Kuckoo Kat and the Ink Splatter (1994 film)

Kuckoo Kat and the Ink Splatter is a 1994 American animated slapstick comedy film directed by Dexter Sparks and written by Cecil Moody. The film stars Charlie Adler as the title character, along with Michael J. Fox, Sandra Bullock, Candi Milo, Howard Morris, Hank Azaria, Danny DeVito, Jim Belushi, and Martin Short. The film stars Fox as Howard Coopersmith, a nerdy outcast in the city of Riverfield, who eventually gets his life together thanks to Kuckoo and his friends, where they transport to Earth after a freak accident. Together, Howard and Kuckoo must stop another cartoon character, the villainous Ink Splatter from taking over the city.

Ink Splatter was the very first film to be produced by Gryphon Animation, Gryphon Pictures' animated film division and was released in theaters on July 24, 1994. Though it had to deal with competition at the time like The Lion King, Forrest Gump, True Lies, and The Mask, it was praised for the humor, heart, and its use of squash-and-stretch animation, though it was criticized for its quick story. At the box office, it was a commercial success, grossing over $324.3 million worldwide against a $33 million budget.

Plot
Howard Coopersmith, an aspiring cartoonist, lives in New York, where he works as an intern for Funnybone Animation Studios and is considered to be an outcast among everybody in the studio. After failing to pitch a cartoon to his boss, Mr. Holloway, he notices his childhood crush and neighbor, Sandra Hart working as a new intern. He tries to ask her out on a date, but accidentally starts a fire alarm at the studio, which ultimately gets him mocked. He goes home sad and turns on the TV to find something good to watch. Ultimately, he decides to watch a Kuckoo Kat cartoon where he defeats a villain named the Ink Splatter before going to bed. Meanwhile, in the cartoon universe, Smarty shows off a brand new invention to Kuckoo, Kooky and Cuckoo, a portal creator. However, after testing it out, the portal creator starts to malfunction, and eventually explodes, sending the four to Earth in Howard's house.

When Howard wakes up in the morning, he is shocked to see Kuckoo and his friends in his house, although Smarty explains to him what happened, to no avail. Howard thinks he's having a dream, until Kuckoo hits him with a mallet, proving that Kuckoo and his friends are on Earth with him. Howard then realizes he's late for work, and decides to disguise the toons, so they can go with him. In the cartoon universe, the Ink Splatter escapes the ink container he was trapped in, finds the portal to the real world, goes through it and ends up in an abandoned house, where he starts to set up his plans.

Howard goes to work with Kuckoo, Kooky, Smarty, and Cuckoo in disguise, where he is still known for the fire alarm incident from yesterday. While he talks to Sandra, the toons (except for Smarty) sneak off to pull pranks in the studio. They pull off different pranks, with the last one they planned being for Mr. Holloway by dropping a bucket of water on him. However, Howard notices this and pushes his boss out of the way, leading to him getting wet, leading to Mr. Holloway firing Howard. Howard goes home to dry off and is mad at the toons for pulling a stunt like that, to where Kuckoo says their toon instincts came in. Howard is overwhelmed from all the events that has been going on and thinks life won't get any better for him. However, Kuckoo tells him to always be himself and that no matter how hard life may get, it'll always get better. That cheers Howard up and he thanks Kuckoo.

At the abandoned house, the Ink Splatter continues his plans, this time to finally kill Kuckoo and his friends and figure out how to turn everyone in the city into "ink minions". He decides he can't do it alone, so he creates his own henchman, an inkblot that he calls Iris. Meanwhile, at his house, Howard asks Kuckoo for help getting a date with Sandra. Kuckoo is excited to help with the date, as he tells Howard he was just like him when he first met Kooky, but eventually warmed up as they sang a song together. The first thing Howard does is call Sandra to ask her out, which she says yes. Kuckoo helps Howard get ready from the date by spraying perfume on him, finding him a nice suit and telling him to be confident. Howard goes out on his date to Chic Cuisine and has a great time with Sandra. He eventually introduces her to the toons, as Kuckoo, Kooky, Smarty, and Cuckoo play "All You Need is Love" for them. Eventually, the two kiss each other and Sandra goes home, with Howard glad that they had a great time.

The next morning, Howard wakes up, happy after the date with Sandra and thinking that now nothing can go wrong with his life. However, all of a sudden, the Ink Splatter and Iris appear in the city, ready to kill Kuckoo and take over the city. Kuckoo and his friends get ready for action and start to battle the Ink Splatter. They do some damage, but they are outnumbered. Sandra comes outside to see what's happening, but gets captured by the Ink Splatter. Howard and the toons try to find something that'll be able to defeat him, where they find an ink container. They use it to suck the Ink Splatter in, and he, along with Iris, get trapped inside the ink container, which Kuckoo puts in a safe so they don't escape. Howard catches Sandra before she lands on the ground and she kisses him on the cheek. The city praise Howard and the toons as heroes and Mr. Holloway hires back Howard and wants Kuckoo and his friends to star in their own TV show. Howard thanks Kuckoo for all the help he gave him and lets them stay with him.

A year later, Howard and Sandra get married, have a baby named Kenny and live in a new house with Kuckoo and his friends, where they all live happily together.

