''Doug's 1st Movie'' is a 1999 American

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

based on the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

-produced episodes of the animated television series '' Doug''. The film was directed by

Maurice Joyce Maurice Joyce (born March 13, 1969) is an Irish director, animator, and storyboard artist. Joyce was born in Dublin, Ireland, and was formerly based in New York City. He has worked on television series and films including ''Teenage Mutant Ninja T ...

, and stars the regular television cast of Tom McHugh, Fred Newman,

Chris Phillips Chris Phillips (born March 9, 1978) is a Canadian businessman and former professional ice hockey player. Phillips was a member of the Ottawa Senators for his entire career, which began with the 1997–98 season and ended with the 2015–16 seaso ...

Constance Shulman Constance Ann Shulman (born April 4, 1958) is an American actress. She is best known for voicing Patti Mayonnaise on ''Doug'' and for her recurring role as Yoga Jones in ''Orange Is the New Black''. Shulman originated the role of Annelle in the ...

, Frank Welker,

Alice Playten Alice Playten ('' née'' Plotkin; August 28, 1947 – June 25, 2011) was an American actress known for her high-pitched, child-like voice. Life and career Born in New York City, Playten began her career at age 11 in the Broadway musical ''Gyp ...

, Guy Hadley, and

Doris Belack Doris Belack (February 26, 1926 – October 4, 2011) was an American character actress of stage, film and television. Life and career Belack was born in 1926 in New York City, the younger daughter of Isaac and Bertha Belack, Jewish immigrants ...

. It was produced by

Walt Disney Television Animation Disney Television Animation (DTVA), formerly known as Walt Disney Pictures Television Animation Group and Walt Disney Television Animation, is the television animation production arm of Disney Branded Television, a sub-division of the Disney Ge ...

and

Jumbo Pictures The Walt Disney Company has owned and operated several animation studios since the company's founding on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio; the current Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, Cal ...

with animation provided by

Plus One Animation Plus One Animation Studios () is an animation studio located in Seoul, South Korea. Their biggest contribution is for the Mike Judge series ''King of the Hill'', with upwards of 80+ episodes animated, but they also animated the Disney-era episode ...

, and released by Buena Vista Pictures on March 26, 1999. A ''

Mickey Mouse Works ''Mickey Mouse Works'' (also known as ''Disney's Mickey Mouse Works'' or simply ''Mouse Works'') is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation featuring Mickey Mouse and his friends in a series of animate ...

'' short "Donald's Dynamite: Opera Box", was released with it. The film received mixed to negative reviews, who criticized its plot, writing, and character development. However, the voice acting, ending and animation were praised. Despite the title and its success at the box office, no further films based on ''Doug'' were made. It serves as the finale of the entire ''Doug'' series.

Plot

BluffCo has been dumping waste into Lucky Duck Lake under the command of CEO Bill Bluff. This pollution creates a friendly creature that is discovered by Doug Funnie and Skeeter Valentine. They house the creature in Doug's home, where they name him Herman, after he tries to eat a copy of ''

Moby-Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship ''Pequod'', for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant whi ...

'' by

Herman Melville Herman Melville ( born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are ''Moby-Dick'' (1851); ''Typee'' (1846), a rom ...

. Not wanting him to be discovered, they disguise him as a foreign exchange student called Hermione, causing Doug's love interest Patti Mayonnaise to become jealous from all the attention he gives her, leading school paper reporter Guy Graham to make a move on her. Meanwhile, bully Roger Klotz and his cronies build a robot to kidnap Herman, but instead it becomes very overbearing toward Roger. Doug and Skeeter show Herman to Doug's neighbor, Mayor Tippy Dink, who warns them Bluff will kill the story if they try to get it into the press. After being mocked by Guy in front of Patti, Doug calls a press announcement where he promises to expose what Bluff is doing to the lake. While initially dismissive, Guy finds a picture of Herman and realizes Doug is telling the truth. He notifies Bluff, who sends BluffCo agents to Doug's announcement posing as reporters to capture Herman. Doug sees through the ruse and calls off the conference, but Herman is kidnapped and Patti now believes Doug to be a liar. The next day, in the school newspaper office, Doug finds an article by Guy detailing how Herman attacked students at the upcoming Valentine's Day dance and was killed by BluffCo agents. Realizing Guy and Bluff's plan, Doug and Skeeter recruit Roger and Al and Moo Sleech to help thwart it. On the night of the dance Doug has to give up his last chance to win Patti back in order to save Herman. The Sleech's reprogram Roger's robot to act like the monster in Guy's article, distracting everyone while Doug and Skeeter find Herman and sneak him out of the school in a giant Valentine's decoration. They bring Herman to Crystal Lake and release him into the waters, where they are confronted and threatened by Bluff. Seeing this his daughter, Beebe, sides with her friends and Mayor Dink hints at revealing Bluff's practices to the government unless he volunteers to clean up Lucky Duck Lake himself. After Patti sees Doug was right all along, she dumps Guy and Doug is about to reveal his feelings for her, but is interrupted by Herman. The gang bid goodbye to Herman and spend the rest of Valentine's night celebrating by the lake.

