Trivia / Toonstruck

• Acclaimed Flop: The game had a budget of $8 million (in 1996 money) and failed to get its money back.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Drew Blanc's sidekick is named "Flux".
  • It goes further in the French version of the game, where Flux's voice is perfomed by Luq Hamet... Who is the official french dubber for Michael J. Fox.
  • Also? Christopher Lloyd is turning into a toon. And the first sign of it involves a puzzle with a helium tube and a high, squeaky voice.
• All-Star Cast: This game has a stellar cast, with Christopher Lloyd and Ben Stein in live-action roles, and voiceovers by Tim Curry, Dom De Luise, Dan Castellaneta, and David Ogden Stiers. Also, if you're a 90's cartoon buff, you'll recognize voice actors such as Jim Cummings, Jeff Bennett, Tress MacNeille, Corey Burton, and more. It's a real treat with such recognizable names attached.
• Cast as a Mask: David Ogden Stiers is credited as the voice of King Hugh, however, we never actually see or hear the real King Hugh. The Hugh seen in-game is actually Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun, voiced by Tress MacNeille, in disguise, having locked the real King Hugh away somewhere in order to impersonate him.
• Dueling Works: Stay Tooned! came out the same year, another Adventure Game about a live action man having to interact with cartoon Refugees From TV Land.
• Executive Meddling: Virgin wanted the game to be the equivalent of a blockbuster and poured huge amounts of money into the animation and hiring Hollywood actors forgetting that the game tying it all together might need some as well. Three years and $8 million dollars later (including an engine switch and 18 months just getting the new one to work properly) the game was far from complete but released anyway.
• Fake Irish: The American Rob Paulsen as the barman (who switches between Irish and Scottish accents).
• Line to God: There is a Youtube channel by an animator, Laura Janczewski, who worked on Toonstruck, that reveals a lot of developmental material for the game including stuff from the unreleased sequel.
• Meaningful Release Date: The game was released on Halloween 1996, which fits its madcap and often dark tone. The game's Mascot Villain is Spike, a Monster Clown, and the entire second half of the game takes place in a spooky castle.
• Multi-Disc Work: The game is on two CDs. The US version makes them have vastly different designs, while European versions just slap a big number on them.
• Playing Against Type: Dom De Luise, who was known for playing Plucky Comic Relief characters, plays Fingers, a grouchy cynic who hates the cutesy characters around him. However, he still manages to be funny in this role, just in a different way than usual.
• Word of God: In a video focusing on the animations of the Malevolands, Laura Janczewski reveals Slab is the name of the bouncer who guards Seedy's.
• What Could Have Been: According an interview by lead designer, Richard Hare, the original idea for the game was going to be called "Trouble In Toonland" where a young boy named Daniel was sucked into a cartoon world that is terrorized by a black and white toon villain named Ghastly Graham. He would team up with a friendly toon named Gerald and stop Ghastly Graham from sucking out all the world's color. In contrast with how Toonstruck is more for the 13 and up crowd, this version would have been made for kids.
  • The game, as released, only uses about 1/3 of the completed animation. It was supposed to be 4 parts, all as long and complex as Disc 1 of the released game, but time and budget constraints forced the team to push it out with only 2 parts completed (and with the second part truncated, at that.) This Christmas Rushing is the reason the game ends on a cliffhanger.

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