Cast

 * Michael J. Fox as Howard Coopersmith, a nerdy outcast who works at Funnybone Animation Studios
 * Sandra Bullock as Sandra Hart, Howard's childhood friend and crush
 * Charlie Adler as Kuckoo Kat, a kind-hearted, yet crazy screwball who helps Howard with his life
 * Jim Belushi as the Ink Splatter, the main antagonist who wants to kill Kuckoo for foiling his plans
 * Candi Milo as Kooky Kat, Kuckoo's girlfriend who cares for him very much
 * Howard Morris as Smarty Kat, Kuckoo's smart and nerdy brother, who creates the portal creator
 * Hank Azaria as Cuckoo Cat, a jerkish cat who is Kuckoo's frenemy
 * Danny DeVito as Mr. Holloway, Howard's loud and mean-spirited boss
 * Martin Short as Iris, an idiotic inkblot that the Ink Splatter creates as his assistant

Production
Production started in 1990, when the newly-founded Gryphon Animation started making concepts for animated movies that would star Kuckoo Kat and his friends. These concepts include an animated musical that would've been a parody of Oliver!, one that would've had the characters in a road comedy similar to the Road to... movies ,and one concept where the characters would've participated in either the American Revolution or World War II. While these ideas would be scrapped, one idea, pitched by animator Dexter Sparks, would eventually become Kuckoo Kat and the Ink Splatter.

Casting
Originally, Ink Splatter was supposed to be a live action/animation hybrid similar to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but in order to avoid similarities with the film, and to avoid the budget getting overpriced, they decided to change plans and keep it fully animated. During production, they originally wanted to get celebrities to voice the classic characters, including Andy Dick as Kuckoo, Joan Cusack as Kooky, Eddie Deezen as Smarty, and Gilbert Gottfried as Cuckoo. However, when that was announced, it got backlash from critics and fans, saying that they should have regular voice actors play the characters instead of bringing in big-name celebrities. So, they replaced the celebrities with regular voice actors.

For the voices of the Ink Splatter and his dim-witted assistant Iris, they originally planned to have Tim Curry and Steve Martin voice the characters, but since Curry was busy filming for The Shadow and Martin was busy with A Simple Twist of Fate and Mixed Nuts, they instead cast Jim Belushi and Martin Short. The two would be reunited again for The Pebble and the Penguin.

During production. Hal Smith was brought in to have a cameo in the film as an old man who appears towards the end to compliment Howard and Kuckoo for being heroes. This would be his final film role, as he passed away from a heart attack on January 28, 1994, a few months before the film's release. The filmmakers put a tribute at the end of the film saying "In loving memory of Hal Smith".

Music
The score was composed by Ralph Burns, the same man who also composed My Favorite Year, The Muppets Take Manhattan, and All Dogs Go to Heaven. After the film's release, a soundtrack album was released on August 24th, featuring songs by artists such as "Weird Al" Yankovic, The Beatles, Oingo Boingo, Spike Jones, and more.

Marketing
To promote the film, they released a teaser trailer that was released in November of 1993, accompanying the releases of Addams Family Values, George Balanchine's The Nutcracker (1993), and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We%27re_Back!_A_Dinosaur%27s_Story_(film) We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story] in theaters. They would then release a main theatrical trailer in March of 1994, accompanying the releases of Thumbelina, Major League II, and D2: The Mighty Ducks in theaters. Upon the film's release, Gryphon Animation gave the film a massive marketing campaign, including tie-ins with Hershey's, RadioShack, Mattel, Walmart, and McDonald's.

Box office
When the film was coming out, critics were skeptical if it would be a hit or a flop, considering Gryphon Pictures released it during the summer around the same time as big blockbuster hits such as The Lion King, Forrest Gump, True Lies, and The Mask, all of which became the four biggest hits of 1994, but Kuckoo Kat and the Ink Splatter would eventually become another box-office hit alongside the four. It would gross $140 million domestically and $324 million worldwide, becoming the 7th highest-grossing film of 1994.

Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 80%, based on reviews from 48 critics, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's consensus states, "While the story may be weak, Kuckoo Kat and the Ink Splatter still contains fast-paced fun for the whole family." Metacritic gave it a weighted average score of 67 out of 100 based on reviews from 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. On the television program At the Movies, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the film "two thumbs up", saying that despite the weak story, they praised it for the fast-paced humor and the squash-and-stretch animation, calling it "a wonderful film with a lot of humor and a lot of heart".

Home media
The film would eventually be released on VHS and Laserdisc on February 15, 1995 and would get released on DVD on March 13, 2002. The VHS release featured the 1938 Giggle-Toons theatrical short "A Housecat Divided" as a special bonus cartoon. When it was released on DVD, it included an audio commentary with director Dexter Sparks, executive producer Monique Pratt, and Charlie Adler as Kuckoo, the episode "Hooray for Hollywood!" from The Adventures of Kuckoo Kat and the documentary, Behind the Toons: The Making of Kuckoo Kat and the Ink Splatter. It was later released on Blu-Ray Disc on November 5, 2007, with the same special features from the DVD, now remastered in high-definition for the first time.

Taglines
" action-packed. dramatic.  romantic. just plain kuckoo." - Poster tagline 1

"Howard Coopersmith's life is going to become a lot more animated." - Poster tagline 2

"A misadventure in mischief-making!" - Trailer tagline

"More insane than The Mask! More heartfelt than Lion King! More exciting than True Lies!" - Home video tagline