be deemed as low for an average Hollywood film, Doug only cost $5 million to make due to its direct-to-video budget and a somewhat low-key promotional campaign. As such, the film still managed to gross $19,421,271 in ticket sales, creating a large profit for Disney and making it a box office success.

Home media

The film was released on VHS on September 21, 1999, and on DVD as a Disney Movie Club exclusive on July 20, 2012. The DVD used a TV edit when it was aired in Australia on the Seven Network with fade-ins and fade-outs in some parts to make way for the commercial breaks and the closing credits were sped up to fit the time slot.

References

  1. ↑ Doug's 1st Movie at Box Office Mojo
  2. ↑ Hinman, Catherine (May 19, 1993). "Nickelodeon Adds Movies To Its Credits". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Nickelodeon gets into movie business". Toledo Blade. June 7, 1993. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
  4. ↑ Burbank, Calif (January 14, 1999). "Disney and Jumbo Pictures Get Animated This March With the Theatrical Release of "Doug's 1st Movie"". Business Wire. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
  5. ↑ Eller, Claudia (March 9, 1999). "The One That Got Away : With 'Doug,' Nickelodeon's Loss May Be Disney's Gain". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
  6. ↑ Doug's 1st Movie at Rotten Tomatoes
  7. ↑ "DOUG'S 1ST MOVIE". screenit.com. Retrieved 2008-04-03.
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