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the wild thornberrys movie
But they all band together to save the elephants from poachers Sloan and Bree Blackburn. |
As with all Klasky Csupo projects, The Wild Thornberrys draws its strength from the smallest of things: if the details are right, believes Klasky, then everything else will drop into place. So the production team researched background and settings - from the animals of the Congo basin to the kind of dormitories found in a British boarding school - as thoroughly as any art director on a big-budget live-action feature.
“We decided that, if we’re going to take young people to all these marvellous places and expose them to such a wide variety of nature,” says Klasky, “we’d better portray every indigenous plant, every animal and all the natives as accurately as possible.”
This even extended as far as hiring a specialist in African languages to make sure that what the people of the Congo say is said in scrupulously correct Lingale. “In the past, there’s been a lot of misinformation about African cultures,” says Professor Malonga Casquelourd of San Francisco State University. “It’s a privilege to be involved with a film like this one that really strives to get it right.”
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“We decided that, if we’re going to take young people to all these
marvellous places, we’d better
portray every indigenous plant, every animal and all the natives as
accurately as possible” |
All this takes part behind the scenes, contributing to the success of the film in much the same way as, say, knowing that a dish in a restaurant has been prepared according to a time-honoured recipe contributes to, rather than creates, the pleasure of eating it. So The Wild Thornberrys Movie, as in The Wild Thornberrys TV series - and indeed in everything Klasky Csupo produce - the film is first and foremost entertainment.
All the same, reckons Boutilier, the environmental theme remains important and, in today’s eco-conscious world, is just as likely to appeal to young audiences as the chases and escapes.
“Writing this film was a true labour of love,” she says. “And if one young person walks out of the theatre feeling a greater sense of his or her own place in the world and a responsibility to the creatures on this earth, I will feel the movie has succeeded.”
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THE WILD THORNBERRYS MOVIE
Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies
present a Klasky Csupo production
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Prod: Arlene Klasky, Gabor Csupo; Exec prod: Albie Hecht, Julia Pistor, Eryk Casemiro, Hal Waite; Co-prod: Terry Thoren, Tracy Kramer, Norton Virgien, Sean Lurie; Dir: Jeff McGrath, Cathy Malkasian; Scr: Kate Boutilier; Voice dir: Charlie Adler; Casting; Barbara Wright; Mus: Drew Neumann; Mus sup: George Acogny.
With the voices of Brenda Blethyn (Mrs Fairgood), Rupert Everett (Sloan Blackburn), Lynn Redgrave (Cordelia Thornberry), Marisa Tomei (Bree Blackburn), Alfre Woodard (Akela), Michael Balzary aka Flea (Donnie Thornberry), Jodi Carlisle (Marianne Thornberry), Lacey Chabert (Eliza Thornberry), Tim Curry (Nigel Thornberry), Danielle Harris (Debbie Thornberry), Tom Kane (Darwin), Obba Babatundé (Boko).
International distribution:
Paramount Pictures/UIP.
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