Foodfight! Workprint Analysis and Discussion (Part 2)
Okay, we're back! So continuing right where the previous part of my analysis left off, Dex has been knocked unconscious by Lady X after figuring out Brand X were behind the rub-outs. He wakes up in a giant washing machine and sees Dan, also held captive in there. Now as I've talked about before, in the finished film it's a dryer, but in this workprint (and several early tie-ins such as the I Can Find It! book) it's a washing machine that slowly fills up with water. I've speculated that this change was made because it was a struggle for the animators to render water convincingly, but I've never actually heard if that was definitively the reason why it was changed. But on top of that, in the movie it's not really clear where this dryer is or how it exists in relation to the store. In this workprint, the Brand X tower is shown several times to have a large washing machine bolted to the side, with it being a cardboard promotional display next to the Brand X shelf in the real-world supermarket. This perfectly explains its appearance later on, and it's baffling as to why this was left out as a washer/dryer in the middle of a grocery store doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Dan explains to Dex what happened, and they figure out Lady X kidnapped Dan as bait to lure him right into her trap. She tells the Brand X Muffin Man to activate the spin cycle and...wait, the who? Okay, so for context, in the finished film this character is called The Brand X Lunchlady, but in the novelization, based off an earlier draft of the script, she's instead a character called The Brand X Mashed Potato Man. I fast became a fan of this character, honestly for little reason other than it's fun to say The Brand X Mashed Potato Man. But in this workprint he's instead called The Brand X Muffin Man...? He looks identical, so I'm going to take a guess and say this was just an early name for the Mashed Potato Man, as later in the workprint he's referred to as such. So basically, the changes this character went through over the years go something like this:
Muffin Man-> Mashed Potato Man-> Brand X Lunchlady
I mean, that's one hell of a transition, right? I don't know why they revised this character so many times and still couldn't even settle on their gender, but either way as a longtime fan of the Brand X Mashed Potato Man, it's exciting to finally hear his voice in this workprint. He only gets one line, but he sounds something like an evil Arnold Schwarzenegger, which is honestly just what I imagined back when I first read the novelization.
Lady X tells her henchmen they're taking over the store, and they proceed to head out and execute Kung Tofu. Or at least... the character CLAIMS they're Kung Tofu, but according to concept art the character actually shown in the storyboard is called Noodle Ninja. Was this a mistake made due to putting together the boards in a rush, did the storyboard artist not have Kung Tofu's model available when they were creating these, or did the two characters swap names at some point in production? You decide.
Meanwhile, Dex and Dan are trapped inside the washing machine, now violently spinning them around in a whirlpool of hot water. Just as it looks like they're done for, Dex manages to get the two of them out by escaping through the fabric softener hatch, which Dan somehow misinterprets as Dex making a move on him. I don't get it? Dex says "if only we could get closer..." but he's clearly referring to some way of escaping the washing machine, so I don't know how Dan mistook this as an invitation to get hot and heavy. Regardless, Dan makes it clear he's not up for dog intercourse while they're slowly being tortured to death, and the two make their escape. In comparsion, the movie's version of events has them escape the dryer by finding a sock and grabbing onto it as disappears through an air vent, with the only explanation for this being "socks always escape from the dryer". While that's true, socks usually get lost INSIDE the dryer, they don't literally escape by flying through air vents and out into the unknown. Overall, the workprint's version of this scene jusst makes more sense, despite the homoerotic faux-pas.
After their escape, Dex looks through a window into the Brand X war room and discovers they're building an entire army of the Xobytes he fought earlier. Now here's one of the most interesting changes in the entire workprint- in the movie, Dex is on the fence about stopping Brand X even after it's clear how much danger the store is in, and has to be talked into it by Dan. Here, as SOON as he sees the Xobyte army he says "I just had an idea" and springs back into action. Dan even questions this, saying he thought Dex didn't get involved anymore, but Dex simply responds "By the time this is over, you may wish I didn't". This makes Dex seem FAR more heroic- as soon as he's made aware of the threat Brand X poses, he immediately gets serious and decides to take action despite everything he's lost, never once doubting he has to do the right thing. Seeing Dex instantly take charge is far more appealing than the wishy-washy self-doubting characterization he's given in the movie, and while you might say the latter gives him more depth, I'd argue the former makes him more charming. There's nothing sexier than confidence, after all.
