Imagine the timeline where the game released in 2006 and was a mostly forgotten decent little game, then five plus years later the movie finally drops. We were weirdly close to this reality, instead of the one where we didn't even know the game existed for fifteen years
@@Tirgo69 people would have wondered why the hell they made a movie off such a niche game. It would be like a Ty the Tasmanian Tiger movie being made in 2015
the fact that foodfight was intended to be a large scale cinematic property is so surreal to me, even if this had come out at the time the unabashed confidence in a bunch of food mascots is insane.
I think it would've done well had they been able to keep the M&M characters, Chester Cheetah, and the Coca Cola polar bears who were apparently also supposed to be in it.
To me, that just fits with the whole story. This guy was clearly a snakeoil salesman and manipulated clueless investors into thinking that this could work. That anyone thought this was a good idea perfectly fits with the story of the creator scrapping the original reel and coming up with excuses to delay things.
@@ScooterinABEven if the movie came out, it'd be seen as a cynical cash-grab. You have original characters like Daredevil Dan, Dex Dogtective, and Sunshine Goodness yes, but the emphasis being put on corporate mascots makes the film feel so hollow and cynical. People don't associate food mascots with heart and storytelling; they exist only to push a product and it feels wrong that the film was targeted towards kids.
I'm remembering the Nostalgia Critic review, he was probably right, that they thought it'd be the next _Who Framed Roger Rabbit?_ with the IP collective crossover, like the one scene with Bugs and Mickey being the only time they were officially in the same shot.
This is the first time I've heard someone officially come out and say that the movie stealing was a hoax! I've always thought it was convenient that everything was stolen without proof like that...
I can't remember the name of it, but there's a Foodfight documentary on TH-cam with crew interviews, and they all say the story was complete bullshit and didn't even make sense. However, even before that, myself and many others were already skeptical. The most unbelievable part of the story is that the Secret Service were involved which is just complete and utter nonsense
My siblings and I were completely skeptical of the supposed "theft", especially because at one point the rumor became that the "original" was destroyed in a fire.
The reason why there are so many Casablanca references is because...Food Fight IS Casablanca. Brand X are the Nazis and the song they sing in the released version is a butchered version of the French Naational Anthem which was what was being sung in defiance from Casablanca. And the Naked Lady X reminds me of the model shoots they did for the main character in the first Final Fantasy movie. They actually made her a 'cover girl' for a magazine with specifically rendered 'shots' that presented her as a real person. Anyone 'member that?
I remember the video rental store I used to go to had a calendar with a pin-up poster of Dr. Aki Ross in a bikini. It was an official promotional release for the movie. A friend of mine actually got the store owner to give him the calendar some time after the movie was way past its VHR release date. The story was that there were some official renders of her in the same pose but without the bikini. And while I have seen such picture on the internet and it certainly looks consistent I really can't tell if it's official or a fan edit.
Also See BloodRain,Onchabara,Tabularasa and Splatter House 2010 did this too but they went futher than a Bikini. I dont get how this helped Splatter House sell since yeah its a game about a Guy in Hockey Mask fighting demons no one was playing that for the ladys,
The fact that Kassanoff "didn't like the way storyboards looked and thought investors wouldn't understand them" tells me everything about why this movie end up being like this.
His reasoning is actually some harebrained madness here, like, investors wouldn't understand? Larry, baby, storyboarding is used in many live-action movies too to plan out scenes, storyboarding has been an active practice for almost a hundred years, Lawrence. WHAT KIND OF INSANE WORMS ARE YOU EATING LARS???
They weren't singing a generic song in the movie, they were singing the French national anthem (because the Casa Blanca reference needed to be more obvious, I guess)
The plan was to make more movies similar to it: *Mascots - A animated film about sports mascot characters. *Sunday Comics Capers - A animated film about comic strip characters. *Arcade - A animated film about video game characters, which would've predated Wreck It Ralph.
I just like how they covered their own hides saying that they lost the footage (either in a fire or theft), forcing them to rework the film from scratch, and we all believed them (to be fair, Toy Story 2 had similar problems in development), and it went unchallenged for nearly 2 DECADES.
I never believed it, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. It just never made any sense as to why anyone would want to steal this. The only POSSIBLE explanation would be a disgruntled employee that wanted to get back at his employer, but I can't see anyone risking jail time rather than just quitting and getting a new job.
My favorite lost media genre is when an IP is either failed or unfinished, then finding all the merch created because the creatives were SO CONFIDENT that they had the next Big Thing on their hands. Learning about the development and work thrown into an failure is such a trip.
its like angry video game nerd reviewing the cheetahmen where the devs had apparently even made plans for tie-in action figures and it even came with a comic. as if their completely unplayable game was going to be the next TMNT or something.
@KossolaxtheForesworn honestly I csn remember where I seen it, but there was a deep five on action 52, and the dude planned to build a 7 foot animatronic cheetah for conventions.
@@jampine8268 it is genuinely crazy how deluded the creator of that game was, and the other games that came with it. it could hardly be called even a finished product but I guess it was best he could ever accomplish and in his deluded brain its the second coming of christ. imagine had there been internet back then, the backlash would have been far greater than few disgruntled consumers. just look how much stuff they are making of games today even before they are released.
@@KossolaxtheForeswornI can't remember the specifics, but he Basically hired 2-3 people who know from college who knew how to do coding, and gave them about 1 week to make each "game" (Of course he did none of the actual coding himself). And Nintendo didn't even approve the game, so it's s an illegal cartridge.
Jesus Christ, I think after all the findings are over, people should just make a fanmade version of Food Fight from the ground up that fixes everything with actual good animations, writing, visuals, etc. that way it can put a conclusion to everything
cut him some slack, he's american /hj He said "Spain" while pointing at France on a map on another video of his Edit: its in his inital coverage of the "Everyone Knows That" song + corrected the country he got wrong
@@hawktalon7890 ikr. i can understand not recognizing a national anthem, but its literally easy to look up where in the map places are supposed to be. he put that image up without double checking which honestly puts to question how well researched some of these videos are
@@PsycheTrance65 Exactly, I'm definitely a bit skeptical to say the least. I guess some topics are kind of a "do your own research" thing if you can find information somewhere else.
