Freddie as F.R.O.7
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| Freddie as F.R.O.7 | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jon Acevski |
| Produced by | Jon Acevski Norman Priggen |
| Written by | Jon Acevski David Ashton |
| Starring | Ben Kingsley Jenny Agutter Brian Blessed Billie Whitelaw Nigel Hawthorne Phyllis Logan James Earl Jones |
| Music by | David Dundas Rick Wentworth |
| Cinematography | Rex Neville |
| Distributed by | Miramax Family Films |
| Release date(s) | 1992 |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Freddie as F.R.O.7 is a 1992 British animated film written and directed by Jon Acevski. It is a parody of James Bond. The film was inspired by bedtime stories Acevski told to his son about his favourite toy frog working as a secret agent.
[edit] Plotline
In his early life, Prince Frederik, or Freddie, lived with his father in a handsome castle and was taught magical powers. His mother was killed in a storm at sea. One day, Freddie went horse riding outside the castle with his father, but after Messina spooked the horse his father was riding, his father fell to his death from a great height. Freddie witnessed a long, red cobra; he had never seen one of those in the forest before. Freddie became orphaned, and Messina took him in. Soon Freddie realises that the cobra he saw in the forest was Messina, and instead of killing Freddie, she transformed him into a frog and tried to capture him. Soon, both fall from the castle window and into the raging sea, and Freddie is saved in the jaws of a large sea monster. Messina blurts out she will rule the world and destroy Freddie. The monster turns out to be Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster. As Messina left, Nessie's tail became trapped by a boulder. She befriended Freddie, who in turn used his powers to free her tail from the boulder. Nessie took him near dry land, and notes that if Freddie ever needed her, he would whistle. Freddie then leaped into the night sky, and fell into Frogland, where he would spend the rest of his childhood.
Freddie eventually grows up to become a member of the French secret service, known as F.R.O.7. He is then called to London by the British Secret Service, as some major famous buildings in the United Kingdom are vanishing. By the time Freddie arrives, Nelson's Column, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, St. Pauls Cathedral, and Stonehenge are already missing. Freddie meets the Brigadier G (voiced by Nigel Hawthorne), who seems to have trouble keeping himself and his comrades from getting tangled up in the phonecord.
Freddie is introduced to Daffers and Scottie, a British woman who is an expert in martial arts, and a Scottish man who is an expert with weapons. Things take a turn for the worse as Canterbury Cathedral disappears. Freddie also meets Tribly, a sneaky member of the secret service.
After visiting the Grand National, Freddie discovers that the villain that is capturing the buildings is called El Supremo (voiced by Brian Blessed). Freddie also finds out that El Supremo is planning to steal Big Ben next. So Freddie, Daffers and Scottie hide on Big Ben and are captured by a giant robotic snake.
They go to a sneak secret island in Scotland and discover that El Supremo plans to use the buildings, by shrinking them to a size of a trophy and using them as batteries to a giant crystal, which will send a powerful sleeping virus across the world, which will put people to sleep and eventually kill them. Scottie then freaks out as the last required building is captured: Edinburgh Castle.
Freddie and Scottie and thrown into a pool of sea monsters, while Daffers is hypnotised into worshipping El Supremo and his mysterious cobra.
Freddie whistles and Nessie appears to save them both from being eaten, and Scottie is saved from drowning. Nessie shows her family to Freddie, who then asks them to help defeat El Supremo by submerging the patrolling submarines. Freddie and Scottie save Daffers from the snake guards in disguise and the three return to stop El Supremo from conquering the world. They have to battle an army of soldiers, but in the process, Daffers and Scottie come too close to the crystal's energy and fall unconscious. Freddie manages to infilrate the crystal's energy with his mind powers and destroys it, but also falls unconscious. El Supremo and his snake arrive to kill Freddie, but he, Daffers and Scottie defeat El Surpremo by shrinking him down to an ant's size and trapping him in a matchbox.
The snake then reveals herself to be Messina, and she battles Freddie by shapeshifting into a gargoyle, a hyena, a scorpion and a boa constrictor. But he uses his mind control to transform Messina into a buzzard and she flees. Brigadier G arrives in time, and Trilby is discovered to be a spy for the villains. Britain is restored to normal and Freddie heads off to deal with some villains in America.
[edit] Reaction
Freddie flopped. It received poor reviews in its home country, the United Kingdom, and despite huge media coverage of the making of the film on television and huge publicity, the public just weren't interested in the concept. A sequel, Freddie Goes To Washington was already in the works long before this film was released, but because of the poor performance at the box office, the project was shelved, never to be seen or heard of again.
Another impact to its fall was that it was made by an independent company, Hollywood Animation Studios. At the time, Disney was at its peak with its new releases, meaning other companies, such as Sullivan Bluth Studios (known for An American Tail and The Land Before Time) couldn't compete with the popularity of Disney.
The fact the film was a flop in the UK meant that overseas, the distributors released the film straight to video. An alternate version in the United States, not released until three years later, includes a title change (Freddie The Frog) and a new narration from James Earl Jones. Parts of the animation were also cut, including that of Freddie transforming Messina into a buzzard, and an almost entire song from the UK version was trimmed, replaced with a narration that was dubbed over by Jones. The film has more recognition in the States, and while some have praised the film, others either refer to it as a bad animated movie or a nasty acid trip. Despite this, it is still a very little known animated film, which to this date has never been released on DVD.
