Otto In Africa

***Otto in Africa*** is a 1995 French-American-Canadian animated film produced by Greg Bailey and Joe Murray, the latter of whom also directed it. It was produced in France, under the title of Otto et les Africains, and is the first Happy Family film to be produced outside USA and Canada, which refers to it as *Otto in Africa*. The movie's plot is loosely adapted from the book *Otto Goes On Holiday*, with a number of changes to it. While the film was distributed in South Korea by CJ Entertainment and ICONIX, Dreamworks Classics handled its distribution in worldwide

## Plot

Otto goes on a big vacation in africa, to visit many people there

## Summary

In the stone age, Jeung Choi and Kang Il are making a Stone Castle,only for Seoung Cho to destroy it, Time fowarded to the Middle ages where Walter became the king, and Seoung Cho is the Tax-Collector, take over the Village, and makes all its citizens poor and miserable due to Seoung-Cho's overtaxing.

It turns out that Otto is reading a novel,

Two days later, Topi wrote a letter to Otto to go to Senegal, Topi wrote, "DEAR OTTO, Please go to Senegal, to visit my culture, Your Pen-Pal "Topi"

The scene then goes to Otto leaving South Korea to go to Senegal

All the other characters from Season 1 and Season 2 luck Otto, "Bon Voyage, Fatso" Seoung Cho, who was not selected for the program, tells Otto not to come back

During the flight, Otto produces a letter he received that was written in French. Marque "Kang-Il's pen pal from France", who has been speaking French, translates it and says it is an invitation from Topi. Otto asks when he will be going to Senegal, Marque has no idea.

Otto first arrives in Nigeria and goes on the Slums, eventually he finds an Airport

Thee then goes to Cheikh and his mot leaving Senegal to move to Elwood City, in the United States.

## Production

There were numerous attempts to make a *Happy Family* feature film, mainly in the 1980s after the successful reruns of the original cartoons and the airings of the new TV animated version (although there have been debatable possibilities of making attempts in the golden age of cartoons). Freddy Monnickendam, who previously worked on his take on the characters in his company SEPP International S.A, wanted to make a *Happy Family* film but later pulled the plug on the idea due to not finding a suitable script to work with.

Among of the attempts (with Monnickendam involved) was when Hanna Barbera wanted to make the feature in Digital ink-and-paint to write the screenplay and for Dustin Hoffman and Chevy Chase to star as the duo, but sometime later, the idea was shelved.

In the late 1980s, Phil Roman and his company Film Roman managed to revive the attempts of making an animated film featuring the characters after his experience in directing the animated specials featuring another popular cartoon cat Garfield, as well as his love for the original *Happy Family* books. This gave the opportunity of making it the first theatrical animated film for Film Roman and CiNAR and his second directorial role for a theatrical animated film since *Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown*, though in this case as an individual director after directing the TV movie *Garfield: His 9 Lives*, with Marc Brown aboard as a consultant. One of the rare options the crew decided to take is going in a different direction and something new on the portrayal of the duo by giving them fluent dialogue, because they considered that most of the audience would feel bored or uninterested in the repetitively mute aspect.

Animators on *Otto in Africa* include Eric Thomas, Art Roman, Doug Frankel, Tony Fucile, Steven E. Gordon, Leslie Gorin, Dan Haskett, Brian Robert Hogan, Gabi Payn, Irven Spence Michael Sporn Craig McCracken and Arnie Wong. Some animation was outsourced to Wang Film Productions in Taiwan, AKOM in Korea where James Miko and Aundre Knutson served as supervising directors. Additional animation was provided by Big Star, Neptuno Films and D'Ocon Films. The computer animation for the vehicles was provided by Dreamworks Animation.

## International release dates

* August 19 1995 (France)
* August 22 1995 (Australia)
* December 12 1995 (USA)
* February 11 1996 (UK)
* April 11 1996 (Germany)
* August 5 1996 (Spain)
* August 11 1999 (South Korea, original release)
* April 22 2004 (Middle East)
* September 11 2019 (South Korea, re-release)

## Edits

* In the Middle East, the part of Otto falling into a Pig farm is cut
* When aired on NBC on May 27, 2000, the end credits was sped up
* When aired on Sprout in 2009, the words "Stupid" and "Landmine" are muted
* When shown on CiTV in 2018, the scenes of the tribal villagers trying to cook Otto were cut due to Rasicm
* When aired on Nickelodeon in 2021, the Guillotine scene is cut

## Trivia

* This movie was aired on Universal Kids as part of Black History Month