The Fearless Four (German: Die furchtlosen Vier) is a 1997 animated film about four funny animals that all have one thing in common: they want to sing, but can't for various reasons. Production began in March 1995 when the studio was founded. It combined traditional animation with computer animation. The film was produced by Munich Animation and released by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment. The film won a Bavarian Film Award for outstanding achievement in Germany.
The film was set in the near future and based loosely on the folk tale of the "Town Musicians of Bremen" by the Brothers Grimm.
Plot[]
The film follows the carefree lives of the easygoing bloodhound Buster, the woeful donkey Fred, the graceful Siamese cat Gwendolyn, and the self-assured rooster Tortellini.
The story begins first with Buster, who likes to sing and dance instead of hunting. His owners notice this after hearing him sing in the clearing (Never Been Better) and make a deal with one of the workers for the food factory, Mix Max, to kill and mount him, which they agree to it. Buster escapes after the worker pulls his tail in an ensuing chase, causing him to turn feral and fight back.
Fred, an aged, fragile donkey worked as a slave for his abusive owner and sings about his life (Life is One Long Rainy Day). His owner is angry that Fred is singing instead of working and sells him to Mix Max, replacing him with a robot centaur named PowerTool, due to him being unable to perform his job properly. A queen bee helps Fred escape by leading other bees to swarm at the driver carrying him, inadvertently causing the signs of Bremen and Paris to switch in the process. Fred meets Buster and they share about wanting to be famous singing animals and decide to travel to Paris, unbeknown to them is actually Bremen.
Gwendolyn, a Siamese cat, is sad after her owner, Aunt Wanda, died. The people who inherited her estate only care about finding two gems and not taking care of her cat. They are upset that Aunt Wanda did not tell them where they are located in her farewell address and think that Gwendolyn knows. They try to kill her with poisoned milk but fail with their attempt. They hire a worker from Mix Max to do the job instead, but she traps them in the basement. After her escape, she meets up with Buster and Fred, who have heard her sing (Big Girls Never Cry) and agree to let her join them on the journey.
Tortellini the rooster gets kicked out of his henhouse by his wife, Bertha, who has had enough of his obnoxious behavior. He gets captured by a Mix Max worker but luckily escapes after a tree branch knocks over the cage. After meeting the three traveling animals, they free him from the cage, and he accompanies them. On their way, they meet an owl who informs them that they are going the wrong direction to Bremen and warns that singing is forbidden there, but the animals continue on, settling down as street performers (What Can Go Wrong?).
The town of Bremen is led by an evil scientist named Dr. Greed, the leader of the Mix Max factory. After trying to catch attention to the people of Bremen, Platini and Dr. Sevenbrains, workers of Mix Max, eventually notice the four animals' talent and wants them to work for the factory to improve the factory's image by singing a famous jingle to attract customers to buy their sausage products for profits, dubbing them as "The Fearless Four". Though they become famous, the animals get bored of singing the same jingle all the time. They try to get a change in music but have their idea rejected, realizing that the company owns their voices and their freedom.
The Fearless Four end up getting thrown in a prison for insubordination, but a mouse fan named Mozart helps them escape the factory, where they learn Mix Max's scheme of caging animals to be slaughtered into sausages and plan to save them all. Eventually, during an election, the Fearless Four protest with a song about the usage of animals for the company's sausages (Song of Freedom). They catch the attention of the audience and cause a riot against Mix Max.
After Dr. Greed, Platini, Sevenbrains, and a manager for the factory retreat back to headquarters, the Fearless Four trick and scare them by dressing themselves as an eight-eyed monster the owl mentioned earlier and trap them under a collapsible floor after a final battle between the Bremen musicians and Dr. Greed and his henchmen, freeing the imprisoned animals and destroying the factory. The Fearless Four celebrate and live together peacefully in Gwendolyn's late owner's reclaimed estate with the freed animals. Buster and Gwendolyn admit their feelings for each other and sing one last duet (Don't You Worry) with Tortellini and Fred following them.
