The Animal

For people nicknamed "The Animal", see The Animal (nickname). For other uses, see Animal (disambiguation).
The Animal

Rob Schneider's head appearing from behind long grass. A red feather is sticking out from between his lips.

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Luke Greenfield
Produced by Barry Bernardi
Carr D'Angelo
Todd Garner
Screenplay by Rob Schneider
Tom Brady
Story by Tom Brady
Starring Rob Schneider
Colleen Haskell
John C. McGinley
Guy Torry
Ed Asner
Music by Teddy Castellucci
Cinematography Peter Collister
Edited by Jeff Gourson
Production
company
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release dates
 June 1, 2001 (2001-06-01)
Running time
 83 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $47 million[1]
Box office $84.7 million[1]

The Animal is a 2001 comedy film, starring Rob Schneider, Colleen Haskell, Michael Caton, and John C. McGinley.

Schneider plays Marvin Mange, a man who is critically injured but unknown to him he is put back together by a mad scientist who transplants animal parts, resulting in strange permanent changes to his behavior.

Plot

Marvin Mange (Rob Schneider) is an awkward, clumsy nice-guy who dreams of being a police officer like his dad was. He continuously attempts to pass the physical test to become a full-fledged police officer, but he just can't seem to finish the obstacle course. Marvin gets constantly mistreated by Sgt. Sisk (John C. McGinley).

One day, while alone at the station, he receives a robbery call. With all of the real policemen out at a softball game, Marvin rushes to the scene. Along the way, he swerves to avoid a seal in the road and crashes over a cliff. He is critically injured, but is rescued by Dr. Wilder (Michael Caton), a mad scientist who puts Marvin back together using animal parts.

Days later, Marvin returns to his normal life with no memory of what had happened. Suddenly, he's full of life. He can outrun horses, mean dogs are now scared of him, and he doesn't need his asthma medicine. He thinks it's due to his late-night TV purchase of "Badger Milk", which is guaranteed in the ads to make him stronger.

One day at the park, Marvin meets Rianna (Colleen Haskell) while she's out walking dogs. His animal-like tendencies are slowly taking him over. When a frisbee is thrown in his direction, he can't control himself, and he jumps to catch it in his mouth.

He goes to the airport to talk to his friend, Miles the security guard (Guy Torry) about his problem. While there, Marvin sniffs out a man trying to hide heroin in his rectum. For uncovering a drug smuggler, Marvin is declared a hero and is made a full-fledged police officer.

As days go by, Marvin's animal instincts are becoming stronger. He often wakes up in strange places, and subsequently, hears about animal attacks that occurred in the middle of the night. Because of these attacks, Dr. Wilder believes that Marvin is out of control. The mad scientist confronts him, takes him to his laboratory, and explains about the grafts and transplants that saved and changed Marvin's life, and gave him remarkable animal powers with certain problem side effects.

Later at a party thrown by the Mayor (Scott Wilson) Marvin chases after a cat and destroys everything around him and is fired on the spot. During his reprimand, he hears something, jumps into the nearby lake and rescues the mayor's son using powers derived from a sea lion and a dolphin. He is swiftly reinstated.

Chief Wilson (Ed Asner) questions Marvin about the late-night attacks on farm animals, because one of witnesses made a police sketch—and it looks like Marvin.

Rianna goes to Marvin's house, where he has barricaded himself inside. They spend the night together, but Marvin wants to be tied up so he can't hurt anyone anymore. In the morning, he finds himself untied, courtesy of Rianna. Suddenly, the police show up outside. Another attack had happened that night, and the police have come for Marvin. Rianna convinces him to run.

Marvin escapes to the woods, where a huge chase ensues. The police have organized an angry mob into a search party to catch Marvin. While running through the woods, Marvin finds Dr. Wilder. The scientist tells him that there was another "patient" of his that is out of control, and he is in the woods looking for it.

Sergeant Sisk confronts Marvin, and is about to shoot him. Suddenly, the other "animal" jumps from a tree and knocks Sisk down. The beast is Rianna. Now, the crowd finds them both together but Miles is there, and takes the blame for everything. He has been claiming that there is reverse discrimination with him since he's black, and that no one wants to hold him accountable for anything. Sure enough, once the mob thinks a black man was responsible, they don't care anymore, and leave.

Marvin and Rianna get married, and have a litter of children that each look like Marvin. While watching television, they see Dr. Wilder win the Nobel Prize. He says he owes it all to his fiancée, who is the same woman from the Badger Milk commercial. When she turns around to kiss him, there are large scars shown on her back, implying that Wilder performed the experiment on her as well.

Cast

Reception

Box office

The Animal debuted on June 1, 2001, grossing $19.6 million U.S. in its opening weekend. With a production budget of $47 million, the movie grossed $84,772,742 internationally.[1]

Critical response

This film received negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 30% based on 82 reviews.[2] Metacritic gave the film a score of 43% indicating mixed or average reviews.[3] Rob Schneider was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Actor of the Decade for his performance in the film.

Controversy

Despite receiving mostly negative critical reaction, one supporter of the film at the time of its release was film critic David Manning who gave the film critical praise. In late 2001, Manning was revealed to be a fictitious character created by Sony to fake publicity for the film. At the time, Sony claimed that the error was due to a layout artist who entered 'dummy text' into print advertisements during their design, which was accidentally never replaced with real text.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The Animal (2001)". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Retrieved 2010-11-23.
  2. ↑ The Animal Movie Reviews, Pictures. Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 2010-11-23.
  3. ↑ "The Animal". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2010-11-23.
  4. ↑ "Official court notice of David Manning settlement" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-11-23.

External links

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