| Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Pierre DeCelles |
| Written by | Jim Carlson Terrence McDonnell |
| Based on | Pound Puppies Tonka |
| Produced by | Donald Kushner Peter Locke Diana Dru Botsford |
| Starring | Brennan Howard B. J. Ward Nancy Cartwright Tony Longo |
| Edited by | John Blizek |
| Music by | Richard Kosinski Sam Winans Bill Reichenbach Jr. Ashley Hall Bob Mann |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 77 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6 million[1] |
| Box office | $586,938[2] |
Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw is a 1988 Americananimatedmusicaladventure film based on theTonka toy line and theHanna-Barbera television series of thesame name, which had debuted two years before the film was released.[3] It was directed byPierre DeCelles, and stars the voices ofBrennan Howard,B.J. Ward andTony Longo. This was the only animated feature film produced byCarolco Pictures as well as the first animated film distributed byTri-Star Pictures.
The Legend of Big Paw was the final theatrically released animated feature from the late 1980s to promote a major toy line, a common trend in the American cartoon industry of the time. The film received negative reviews from critics and audiences alike and was a majorbox office bomb, grossing only $586,938 against a $6 million budget.
On Whopper's way to the museum with his niece and nephew, he tells them about the origin of Puppy Power, the ability of humans to communicate with the Pound Puppies and Purries.
In theDark Ages, specifically the 950'sAD, a boy, namedArthur and his dog, Digalot came across a stone which contained both the mythical sword,Excalibur and the magical Bone of Scone. Well Arthur had pulled the sword from the stone, Digalot had pulled the Bone of Scone from the stone, and soon afterward Arthur and Digalot discovered that they could now understand one another.
Sir McNasty, the Black Knight, who had witnessed the withdrawals and Arthur's coronation asKing of England, had planned to conquer the world by retrieving the bone. But it was kept hidden by the giant guardian, Big Paw.
In the 1950's, the Bone of Scone is in a museum in an unnamed American city. Pound owners, Tammy and Jeff hold a press conference to announce that the pound will be holding an adoption bazaar in commemoration of the bone's thousand-year anniversary. The direct descendant of Sir McNasty, Marvin McNasty arrives at the pound, wishing to adopt some puppies.
Whopper discovers McNasty's true intentions; McNasty will use his Mean Machine to transform the puppies into vicious guard dogs, steal the Bone of Scone, and use its power and his canine army to conquer the world.
Whopper attempts to warn his friends, but their leader, who is the direct descendant of Digalot, Cooler does not believe him at all, because Whopper has a habit of telling tall tales. Whopper then follows McNasty's henchmen as they attempt to steal the Bone of Scone, but they accidentally break it in two; resulting in the loss of Puppy Power.
Whopper takes one half of the bone with him back to the pound, only for the henchmen to kidnap him and Collette, and take the half of the bone. Cooler and the rest of the Pound Puppies head out to rescue them and retrieve the stolen half.
Collette and Whopper escape from McNasty's lab, and briefly reunite with the rest of the Puppies. But McNasty's henchmen recapture them. The Puppies give chase, but almost 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 help them.
When the Puppies try to enter McNasty's house, they are captured and transformed into guard dogs, except for Cooler, who escapes by posing as a Purry, as McNasty is allergic to cats. Big Paw brings him and the Purries back to town to stop the evil trio, who have taken over the pound and dug their way into the museum where the villains glue the bone back together; restoring Puppy Power. Big Paw and Cooler arrive and the rest of the Puppies are turned back to normal when they hear the words "I love you".
McNasty and his henchmen try to escape with the bone, but Big Paw and Cooler chase them back to the museum, where the Mean Machine turns the villains into good men. Big Paw and Nose Marie retrieve the Bone of Scone.
Whopper, and his niece and nephew find themselves in the museum. The Bone of Scone has returned for another visit, and Whopper introduces Big Paw as a surprise for the young ones, who did not believe before that he was real.
The film's music was directed bySteve Tyrell, with an original score byRichard Kosinski,Sam Winans,Bill Reichenbach Jr.,Ashley Hall and Bob Mann. The six musical numbers, influenced by popular songs and standards from the 1950s and after,[4]: 209 were composed by Ashley Hall and Tyrell, written byStephanie Tyrell, and recorded at the Tyrell-Mann and Tempo Recording Studios in Los Angeles.
| Title | Based on | Performer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| "At the Pound" | "At the Hop" | Ashley Hall | |
| "Now That You're Here" | — | Cathy Cavadini | |
| "The King of Everything" | "Riot in Cell Block Number 9" | George Rose | 1:56 |
| "All in Your Mind" | "Who Do You Love?" | Ashley Hall | |
| "I'm a Puppy Too" | "Duke of Earl" | Mark Vieha | |
| "Puppy Power's Back" | "Jailhouse Rock" | Cast |
Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw was produced byCarolco Pictures andAtlantic/Kushner-Locke along with The Maltese Companies, financed byTonka, the original owners of the Pound Puppies franchise, and distributed byTriStar Pictures.[5] The film's director, Pierre DeCelles, was also an art director and directing storyboard artist.
According to DeCelles, production took five and a half months, starting in the fall of 1987.[6] The first two and a half months were spent on preparing its layouts and storyboards, and the remaining time on the animation, backgrounds and shooting. The overseas work was done byWang Film Productions andCuckoo's Nest Studio, two Taiwanese companies known for their contributions to children's animated television series.
The film's animation and character design were different from 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 theatrical run,The Legend of Big Paw played mainly in matinees[7] and only grossed US$586,938.[8] The film was Carolco's sole family feature, and distributor TriStar's only animated feature untilThe Trumpet of the Swan (2001). It 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 films based on theCare Bears,My Little Pony andTransformers.[4]: xv–xx
Critical response was negative during its initial run. The Hollywood trade magazine,Variety, called it "uninvolving and endlessly derivative".[4]: 209 The Sacramento Bee deemed it "miserably drawn" in comparison to whatDisney was offering at the time,[9] and theSan Francisco Chronicle gave it an "empty chair" rating.[10] A reviewer in theDetroit Free Press found it "dull and unoriginal", but praised thesongs that were written for it.[11]
Martha Baker of theSt. 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.[5]
Writing forThe Animated Movie Guide by animation expertJerry Beck, Stuart Fisher gave one star out of four, and saw the film's artistic quality as "a mixed bag". He continued: "[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 uplimitations of the animation technique".[4]: 209 Moreover, Fisher andThe Philadelphia Inquirer took note of its purpose as a toy commercial,[12] a trend that was prevalent in the animation industry during the late 1980s.
Family Home Entertainment releasedPound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw on the VHS format on September 14, 1989. Its successor,Lionsgate, released aregion 1 DVD on October 24, 2006.[13] Like the Hanna-Barbera TV series before it, the film also enjoyed airplay on theDisney Channel during the early to mid-1990s.[14]
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