The Lost Movie That Still Got Made: Foodfight!

oh hi there this lost movie has been

reviewed all over the internet and is

considered one of the worst films of all

time

but if it's been released how can it be

lost media we'll sit back while we

explore the humble beginnings of a

production company

and one man's vision for the next big

thing that led to the death and rebirth

of the worst animated film

ever this is the story of the lost movie

that still got made

this is the story of food fight here

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goes

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the history of food fight revolves

around one man florence

larry kassanov who in 1993 founded the

company threshold entertainment

threshold were best known in the 90s for

producing the 1995 mortal kombat movie

and its universally panned sequel

moral combat annihilation you're alive

too bad

you will die the idea for a food fight

came from kasanov

and threshold producer joshua wexler

casanov and wexler envisioned a movie

like toy story but set in a supermarket

and taking toy story's minor product

placement such as mr potato head and

slinky dog to the extreme by filling

their fictional grocery store

with as many real world brands as

possible

i'll take it all just send a bill

threshold as a company did have small

scale experience in 3d animation

having worked on hershey's really big 3d

show for hershey's chocolate world

and visual effects for numerous movies

such as i still know what you did last

summer

aceventura pet detective and dogma with

this kind of 3d animation experience

making a 3d animated film wasn't out of

the rim of possibility

in mid 2001 threshold distributed a

press release

detailing the film for the first time

this release would make some impressive

claims

calling the movie the most complex

digitally animated feature film ever

attempted

that will incorporate thousands of

products and character icons from the

grocery store and that brands will be

altered in order to customize the film

for a worldwide audience

but perhaps the most interesting part of

the press release shows that food fight

was meant to be a multimedia franchise

there were going to be food fight toys

video games a live show

their own brand of food and most

impressively a 22 episode web series

called

food fight the adventures of dex

detective that was scheduled to be

released eight months before the film

but with casanov being the benevolent

ruler he is would allow participating

brands to have the opportunity

to pay threshold to create a web series

featuring their icons

the press release also announced their

association with korean investment

company natural image who combined with

equity financing would fund the movie's

production at around 50 million dollars

the production initially gained minor

controversy over its claims that the

movie would contain

thousands of products gary ruskin of

commercial alert remarked

it raises the commercial assault on

children to a new level of brazenness

some people will stoop to any level to

make a buck and sadly food fight is an

example

it looks like a two hour parade of junk

food at a time when we have skyrocketing

levels of childhood obesity and type 2

diabetes

but larry kassanov had already prepared

for this going on to boast that the

flick is entirely product placement free

in an interview with kid scree no one

paid us to be in this movie

and we didn't pay anyone to be in this

movie it's not a big commercial

in later interviews this model will be

referred to as cross promotion rather

than product placement

the following year threshold released

food fight's first trailer giving us our

first look at the movie

and expected a full release within the

next year or so and even by 2000

standards the trailer didn't look too

good

being dated when compared to other

computer animated movies at the time

like shrek ice age or finding nemo we

could tell the movie was going to use

squash and stretch animations the

merchant looney tunes

but using 3d computer animation

something that was difficult at the time

but none of this stopped casanov from

toting the film as the next big thing

telling animation magazine do we believe

our next movie food fight is gonna be a

huge hit

of course we do this is the most complex

digitally animated film ever undertaken

with thousands of different characters

and hundreds of sets we're never gonna

be the next pixar being four higher

producers with some other shop

you heard right larry thought threshold

had the potential to be the next pixar

but even though the movie didn't look

great i can't blame casanov for being

excited

something that's often overlooked when

talking about food fight is it's

absolutely visionary casting

if the movie was released in 2003 or

2004 as expected

it would have featured charlie sheen

right on the heels of his debut on two

and a half men

a role she'd become the highest paid

actor in television for

a pre-desperate housewives eva longoria

hillary duff just after lizzie mcguire

what would have been wayne brady's

feature film debut a pre-mean girl's

daniel franzisi

and chris cattan right after his tenure

on snl

but the film's production came to a