Dex and Dan sneak into the lab of nasal spray mascot Dr Si Nustrix, and ask him to analyze a sample of the Brand X elixir Dex "borrowed" from Lady X. The doctor takes a whiff of it, and while the dialogue in this scene is mostly the same as it is in the finished film, it's elevated a lot by the temporary voice actors giving far more convincing performances than the actual cast- I particularly love how emotional Dex gets at certain points, raising his voice and actually sounding like a person as opposed to an actor reading lines.
One notable difference is that Dan suddenly tells Dr Nuxtrix "Have I mentioned you look fabulous in that labcoat?" in the middle of their conversation. In the script it's mentioned he's just inhaled the elixir, somehow making Nustrix seem irresistible to him, but without that context, it looks like Dan just makes a move on Nustrix for no reason...which is DOUBLY confusing given the scene not two minutes ago where he rejects what he believes to be Dex flirting with him. If you hadn't read the script, you'd probably just think Dan wasn't into dogs and that neurotic doctors with giant noses were more his type. These kind of things are important to clarify, especially in storyboards which are SUPPOSED to dictate how your movie is going to look! But here, as with many other sequences, the entire scene is depicted with a single storyboard. You'd think they would have thought this would be relevant information to communicate to the animators before one of them animates Dan flirting with Nustrix for no reason but hey, what do I know?
Nustrix's analysis of the elixir shows it's both highly addictive and toxic to humans, and so Dex makes the decision to cross the store during the day, allowing them to get to Mr Leonard's computer and email the info to their market's corporate headquarters. This scene is mostly the same as it is in the movie, but there's an additional line where Dex points out the humans are in danger too. I think this raises the stakes a little and shows that what's happening with Brand X isn't just putting the store at risk but also the world outside it, so I'm not sure why it was cut, but hey- at least we get to see it here.
As the sun rises on Marketropolis, Dex laments that he let it get bad enough that there are whole aisles of Brand X products already, and that they better get going before they lose any more Ikes. However, right as they're about to make their way to Mr Leonard's office, the Brand X Mashed Potato Man/Muffin Man appears with a platoon of Brand X soldiers and hurls a pudding lid at the two. Dex and Dan backflip off the shelf and onto a cart below, and since this is an action setpiece we once again get to a fully storyboarded segment! I REALLY enjoy these, and I know I've said it before but they're absolutely the highlight of the workprint, second only to the actual sequences of completed animation we get to see. The action is so well directed and the boards are so lively and kinetic, a sense of constant movement and motion and cartoon expression that isn't anywhere to be seen in the finished film. It's like a glimpse at what Foodfight! could've looked like with a competent director at the helm.
This whole sequence is VERY different to how it is in the movie, and it's tough to describe since they're so different there's basically no comparing the two, but I'll give it my best shot. Here in the workprint, it's a HUGE exciting setpiece in the vein of something out of Indiana Jones or Ben-Hur, a dramatic shopping cart chase through the aisles of the store, Dex and Dan fighting off Lady X's henchmen attacking from all angles. There's martial arts, price-tag guns, a juicer, multi-cart drifting and more! ...And in the finished movie, it's a short 30 second scene with absolutely no action, no tension, no cartoony movements, and no fighting. Dan just falls onto a cart, is very briefly accosted by the Brand X Lunchlady, and Dex immediately shows up on a soda bottle to rescue him. I can't fathom why almost this entire sequence was removed from the finished film, but given how complex and intense the scene is and how by the end of production they were just trying to finish the film as quickly and as cheaply as possible, they likely just didn't have time to animate anything that actually looked cool.