I believe that this movie was definitely a way for them to launder money. No way this movie should have been this expensive and literally almost no one had ever even heard about it.
The man was legitimately horny on main throughout the entire movie's production. The early version of FoodFight allegedly didn't really have the racy humor the released version has; Larry Kasanoff insisted the writers throw in more innuendoes to make the film more mature, while completely forgetting it's meant to be a family-friendly film.
@@AluminumFusion22 apparently without realizing that this kind of humor actually makes it less appealing to audiences who arent children. but I guess early 2000 was different time, even south park being popular with subnormal writing that revolved around poop jokes.
@@KossolaxtheForesworn The thing with innuendoes in children's movies is that they're at least subtle and tasteful. When every other character is making sexual references, it stops being an innuendo and defines the film. Both JonTron and the Nostalgia Critic rightfully called out how off-putting the writing was because it WAS intended for kids, but the sexual references weren't subtle enough for parents to pick up and for kids to ignore. It's really tasteless and weird.
Honestly, Foodfight was always destined to fail. Let's take the hypothetical, best case scenario as an example. In this hypothetical version of events, the movie would look just like the trailer and get/retain all of the product licenses they wanted. First of all, it was going to rely heavily on mascots from real world products. However, the vast majority of the mascots planned for the movie were from brands which only exist in America. The rest of the world would have zero familiarity or interest in them and a lot of the dialogue or jokes relating to them would go right over everyone's heads. Given that the main selling point was "Oh, I know that character!", it was never going to succeed outside of the USA. So, what about America? Surely it would do well there? Nope. It would have just been an extremely long ad break. I know it's a common joke to call Americans stupid and see them as mindless consumers but that's just a stereotype. We have to at least give them some credit. There's no way that any audience, American or not, would see this as anything more than what it was: a lazy attempt to make them pay to watch a bunch of ads, held together with a very flimsy, poorly written plot. I mean, come on! The villainous brand which tries to take over is literally called "Brand X". That name has been synonymous with generic/cheaper products for decades, long before Foodfight was even planned. The message of the movie was essentially "Don't buy stuff from smaller companies or try to get a bargain, elsewhere. Those brands are evil. Just buy our overpriced crap, instead". Who on Earth would be naive enough to fall for that? I'd say pretty much nobody.
Tbh i forgot what "Brand X" meant, but i still would not care for this garbage. I feel like Foodfight would have been essentially the old school Emoji Movie at best.
I mean it was never made for international audiences. It was an ad movie. This would have been a meme even if it was well written and animated, the concept would still be a meme.
I think it may have still done well in America. Obviously adults wouldn’t have any interest in it but I could totally see myself as a little kid seeing the various cereal and candy mascots and being excited to see the movie. I’m sure plenty of other kids also wouldn’t understand that it’s just a big advertisement.
on top of that, the movie's plot doesn't really make that much sense no matter how you look at it. Even if it had better animation, the product placement and the thing you said about the brands being almost exclusive to America, it'd just age so poorly so quickly and be forgotten about. I'd say ironically it's more remembered as it is.
and there is plenty of other movies where the premise is executed better. like who framed roger rabbit and wreck it ralph. they manage to keep the known characters on the background while doing their own thing rather than trying to rely on them. but at least people around the world recognize those characters either way, the only one I know of american mascots might be the cheeta on the cheetos package, and I have never had those so I dont even know what they taste like.
I also saw "Rotten: Behind the Foodfight" when it premiered just this year (2024), and I was wonderfully enlightened! I wonder what other movies could this mess of an animated movie's behind-the-scenes be the most similar to? Perhaps either the legendary "Thief and the Cobbler", or maybe another movie, like "Heaven's Gate" (the infamous 1980 film that put "The Deer Hunter" director Michael Cimino's career dead in the water, ended the "New Hollywood" age, and got its distributor, United Artists, sold to MGM the year after its release)?
@@SaintCharlos I've heard of that too. Released in 1980, but was in production since around 1948! But was it a case of the director's megalomania, or perfectionism, or something? Because for "Foodfight!", it was more his hubris that brought him down.
I was at a thrift shop with my friend a few months ago and found a 16 inch Charlie the Tuna with the 2008 Foodfight tag, it was when I found out they had merch, the quality is for sure from a claw machine. The amount they wanted to do with Foodfight is insane, I guess it makes sense because of the amount of advertising for other brands. I like to think of an alternative universe where there was this giant ad movie with merch just selling more ads all over in every media.
This video unlocked a memory of me seeing that pilot squirrel in a claw machine, and thinking why I did not recognize a character, that looked too specific of a design to be a one off.
I had a Cheasle the Weasel plush when I was a child! My dad got it for me from a local pizza joint's claw machine. I've never seen FoodFight before in my life but I will always recognize that weasel
well it doesnt stand out of many random design plushies out there. its like vast majority are like that instead of tie-in products or lines like squishmallows.
The rumor the assets were stolen is so believable because this seems like a movie someone would watch in test screenings and say to themself "I can't let this garbage see the light of day."
@@pauljs75Coneceptually it is literally a movie sized commercial. It's the Emoji Movie of it's day, without even the Emoji Movie's notably good animation.
13:17 I wonder if the white on white came about from adding text on what someone thought was a black background, but in actuality it was a transparent one (this is how it's displayed in some editing programs) and when the video was exported it added the default white background based on file type?
Indeed. A shame that if it was released, a lot of what was planned would end up being changed due to most of the companies who owned the mascots pulling out, which meant the movie could no longer use the characters.
@@jeremyriley1238 The Chef Boyardee company stayed on, so you'd least be able to play his food fight game. From the concept art, it looks like it would've been Chef Boyardee vs Dex Dogtective in a food fight.
