Doug's 1st Movie

Doug's 1st Movie
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Maurice Joyce
Produced by	David Campbell Melanie Grisanti Jim Jinkins Jack Spillum
Screenplay by	Ken Scarborough
Based on	Doug by Jim Jinkins
Starring	Tom McHugh Fred Newman Chris Phillips Constance Shulman Frank Welker Alice Playten Guy Hadley
Music by	Mark Watters
Editing by	Alysha Cohen Christopher Gee
Studio	Jumbo Pictures Walt Disney Pictures
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release date(s)	March 19, 1999 (1999-03-19) (premiere) March 26, 1999 (1999-03-26) (wide)
Running time	77 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$19,440,089

Doug's 1st Movie (also known as The First Doug Movie Ever) is a 1999 animated film based on the Disney version of the Nickelodeon television series Doug. The film was directed by Maurice Joyce, and stars the regular television cast of Tom McHugh, Fred Newman, Chris Phillips, Constance Shulman, Frank Welker, Alice Playten, and Guy Hadley. It was produced by Jumbo Pictures and Buena Vista, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on March 26, 1999. In theaters, the Disney short "Opera Box" from the television series Mickey Mouse Works was featured before the film, the short featured Donald and Daisy Duck.

Plot

Doug and Skeeter discover a monster that lives in Lucky Duck Lake. At first they are scared of him, but they later on find him to be nice. But, the monster is proof that Bill Bluff is polluting the lake which created this monster. The Monster almost eats the book Moby Dick, but Skeeter stops him and says, "Stop! You almost ate Herman Melville", and the monster responded, so they name him Herman Melville. They show it to Mrs. Dink, who's the mayor. She tells Doug and Skeeter not to tell anyone about Herman and the polluted lake or else Mr. Bluff will kill the story. Mrs. Dink tries to come up with a plan to make sure Mr. Bluff would not interfere. But all this commotion with the monster makes Doug forget that he was supposed to meet Patti at Mr. Swirly's. When he remembers this, he runs to Swirly's as fast as he can using the quickest shortcuts that he knows. Once he gets there, he doesn't see Patti. He asks Mr. Swirly if he's seen her, and he says the she was here for a while and looked very upset, and then left with a guy who kept talking about his big plans for a dance. When Doug heard this, he knew that this guy was no one else but Guy Graham, a snobby upper classman who wants Patti. Meanwhile, Roger and the AV nerds are building a robot to kidnap Herman, but when they build the robot it acts like Roger's babysitter.

Doug then rushes to the Funkytown night club, where Guy and Patti are working on the dance. He apologizes to Patti there and she accepts his apology. But Guy cuts in and says that Doug is just a stupid little kid. Doug, very angry now, says that he has proof that Bluff is evil and is polluting the lake (Doug goes against Mrs. Dink's warning). Guy then calls Doug a liar. Doug then invites them both to the report that is being held in front of Mr. Dink's house about Herman and the pollution. Doug then leaves, but the picture of the monster falls out of his pocket without him knowing. Guy picks up the picture and realizes that Doug was telling the truth; he then calls Bluff, with whom he has connections to. The next day, Patti asked Doug to bring Guy. Doug allows it in hopes to get back at him. At the reporting, Doug sees that a news reporters camera is inflatable. He then realizes that the news company is a fake, that it is supporting Bill Bluff and trying to compensate the monster. Doug then has to tell everyone that there has been a mistake, Patti gets mad at him, thinks that he is a liar and walks away with Guy.

That night, Bluff finds the boys with Herman and kidnaps the monster. The next morning, Doug knows that this is his last chance to save Herman. He goes to the school newspaper room, hoping to find Guy who can lead him to Bluff. Hoping he can asked Guy for help and he was going to swallow his pride for nothing because Guy wasn't going to help him. Guy isn't in the room, but Doug sees a newspaper article that says that Mr. Bluff and his men blast a monster to smitherines at a school dance. Doug is at first sad and believes that Herman has died, but he then realizes that the school dance isn't until tonight and this is what is being planned to happen so, Doug and Skeeter call Roger and The Sleech twins to help. At the school dance, he has to make the biggest choice of his life, going after Patti or saving Herman. When he does that, Bluff catches the quintet in front of Crystal Lake and starts to enslave them, but is stopped by Mrs. Dink. Beebe arrives and forces her father off of the scene to defend her friends. Doug then finds Patti in front of the woods and Doug tries to tell her he is in love with her but is interrupted by Herman. With the return of Herman and a copy of the newspaper Patti sees that Doug had been telling her the truth all along and dumps Guy. Also Skeeter gives Herman the Moby Dick book for something to eat in the lake and Herman also gives Doug a flower to give to Porkchop to which Porkchop comes running out of the woods into Herman's arms. The kids say goodbye to Herman; after Herman jumps back into the lake, Doug tells Patti he likes her and Roger almost becomes friends with Doug, but is interrupted by the robot. Doug starts dancing with Patti and Skeeter dances with Beebe as the music continues in the background.

Doug closes his diary by saying he was so about looking like a loser and he learns to do the right thing.

Cast

• Tom McHugh as Doug Funnie, Lincoln
• Fred Newman as Skeeter Valentine, Mr. Dink, Porkchop, Ned
• Chris Phillips as Roger Klotz, Boomer, Larry, Mr. Chiminy
• Constance Shulman as Patti Mayonnaise
• Frank Welker as Herman Melville
• Alice Playten as Beebe Bluff, Elmo
• Guy Hadley as Guy Graham
• Doug Preis as Mr. Funnie, Mr. Bluff, Willie, Chalky, Bluff Agent
• Eddie Korbich as Al & Moo Sleech, Robocrusher
• David O'Brien as Quailman Announcer
• Doris Belack as Mayor Tippi Dink
• Greg Lee as Principal White
• Fran Brill as Mrs. Perigrew

Production

Nickelodeon set out to do a Doug film in 1993, to be released by 20th Century Fox, along with films based on Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show, but the plans fell through and the films were never produced (with the exception of Rugrats, which got a 1998 film (The Rugrats Movie) by Paramount Pictures).

When The Walt Disney Company bought Jumbo Pictures along with the cartoon, they decided to re-circle the project for the Doug film. This film was originally planned as a direct-to-video release under the title The First Doug Movie Ever, but due to the success of The Rugrats Movie, it saw a theatrical release. Doug's 1st Movie was released on VHS on September 21, 1999 from Walt Disney Home Video in North America. To date, there has been no DVD release (this is most likely to do with copyright issues with Viacom and The Walt Disney Company).

Release

Critical reception

The film garnered a 26% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with 9 of a total 34 reviews being determined as positive. 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.

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.

External links

• Doug's 1st Movie at the Internet Movie Database
• Doug's 1st Movie at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Doug's 1st Movie at Box Office Mojo
• Doug's 1st Movie at Rotten Tomatoes