Truly, this scene is a work of art and it's a shame we never got to see it fully realized. We get a single, beautiful, fully-rendered shot of Dex swooping in on a soda bottle at the very end, but that's it, gone as soon as it arrives. At least we get to see the storyboards of it though, you know? At least this piece of animated action survives in some form. I know I'm talking it up a lot, but it's a fantastic setpiece that truly shows the strength of making a movie set in a supermarket. Regardless of how you feel about Foodfight!, you surely have to admit- a shopping cart chase through the aisles of a store populated by food characters so tiny the carts look like unstoppable behemoths to them- that's an exciting concept just brimming with potential.
The excitement isn't over yet either, as the soda bottle crashes through the freezer aisle, leading Dex and Dan back into the Marketropolis, stranded in an area that looks like the Alps. Polar Penguin pulls up on a toboggan and offers the duo a lift, and another exciting chase ensues as they're pursued by an avalanche as well as Brand X soldiers on snowmobiles. Dan makes a very unusual joke about "squirrels chewing their nuts" that you can actually hear several crewmembers laugh at (a rare instance of people actually ENJOYING working on Foodfight!). They're promptly catapulted back out to the supermarket and into Mr Leonard's office, but not before telling Polar to bring as many Ikes as he can to the Copabanana and warn them about Brand X. This sounds like it would've been another fun action-packed scene, and I love the storyboards we get to see of it even despite them changing to the less appealing Photoshopped ones halfway through.
But wouldn't you know it? None of this made it into the movie either, with it instead being an incredibly short 15 second scene where Dex and Dan fly in on the soda bottle, tell Polar about Brand X, then fly back out again. No chase, no avalanche, no snowmobiles, nothing. The Foodfight! workprint never ceases to amaze me... and the actual movie never ceases to disappoint me. Given the snowmobile chase was in all versions of the script I have AND the novelization, this was likely another last-minute cut due to it being too complicated to animate and needing to rush the movie as fast as they could. But maybe they wouldn't have HAD to rush the movie to completion if Larry Kasanoff hadn't wasted several years and millions of dollars stalling production, you know? Food for thought!
Dex and Dan make their way into Mr Leonard's office and come across Vlad Chocool, an Ike who managed to survive being wiped out by the Xobytes due to already being undead. All of Vlad's dialogue is different here, as in the finished movie he's voiced by Larry Miller, who improvised all over the few lines he was given, throwing in all kinds of rambles, riffs and little jokes. When I first read what Vlad's dialogue was initially supposed to be in the novelization and early scripts, I preferred Larry Miller's take on the character as he was far funnier and made a whole meal out of the few breadcrumbs of dialogue he had to work with. However, I think the voice and dialogue here fit far better in the world Foodfight! takes place in. As funny as Larry Miller was, his version of the character does just feel like a standup comedian doing his own thing rather than a natural part of the movie (especially since all the cast recorded separately and so nobody actually responds to anything he says). Here, the dialogue given to Chocool actually makes him seem like a grocery mascot like the others. In addition, he's given a stereotypical vampire accent, sounding just like the Count from Sesame Street, and you just can't go wrong with that kind of voice.
I also like that Mr Leonard's office actually LOOKS like an office here- in the finished film it looks like a morgue, and while it's very briefly explained that the Ikes call it the "Expiration Station" and so this is just what it turns into after dark, it's never really made as clear as it should be. I think the simpler design of a real-world back office is much better- it helps sell the gravity of the situation, that they're not in the cartoony Marketropolis anymore and that this is the real world with real stakes.
While Brand X soldiers seal the trio in the office, Dex uses Mr Leonard's computer to try and send out a recall, discovering in the process they had Sunshine recalled, as well as a rival prune mascot called Priscilla Pussly. And man, I REALLY love the acting here. Dex sounds genuinely FURIOUS upon finding this out, his voice bitter and filled with regret. Compared to Charlie Sheen's flat, lifeless delivery of the same line, delivered with all the emotion of someone who's just discovered they have a pebble in their shoe. I know all voices in this workprint were just scratch track and so they were never going to be used in the finished film, but they SHOULD have been, they're so much better than any of the actual cast. They fit the characters better, they put more emotion in the delivery, they have natural chemistry with each other, it's night and day.