2:40 This "room inside a room inside a room" must have been a desk drawer inside of an office room, and he considered the building to be a room itself 😂😂😂
Kassanoff: "Alright, team. You know what to do, let's break and make this movie" *stops the one of the modelors* "Except for you. I got a favor to ask of you."
I always thought of Foodfight as this obscure internet curiosity. I didn't even realize that there was so much of it all around me, and so recently too... Kinda scary isn't it
@@LavenderTea-lr3hc Shit man, I haven't seen anything from the OP commenter in absolute ages, and his handle already hit me like a liver punch when I saw just a few moments ago. What the hell did he do, man?
I actually remember accessing a website based off of this movie and that's how I learned about this movie's existence. The only thing I remembered from that website was the film's title/logo and a cityscape-like design on the main page, but I can't really recall if there was any features or interactivity.
Kind of a random question but I'm curious to what your opinion is on it: What do you think is the greatest lost media find in the past few years AS A WHOLE? The first thing that comes to my mind is the wicked witch episode of Sesame Street.
I agree with your pick. The Wicked Witch Sesame Street episode is probably the one that the most people would care about. Most Americans and citizens of many other countries grew up with Sesame Street, but most people don't even know Food Fight ever existed.
While I have a lot of smaller favorites, I think the discovery of never-before-seen footage from Cleopatra 1917 was amazing. It’s only two minutes of what used to be two hours, but it felt like looking right into the past, and the fact that they could find least media that was over 100 years old is wild.
Between this and the documentary "Rotten", I can only conclude that Larry is a fraud, a hack, and a pathological liar. As dumb as an idea food fight is, it boggles my mind that he got a hold of it and not anyone else. Maybe he was the only one who wanted it?
I gotta give sony some credit with their concord, at least they delivered finished product even if it was 400 million loss. they didnt just pocket the money. idk how he got away with that, would think someone would sue him to hell.
I can't help myself what it would be like if Larry Kassenoff and Jeff Spankenburg became an unholy duo of investor frauds. Only mix the infamous Lady X pic and Jeff and his company forgetting about checking IDs when making The Guy Game and you have one big disaster created. And I also pray for the Foodfight game to be one day dumped.
I've got to say I don't understand people wishing we got the "better" version of this. this was not a diamond in the rough, it was a terrible premise executed terribly enough to become interesting. if we got the competently produced version it'd be an intelligence insulting piece of sterile corporate propaganda telling the audience not to buy generic store brands if they want to be a good person.
1) I'm sad the better version isn't out there 2) I'm happy we have most of the footage from the sizzle reel 3) The movie may be bad, but I must compliment the guy for sticking with it & actually getting something done. Even if he did lie, & even if he did have someone make a weird pic of one of the characters.
The more info that comes out about the behind the scenes of this movie, the more I question how someone as incompetent as Larry Kasanoff could have -directed- produced something as amazing as the original Mortal Kombat movie.
He wasn't the director of MK; he was a producer. The director was Paul W. S. Anderson. But thanks for the info, as I had no idea the Foodfight guy was involved with the Mortal Kombat movie. Looking at his IMDb, he directed "Mortal Kombat: The Live Tour" and wrote the story for Mortal Combat: Annihilation, and produced the crappy CGI and crappy 2D Mortal Kombat cartoons. He was an executive producer on True Lies and co-founded Lightstorm Entertainment with James Cameron. (The role of an executive producer frequently has no creative input into the movies.)
Yo wtf, this thumbnail no way this was going to be in the movie, bruh the nostalgia critic joke of this movie being a fetish film now this joke makes more sense now unironically
The absolute shock I felt hearing that there was no theft was insane. I don’t keep up with Foodfight lost media so I genuinely thought the theft was real.
5:50 I don't think this would have ever gotten made, because they'd need to get the brands onboard. Can you imagine going to Pringles and ask if they're cool with their chips being used as a gun? Or about depicting Blow Pops as incendiary devices? I love the concept art (especially the war-hardened Keebler Elves), but it would have never survived the licensing process.
YES! FINALLY! SOMEBODY FINALLY SAYS IT! The movie conceptually feels so cynical because it's nothing but a vehicle to push products. It's one thing to consult advertisers to help pay for your movie's production and in turn a character is drinking, eating or using their product, but companies were contacted to push their mascots. It feels really soulless. It's like when companies interact on Twitter. It's not real; it's all just business.
Exactly. I feel like the development time would’ve been cut in half, maybe even more than half, if they didn’t involve real food mascots at all and had fictional mascots take their place.
I mean, with a premise like "toy story in a supermarket" its kinda expected to devolve into something like that. Though, by the storyboard and (possible) early drafts from the books it seems they were at least trying to do something creative or at least fun with the idea in the begining.
12:40 The "horrendous animation" from that "peanut envy" scene is actually from the layout phase (at least that's what Pixar calls it). It's basically a way to figure out where every character should be, and how the camera should move through a scene. It might also having some rough animation to convey certain character movements. It's the next step after the storyboard. Something that can be made before a lot of work goes into a scene, meaning it can be cut without much wasted time if need be.
Kassanov is the guy who tried to sue Midway claiming he deserved the rights to the Mortal Kombat IP because the movie made the games popular (instead of, you know, the other way around).
@@caucasoidape8838 You'd be surprised, half the stuff I approve, I'm amazed got all the way through the executives. Some shots get by with just TPose if it's just talking head parts. They are getting better looking since Unity, Unreal, and Blender Eevee exist now for free for productions.
I'm impressed there are people who go out of their way to find foodfight lost media, given that the movie physically hurts to look at, I wouldn't have thought that there are people who'd actively want to see more of it.
"What if the worst song from Eight Crazy Nights metastasized into a feature-length film?" "Well, that would clearly be the most godawful movie ever to exist. Such a thing could never be." "Ah! You _say_ that, but..."
Foodfight is my ironic favourite movie I love it so much. I think what I love the most about it is that it's this soulless corporate greed attempt to make a lot of money by flashing product placement at children but everyone hated it and it lost them a ton of money. It's so funny and I was slightly obsessed when I first found out about it.