Cast[]
| Character | Original | English |
|---|---|---|
| Fred | Mario Adorf | B.B. King |
| Buster | Hartmut Engler (singing) | James Ingram |
| Bernd Schramm | ||
| Gwendolyn | Sandra Schwarzhaupt | Oleta Adams |
| Tortellini | Joachim Kemmer | Zucchero |
| The Heiress | Katharina Thalbach | Louise Vallance |
| Dr. Greed | Peer Augustinski | Ian James Corlett |
| Dr. Greed's Snake | Uwe Paulsen | Unknown |
| PowerTool | Frank Zander | Kevin Dorsey |
| Platini | Hans-Werner Bussinger | Garry Chalk |
| The Miller | Tom Deininger | |
| The Baron | Klaus Sonnenschein | |
| The Manager | Tobias Meister | Scott McNeil |
| The Recording Director | Stefan Krause | |
| Mozart | Ranja Helmy | Kathleen Bar |
| Samantha | Dagmar Altrichter | |
| Ackerman | Michael Walke | Richard Newman |
| Taxidermy Representative | Lutz Riedel | Robert O. Smith |
| Dr. Sevenbrains | Ulrich Voss | |
| Narrator | Klaus-Jürgen Wussow | Christopher Gaze |
| Wasps | Unknown | Louise Vallance |
| Kathleen Bar | ||
| Guards | Scott McNeil | |
| Garry Chalk | ||
| Michael Donovan | ||
| Assistants | Ian James Corlett | |
| Scott McNeil | ||
| Hunters | Ian James Corlett | |
| Scott McNeil | ||
| The Heir | Michael Donovan | |
| The Host |
Production[]
The film was a 1997 holiday season release with Anastasia, Flubber, Alien: Resurrection, The Borrowers, Home Alone 3, Titanic, Mouse Hunt, Mr. Magoo and the re-release of The Little Mermaid. The movie was started in March of 1995, and ended in December of 1996. 150 people from around the world worked on the movie, as well as animators in the computer animation department that worked on the backgrounds, the robot centaur in the movie, Powertool, as well as vehicles. The colorization, as well as the animation camera was created digitally. The film costed 15 million in USD.
Release[]
In North America, the English version was released on Warner Home Video on May 7, 1998. The DVD was released on September 28, 2003. The most recent release was a re-release of the same DVD, but bundled with Rover Dangerfield, which was released on July 4, 2007. Germany received a DVD release twice; A regular release, and one from Warner Kids (a label for Warner Bros. films that were family-friendly) using the original name, Die Bremer Stadtmuzikanten. A Region 2 VHS was released in the United Kingdom on July 19, 1999. Greece, Russia, and Italy (as La Banda Del Rock - I Musicanti De Bremen) had a VHS release around or after 1998. France had a VHS release on September 15, 1999 (as Les musiciens de Bréme). Brazil got the film in 1998 and had a VHS release. It was called Os Quatros Aventureiros there in the country. The film premiered in the Netherlands in 2002 as De Bremer Stadsmuzikanten on VHS. Other countries like Spain (called Los Musicos de Bremen) also had a VHS release. The film is very rare in North America, really now only available from sources like Vudu, YouTube, and the Xbox video and music app. The film in the English version was available on Netflix in the fall of 2016.
In all releases of the movie outside of Germany, scenes were cut from the original version. Scene Include; The animals are celebrating and drinking wine after the Mix Max factory is destroyed, a song (which would be too sexual, as well as being disturbing for kids, involving Gwendolyn seducing Platini, which could be considered Beastality), extended footage of the tickle torture machine, and Fred being sent to it, a sexual innuendo joke (where a bee lands on a woman's breast on a magazine in one scene) and most of Dr. Greed's footage being cut to a few appearances and being at the finale. This reduces the film's run time to about 81 minutes in the other release not in Germany. Stuffed animals, a soundtrack, Bullyland figures, books and other items were produced for the movie's release.
The film went on television in North America on Encore (Encore Wam) years ago. It went on television in France on channels like AB3 and in the United Kingdom on Cartoon Network, and in Canada on YTV in 2010 and Treehouse TV in 2013 and has also appeared on other channels internationally.
Transcript[]
Gallery[]
_vhs_cover.jpg "The Fearless Four (film) vhs cover.jpg (31 KB)")
Trivia[]
- This is the fourth Warner Bros. Family Entertainment animated film to have musical numbers.
- The story of the movie was very loosely inspired by the folk tale of the Town Musicians of Bremen by Brothers Grimm.
External Links[]
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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia page The Fearless Four (film). The revision history lists the authors. The text on Warner Bros. Entertainment Wiki and Wikipedia is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA). |
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