Voice cast

* Tom McHugh as Doug Funnie, Lincoln * Fred Newman as Skeeter Valentine, Mr. Dink, Porkchop, Ned *

as Roger Klotz, Boomer, Larry, Mr. Chiminy *

as Patti Mayonnaise * Frank Welker as Herman Melville *

as Beebe Bluff, Elmo (this would be her final role in an animated movie before her death in 2011) * Guy Hadley as Guy Graham *

Doug Preis Doug Preis is an American voice actor, best known for his role as Phil Funnie, Chalky Studebaker, Willie White, Walter "Skunky" Beaumont, Bill Bluff and Vice Principal Lamarr Bone on '' Doug''. Roles * '' Doug'' - Mr. Phil Funnie, Chalky, Willi ...

as Mr. Funnie, Mr. Bluff, Willie, Chalky, Bluff Agent *

Eddie Korbich Eddie Korbich (born November 6, 1960) is an American actor, singer and dancer. He was born in Washington, D.C. but grew up in Shamokin, Pennsylvania. Career 1980s He graduated from the Boston Conservatory with a B.F.A. in acting in 1983. In 198 ...

as Al & Moo Sleech, Robocrusher * David O'Brien as Quailman Announcer *

as Mayor Tippi Dink * Becca Lish as Judy Funnie, Mrs. Funnie, Connie * Greg Lee as Principal White * Bob Bottone as Bluff Assistant * Bruce Bayley Johnson as Mr. Swirly *

Fran Brill Fran Brill (born September 30, 1946) is an American retired actress and puppeteer, best known for her roles on ''Sesame Street'', as well as playing Sally Hayes in the Hal Ashby film '' Being There'' (1979), Dana Mardukas in the Martin Brest fi ...

as Mrs. Elaine Perigrew *

Melissa Greenspan Melissa Greenspan is an American actress known for her recurring roles as Kim on '' Providence'' and as Cindy on the '' Desperate Housewives''. She also appeared in ''Party of Five'', '' Saved by the Bell: The New Class'', '' Beverly Hills 90210' ...

as Briar Langolier

Additional voice artists

Rodger Bumpass Rodger Bumpass (born November 20, 1951) is an American actor. He is known for his long-running role as Squidward Tentacles on the American animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. He voices several other characters on the show as ...

as Green Police Officer *

Paul Eiding Paul Eiding (born March 28, 1957) is an American actor and instructor, best known for his voice roles as Colonel Roy Campbell in the ''Metal Gear'' series and Max Tennyson in the '' Ben 10'' franchise. During the 1970s, Eiding was a prolific c ...

as Red Police Officer * Jackie Gonneau as Kid #1 *

Sherry Lynn Sherry Lynn is an American voice actress who has played roles in anime, animated television series and video games. She portrayed Sasami Jurai in the ''Tenchi Muyo!'' franchise. In January 2010, in terms of total film gross, she was the Highest ...

as Kid #2 * Mickie McGowan as Lunch Lady *

Phil Proctor Philip Proctor (born 1940) is an American actor, comedian and a member of the Firesign Theatre. He has performed voice-over work for video games, films and television series. Career Of the four members of Firesign Theatre, Proctor has had t ...

as Brian the A/V Nerd *

Brianne Siddall Brianne Siddall (born August 25, 1963 in Encino, California), also known under her stage names of Jetta E. Bumpy, Ian Hawk, Murray Blue, Jetta Bird, and Brianne Brozey, is an American voice actress. She is known for voicing Tommy Himi, Korom ...

as Kid #3 * Claudette Wells as Kid #4

Production

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

was originally making a ''Doug'' film adaptation in 1993 when they made a deal with

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

to make films based on their properties along with films like ''

Rugrats ''Rugrats'' is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The show focuses on a group of toddlers; most prominently— Tommy, Chuckie, Angelica, and twins Phil and Lil, a ...