One thing of Foodfight I really hope will be found soon is the entirety of the Copabanana song that was heard in the original trailer, investor reels and workprint. I'd argue that's one of the best things to come from this disaster and it didn't even make it into the final film.
The funniest thing about Food Fight is that I saw clips from the original version of the film... ...it still sucked. It legit was still an ugly, amateurish piece of crap. The fact that the director/producer (I don't care who it was) said this movie's failure was a result of "espionage" is so irrelevant. Even the intended version of this movie was junk.
"The single worst animated movie ever made." Over the past decade, TH-camrs have put in the effort to find movies far worse than food fight. Most of them were "direct to vhs" or "direct to dvd." I'm not even sure we can call this the worst "intended for theaters" movie anymore, just the most remembered.
The most fascinating oddity in the history of branded entertainment keeps on giving. It's amazing how much was invested,( and subsequently lost) on this awful IP!
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honestly I actually kinda like this film.
there's FAR worse animated movies out there like just about everything made by Dingo Pictures.
I agree that there are some movies that are way worse, but to say it's good is a bit hyperbolic
@@Treeeee2008 I said I liked it I didn't say it was good.
From how the gameplay looks, Foodfight! would’ve worked WAY better as a game than a full-length feature film.
Agreed. Holy shit the gameplay ideas with the brands would've been perfect!
Yeah, agree with that.
Imagine the timeline where the game released in 2006 and was a mostly forgotten decent little game, then five plus years later the movie finally drops. We were weirdly close to this reality, instead of the one where we didn't even know the game existed for fifteen years
The game looks mid and barely a step up from shovelware. So yeah, WAAAAAY better than the movie.
@@Tirgo69 people would have wondered why the hell they made a movie off such a niche game. It would be like a Ty the Tasmanian Tiger movie being made in 2015
damn he rule 34'd his own movie before it was even finished
That's not very surprising
Most creators do this lol
Since this movie seems inspired by Who Framed Roger Rabbit, I think they were trying to make Lady X the next Jessica, but as a villain.
Brand X? How about BRAND GOON? XD
@@SuperCosmicMutantSquid Brand XXX
the fact that foodfight was intended to be a large scale cinematic property is so surreal to me, even if this had come out at the time the unabashed confidence in a bunch of food mascots is insane.
Just how would a movie heavily featuring Joe Camel age lol
I think it would've done well had they been able to keep the M&M characters, Chester Cheetah, and the Coca Cola polar bears who were apparently also supposed to be in it.
To me, that just fits with the whole story. This guy was clearly a snakeoil salesman and manipulated clueless investors into thinking that this could work. That anyone thought this was a good idea perfectly fits with the story of the creator scrapping the original reel and coming up with excuses to delay things.
@@ScooterinABEven if the movie came out, it'd be seen as a cynical cash-grab. You have original characters like Daredevil Dan, Dex Dogtective, and Sunshine Goodness yes, but the emphasis being put on corporate mascots makes the film feel so hollow and cynical. People don't associate food mascots with heart and storytelling; they exist only to push a product and it feels wrong that the film was targeted towards kids.
I'm remembering the Nostalgia Critic review, he was probably right, that they thought it'd be the next _Who Framed Roger Rabbit?_ with the IP collective crossover, like the one scene with Bugs and Mickey being the only time they were officially in the same shot.
This is the first time I've heard someone officially come out and say that the movie stealing was a hoax! I've always thought it was convenient that everything was stolen without proof like that...
I can't remember the name of it, but there's a Foodfight documentary on TH-cam with crew interviews, and they all say the story was complete bullshit and didn't even make sense.
However, even before that, myself and many others were already skeptical. The most unbelievable part of the story is that the Secret Service were involved which is just complete and utter nonsense
My siblings and I were completely skeptical of the supposed "theft", especially because at one point the rumor became that the "original" was destroyed in a fire.
@@j_c_93 it’s called Rotten: Behind the Foodfight
I've heard of employees implying it was a lie
Rotten. The documentary is called Rotten.
The reason why there are so many Casablanca references is because...Food Fight IS Casablanca. Brand X are the Nazis and the song they sing in the released version is a butchered version of the French Naational Anthem which was what was being sung in defiance from Casablanca.
And the Naked Lady X reminds me of the model shoots they did for the main character in the first Final Fantasy movie. They actually made her a 'cover girl' for a magazine with specifically rendered 'shots' that presented her as a real person. Anyone 'member that?
I remember Lightning posing wirh a handbag
That's been done with other characters, like Lara Croft and Marge Simpson. Foodfight only _wished_ it had the cultural clout to pull it off, though.
I remember the video rental store I used to go to had a calendar with a pin-up poster of Dr. Aki Ross in a bikini. It was an official promotional release for the movie. A friend of mine actually got the store owner to give him the calendar some time after the movie was way past its VHR release date. The story was that there were some official renders of her in the same pose but without the bikini. And while I have seen such picture on the internet and it certainly looks consistent I really can't tell if it's official or a fan edit.
@@SpaceManRD Considering how unappealing Lady X is in general character design, her model is anti rule 34.... 😐
Also See BloodRain,Onchabara,Tabularasa and Splatter House 2010 did this too but they went futher than a Bikini. I dont get how this helped Splatter House sell since yeah its a game about a Guy in Hockey Mask fighting demons no one was playing that for the ladys,
The phrase "what were they cooking" has never been more applicable.
Except when my parents used to make dinner.
That phrase wasn’t even a thing when this movie came out
that plus crap
@@DarthBane123 YES!! 😂
Thank you for quoting Goldmember, lol
Meth, seemingly.
The fact that Kassanoff "didn't like the way storyboards looked and thought investors wouldn't understand them" tells me everything about why this movie end up being like this.
What it doesn't tell me is what the hell was going on in his head.
@@mdalsted I would also like to know more about what he was thinking with Mortal Kombat Annihilation as well.
@@TheStonedZone
I suspect his other Mortal Kombat works had a similar amount of thought put into them as Annihilation.
