OZZY – THE GREAT FURSCAPE [2016 / 2017] [Blu-ray + Digital Ultra] [German Release] Spanish-Canadian Computer-Animated Comedy Film! Fast and Furry-ous!
The animated film follows boisterous beagle named Ozzy (voiced by Guillermo Romero) a friendly, peaceful beagle that has his idyllic life turned upside down when his family leave for Japan. There is only one problem: no dogs allowed! Unable to bring their beloved Ozzy along for the ride, the Martins settle on the next best thing, a top-of-the-line canine spa called Blue Creek. This picture perfect place turns out to be a facade constructed by its villainous owner to capture dogs. Ozzy will soon end up in the real Blue Creek, a prison for dogs, run by dogs. Ozzy will have to avoid danger and find strength in his new friends, Chester, Fronky and Doc to escape the prison and return home safely.
The narrative of ‘OZZY – THE GREAT FURSCAPE’ aims to follow in the footsteps of movies which employs Pixar-like animated quality and lots of fun. ‘OZZY – THE GREAT FURSCAPE’ is an animated comedy-adventure film targeted for all ages and represents good family entertainment at its best. The story itself is based, almost entirely, around dogs. ‘OZZY – THE GREAT FURSCAPE’ falls into the “prison film” genre with funny tributes to all the great prison classic films. It is a story about friendship, loyalty, courage and the ability to find the best in ourselves when facing a tough situation. This is definitely a hilarious “Barking Mad” animated adventure.
FILM FACT: The animated film was co-produced by Spain’s Arcadia Motion Pictures, Capitán Araña, and Pachacamac, and Canada’s Tangent Animation. Pre-production was done in Spain, and animation was produced in Canada.
Voice Cast: Guillermo Romero, Dani Rovira, José Mota, Michelle Jenner, Carlos Areces, Fernando Tejero, Luis Bajo, Héctor Cantolla, Juan Fernández, Elsa Pataky, Pablo Espinosa, Selu Nieto, Lorenzo Beteta, José Escobosa, David Hernán, Fermín Pintos, Ricardo Escobar, Roberto González, Roberto Encinas, Mario Martín Serrano, Rafael Azcárraga, Fernando Elegido, Gabriel Jiménez, José Luis Pérez, Manolo Lama, Maldini, Matías Prats, Jeff Espinoza, Jeff Foxworthy, Stephen Hughes, Robbie K. Jones, José Luis Martinez, Jonathan D. Mellor, Benjamin Nathan-Serio, Amanda J. Nolen, Frankie Quinones, Frank Robledano, Kurt Schiller, Rob Schneider, Jimmy Shaw, Colleen Terry, Lexi Walker and Garrett Wall
Directors: Alberto Rodríguez and Nacho La Casa
Producers: Anne-Claire Villeneuve, Devan Towers, Jeff Bell, Joe Wilka, Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé, Ken Zorniak, Lechen Liu, Marina Fuentes Arredonda, Mark Slone, Mercedes Gamero, Mikel Lejarza, Nacho La Casa, Phyllis Laing and Victor Elizalde
Screenplay: Juan Ramón Ruiz de Somavía (screenplay/original story)
Composer: Fernando Velázquez
Image Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audio: German: 5.1 DTS-HD Surround Sound
English: 5.1 DTS-HD Surround Sound
Subtitles: German and German [Austrian]
Running Time: 88 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Splendid Animation
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: With the animated film ‘OZZY – THE GREAT FURSCAPE’ [2016] here we find Ozzy, a friendly peaceful beagle who feels he has an idyllic life that is suddenly turned upside down when his family leave for Japan. There’s only one problem: no dogs allowed! Unable to bring their beloved Ozzy along for the ride, the Martins settle on the next best thing, a top-of-the-line canine spa called “Blue Creek.” This picture perfect place turns out to be a facade constructed by its villainous owner to capture dogs. Ozzy will soon end up in the real Blue Creek, a prison for dogs, run by dogs. Ozzy will have to avoid danger and find strength in his new friends, Chester, Fronky and Doc to escape the prison and return home safely.
Ozzy will soon end up in the real “Blue Creek,” a prison for dogs, run by dogs. Ozzy will have to avoid danger and find strength in his new friends, Chester, Fronky and Doc to escape the prison and return home safely. Meanwhile, Ozzy's owners have returned from their vacation only to be told by the kennel owner that Ozzy has passed away. Si it is up to Ozzy and his misfit band of dog friends to somehow escape the prison, turn the other dogs against the kennel owner, and find freedom as well as their owners.
The narrative of ‘OZZY – THE GREAT FURSCAPE’ the animated film, isn’t quite up to the standard of ‘Toy Story 3’ [2010] PIXAR animation, but despite it slightly lacking much of the cleverness and multi-dimensional appeal of the earlier PIXAR animated feature. But on the other hand it does have a heart-warming animated film about discarded anthropomorphic beings longing to be reunited with their families; it happily shares something of the same vibe. But the main message of the animated film is that Ozzy the beagle loved by his family, the Martins.
