Napoleon (1995 film)

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Napoleon
Columbia TriStar Films[1]
Release date	1995 (1995)
Running time	81 minutes
Countries	Australia Japan
Language	English
Budget	Approximately $4.3 million[2]

Napoleon is a 1995 Australian family film directed by

puppy who runs away from his city home to be a wild dog.

Plot

In

, a puppy named Muffin is living with a human family and his own mother. He, calling himself Napoleon and pretending to be tough, wishes that he could live with the wild dogs that he can hear howling in the distance. The family has a birthday party and one of the decorations is a basket with balloons strapped to it. Out of curiosity, Napoleon hops inside it, but it, untied from its tether, begins to float away.

Napoleon flies high above Sydney and heads out to the sea. A galah named Birdo drops down on the side of his basket and offers to help him get down. Birdo's idea of help is to pop the balloons suspending the basket, causing Napoleon to land unharmed on a beachhead. He thinks he can finally seek out the wild dogs and heads into a nearby forest, ignoring Birdo's suggestion to return home.

At night, Napoleon starts to fear being alone. A

. She spots Napoleon and, thinking he is a mouse, chases him. He escapes when the tawny frogmouth pushes the cat into a pond. The tawny frogmouth then warns him that she will not rest until he is dead. As he runs off, she pulls herself from the pond angrily swearing revenge.

The next morning, following an encounter with a flock of annoying rainbow lorikeets and then a rude koala, Napoleon once again meets with Birdo, asking him to teach him how to live in the wild, also revealing his real name is Muffin. He is then taunted for his name by both a deep-voiced green tree frog and the lorikeets from earlier, despite Birdo's attempts to stop them, and thereafter gets stranded on a floating log. Birdo agrees at last to teach Napoleon how to live in the wild, beginning by teaching him how to swim back to shore in a lake, pushing him off a floating log.

Napoleon learns about hunting by practicing on a group of

hiding on a road stripe survive a passing truck, as it angrily bullies Napoleon away when he tries to see if it's okay. He and Birdo then part ways as he wants to seek the wild dogs and Birdo wants to rejoin his flock.

Napoleon then helps an echidna find water and seeks out shade. While resting, he is heartbroken when he realises that the howling he has been hearing was just a perentie lizard wandering the desert and imitating various animals, and begins lamenting running away from home. A torrential rainstorm arrives as the area begins to flood, and Napoleon runs for shelter and discovers two dingo puppies named Sid and Nancy inside a damp cave, assuming they are lost like him. The water floods the cave and sweeps Nancy away. Napoleon dives in and rescues her. The pups' mother returns and Napoleon realises that he has found the wild dogs. She agrees to let him live with her for the time-being, Sid, and Nancy. While out together, she asks why he wanted to be with the wild dogs. He explains that he always wanted to feel brave by living in the wild, but confesses to being disappointed with the lifestyle. She comforts him by reminding him that it was his courage that led him out here and helped him save Sid and Nancy, which represents the true spirit of the wild dogs.

Wanting to go home, Napoleon takes a trip across the landscape in a kangaroo's pouch. He reaches the shore and discovers that his basket is inhabited by a feisty penguin who calls himself Conan, wanting to be a wild and brave creature, mirroring how Napoleon was when he first arrived. He learns however that Conan's real name is Pengi when his raucous family arrives. That night, Napoleon's plan to sail back to Sydney with the basket is interrupted by the cat's return. A fight erupts and he tries multiple times to stop her. Before she can kill him, she becomes distracted by Pengi, who taunts her. Napoleon then knocks her off the cliff and into the basket, which sails away. On a cliff side, Napoleon sees an image of a wild dog howling, symbolizing that he understands his bravery of being one inside.

Birdo reappears with a sea turtle who takes Napoleon back to Sydney. He returns home to his mother, who consents to calling him Napoleon instead of Muffin. The cat, having been carried to Sydney by the ocean currents, reappears one last time. She finally realises that Napoleon is not a mouse, but a dog instead. Regardless, she still vows to get him any way.

Voice cast

Character	Australian version	American version
Napoleon	Jamie Croft	Adam Wylie
Birdo	Philip Quast	Bronson Pinchot
Cat	Carole Skinner	Debra Mooney
Nancy	Mignon Kent	Olivia Hack
Sid	Michael Wilkop	Ashley Malinger
Penny (Napoleon's Mum)	Susan Lyons	Wendy Makkena
Wallabies	Susan Lyons Brenton Whittle Fiona Press	Bob Glouberman
Kids' Mother	Coralie Sawade	Julie Glucksman
Owl	Brenton Whittle	David Ogden Stiers
Frog		Reg E. Cathey
Wombat		Bob Glouberman
Desert Mice	Brenton Whittle Anne Lambert Steven Vidler
Spider	Anne Lambert	Carol Kane
Earless Wallaby		Wendy Makkena
Lorikeets	Catherine Lambert Tracey Canini Annabel Sims Neusa Timms Debbie Horn	Sally Stevens Linda Harmon Susan Boyd
Rabbits
Lone Lorikeet	Lucia Mastrantone	Bob Glouberman
Koala	Frank Whitten	David Ogden Stiers
Mother Dingo	Fiona Press	Blythe Danner
Galah	Fiona Press David Argue Edward McQueen-Mason	N/A
Snake	Steven Vidler	Maurice LaMarche
Turtle
Frill Necked Lizard	David Argue
Echidna	Edward McQueen-Mason	Wallace Shawn
Kangaroo	Barry Humphries
Perenti Lizard	Stuart Pankin
Father Penguin
Conan (Pengi)	Casey Siemaszko
Mother Penguin	Joan Rivers
Penguins	Stuart Zagnit Carolyn Sloan

Production

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The film was the most expensive independent production to be made in South Australia at the time of production.^[2] Director Mario Andreacchio was inspired to make it after watching The Adventures of Milo and Otis with his children.^[2] During the shoot, 64 different dogs played the title role.^[3]

Songs

Original songs performed in the film include:

Release

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2011)

The film grossed 2,051,855 Australian Dollars at the box office in Australia^[4] during 1995. In Japan, it opened on 87 screens during late February under the name Kulta, Finnish for "gold".^[2] According to Andreacchio, the Japanese public mistook the original English title for a kind of brandy.^[2]

The film was released on VHS in the United States, with a different dub, on August 11, 1998 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.^[5]

Reception

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In the US, the film received no advance screenings for critics.^[6] It however received three stars out of four from the New York Daily News.^[6]

See also

• Cinema of Australia
• South Australian Film Corporation

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Napoleon (1995 film).

• Napoleon at
  IMDb
• Napoleon at Rotten Tomatoes
• Napoleon at Oz Movies
• Napoleon is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive