Animal Crackers (2017 film)

In 1962, brothers Bob and Horatio Huntington run a traveling circus, remaining on good terms despite carrying different ambitions. During a performance in Indiana, their gypsy partner Esmerelda introduces them to her niece Talia. The two brothers are instantly infatuated by her, but Talia gradually ends up falling for Bob, slowly infuriating Horatio. When he finds out about their engagement, Horatio tells Bob to either choose between Talia or himself to spend his future with. Bob ultimately decides to stick to his heart and marries Talia. On their wedding day, Esmerelda gives the couple a mysterious box as a gift, which allows for them open a new circus; Buffalo Bob's Rootin' Tootin' Animal Circus, known for their magical animals performing defying stunts.

Years later, Bob's young nephew Owen falls for a girl named Zoe during a performance at the circus. When they grow up, Owen proposes to Zoe with a clown's red nose in the middle of the circus ring. Everyone at the circus is initially excited, until Zoe's father Mr. Woodley persuades Owen to come work at his dog biscuit factory (to prove himself to his father-in-law), where he is given the position of taste testing. Meanwhile, Horatio, whose success has depleted since his split with Bob, begins sneaking into Bob's circus at night, trying to find the secret to the magic animals. One night, he gets into a scuffle with circus pets Old Blue the Bloodhound and Zena the cat when they discover him, and accidentally starts a fire that burns down part of the circus. Owen later learns later that Bob and Talia died in the fire, and he and Zoe, along with their daughter Mackenzie, attend their memorial service at the burnt down circus. Horatio makes an unexpected visit at the service, announcing that he's going take over the circus because of Bob's apparent "betrayal" for choosing Talia over him years before. He and his henchmen engage a fight with the performers, causing Owen and his family to leave the service.

Before the Huntingtons leave, circus pets Old Blue and Zena give them the mysterious box that opened the circus. In the car, Owen discovers that the mysterious box holds animal crackers. During a stop, Owen inadvertently eats one of them and turns into a hamster. To figure why, they return to the circus after finding a note explaining the cookies. They learn from clown Chesterfield that the animal crackers are the secret to the circus; they'll turn the user into the animal they eat, and that it always remains full of an unlimited amount of animals, but there's only one human cookie for each to change them back to their normal selves. Later, he tells the couple they've inherited the circus. While Zoe is excited, Owen, still wanting to prove himself to Mr. Woodley, is reluctant, and decides to remain at the dog biscuit factory. He continues his job there while Zoe restores the circus. Mr. Woodley, angered that his daughter left her job, begins to consider her fellow employee, egotistical saboteur Brock, to become his successor.

Zoe persuades Owen to come to the grand re-opening of Buffalo Bob's Rootin' Tootin' Animal Circus. However, it turns out to be a disaster when the audience finds out that there are no animals at the circus. Owen is at first reluctant to do anything, acknowledging he is not a performer, but is otherwise persuaded by Mackenzie, the other performers, and the dying audience. While he is at first suspicious of performing stunts as an animal, he soon grows to enjoy it, and by the end of the day, Owen decides to quit the dog biscuit factory, declaring that the circus is his family. However, as he finishes is packing up at the factory, Brock unwillingly takes the animal cracker box, eats one of the cookies and turns into a mandrill. To catch up with Brock, Owen turns into a lion, but Brock falls out of a window, where Horatio's henchman Mario Zucchini takes the box before Owen comes out and scares him away, forcing him to leave it behind in the process.

Returning home, Owen discovers he has lost the human cookie, meaning that he'll be an animal forever. Zoe doesn't accept this, but has hopes that Owen can adjust to life as a certain animal. Woodley's employee Binkley, who has been trying to come up with a new type of dog biscuit, discovers the magical animal crackers, and she persuades Mr. Woodley into going to the circus to see his family. Weeks pass, and Owen can not find a suitable animal to remain as, and his relationship with his family starts to suffer. One night, during a circus performance, Horatio arrives with Owen's human cookie, offering to turn him back to normal as long as he gives him the circus. Owen refuses, believing that he remain an animal as long as it'll keep his family together. Angered, Horatio forces Owen into the deal, while also bringing in his henchmen, now mutated into animal hybrids from the broken pieces of animal crackers brought by Mario earlier.

The circus performers discover Horatio's presence immediately afterwards and work together to stop the henchmen, and give Owen back the box. However, Horatio, dissatisfied with how they use the animal crackers, eats the remaining broken cookies he has and turns himself into a chimera. Old Blue and Zena then reveal themselves to be Bob and Talia; they explain that they escaped the fire, but their human cookies were destroyed, meaning they can never be human again. They ask Horatio to stop and redeem himself for his evil deeds. Horatio refuses, and flies up into the air with them. Owen, Zoe and Mackenzie work together to save Bob and Talia and capture Horatio, with Owen turning him into a hamster as punishment. Mr. Woodley, who saw the performance, reevaluates his views on the circus and allows Owen and Zoe to continue working there. He and Binkley decide to rework the failed dog biscuit experiments into a new circus souvenir. Owen and Zoe now work happily at the circus, with Owen going on the stage once more as a new transformation: a dragon.

The film's original score was composed by Bear McCreary,[1] and its soundtrack includes original songs by Toad the Wet Sprocket, Huey Lewis and the News, Howard Jones, and Michael Bublé.[23]

The film had its world premiere in competition at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival on June 12, 2017.[24][25] The film was originally set to be released on April 28, 2017 by Relativity Media, however, a financial crisis within the company prevented them from releasing the film. It was then set to be released on September 1, 2017 by upstart film studio Serafini Releasing before they also shut down.[26] A few months later, in November 2017, it was announced that Entertainment Studios would distribute the film worldwide. In April, Sava posted on Facebook that film was set for a release date of August 10, 2018.[27] The deal with Entertainment Studios was dropped in June 2018.[28]

It is scheduled to be released on July 24, 2020, by Netflix.[29][30]

• Animal Crackers on Netflix
• Animal Crackers on IMDb
• Animal Crackers at Rotten Tomatoes
• Animal Crackers at The Big Cartoon DataBase