standstill in late 2002

when the hard drives contained all the

work for the movie were stolen

cast off would refer to the crime as

industrial espionage

and would tell the new york times it was

an incredibly complex crime

they got into the cold room a room

within a room within a room

kassanov also claimed the secret service

was involved in the investigation for

the stolen movie

the company was insured for the loss but

the thieves stole almost everything

leading the team to start production

from scratch today the mystery of who

stole the film is unsolved

but we do have some theories

the only case that ever really mattered

and i couldn't solve it

let's start with who would have had the

motivation to steal the movie maybe one

of the companies whose products were

used could have seen how bad the movie

was going to turn out and try to get out

their contract

they couldn't so they resorted to theft

maybe a rival company like pixar

dreamworks or even disney could have

stole the movie

this is pretty silly because all these

companies already had better looking

movies years prior

and clearly didn't have anything to

worry about but to me

the most likely thief will be someone on

the inside kasanov said the crime was

extremely complex

meaning that someone on the inside

someone who had intimate knowledge of

the facility

would have a much easier time stealing

the movie an animator a producer

or even larry himself would all have

motivation as a movie

this bad could potentially damage a

career a common theory passed around

is that the movie was never stolen that

the whole thing was fabricated

threshold were either sued over the

movie or was scrapped and they wanted to

save face

i personally cannot find the police

report for the incident anywhere

and if anyone can please tweet it at me

at lost mediamike

the last and most prevalent theory is

that the movie was part of a money

laundering scheme

the main evidence for this is just how

much the movie cost an estimated 45 to

65 million dollars

versus the finished product compare this

to toy story which cost 30 million

the lego movie which cost 60 to 65

million sausage party at 19 million

or even shrek which was released in 2001

with a 60 million dollar budget

that still holds up today more evidence

that something criminal behind the

scenes was going on

is the insurance money a 2004 new york

times article states the film was

insured and insurance money was

collected

though this doesn't prove anything

criminal it shows that money could have

been made over the film's loss

let's strawberry jam out of here even

though the team had lost

years of work threshold decided to

continue and production on food fight

resumed in 2004 but casanov wanted to

change the film's direction

scrapping the squash and stretch style

in favor of making the movie more like a

live action film through the use of

motion capture

retakes and spontaneity this new

approach could not be

any more different than squash and

stretch and as a result casanov and the

animators were speaking two different

languages

motion capture was split between two

companies house of moves

and image metrics according to a 2013

new york times article

image metrics had a limitation

performers had to stare straight ahead

and keep still

the result was subdued with eyes

appearing vacant or looking in the wrong

direction

which if you look at early films of

image metrics such as meet dave the

facial animation is very stiff

but this at least seems to be somewhat

intentional for meet dave this explains

why the first trailer of food fight has

better looking eyes than the lifeless

final release

for this new take on the movie lionsgate

was set to distribute the film with

financing company story arc providing 20

million dollars in funding

the movie was set to have a quick

turnaround scheduled for a 2005 release

at this point castanov's inexperience as

a director began to show

former threshold animators claimed that

casanov would say things like

make it more awesome or make it 30

better and didn't understand

any of the animation technology or its

limitations

according to kenneth wydtrack a layout

artist on the project

his approach because he had gotten the

money for it and no one could say no to

him was very idiosyncratic

you didn't know from day to day what

would occur would there be a review

would he suddenly want to change the

whole thing kasanov also wanted adult

jokes in the movie that some of the

brands found offensive

for example mckee foods wouldn't allow

daredevil dan to cat call little debbie

and one of the snack mascots was to have

a case of peanut envy

the cat calling seems to have made it

into the final film but lil debbie was

replaced with a generic character

the film was delayed again pushed back

to 2006

and that year the food fight website

began to give us more details

included was a description of six

characters of those six characters where

harry hold

played by greg elias and polar penguin

played by chris kattan

whose inclusion on this list imply they

were meant for a bigger role in the

final film

after missing their 2006 release the

website was updated

listing the release for spring 2007 then

fall 2007 and by 2008 the website just