Just about every imaginable prison movie reference is crammed into Ozzy’s story, where he shares a cell with a talkative dachshund, Fronky [Voiced by Nathan-Serio] who makes regular, failed attempts at escaping; he has mess-hall battles, creates havoc in the Frisbee-making factory, and runs foul of Vito, the prison’s top dog, who of course has to be a Chihuahua, and he gets himself into an awful bind when he is pressured by Vito to be his runner in a traditional foot race against the top staff runner, and pressured by the Warden to run and of course always loses.
There are plenty of affectionate nods to old prison films, including ‘Cool Hand Luke’ where a punishment of having to repeatedly dig up and bury a bone, ‘The Last Castle,’ ‘The Shawshank Redemption,’ and ‘Escape from Alcatraz.’ It soon dawns on Ozzy that the Martins have seemingly not come back to collect him, and he puts in place a plot for an escape plan, borrowing from other escape film references, and dragging his mates Fronky, Chester (a disabled wire-haired terrier) and Doc (an Old English Sheepdog who doesn’t speak) along for the ride.
‘OZZY – THE GREAT FURSCAPE’ has the usual odd ball characters like the Southern good ol' dog warden, the Mafia don and his blockheaded henchmen, a dog with a Scottish accent just because it has to be included as homage to Second World War films. There is the obligatory forced lesson on standing up to bullies, who always get their comeuppance eventually, and is an overwhelming lesson on how not to treat others in such a nasty belligerent way and of course they in return get their comeuppance. But all in all the animated film ‘OZZY – THE GREAT FURSCAPE’ has charm and cuteness at its heart. It also has a simple story of a cute pup in a bad place seeking to be reunited with those who love him. It is comfortably familiar and also of course ends happily ever after.
OZZY – THE GREAT FURSCAPE MUSIC TRACK LIST
SOMOS GIGNATES (Written by Iván Torres Trujillo, Nauzet Rodríguez Barreto and Arturo So Belancoot) [Sung by Efecto Pasillo]
EFECTO PASILLO [Voice and Chorus: Iván Torres, Drums: Javier Moreno, Guitar and Chorus: Nau Barreto and Bass: Arturo Sosa]
Blu-ray Image Quality – Splendid Animation brings you this superb animated film ‘OZZY – THE GREAT FURSCAPE’ in a glorious 1080p image presentation, with an equally impressive 1.78:1 aspect ratio to show off this animated film at its best that is 100% crisp and colourful, and sometimes you have the colours bursting out of the screen and you also get wonderful crisp stunning colourful images as well. What is also outstanding are the lovely vibrant reds, lovely greens, vivid blues, inky blacks abound, and the contrast and clarity is 100% spot on. The brilliant animators work is particularly refined and the people who produced the CGI computer generated images have done a fantastic job. So all in all a good effort all round and well done Splendid Animation for giving us a lovely animated film. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Splendid Animation presents us ‘OZZY – THE GREAT FURSCAPE’ with two audio options, German: 5.1 DTS-HD Surround Sound and English: 5.1 DTS-HD Surround Sound experience, that is bright, lively, and is great fun all round with all the sounds you hear from all of your speakers, especially when the animals speak and it is excitement all round. Dialogue is crystal clear and neatly positioned with your centre speaker, and the sound effects are very effective, especially mainly directed basically with all three front speakers, but sometimes you do get to hear some sounds via your rear speakers, and sometimes you do get a few good standout moments. On top of all that, the animated film music does a really fine job, and with some nice directional flourishes that keeps things exciting at times throughout the animated film and you also get sometimes a handful of loud booming sounds that make their presence known now and again to great audio effect. So once again, a good effort all round and once again well done Splendid Animation for doing a really excellent job all round.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Theatrical Trailer [2016] [1080p] [1.85:1] [1:29] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘OZZY – THE GREAT FURSCAPE.’ This is shown in 5.1 DTS-HD Surround Sound, but unfortunately it is only in German and has no English Subtitles.
Blu-ray Sneak Peek Trailers: ZAMBEZIA IN 3D [2012] [1080p] [1.85:1] [2:03]; FISCHEN IMPOSSIBLE [2016] [1080p] [1.85:1] [1:44]; JETS: HELDEN DER LÜFTE [2012] [1080p] [2.35:1] [1:31]; FUSSBALL [2015] [1080p] [2.35:1] [1:38]; AB DURCH DEN DSCHUNGEL [2014] [1080p] [1.85:1] [1:44]; NIX WIE WEG [2013] [1080p] [2.35:1] [2:17]; SAM O’COOL [2015] [1080p] [1.85:1] [1:57]; VOL AUF DiE NUSS [2015] [1080p] [1.85:1] [2:30]; PRiNZ RiBBiT [2014] [1080p] [1.85:1] [1:38] and FREDDY FROG [2014] [1080p] [2.35:1] [2:14]. These trailers are only in German.
Finally, ‘OZZY – THE GREAT FURSCAPE’ is a wonderful animated comedy-adventure film targeted for all ages and represents good family entertainment which is at its best and I am sure children will fall in love with all the animals you get to see in this loveable animated film. The story itself is based, almost entirely, around dogs. ‘OZZY – THE GREAT FURSCAPE’ is an obvious attempt at a parody of “prison films” genre, but with funny tributes at the same time to the great prison classic films. It’s a story about friendship, loyalty, courage and the ability to find the best in ourselves when facing a tough situation. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