'' and ''

Ren & Stimpy ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'' (also known as ''Ren & Stimpy'') is an American animated television series created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi. Originally produced by Spümcø for Nickelodeon, the series aired from August 11, 1991, to Decemb ...

''. However, the plans evaporated when

Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...

acquired Paramount Pictures in 1994, and the deal expired in the following year. Only ''

The Rugrats Movie ''The Rugrats Movie'' is a 1998 American animated comedy film based on the Nickelodeon animated television series '' Rugrats''. It was directed by Igor Kovalyov and Norton Virgien and was written by David N. Weiss & J. David Stem. The film int ...

'' materialized in November 1998. In 1996, when

bought

along with the cartoon, they decided to revive the project for the ''Doug'' film. This film was originally planned as a

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy wa ...

release under the title ''The First Doug Movie Ever'' as shown in trailers, but due to the success of ''The Rugrats Movie'', they decided to make it a theatrical release. This is the last American theatrical animated film to use traditional cels, in which the title sequence of the film used

digital ink and paint Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation. Pr ...

Release

The film was theatrically released with the short "Opera Box", featuring

Donald Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...

and Daisy Duck, from the television series ''

''.

Critical reception

The film garnered a 26% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, with 9 of a total 34 reviews being determined as positive. The critical consensus reads, "''Doug's 1st Movie'' may entertain very young fans of its main character, but essentially amounts to a forgettable feature-length episode of his show." Critics were harsh to ''Doug's 1st Movie'' when it was released theatrically. Many noted that the film felt too much like an extended episode of the show (story and animation-wise) and many mention that the film should have stayed a direct-to-video release. Most of the criticism came from the plot, writing, and music, though they praised the animation, voice acting and ending. Screenit.com awarded the film 4 out of 10, determining that it was mediocre and did not have "that magic or cinematic feel to warrant the big screen treatment" and it felt like the regular series. Roger Ebert gave the film 2½ out of 4 stars, quoting "''Doug's 1st Movie'' is a thin and less than thrilling feature-length version of a Saturday morning animated series, unseen by me. Chatter on the Web suggests it was originally intended to go straight to video, but was rechanneled into theaters after the startling success of ''The Rugrats Movie''. Since ''Doug'' originally started on Nickelodeon, where ''Rugrats'' resides, the decision made sense – or would have if this had been a better movie."

Box office

''Doug's 1st Movie'' opened at #5 in its opening weekend with $4,470,489, for an average of $1,971 from a very wide 2,268 theaters. While this may be deemed as low for an average Hollywood film, ''Doug'' only cost $5 million to make due to its direct-to-video budget and a somewhat low-key promotional campaign. As such, the film still managed to gross $19,421,271 in ticket sales, creating a large profit for Disney and making it a box office success.

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for a Stinker Award for Worst Achievement in Animation.

Home media

The film was released on VHS on September 21, 1999, and on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

as a Disney Movie Club exclusive on July 20, 2012. The DVD used a TV edit, with fade-ins and fade-outs to make way for commercial breaks, as well as sped-up closing credits. The film, along with ''Disney's Doug'', was released on

Disney+ Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...

on November 12, 2019, its first day of release. This used a new transfer of the film sourced from the master print, allowing the end credits to be seen at their intended speed.

References

External links

Official website
* *
Doug's 1st Movie
' at the

TCM Movie Database Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of At ...

* * * {{Disney theatrical animated features 1999 films 1999 animated films 1990s American animated films 1990s children's comedy films 1990s English-language films Animated films based on animated series American children's animated comedy films DisneyToon Studios animated films Films based on television series Films scored by Mark Watters Disney Television Animation films 1999 directorial debut films 1999 comedy films Doug (TV series)