While Lady X gives a Hitler-esque speech about "sending all the undesirables to the Expiration Station", our trio escape the office through an air vent, Vlad displaying an impressive ability to turn into a bat that he never shows in the finished film (where instead simply flapping his arms somehow allows him to fly). The storyboards for this scene are incredibly detailed, and really show off how appealing the character designs look in 2D. I'm not sure why this particular scene is more detailed than so many of the others, but given the mish-mash of styles this workprint consists of, it's not particularly surprising. As Ikes start turning each other in, we hear a conversation between Hairy Hold and the few remaining members of the USDA, with them blaming Hairy for putting Brand X in charge. Hairy insists it'll all work out, but you can tell by the shakiness in his voice he's trying to convince himself more than anyone else. This last part isn't in the movie (although it IS in the novelization and script), and I really wish it had been as it shows just how bad things have gotten in Marketropolis and how Lady X sowed seeds of distrust among the Ikes until the community they had with each other fell apart. It really is bizarre, I feel the scenes cut from the finished film are always the cool ones. There's never an additional scene in this workprint I feel doesn't add something, or wouldn't have improved the movie had it been left in. Usually with deleted scenes you can see why they were deleted, but none of these feel like they should've been deleted at all.
It's now we get to one of my favorite scenes in the entire workprint. Just as Dex instructed, Polar has gathered as many Ikes as he can at the Copabanana to form a rag-tag resistance against Brand X. Dex still hasn't showed, and Lieutenant X walks in claiming he's been discontinued, and that they'll all suffer a long, cruel expiration unless they sing their allegiance to Brand X. Oscar Mayer refuses to sing the Brand X anthem, saying "my bologna has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R!" and Lieutenant X prepares to skin him alive, just as Dex bursts in and tells them to "play it".
Now in the movie, it's Francois Fromage, a fictitious mascot made up specifically for the movie, and they start singing the "USDA Anthem", a similarly fictitious song sang to the rhythm of La Marseillaise. Obviously this is a homage to the La Marseillaise scene from Casablanca, but the scene doesn't really land at all. It feels unsure of what emotion it's trying to evoke- is this supposed to be serious? If so, it doesn't work. Is this supposed to be funny? If so, the joke doesn't scan.
But in the workprint, they start singing the Oscar Mayer Weiner jingle and the first time I heard this a huge smile spread across my face. Not because it's a recognizable song, but because using this instead of the fictitious "USDA Anthem" actually makes the scene work and makes it clear what they were going for! It's the inherent ridiculousness of taking something as serious as Casablanca, and applying it to something as ridiculous as grocery store mascots singing a commercial jingle. It's the juxtaposition of the weight all the characters give it with the wackiness of the situation, singing a song about weiners like it's the most important thing in the world, like this show of camaraderie puts their very lives at risk. I just really love this scene, and I think had it made it into the finished film it would've been by far the comedic highlight of the entire movie. It just WORKS, and it's a genuinely funny and clever idea executed well. Lieutenant X retreats, but promises to return soon and pulverize them all.
The next few scenes are mostly the same as they are in the finished film- Dex tells the Ikes he's got a plan to stop Brand X and that they'll need all the plastic wrap and trashbags in the store, while Lady X prepares her evil army and says they'll take no prisoners. However, an INCREDIBLY strange moment follows this. Lady X spots Dex's resistance and tells her army to attack and annihilate...and out of nowhere, we hear an unusually realistic scream, like someone was shot in the face in the middle of recording. I'm NOT making this up- go to 47:13 in the workprint if you want to hear for yourself. I mean, what happened here? Why is this in the workprint? What purpose does it serve? Why is it so fucking loud? Did Larry Kasanoff randomly kill a crewmember in the middle of the script reading? It's completely bizarre. I mean, have you EVER heard of an early workprint of a movie having hyper-realistic screaming randomly inserted into the audio track? Of course you haven't, that's insane, it's like something out of a creepypasta! As puzzling as this is however, it's unlikely we'll ever get an answer as to what it's doing here, so I guess we should just move on.