@@mdalsted Well, he DID make up the Lie that the Hard Drives were Stolen.
His reasoning is actually some harebrained madness here, like, investors wouldn't understand? Larry, baby, storyboarding is used in many live-action movies too to plan out scenes, storyboarding has been an active practice for almost a hundred years, Lawrence. WHAT KIND OF INSANE WORMS ARE YOU EATING LARS???
7:21 of course cheesle the weasle would be involved in child endangerment to some degree
Imagine calling Drake a cheese weasel
You mean Poop Rat?
That nude Lady X photo really says a lot about Kassanoff and his terrible management
In hindsight, one has to wonder how much involvement he really had in the first Mortal Kombat movie, or who we should thank for keeping him in check
OMG boobs! Call the police, lol
after seeing the photo, it's very strange that her perky bits have more detail than any other part of the model.
@@RadikAlice that's actually a very good point... I didn't even know he was involved with it.
@@Mike14264 I tend to forget myself, and side note. That Tetris movie he's connected to _must_ be in development hell
They weren't singing a generic song in the movie, they were singing the French national anthem (because the Casa Blanca reference needed to be more obvious, I guess)
For this guy it did. 🤦♂️🤦♀️
the more merch its found the more it makes me realize how much they were planning/hoping this was going to be a huge franchise
It sounds a lot like the Action 52 / Cheetamen story.
@@KasumiKenshirou Don't remind me of this ...
The plan was to make more movies similar to it:
*Mascots - A animated film about sports mascot characters.
*Sunday Comics Capers - A animated film about comic strip characters.
*Arcade - A animated film about video game characters, which would've predated Wreck It Ralph.
I just like how they covered their own hides saying that they lost the footage (either in a fire or theft), forcing them to rework the film from scratch, and we all believed them (to be fair, Toy Story 2 had similar problems in development), and it went unchallenged for nearly 2 DECADES.
I never believed it, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. It just never made any sense as to why anyone would want to steal this. The only POSSIBLE explanation would be a disgruntled employee that wanted to get back at his employer, but I can't see anyone risking jail time rather than just quitting and getting a new job.
I think it just looked atrocious enough for people to just sort of... believe it.
@@KasumiKenshirouagreed why would anyone want this garbage. Just Larry being a liar and hack.
@@KasumiKenshirou mmmm interesting
The movie was so low-effort that it seemed plausible. No sane person would go to bat for fucking FOODFIGHT.
My favorite lost media genre is when an IP is either failed or unfinished, then finding all the merch created because the creatives were SO CONFIDENT that they had the next Big Thing on their hands. Learning about the development and work thrown into an failure is such a trip.
its like angry video game nerd reviewing the cheetahmen where the devs had apparently even made plans for tie-in action figures and it even came with a comic. as if their completely unplayable game was going to be the next TMNT or something.
@@KossolaxtheForesworn YES!! That episode is what started me searching up failed blockbusters. There are SO MANY!!
@KossolaxtheForesworn honestly I csn remember where I seen it, but there was a deep five on action 52, and the dude planned to build a 7 foot animatronic cheetah for conventions.
@@jampine8268 it is genuinely crazy how deluded the creator of that game was, and the other games that came with it. it could hardly be called even a finished product but I guess it was best he could ever accomplish and in his deluded brain its the second coming of christ.
imagine had there been internet back then, the backlash would have been far greater than few disgruntled consumers. just look how much stuff they are making of games today even before they are released.
@@KossolaxtheForeswornI can't remember the specifics, but he
Basically hired 2-3 people who know from college who knew how to do coding, and gave them about 1 week to make each "game" (Of course he did none of the actual coding himself). And Nintendo didn't even approve the game, so it's s an illegal cartridge.
Jesus Christ, I think after all the findings are over, people should just make a fanmade version of Food Fight from the ground up that fixes everything with actual good animations, writing, visuals, etc. that way it can put a conclusion to everything
fix what? the movie is perfect as is
Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today!
@@tentacledood5784honestly it would be a great Phineas and Ferb episode idea
There is only one thing they shal not Fix The walk cycle for the Brand X IRL guy. Its TOO ICONIC
THE KID GETTING STUCK IN THE CLAW MACHINE OVER CHEESEL THE WEASEL IS SO FUCKING FUNNY
I find it utterly hilarious how you refer to the literal French National Anthem as "a generic song".
cut him some slack, he's american /hj
He said "Spain" while pointing at France on a map on another video of his
Edit: its in his inital coverage of the "Everyone Knows That" song + corrected the country he got wrong
@@PsycheTrance65 it's pretty embarrassing to not know geography when you make public content.
@@hawktalon7890 ikr. i can understand not recognizing a national anthem, but its literally easy to look up where in the map places are supposed to be.
he put that image up without double checking which honestly puts to question how well researched some of these videos are
@@PsycheTrance65 Exactly, I'm definitely a bit skeptical to say the least. I guess some topics are kind of a "do your own research" thing if you can find information somewhere else.
@@PsycheTrance65and often calls euros pounds and vice versa 😭
I believe that this movie was definitely a way for them to launder money. No way this movie should have been this expensive and literally almost no one had ever even heard about it.
12:41 These are not animations, they're lowpoly layout shots
Holy shit, the naked Lady X thing is real. Kassanoff is on an entirely different level of fuckery.
The man was legitimately horny on main throughout the entire movie's production. The early version of FoodFight allegedly didn't really have the racy humor the released version has; Larry Kasanoff insisted the writers throw in more innuendoes to make the film more mature, while completely forgetting it's meant to be a family-friendly film.
@@AluminumFusion22 apparently without realizing that this kind of humor actually makes it less appealing to audiences who arent children. but I guess early 2000 was different time, even south park being popular with subnormal writing that revolved around poop jokes.
@@KossolaxtheForesworn The thing with innuendoes in children's movies is that they're at least subtle and tasteful. When every other character is making sexual references, it stops being an innuendo and defines the film. Both JonTron and the Nostalgia Critic rightfully called out how off-putting the writing was because it WAS intended for kids, but the sexual references weren't subtle enough for parents to pick up and for kids to ignore. It's really tasteless and weird.
3:23 2012!?!?! Good lord, even since the JonTron video, I always assumed this was from like 2005 😭
The movie was animated in 2007
@@thefunnyguyaha I thought it was supposed to be released in 2003 or something
@@BestOneEver247 it got delayed many times, many years
chicken little came out in 2005 and even it had better animation than that even if it wasn’t the best
Didn't he mention the release year in that video though?
Wow it’s like everything not directly under Larry Kasanov’s control was very competently done.
I noticed that too… like how in the way was he.
Honestly, Foodfight was always destined to fail.
Let's take the hypothetical, best case scenario as an example. In this hypothetical version of events, the movie would look just like the trailer and get/retain all of the product licenses they wanted.
First of all, it was going to rely heavily on mascots from real world products. However, the vast majority of the mascots planned for the movie were from brands which only exist in America. The rest of the world would have zero familiarity or interest in them and a lot of the dialogue or jokes relating to them would go right over everyone's heads. Given that the main selling point was "Oh, I know that character!", it was never going to succeed outside of the USA.
So, what about America? Surely it would do well there? Nope. It would have just been an extremely long ad break. I know it's a common joke to call Americans stupid and see them as mindless consumers but that's just a stereotype. We have to at least give them some credit.
There's no way that any audience, American or not, would see this as anything more than what it was: a lazy attempt to make them pay to watch a bunch of ads, held together with a very flimsy, poorly written plot.
I mean, come on! The villainous brand which tries to take over is literally called "Brand X". That name has been synonymous with generic/cheaper products for decades, long before Foodfight was even planned. The message of the movie was essentially "Don't buy stuff from smaller companies or try to get a bargain, elsewhere. Those brands are evil. Just buy our overpriced crap, instead". Who on Earth would be naive enough to fall for that? I'd say pretty much nobody.
Tbh i forgot what "Brand X" meant, but i still would not care for this garbage.
I feel like Foodfight would have been essentially the old school Emoji Movie at best.
I mean it was never made for international audiences. It was an ad movie.
This would have been a meme even if it was well written and animated, the concept would still be a meme.
I think it may have still done well in America. Obviously adults wouldn’t have any interest in it but I could totally see myself as a little kid seeing the various cereal and candy mascots and being excited to see the movie. I’m sure plenty of other kids also wouldn’t understand that it’s just a big advertisement.
on top of that, the movie's plot doesn't really make that much sense no matter how you look at it. Even if it had better animation, the product placement and the thing you said about the brands being almost exclusive to America, it'd just age so poorly so quickly and be forgotten about. I'd say ironically it's more remembered as it is.
and there is plenty of other movies where the premise is executed better. like who framed roger rabbit and wreck it ralph.
they manage to keep the known characters on the background while doing their own thing rather than trying to rely on them.
but at least people around the world recognize those characters either way, the only one I know of american mascots might be the cheeta on the cheetos package, and I have never had those so I dont even know what they taste like.
I also saw "Rotten: Behind the Foodfight" when it premiered just this year (2024), and I was wonderfully enlightened! I wonder what other movies could this mess of an animated movie's behind-the-scenes be the most similar to? Perhaps either the legendary "Thief and the Cobbler", or maybe another movie, like "Heaven's Gate" (the infamous 1980 film that put "The Deer Hunter" director Michael Cimino's career dead in the water, ended the "New Hollywood" age, and got its distributor, United Artists, sold to MGM the year after its release)?
There is a documentary called Persistence of Vision, about the development of the Thief and the Cobbler.
@@highfiveanimations I heard.
The King and the Mockingbird? It took over 30 years to be made. The Overcoat too.
@@SaintCharlos I've heard of that too. Released in 1980, but was in production since around 1948! But was it a case of the director's megalomania, or perfectionism, or something? Because for "Foodfight!", it was more his hubris that brought him down.
I was at a thrift shop with my friend a few months ago and found a 16 inch Charlie the Tuna with the 2008 Foodfight tag, it was when I found out they had merch, the quality is for sure from a claw machine. The amount they wanted to do with Foodfight is insane, I guess it makes sense because of the amount of advertising for other brands. I like to think of an alternative universe where there was this giant ad movie with merch just selling more ads all over in every media.
This video unlocked a memory of me seeing that pilot squirrel in a claw machine, and thinking why I did not recognize a character, that looked too specific of a design to be a one off.
Well since the internet has the models and assets now. The internet can reconstruct/remake the original version.
I had a Cheasle the Weasel plush when I was a child! My dad got it for me from a local pizza joint's claw machine. I've never seen FoodFight before in my life but I will always recognize that weasel
Honestly, Cheasle in stuffed animal form actually works kinda well.
well it doesnt stand out of many random design plushies out there. its like vast majority are like that instead of tie-in products or lines like squishmallows.
The rumor the assets were stolen is so believable because this seems like a movie someone would watch in test screenings and say to themself "I can't let this garbage see the light of day."
When Foodfight has more to discover...... So you have to watch it more:
"AM I DEAD YET?..."
FOUR YEARS?!
THE MERCH RELEASED *FOUR YEARS* BEFORE THE MOVIE?!?!
This movie looks like a 3D hentai parody of something
A parody of itself
So basically if 3DGSpot animated Foodfight.
@@samp.8099 no, a brand mascot hentai parody.
Sausage Party?
I've seen prawns made in XNALara that look better than this.
We seriously need a foodfight reanimated project
Yeah i do too, in fact i think at this point a foodfight reanimated project is required
Conceptually it had something going for it. (At least from what was told in this video.) All the problems were with the execution.
@@pauljs75 this is why i suggest the community try it like Shrek retold but turning a bad film into a so bad is good by the fans
@@pauljs75Coneceptually it is literally a movie sized commercial.
It's the Emoji Movie of it's day, without even the Emoji Movie's notably good animation.
Not just reanimated. We need it overhauled completely. The only good thing was the concept.