directs you to the threshold website

with no release date in sight is that

the

enticing scent of rich creamy chocolate

are you chocolate are you made of

chocolate really

after years in development the final

nail in the coffin came in 2011

after threshold defaulted on their loans

and on monday

september 26 2011 at 10 am

in the law offices of gladstone michael

weinsberg wilmer and salone

in marina del rey california with an

opening bid of 2.5 million dollars

the movie food fight was auctioned off

to british company boulevard

entertainment

once the movie was sold the investors at

story arc enacted the clause through

their insurance agency

fireman's fund insurance company that

led fireman's fund to step in and have

the movie completed as quickly and as

cheaply as possible for immediate

release

the insurance company is even listed in

the right section when buying the movie

on the google play store

also don't buy the movie on the google

play store it's been free on youtube for

years

in a 2013 interview late stage animator

ken bailey said at this point in

development

the film was already ruined they were

just trying to salvage what they could

who was your favorite character the

doggy

and the squirrel dog and the squirrel

were her favorite so yeah

in 2012 the movie was quietly released

with a limited theatrical run in the uk

and will be released on dvd soon after

the film's total gross is debatable with

the numbers.com saying around 73

thousand dollars were made

and box office mojo saying around 120

000

were made all against a 65 million

dollar budget

and as you might have guessed the movie

was not received well from critics

with a 1.5 on imdb a 1.6 on the bomb

report

a 10 review on rotten tomatoes which is

pretty generous

and the movie has since been roasted all

over youtube

frankly my dear i don't give a spam

with the release of the film it became

apparent that the 1000 brand icons

promised by kasanov were not present

in the film with at least 20 characters

and around

20 non-character products that were

confirmed or shown in the first trailer

gone a number of these missing mascots

are seemingly mocked throughout the film

in mean-spirited ways

as if they didn't make the right choice

by leaving the production over the years

various food fight merchandise has been

released with the occasional book being

found at a thrift shop a food fight

plush for sale on ebay or in a movie

theater claw machine

and sometimes you can still find a

physical copy of the movie for sale on

store shelves

threshold has since tried their best to

forget about the movie not even listing

it on their website

and not copyright claiming the movie

when it's uploaded in its entirety to

youtube

to this day the stolen original copy of

food fight has never surfaced

and the case has gone cold but honestly

i don't think they're looking too hard

anymore

but how did you get in and out of the

store

now i might get some flack for this but

i think the idea for food fight

is genius from a business perspective

the movie had so much potential

and based on the continued success of

threshold entertainment

larry kassanov is clearly a good

businessman who knows his way around the

industry

when i poured over the history of this

film i kept asking myself

what went wrong and every time the

problem be traced back to larry

even though he had all the odds in his

favor the downfall of food fight seems

to be the arrogance of larry kassanov

he had funding skilled riders an

experienced animation team

and had secured deals with some of the

most popular food brands as well as

well-known voice actors

but he didn't utilize them to their full

potential instead he ignored them

and didn't even have enough knowledge of

the medium to know how to utilize them

properly

this is disappointing because the

beginnings of threshold entertainment

are similar to that of pixar

they started with a few shorts and doing

visual effects for movies

with the next big step being a feature

film the stark difference

is that pixar had a team full of

visionary artists who wanted to make a

great movie

threshold on the other hand was led by a

businessman who considered profit before

content

someone with all the money but none of

the heart

luckily the story does have a happy

ending threshold are still around today

still doing 3d animation but now for

theme park rides

and larry kassanov has since directed

another movie a 2015 documentary on

mindfulness

and from what i can tell no one's career

was derailed from the movie

though charlie sheen seen better days

but not all as well

it looks like threshold are re-entering

the feature film business with a trilogy

based on the video game

tetris and a 2021 reboot of the mortal

kombat series on the big screen

with kasanov as executive producer

according to his website

we'll see if threshold entertainment and

larry kassadop can surprise us and

redeem themselves

but for some reason i'm not so sure

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thank you so much for watching let me

know in the comments your theory on what

happened to the movie

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this is mike with all things lost see

you soon