The resistance surround the Brand X army, Dex does a Suicide Squad-style title drop (the voice actor here delivering the line AMAZINGLY), and the battle for supermarket supremacy begins! This is once again a properly storyboarded sequence, and it looks fantastic, selling the impact of the battle in a way the finished movie never does. Even though most of the basic beats of the fight are the same, the way it's boarded makes it look far more action-packed and dynamic. There's even an additional scene where Polar gets catapulated around the battlefield on food the Ikes are throwing, and it looks like it would've been visually fantastic. Come to think of it, is Foodfight! the only movie in history where the storyboards ended up looking better than the final product?
This is followed by yet another properly boarded sequence, in which Dan and a squadron of flying Ikes set out to destroy the Xobyte army, and it looks fantastic as well. Despite the content of the scene being more or less the same as in the movie, only with Sonny the Cocoa Puff bird being present here instead of Jet Pack Jeffery (I talked about this in my last post), it's just executed far better. I honestly think whoever drew these boards should've been the director instead of Kasanoff, as they clearly knew a lot about animation and what makes scenes look good. If you haven't already, I seriously recommend checking out the workprint for yourself.
The next few scenes proceed mostly the same as in the finished film- Cheazel offers to help Dex and Maximilius with their plan, Lord Flushington is captured and Lady X threatens to cut out his tongue, Hairy Hold finally snaps and joins the resistance, Polar Penguin is wiped out by an Xobyte, and Dex asks Dan to fly him over the Brand X tower so he can destroy the Xobytes' fuel source. In the actual movie, this series of scenes DRAGS and goes on far longer than it should, but here it's a much brisker and shorter few minutes, communicating all the same information and story beats but in MUCH less time. Seriously, in the finished film they waste so long on random scenes of characters getting pelted with food, Brand X tanks preparing to fire ketchup, an entire segment where the Ikes prepare their plan to the tune of a song called "Fire In Our Skies", and none of it adds ANYTHING to the plot, it's just there to fill time. Thankfully, all of that is left out of the workprint and instead the scenes here focus on progressing the characters and story.
One of the interesting things I noticed about these few scenes is that the part where Lord Flushington is captured is represented by a wholly unique piece of art not seen anywhere else in the workprint. Why they had concept art drawn up for such a minor scene is beyond me, it doesn't really add a whole lot to the plot or do anything visually unique. On top of that, during the scene where Polar is wiped out by an Xobyte, we see Maximilius roll a can of Campbell's soup to crush General X. This is because at one point, Campbell licensed out their brand and characters to be used in the film- there's even a scene in the script (but left out of the workprint) where Sunshine plays kickball with the Campbell Kids, former mascots for the company. However, by the time the movie came out the Campbell's soup was replaced by Dinty Moore stew, and the Campbell Kids were replaced with generic children.
Cheazel has agreed to help the resistance with their plan to take down Brand X, and so slithers through the sewers to cut the phone line connected to the store's fire alarm, allowing the Ikes to set off the sprinklers without the fire department being alerted. The Mashed Potato Man/Muffin Man attempts to stop him, but is promptly crushed by the the falling telephone pole. This is another properly-storyboarded scene, showing every detail of Cheazel's motion throughout the sequence, and it's once again chock-full of squash-and-stretch goodness. I really think if the movie had been animated this way, Cheazel would've been a fan favorite character- the way he moves and conducts himself is just so charming and silly, and it's a cartoony style of movement rarely attempted in 3D. I mean think about it, most 3D animated movies of the era (and even now) don't put an emphasis on exaggerated movements or cartoony physics the way Foodfight! does- they mostly go more for realism, with characters moving in much the same way an actual person would. I think had Foodfight! come out in 2003 or 2004 in the artstyle we see in the animated sequences from this workprint, it would've been a unique breath of fresh air compared to everything else that was coming out at the time.
As Dex parachutes into the Brand X tower, Maximilius tells Lord Flushington "Time to flick your Bic!" and he leaps into the air with a lighter, bringing it right up close to the store's smoke detector and activating the sprinkler system, causing a flood that slowly destroys Brand X's cheap cardboard buildings.