I hate sponsors in videos usually, but that sponsor made me laugh by how ironic it is since it’s on a video like this.
Showing the real product was a mistake. That chicken florentine did not look good. lol
This movie is not only arguably the worst animated movie of all time... It's also the biggest sham of an animated film ever made.
They don't sing a "generic song" in the movie...they sing the French national anthem.
Which is the same song they sing in Casablanca
13:17 I wonder if the white on white came about from adding text on what someone thought was a black background, but in actuality it was a transparent one (this is how it's displayed in some editing programs) and when the video was exported it added the default white background based on file type?
The food fight game actually looks like it would've been fun
Back in the 2000's, even bad movies got kick ass video games.
Indeed. A shame that if it was released, a lot of what was planned would end up being changed due to most of the companies who owned the mascots pulling out, which meant the movie could no longer use the characters.
@@jeremyriley1238 The Chef Boyardee company stayed on, so you'd least be able to play his food fight game. From the concept art, it looks like it would've been Chef Boyardee vs Dex Dogtective in a food fight.
What kind of parents do you have to have to make you want to climb up into a claw catcher machine to steal a Goddamn poop rat
Oh man, the cereal with raisins ending is actually super cute.
Nostalgia critic's "Fetish movie" joke became a self fulfilling prophecy
2:40 This "room inside a room inside a room" must have been a desk drawer inside of an office room, and he considered the building to be a room itself 😂😂😂
0:21 to answer your question: when the entire things is just a money laundering scheme and a scam
Hey now! Sometimes there is also lots of cocaine and incompetence involved.
I guess the ultimate Foodfight was between Larry Kasanoff and his "meat".
his meat must have been minced quite good.
7:25 "Is that a Poop Rat"
Why is the Lady X render so detailed 😭
Kassanoff:
"Alright, team. You know what to do, let's break and make this movie"
*stops the one of the modelors*
"Except for you. I got a favor to ask of you."
I always thought of Foodfight as this obscure internet curiosity. I didn't even realize that there was so much of it all around me, and so recently too...
Kinda scary isn't it
i know what you've done
@@LavenderTea-lr3hc Shit man, I haven't seen anything from the OP commenter in absolute ages, and his handle already hit me like a liver punch when I saw just a few moments ago. What the hell did he do, man?
@@LavenderTea-lr3hc what did he do?
@@WretchedRedoran nothing literally nothing
I actually remember accessing a website based off of this movie and that's how I learned about this movie's existence. The only thing I remembered from that website was the film's title/logo and a cityscape-like design on the main page, but I can't really recall if there was any features or interactivity.
So this is basically sausage party before sausage party
Ironically, it took 8 years for Sausage Party to get made, that was because studios were worried about the content
@@billybarnett9518 the food orgy was fucking weird.
My actual response when I saw the thumbnail was “OH MY FUCK!”
food fight more like freak fight😭
What if instead of food fight it was called freak fight and Dex was called sex and instead of investigating company X he just had sex
@@diegorincon4673I’m pretty sure that’s just what happens in the actual movie
0:01
Oooookaaaayyy...wasn't expecting that...
* Turns into a potato and rolls away *
> says "Hi there."
> Leaps.
> Fart in your face.
> Doesn't explain themselves.
> Leaves.
Kind of a random question but I'm curious to what your opinion is on it: What do you think is the greatest lost media find in the past few years AS A WHOLE? The first thing that comes to my mind is the wicked witch episode of Sesame Street.
I agree with your pick. The Wicked Witch Sesame Street episode is probably the one that the most people would care about. Most Americans and citizens of many other countries grew up with Sesame Street, but most people don't even know Food Fight ever existed.
“Everyone knows it!”
While I have a lot of smaller favorites, I think the discovery of never-before-seen footage from Cleopatra 1917 was amazing. It’s only two minutes of what used to be two hours, but it felt like looking right into the past, and the fact that they could find least media that was over 100 years old is wild.
Between this and the documentary "Rotten", I can only conclude that Larry is a fraud, a hack, and a pathological liar. As dumb as an idea food fight is, it boggles my mind that he got a hold of it and not anyone else. Maybe he was the only one who wanted it?
I gotta give sony some credit with their concord, at least they delivered finished product even if it was 400 million loss. they didnt just pocket the money.
idk how he got away with that, would think someone would sue him to hell.
I can't help myself what it would be like if Larry Kassenoff and Jeff Spankenburg became an unholy duo of investor frauds. Only mix the infamous Lady X pic and Jeff and his company forgetting about checking IDs when making The Guy Game and you have one big disaster created.
And I also pray for the Foodfight game to be one day dumped.
I've got to say I don't understand people wishing we got the "better" version of this. this was not a diamond in the rough, it was a terrible premise executed terribly enough to become interesting. if we got the competently produced version it'd be an intelligence insulting piece of sterile corporate propaganda telling the audience not to buy generic store brands if they want to be a good person.
The fact that this content was cut tarnishes the movie even more. It sounds like the sizzle real was probably deleted
1) I'm sad the better version isn't out there
2) I'm happy we have most of the footage from the sizzle reel
3) The movie may be bad, but I must compliment the guy for sticking with it & actually getting something done. Even if he did lie, & even if he did have someone make a weird pic of one of the characters.
0:48 chill bill
The more info that comes out about the behind the scenes of this movie, the more I question how someone as incompetent as Larry Kasanoff could have -directed- produced something as amazing as the original Mortal Kombat movie.
He wasn't the director of MK; he was a producer. The director was Paul W. S. Anderson. But thanks for the info, as I had no idea the Foodfight guy was involved with the Mortal Kombat movie.
Looking at his IMDb, he directed "Mortal Kombat: The Live Tour" and wrote the story for Mortal Combat: Annihilation, and produced the crappy CGI and crappy 2D Mortal Kombat cartoons. He was an executive producer on True Lies and co-founded Lightstorm Entertainment with James Cameron. (The role of an executive producer frequently has no creative input into the movies.)
