Trivia / Animal Crackers (2017)

• All-Star Cast: Despite its status as an independent film, it managed to get quite a massive cast, including Emily Blunt, Danny DeVito, John Krasinski, Ian Mckellen, Sylvester Stallone, Raven-Symoné, Patrick Warburton, Wallace Shawn, Gilbert Gottfried, Harvey Fierstein, Tara Strong, James Arnold Taylor and Kevin Grevioux. And this doesn't even include the original musical performances by artists such as Howard Jones, Huey Lewis and the News, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and Michael Bublé.
• Descended Creator: Stabby the knife thrower is voiced by co-director Tony Bancroft.
• Doing It for the Art: Despite the corporate sounding premise, this film is actually a passion project for director/writer/producer Scott Christian Sava. He independently made the film after studios who optioned his works ended up not adapting them into film. Much of the film was directed from his basement and he even personally painted the film's poster himself. He's also very open on the film on social media, and has personally replied to nearly all of the trailer's YouTube comments, even the ones that are not hosted on his channel.
• Fake American: We have Emily Blunt, who's British, as Zoe. Ian Mckellen's character Horatio can also count, being that he's related to Owen, yet makes no commitment to hide his accent.
• Fake Nationality: Mario Zucchini is a very Italian name, yet the character is voiced by the Jewish American Gilbert Gottfried, who's Not Even Bothering with the Accent.
• The Other Marty: In the teaser trailer, Zoe and Owen were voiced by Tara Strong and James Arnold Taylor, who ended up voicing different characters in the final product, Talia and Buffalo Bob respectively.
• Playing Against Type: Danny DeVito as the kind-hearted, goofy and lovable mentor clown Chesterfield.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: Big time. Originally intended to be released on April 21, 2017 by the struggling Relativity Media, financial difficulties would force them to let go of the film. It was then set for release on September 1, 2017 by the upstart film studio Serafini Releasing before they disappeared soon afterwards, and then by Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures for a 2018 release, but they ended up doing absolutely nothing with the film for fourteen months before reverting the rights back to the producers. The film would in the meantime be released in China in July 2018, and the US release date would ultimately be set on July 24, 2020 on Netflix.
• Throw It In!:
  • Much of John Krasinski and Emily Blunt's lines were added in by the couple.
  • The scene in which Brock breathes on Owen was added when Patrick Warburton decided to goof around in the studio.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Originally, Kaley Cuoco was cast as Zoe, but a scheduling conflict would ultimately replace her with Emily Blunt. Also considered were Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, Joan Cusack, Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling, Mandy Moore, Gwyneth Paltrow, Shakira, Gwen Stefani, Uma Thurman and Shania Twain.
  • Robin Williams was first cast as Chesterfield, but his suicide would ultimately cast Danny Devito in the role instead. Also considered were Mel Brooks, Jim Carrey, Michael Caine, Billy Crystal, Morgan Freeman, Nathan Lane, Martin Short and Christopher Walken.
  • Jason Bateman, Bryan Cranston, Jimmy Fallon, Neil Patrick Harris, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ryan Reynolds and Jason Segel were considered for Owen.
  • Jeff Bridges, Willem Dafoe, Michael Douglas, Kelsey Grammer, Mark Hamill, John Lithgow, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Kevin Spacey and Patrick Stewart were considered for Horatio.
  • Taraji P. Henson, Rashida Jones, Nicki Minaj, Keke Palmer and Maya Rudolph were considered for Binkley.
  • Dwayne Johnson was considered for Bullet-Man.
  • John Leguizamo was considered for Mario Zucchini.

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