In the finished film, there's no flood at all- Dex's plan to stop Brand X instead being to start a lightning storm, using lightning rods made of aluminum foil to divert the bolts of electricity towards Brand X's buildings. The aforementioned scene with Cheazel is instead him cutting the power lines to the whole store to start the lightning storm, and this scene with Flushington is instead a conversation between him and Maximilius about how Dex's plan is working. I have no idea why the flood was changed to a lightning storm, but as mentioned before with the washing machine being changed to a dryer, it seems likely the change was made due to animators having problems rendering water. It's unclear exactly when this change was made as well- the script from 2005 has it as a flood, the tie-in "I Can Find It!" book has it as a flood, but the Deluxe Sound Storybook has it as a lighting storm. And to FURTHER complicate things, the novelization features a weird hybrid of both- Cheazel cuts the power lines, but Flushington then needs to jump into the sewer and spread water across the floor of the supermarket to electrify the live wires. So it seems like a change made incrementally over various script drafts, with them paring the idea down more and more to feature less water until it was removed entirely and it was only the lightning storm. It's honestly baffling to me that they ended up cutting almost all instances of water from the plot, as obviously the flood using the sprinkler system makes a lot more sense and fits with the theming of it being a grocery store. I mean, even if they were having trouble rendering water, have you ever heard of a movie being THIS hydrophobic?
Dex uses a grappling hook to destroy the Xobytes' fuel source, only to then spot Sunshine, tied up in a laundry hamper being wheeled away by Lady X. In the movie, the scene simply cuts off as soon as Dex destroys the fuel source, reusing animation from earlier in the movie to bridge the gap to the next scene. However this scene IS in the novelization, so it's fascinating to actually get to see a visual representation of it after previously only getting to read about it. Quick sidenote though- what's going on with the geometry in this scene? I know these storyboards were hastily photoshopped together, but look at the room they're in for more than 5 seconds and it starts to look like something from the mind of M.C. Escher.
Dex defeats Lieutenant X, and he's finally reunited with Sunshine. In the movie, this is the scene with the infamous line "I'm not the one who's going to be puppy-whipped, you cold-farted itch!" but here that's entirely absent. It's not in the draft of the script from 2005 either, nor is it in the novelization. It IS in the the draft of the script from 2007 however, pointing to it being an incredibly late addition to the film, and I'll give you three guesses as to who wrote it (I actually don't know, but given everything we know about Lawrence Kasanoff and the fact that he has a writing credit on the script, it seems incredibly likely it was him). I can't decide whether the movie is better or worse without this line- on one hand, it IS incredibly stupid, but on the other hand it's SO stupid it actually loops back around to being funny due to the sheer ridiculousness of it.
Meanwhile, in another scene that was cut from the finished film but WAS in the novelization, the flying squad realize the Xobytes are out of ammo and prepare to bust their stingers. It's not a particularly significant scene, but once again it's fascinating to finally see something I'd previously only been able to read about. One interesting detail of this scene is that a bee character is included in this scene, who isn't in any of the other storyboards of the flying squad and isn't in the novelization's version of the scene. According to several early storyboards for the original pitch reel, this character's name is either Drone Rivers or Busy Bee, and she was replaced in the finished film by Hedda Shopper, a parrot character. We did get to see Drone Rivers/Busy Bee earlier in the workprint in a fully animated scene, but she more or less disappeared from the plot after that, so it's bizarre to see her suddenly show up again right at the very end.
We also get another properly-storyboarded sequence of the Energizer Bunny taking out a platoon of Brand X soldiers using some slick martial arts moves, and although I think this is an odd time for a scene like this, it looks like it would've been awesome. It reminds me of how every movie in the early 2000s had a parody of the slow-motion kick from the Matrix- although this isn't quite the same as that, it has the same vibe, with the part where he spins around in the air taking out four soldiers at once being particularly similar.
Meanwhile, Dex and Sunshine try to escape the collapsing Brand X tower, and just as the flood is about to completely destroy the place, Dan flies in on his plane and rescues the two of them. This is another of the highlights of the workprint for me- after Dan sucessfully rescues the two of them, Sunshine says she just knew he could do it, and the voice actors for Dex and Dan improvise a bit where they keep saying "me too", with Dex sounding increasingly bemused before everyone starts cracking up. It's such a natural, spontaneous moment that demonstrates the chemistry they all have, and it's the kind of moment you only get by having all the cast together in one room. I've said it before and I'll say it again, these definitely should've been the voices in the actual movie.
