Crash Bandicoot
Release date: June 6th, 2000.
Produced by: Universal Animation Studios, with Production Assistance from Wang Film Productions.
Directed by: Charles Grosvenor
Screenplay by: Doug Tennapel, with assistance by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin
Artwork by: Chris Zembellias and Bob Rafei
Starring:
David Siller as Crash Bandicoot
Clancy Brown as Doctor Neo Cortex and the Great Uka Uka
Kath Soucie as Tawna Bandicoot
Maurice Lamarche as Doctor Nitrous Brio
John Dimaggio as Tiny Tiger and Pinstripe Potroo
Budget: $50 million
Box Office: $ 200 million
Plot: After several years of ridicule by his peers, Dr. Cortex has had enough. He plans to bring the world under his heel with his mind control ray: THE CORTEX VORTEX. But the Cortex Vortex requires a power source, and Cortex manages to find one, a power crystal found in the ruins by his castles. In order to gain the operatives to gather the crystals in this hairbrained scheme, he begins mutating animals around his island castle to do his bidding. But with all plans, they tend to go awry. He fails to brainwash a male Bandicoot with the vortex, and in anger, Cortex throws him out the window in a crash. After washing up on a beach, Crash begins running about to find shelter only to be attacked by several of Cortex's army. This fight leads to Crash falling into another ruin with a power crystal. But he's not alone, Cortex's toady N. Brio and a group of scientists are also there to gain the crystal. They clash and Crash manages to take the crystal and escape. Battered by spin attacks and bounces, Brio returns to Cortex who is currently setting up the next brainwashing victim: a female Bandicoot named Tawna. Upon learning that this failure is being a nuisance, he sends another one of his minions after Crash to get the crystal: Tiny Tiger. They clash at The Native Fortress and this battle is every bit of a thrashing for Crash as Tiny just doesn't seem to take in pain. It's only by jumping through a path of fire torches and then jumping out of the way does Tiny fall to his seemingly inevitable end. It's off into the next area to gather the other crystal. These next areas include The Lost City; where he fights Koala Kong, Cortex's Generator Room; where Pinstripe tries to turn him into Swiss cheese, and finally Cortex's lab where the mad scientist lays with the final crystal and a shocking surprise, a fully brainwashed Tawna. Despite everything Crash goes through, he does not want to fight his crush, and so the fight plows through the lab until the two are on top of a hot air balloon. Cortex appears on his hover board to mock Crash and go for the kill, but his ray gun hits Tawna first and knock her off the balloon. Crash in anger and sadness, destroys Cortex's tech and sends him plummeting to his death. Thus the day is saved, but in a post credits scene, Cortex wakes up in another ruined seal and hears a voice:
“Free me”.
Production History: Despite the setback of losing the rights to Street Fighter, Universal still saw money in video game adaptions. Following that fallout, they looked to find their own ip with the idea of making films based on it if the game is successful. With this mandate in hand, Mark Cerny, head of Universal's game division would look through the industry for new ip's. In August 1994, Cerny would sign Boston studio Naughty Dog to a deal. They would create a character for them that would appeal to either kids or adults, but not both. In return, Universal would give them an modest budget to make the game based off this character. Seeing the success of Dreamworks's Sonic the Hedgehog, Universal knew it was time to put Crash to the big screen. Production would begin on the film in the summer of 1998, while the bulk of Naughty Dog continued development of Warped and Crash Team Racing.
“One thing we asked to do, was to have a semblance of creative control over the movie. Otherwise, it all too likely would have ended up like Super Mario Bros 4. This became part of a problem as Grosvenor turned out to be a massive control freak.”-Andy Gavin, on his time working on the film.
Reception and Box Office: With only $50 million used to produce and market the film, Crash would be a success in the eyes of everyone involved, grossing about $150 million domestically and $50 million for foreign territories. While considered a success out-grossing both Disney's Fantasia 2000 and decimating Fox's Titan A.E. 2 to 1, Crash Bandicoot would find itself out-grossed by Chicken run by a modest $25 million. The true litmus test would find itself coming forth later that Summer as Disney put their first video game adaption in 3 years and Dreamworks would put the cap on a successful trilogy.
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