Anthomation Assesses Foodfight

Howdy guys, Anthomation here. Today I shall review the hour-and-a-half atrocity that was Foodfight! (2012 film).

Foodfight! (2012) is an American animated film produced by Threshold Entertainment, which is the animation company founded by director, producer, and screenwriter Larry Kasanoff. Kasanoff, who produced the mid-90’s Mortal Kombat series, had not had much experience in the animation field prior to Foodfight!. For instance, the film was intended for a Christmas 2003 theatrical release, but after many production delays and a stolen-footage rumor, it ended up with a low-key direct-to-video release in 2012.

Foodfight! tells the story of a cereal brand mascot, Dex Dogtective, who, along with best friend Daredevil Dan, band together a group of “Ikes” in Marketropolis to fight against the forces of the evil Brand X, who threaten to take over the entire supermarket. 

The story in this movie is horribly written. This movie tries to establish rules with its world-building, but bails out on each rule it tries to set up. Similar to the plot of Night at the Museum (2006), the “Ikes” (or food products) exist in their world inside of the supermarket, which is only supposed to come to life at night after the supermarket closes up for the day. So explain why the villain of the movie, who I will describe later in this review, can disguise as a REAL human in the REAL life world interacting with REAL humans. It would be like if Woody started spontaneously talking to Andy for no apparent reason. In the climax, the “Ikes” are fighting off Brand X in a literal foodfight. This mere idea is already painful enough for those who don’t enjoy puns, but this literally goes for an half-an-hour! And it’s just the same two shots for an “Ike” throwing food and that same food landing on the Brand X army with crappy explosive effects.

In speaking of the animation, it is absolutely awful. There is no excuse for this quality, even with the massive production delay. And the worst thing is that it had a budget of $45 to 65 million! That is within the realm of most other modern day films in this field and by God, it looks this film had a budget of $4 to $6. The rendering here is horrendous! A sixth grade photoshop class could make something more appealing than this. The backgrounds are bland and terrible. And the animators had no idea what they were doing with the character designs. From a human-like Brand X representative that looks and behaves like a spastic rockstar from the ’80’s to a rodent that quite frankly looks like a poop rat, these abominations are the epitome of anyone’s worst nightmare. On top of that, every character has no facial expressions whatsoever and their mouths barely even sync up with the dialogue of the voice actors, so all of the characters emote through sporadic twirls and arm movements. It looks like C-3PO having a seizure.

With the story being horribly written, that makes the characters just as badly conceptualized. Just like the screenwriters, the characters are passionless and make no effort to be enjoyable or even likable. Everyone is a stereotype upon an even bigger stereotype. The protagonist is Dex Dogtective, voiced by Charlie Sheen. He is an anthropomorphic dog private investigator, as well as the owner of the Copabanana nightclub. There’s Daredevil Dan, voiced by Wayne Brady. He is Dex’s best friend and the comedy relief/African American stereotype. There’s the typical damsel-in-distress Sunshine Goodness, voiced by Hilary Duff. She has no purpose other than to be the love interest and the one Dex has to save. There is Lady X / Priscilla, voiced by Eva Longoria. She is the villian/femme fatale. And there are a TON of shameless product rip-offs, such as Mr. Clean, Charlie Tuna, Mrs. Butterworth, Twinkleton, and the Californian Raisins. Because this movie has no clue on who it is trying to appeal, it throws in out-of-place (and even concerning) innuendos. In fact, the final act contains Sunshine Goodness and Lady X in a fist fight and the male characters in the background, such as Daredevil Dan, cracking off jokes about their “melons”. As if this movie could not steep any lower.

This hopeless pile of manure has no shame whatsoever. The story is terrible and all over the place. The animation is abysmal and it would give people a headache just looking at it. And the characters are as unlikable and one-dimensional as can be. In my reviews, I will always have a group or demographic that the film can be recommended to even if it’s not that good. But this is NOT recommendable! Foodfight! is the WORST animated film I have seen! Unless you want to waste an hour-and-a-half of your life, DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE!!!

Grade:

0/10