It's not over yet however, as Mr Clipboard stomps in and attempts to destroy the store. Interestingly, the storyboard for this sequence is put together using an actual 3D render of the Marketropolis, something not used at any other point in the workprint. Also, unlike the movie there's quite a striking shot of Mr Clipboard framed against the night sky, having opened the loading dock door and turned off the fire alarm, allowing the water from the flood to drain out. It's not a huge deal, but it's one of the little changes the workprint makes that reminds you despite looking like a city, Marketropolis is still just an ordinary grocery store underneath it all. Dex gets Maximilus Moose and Lola to trip Mr Clipboard with a piece of dental floss, revealing him to actually be a human robot piloted by Lady X. Lady X then reveals herself to actually be Priscilla Pussly, Sunshine's old rival, and she's taken away by Dan. This scene is mostly the same as it is in the movie and novelization, so I don't feel the need to discuss it yet again- but I still like to recap the plot each time just to make sure nobody reading gets confused.
In a scene previously only depicted in the novelization, Mr Leonard enters the store the following morning to find all the Brand X products destroyed. Not having any idea of what happens when his store closes at night, he utters "I must be dreaming..." as we transition to one month later. A new shipment of cereal arrives at the store, with Mr Leonard saying he's been expecting this. He pulls out a new box of Cinnamon Sleuth Cereal, now with Sunshine Goodness Raisins added to the mix, and happily declares it looks like a best seller. This is where the novelization ends, and I remember reading it for the first time and being blown away that it had a completely different ending to the finished film. I vastly prefer it as well-it's much more grounded and low-key, and anchors the resolution of the story back to the real-world supermarket it's taking place in. In addition, the idea that Dex and Sunshine's marriage is represented by his cereal now having her raisins in it is adorable, despite raising several logistical questions about how marriage works in Marketropolis. I'm really glad we got to see this ending onscreen in some form, and it reminds me of just how lucky we were to actually get to see an early version of the movie.
Finally, the workprint ends with one last shot of the Copabanana, Dex and Sunshine happily celebrating their wedding as everyone starts clapping and cheering. And that's the end of the Foodfight! workprint! What did you think? Were you satisfied finally getting to see the original version of the movie that had been talked up for over a decade? Were you disappointed there were only around 6 minutes of completed animation in it and the rest was just storyboards of varying quality? I'd love to know what everyone thinks, but personally I couldn't be happier we finally got to see this. It's an ENTIRE early cut of the film, it's written and acted much better, the storyboards (when they're drawn properly) look amazing, and the completed animation we get to see is fantastic.
The first time seeing this, I literally dropped everything I was doing to sit and watch the whole thing because it just blew my mind that after a decade of the movie being "lost" (the fabricated theft story making people believe it'd never be found) that we finally got to see what Foodfight! was originally going to look like, as well as various scenes I'd previously only read about in the novelization. Is it better than the finished film? Absolutely, a hundred times yes. I personally consider this THE definitive version of Foodfight!, and I couldn't be happier the movie I've spent so long writing about has finally been recovered as best as it possibly can.
And so you'd think with the workprint found and almost all the original animation recovered (there were only ever 7 minutes fully animated and rendered, between the workprint and other sources of footage we've got 6) that would be it for Foodfight!, right? That's what I thought too, and I was planning on wrapping up this blog after finishing my analysis of the workprint. I even had a final post planned where I'd reflect on my experiences writing about Foodfight! and working on ROTTEN, as well as showing off my collection of merchandise (which has grown considerably over the past few months). But as is often the case with this movie, something new was brought to our attention and yet ANOTHER piece of Foodfight! history was uncovered, one everyone also once believed to be lost forever. I can't talk about it yet, but rest assured when I can you'll all be the first to hear about it. Truly, a Foodfight! blogger's work is never done, so stay tuned for the last chapter in the Foodfight! saga...for real this time!
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