Princess Felicia (2000 animated film)

Princess Felicia is a 2000 Canadian-American-French-Japanese animated fantasy-action film directed by Peter Thompson and Makoto Tezuka. The film was released in North America on February 25, 2000 by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment and in Japan on March 10, 2000 by Toei Company. It is an abridged and alternate retelling of the anime of the same name which is in turn an adaptation of the novel by Jean-Pierre Renard.

Summary
Mimi appears to be an orphaned girl working for a cruel farmer until she escapes from him with her three animal friends. As she escapes, she is transported to the Felician Kingdom where she becomes an anthropomorphic cat who is heir to the throne and is to prepare for ascension. However, she has to find out who had abducted her, stop a conflict with a kingdom of dogs and traitorous cats and change the mind of her vain and wealthy suitor to one of kindness and bravery.

Production
Joe Brian returned to Canada to meet his friend Peter Thompson in 1997, after working in the UK on the game Moonlight Brotherhood with Argonaut Games and supervising the first season of The Flying Cats in the country. Both of them were fans of Princess Felicia and the novel trilogy on which it was based and so they considered making an abridged re-telling of the film. Jean-Pierre Renard, author of the original novels, was a fan of Joe Brian's works and agreed to allow him to direct. At Brian's request, he also requested Tezuka Productions' involvement in the film, which was also approved.

The film, budgeted at $26 million, was produced by Brian Thompson Productions, Film Roman and Tezuka Productions, with TF1 and Gaumont from France and Nippon Television Network Corporation from Japan.

Reception
The film opened to mainly positive reviews from critics, with some praising the plot, character development and use of a heroine for a protagonist as well as for its animation, but many felt the premise would put off older audiences and that the film's soundtrack contained numerous pop songs, although the film's score itself was well-received.

On the aforementioned $26 million budget, the film grossed $38.4 million in North America and $33.6 million worldwide, totaling $72 million worldwide. The film's financially successful gross can be attributed to the fact that the only other kid-friendly movies playing at the time included Disney's The Tigger Movie and Snow Day.

Merchandise
Wendy's released a set of toys in their Kids' Meals during theatrical release and later issued a different set for the film's home video release. Each Kids' Meal also came with a discounted admission ticket valid at participating movie theaters in North America.

Bandai released numerous plush toys and figurines based on the characters and Lego also released standard playsets for children and Duplo sets based on the film for preschoolers. Kellogg's also released a set of character mini-plush toys inside boxes of Rice Krispies, Corn Pops, Crispix and Corn Flakes.

A 3D action-adventure game was released for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 developed by Traveller's Tales and a different action-platform game for the Sega Dreamcast was developed by Ubisoft. Both of which were published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Ubisoft.