The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure is a 2012 American live-action children's musical comedy adventure film that is loosely based on the children's TV series "My Bedbugs" by Alex Greene & Carol Sweeney, starring Toni Braxton, Cloris Leachman, Christopher Lloyd, Chazz Palminteri, Cary Elwes and Jaime Pressly.
The movie was marketed as an "interactive film" as the Oogieloves encourages the audience in the theater to sing and dance along.
It was released in theaters on August 29, 2012 by Kenn Viselman Presents & Freestyle Releasing and was a critical & a box office bomb.
Plot[]
| Spoiler Warning: The following contains important plot details of the entire film. |
The movie begins with an introduction explaining the movie's interactive theme and introducing the Oogieloves, Goobie, Zoozie and Toofie.
The Oogieloves awake to prepare a surprise birthday party for their living pillow Schluufy, with the help of magical window Windy Window, vacuum cleaner J. Edgar & fish Ruffy, but after J. Edgar accidentally releases the five magical balloons that they bought for Schluufy, the Oogieloves set out to find them.
The first balloon is discovered at the treehouse home of Dotty Rounder (Cloris Leachman) and her daughter Jubilee (Kylie Dakota), who is obsessed with circles.
The second balloon is found at the milkshake cafe of Marvin Milkshake (Chazz Palminteri), who has them participate in a milkshake contest for the balloon.
The third balloon is found in possession by Rosalie Rosebud (Toni Braxton), a pop singer who denies that she has an allergy to roses.
The fourth balloon is by the truck of cowboy Bobbly Wobbly (Cary Elwes) who has an unusual walk.
The final balloon is found on top of a windmill where the Oogieloves retrieve it with the help Lola and Lero Sombrero (Jaime Pressly and Christopher Lloyd), who ride a giant flying sombrero.
Just before they reach home with all the balloons, the Oogieloves accidentally drop them again but blow kisses to persuade them to return. They then hold the surprise party for Schluufy, who didn't wake up until just before their return.
Cast[]
- Malerie Grady as the voice of Toofie
- Alex Greene as Toofie (in-suit performer)
- Stephanie Renz as the voice of Zoozie
- Carol Sweeney as Zoozie (in-suit performer)
- Misty Miller as the voice Goobie
- Eric Dunman as Goobie (in-suit performer)
- Toni Braxton as Rosalie Rosebud
- Cloris Leachman as Dottie Rounder
- Christopher Lloyd as Lero Sombrero
- Chazz Palminteri as Marvin Milkshake
- Cary Elwes as Bobby Wobbly
- Jaime Pressly as Lola Sombrero
- Maya Stange as Windy Window
- Nick Drago as J. Edgar
- Alecia Jai Fears as Rochelle Rosebud
- Kylie O'Brien as Jubilee Rounder
- Taras Los as Schluufy the Pillow
- Randy Carfagno as Ruffy
- Guistina Chirco as Marna
Production[]
"The Oogieloves" movie was written by Scott Stabile & produced by Kenn Viselman (who was behind the American localization of the British children's TV series "Teletubbies" and "Thomas & Friends").
Viselman claims that he and Teletubbies creator Anne Wood had multiple disputes with each other, because Wood refused to let Viselman pursue a film adaptation of the show.
After Viselman saw Madea Goes to Jail in theaters where he saw the audience members shouting out advice to the characters onscreen, he was was partially inspired to create a children's film in the vein of the Teletubbies with the interactive aspect that allows children to sing, dance & respond to the characters on screen.
He felt that "The idea of interactivity isn't new, but the idea of interactivity in a theater is."
Box Office[]
"The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure" ranked at #26 at the box office, grossing $443,901 during its opening weekend with an average of only $206, becoming the biggest box office bomb of all time for films released in at least 2,000 theaters.
After three weeks, the movie closed in theaters on September 20, 2012.
Critical Reception[]
The movie was panned by critics and has a 27% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 22 reviews and a score of 32% on Metacritic, based on 11 reviews.
Loren King from the Boston Globe considered The Oogieloves to be a "dumbed-down mash-up of the least creative parts of Teletubbies, Barney & Friends and Pee-wee's Playhouse" which preschoolers would enjoy due to its interactivity, but it would be a waste of time for parents "in a world where Sesame Street is on TV every day [and/or] even in a world where Sesame Street didn’t exist."
King also questioned whether the intent of the film was to set the stage for future merchandising of its characters.
Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times criticized The Oogieloves for being a "prefab construction meant to appear like a beloved set of characters" and for being "so ineffectual and disengaging that it may be better to call it just plain dumb."
A. O. Scott of the New York Times reviewed the film in the persona of the seven-year-old daughter of a family friend & stated that she "thought it was for babies" and observed (among other things) that none of the children in the audience at the theater were paying attention to the film & that the toddler whose family she saw it with fell asleep partway through the movie.
Amy Biancolli from the San Francisco Chronicle said, "The whole thing runs about an hour too long: It should have been a TV show. The adventure's too big for the kids who would love it the most."
Slant Magazine wrote that "enduring this brainless kid's film is akin to witnessing the end of the world."
Accolades[]
The movie was nominated for two Golden Raspberry Awards for "Worst Picture" and "Worst Screen Ensemble", but they lost both of them to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2.
Trailer[]
The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure Official Trailer