Camp is producing somthing unique and thrilling by accident- genius is doing it on purpose
Ngl. Im part of the food fight fandom now
Nacho Grande Large
Yo wtf, this thumbnail no way this was going to be in the movie, bruh the nostalgia critic joke of this movie being a fetish film now this joke makes more sense now unironically
The absolute shock I felt hearing that there was no theft was insane. I don’t keep up with Foodfight lost media so I genuinely thought the theft was real.
i need to know something about that cheesel action figure that was shown in the unrealeased merch image
Looks like Playmates was going to be involved in the merchandising. I can barely make out their logo, but that is indeed them.
5:50 I don't think this would have ever gotten made, because they'd need to get the brands onboard. Can you imagine going to Pringles and ask if they're cool with their chips being used as a gun? Or about depicting Blow Pops as incendiary devices? I love the concept art (especially the war-hardened Keebler Elves), but it would have never survived the licensing process.
More food fight lost media! 😁
Technically found media
@@Lari-se2sh true
Not going to lie, the game sounded kind of fun
8:21 The Origin of Uhyeah
They really had high expectations for this film.
Also, WTF indeed with that thumbnail, lol.
Only real ones will remember the og thumbnail
"Mmm lady x" -larring casinof
it being "full of recognizable brands" was part of the problem - the movie was trying to be a gigantic advertisement.
YES! FINALLY! SOMEBODY FINALLY SAYS IT! The movie conceptually feels so cynical because it's nothing but a vehicle to push products. It's one thing to consult advertisers to help pay for your movie's production and in turn a character is drinking, eating or using their product, but companies were contacted to push their mascots. It feels really soulless. It's like when companies interact on Twitter. It's not real; it's all just business.
Exactly. I feel like the development time would’ve been cut in half, maybe even more than half, if they didn’t involve real food mascots at all and had fictional mascots take their place.
I mean, with a premise like "toy story in a supermarket" its kinda expected to devolve into something like that. Though, by the storyboard and (possible) early drafts from the books it seems they were at least trying to do something creative or at least fun with the idea in the begining.
Ok, the Foodfight game Sounded pretty fun
12:40 The "horrendous animation" from that "peanut envy" scene is actually from the layout phase (at least that's what Pixar calls it). It's basically a way to figure out where every character should be, and how the camera should move through a scene. It might also having some rough animation to convey certain character movements. It's the next step after the storyboard. Something that can be made before a lot of work goes into a scene, meaning it can be cut without much wasted time if need be.
Holy s***t no wonder I take so long in animating. I've been missing a massive step. Maybe I don't have to drop the whole thing.
"Larry Freakanoff"
😈😈😈
- Er, boss, do you really want this nude render?
- Would you rather work on the actual movie?
- One pin-up coming right away!
Kassanov is the guy who tried to sue Midway claiming he deserved the rights to the Mortal Kombat IP because the movie made the games popular (instead of, you know, the other way around).
"The plot is basically toy story in a grocery store"
I thought thats what sausage party was.
Yo heads up, we totally use 3D in animatics in the industry
Do they look like the ones they used?
@@caucasoidape8838 You'd be surprised, half the stuff I approve, I'm amazed got all the way through the executives. Some shots get by with just TPose if it's just talking head parts. They are getting better looking since Unity, Unreal, and Blender Eevee exist now for free for productions.
There is no way in hell that this movie didn’t directly inspire Sausage Party at this point
It’s pretty funny how the junior novelization is better than the movie!
Oh hi right back!
,,YOU must be Leonard! The Managerrr"🙃
I'm impressed there are people who go out of their way to find foodfight lost media, given that the movie physically hurts to look at, I wouldn't have thought that there are people who'd actively want to see more of it.
If I worked on this movie, I'd just tell everyone that I worked on Rapsitte Street Kids instead.
I remember seeing one of those books at 7:36 in a wholesale shop when my sister lived in a no-name city high up in the province...
"What if the worst song from Eight Crazy Nights metastasized into a feature-length film?"
"Well, that would clearly be the most godawful movie ever to exist. Such a thing could never be."
"Ah! You _say_ that, but..."
I'm physically incapable of ignoring a video that contains new Foodfight! information.
The fact that bro R34’d his own character explains why the movie has raunchy freaky humor 😭
I never felt so devasted to know there isnt a full feature length film of a good food fight
Foodfight is my ironic favourite movie I love it so much. I think what I love the most about it is that it's this soulless corporate greed attempt to make a lot of money by flashing product placement at children but everyone hated it and it lost them a ton of money. It's so funny and I was slightly obsessed when I first found out about it.
One thing of Foodfight I really hope will be found soon is the entirety of the Copabanana song that was heard in the original trailer, investor reels and workprint. I'd argue that's one of the best things to come from this disaster and it didn't even make it into the final film.
12:57
"HOLD for pg 20 of script INT COPA
Dex fails his attempt to catch a raisin in his mouth"
(Not sure if anyone else was able to see that?)
5:35 Why is there a Korean Cornfrost Frosted Flakes box? Import store? Outsourced game development?
The design of the robotic wasps or mosquitoes that appear in this sacrilege that I call "movie" is the only thing I like decently.
The funniest thing about Food Fight is that I saw clips from the original version of the film...
...it still sucked. It legit was still an ugly, amateurish piece of crap. The fact that the director/producer (I don't care who it was) said this movie's failure was a result of "espionage" is so irrelevant. Even the intended version of this movie was junk.
12:14 “It was useless to anyone else, but he was satisfied.”
-Anonymous (from Rotten)
Come on, the peanut envy line was probably the funniest line in the movie.
"The single worst animated movie ever made."
Over the past decade, TH-camrs have put in the effort to find movies far worse than food fight. Most of them were "direct to vhs" or "direct to dvd." I'm not even sure we can call this the worst "intended for theaters" movie anymore, just the most remembered.
Foodfight feels like a project that Tim from On Cinema would come up with, except it was actually finished and released to the public.
The most fascinating oddity in the history of branded entertainment keeps on giving. It's amazing how much was invested,( and subsequently lost) on this awful IP!