The Legend of the North Wind (1994 Universal and Amblimation Verison film)

The Legend of the North Wind is a 1994 animated adventure fantasy film directed by Juan Bautista Berasategi, Simon Wells and Phil Nibbelink (originally credited to Maite Ruiz de Austri and Carlos Varela). It was based upon a story by Gregorio Muro and Josean Muñoz, and produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studios and released in theatres November 23, 1994 and distributed by Universal Pictures. Despite largely mixed critical reception, the film performed poorly in the United States box office, costing $140 million to create while earning $38 million in the United States and Canada and just shy of $110 million worldwide.

Synopsis
To get his hands on a valuable pod of whales, a 17th-century European daredevil in Newfoundland foolishly attempts to release the powers of the mythical North Wind, who was trapped in a pot thanks to a shared effort by sailors and  Indians. Now, the descendant of those Indian, Watuna, and the descendants of those Basque sailors, Ane and Peiot, must defeat the evil Athanasius before he achieve his purpose.

Production
Production and development on The Legend of the North Wind began at Universal Studios near Los Angeles, California and Amblimation in United Kingdom in May 1989, which is at the time An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), Tim Burton's The Adventures of Family Dog & Gizmo (1992) and We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story (1993) was also in production. As in a five-year production schedule, it takes four years for the film to be made. In January 1992, after the film's voice actors recorded their voices for the characters, animating and filming began through storyboards, pencil tests (rough and clean-up) and ink and paint (the final version of the film) to bring the characters to life, using cameras and recorded audio. James Horner composed music for the film. After four years in the making, the film was completely wrapped in the fall of 1993 (the time before the movie's theatrical release on November 23, that year).

Reception
The film was mixed to negative reviews from critics and Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 30% approval rating, based on 16 reviews (6 "fresh" and 10 "rotten"). Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film 1 star out of 4 stars and wrote, "Moby Dick and Indians and the North Wind looks crazy in the film".  'Variety's gave the film a positive review and wrote, "In spite of narrative problems... the film's chief appeal is its central conceit -- that giant monsters... can be transformed into creatures who like to play with children".

Box office
The film grossed a total of $3,707,770 on its opening weekend and a total domestic gross of $9,315,576 in the United States, resulting in a commercial flop.

Home video release history

 * March 14, 1995 (VHS)

Aspect ratio
The laserdisc release was presented in its original widescreen aspect. When the film was released on in some other countries, it was presented in the pan and scan format. However, the widescreen version of the film was once available at, but was removed. When the film was finally released on DVD in the United States and Canada on May 26, 2009, it was presented in its original theatrical ratio in anamorphic widescreen, being Universal/Amblin's first animated film to be presented in widescreen on a DVD (although international DVD releases of  (which eventually got a widescreen  release in the United States and Canada in 2014), An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, Tim Burton's The Adventures of Family Dog & Gizmo, We're Back: The Dinosaur Story, and Balto were presented in widescreen), the next would be The Land Before Time (which eventually got both new widescreen DVD and Blu-ray releases in the United States and Canada in 2015), and also Universal's second animated film from the 1990s to be presented in widescreen on a Region 1 DVD (the first being Jetsons: The Movie).

Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by James Horner and includes "Love Hurts", which was nominated for a Golden Globe award.