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Doug's 1st Movie
Doug's 1st Movie
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Maurice Joyce
Written by	Ken Scarborough
Based on	Doug; by Jim Jinkins
Produced by	Jim Jinkins; David Campbell; Melanie Grisanti; Jack Spillum
Starring	Tom McHugh; Fred Newman; Chris Phillips; Constance Shulman; Frank Welker; Doug Preis; Guy Hadley; Alice Playten; Doris Belack;
Edited by	Alysha Cohen; Christopher Gee
Music by	Mark Watters
Production; companies	Walt Disney Television Animation; Jumbo Pictures
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Release date	March 26, 1999;
Running time	83 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5 million
Box office	$19.4 million

Doug's 1st Movie is a 1999 American animated comedy film based on the Disney-produced episodes of the Nickelodeon and ABC television series Doug. The film was directed by Maurice Joyce, and stars the regular television cast of Tom McHugh, Fred Newman, Chris Phillips, Constance Shulman, Frank Welker, Alice Playten, Guy Hadley, and Doris Belack. Produced by Walt Disney Television Animation and Jumbo Pictures with animation provided by Plus One Animation, it was released by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution under its Walt Disney Pictures label on March 26, 1999. The film serves as the series finale to the show. An accompanying Mickey Mouse Works short "Donald's Dynamite: Opera Box" was released with the film.

The film received generally negative reviews, who criticized its story, screenplay, and characters, however, the voice acting received some praise. Despite the title and its mild success at the box office, no further films based on Doug were made.

Plot

BluffCo has been dumping waste into Lucky Duck Lake under the command of CEO Bill Bluff. This pollution creates a friendly creature that is discovered by Doug Funnie and Skeeter Valentine. They home the creature in Doug's house, where they name him Herman Melville after he tries to eat a copy of Moby-Dick. Not wanting him to be discovered, they disguise him as a foreign exchange student called Hermione, causing Doug's love interest Patti Mayonnaise to become jealous from all the attention he gives her, leading school paper reporter Guy Graham to make a move on her. Meanwhile, Roger Klotz and his cronies, after learning about Herman, build a robot to kidnap him, but instead it becomes very overbearing toward Roger.

Doug and Skeeter show Herman to Doug's neighbor, Mayor Tippy Dink, who warns them Bluff will kill the story if they try to get it into the press. After being mocked by Guy in front of Patti, Doug calls a press announcement where he promises to expose what Bluff is doing to the lake. While initially dismissive, Guy finds a picture of Herman and realizes Doug is telling the truth. He notifies Bluff, who sends BluffCo agents to Doug's announcement posing as reporters to capture Herman. Doug sees through the ruse and calls off the conference, but Herman is kidnapped and Patti now believes Doug to be a liar.

The next morning, in the school newspaper office, Doug finds an article by Guy detailing how Herman attacked students at the upcoming Valentine's Day dance and was killed by BluffCo agents. Realizing Guy and Bluff's plan, Doug and Skeeter recruit Roger and Al and Moo Sleech to help thwart it. On the night of the dance Doug has to give up his last chance to win Patti back in order to save Herman. The Sleech's reprogram Roger's robot to act like the monster in Guy's article, distracting everyone while Doug and Skeeter find Herman and sneak him out of the school in a giant Valentine's decoration.

They bring Herman to Crystal Lake and release him into the fresh waters, where they are confronted and threatened by Bluff. Seeing this his daughter, Beebe, sides with her friends and Mayor Dink hints at revealing Bluff's practices to the government unless he volunteers to clean up Lucky Duck Lake himself. Defeated and threatened with a potential lawsuit that could bankrupt him, Bluff is reduced to crawling on his knees after Beebe, begging for her forgiveness. Herman reveals himself to Patti and she sees that Doug was right all along, and she dumps Guy and the gang says goodbye to Herman. Doug tries to reveal his feelings for Patti, only for Roger to suddenly appear, thanking him for reprogramming his robot, which then chases him away. The movie ends with everyone going back to the dance except for Doug, Patti, Skeeter, and Beebe, who dances with each other by the lake.

Voice cast

Tom McHugh as Doug Funnie, Lincoln
Fred Newman as Skeeter Valentine, Mr. Dink, Porkchop, Ned
Chris Phillips as Roger Klotz, Boomer, Larry, Mr. Chiminy
Constance Shulman as Patti Mayonnaise
Frank Welker as Herman Melville
Alice Playten as Beebe Bluff, Elmo (this would be her final role in an animated movie before her death in 2011)
Guy Hadley as Guy Graham
Doug Preis as Mr. Funnie, Mr. Bluff, Willie, Chalky, Bluff Agent
Eddie Korbich as Al & Moo Sleech, Robocrusher
David O'Brien as Quailman Announcer
Doris Belack as Mayor Tippi Dink
Becca Lish as Judy Funnie, Mrs. Funnie, Connie
Greg Lee as Principal White
Bob Bottone as Bluff Assistant
Bruce Bayley Johnson as Mr. Swirly
Fran Brill as Mrs. Elaine Perigrew
Melissa Greenspan as Briar Langolier

Additional voice artists

Rodger Bumpass as Green Police Officer
Paul Eiding as Red Police Officer
Jackie Gonneau as Kid #1
Sherry Lynn as Kid #2
Mickie McGowan as Lunch Lady
Phil Proctor as Brian the A/V Nerd
Brianne Siddall as Kid #3
Claudette Wells as Kid #4

Production

Nickelodeon was originally making a Doug film adaptation in May 1993 when they made a deal with 20th Century Fox to make films based on their properties along with films like Rugrats and Ren & Stimpy.^[2]^[3] However, the plans evaporated when Viacom acquired Paramount Pictures in February 1994,^[4] and the deal expired in the following year. Only The Rugrats Movie materialized in November 1998.

In February 1996, when Disney bought Jumbo Pictures along with the cartoon, they decided to revive the project for the Doug film.^[5]^[6] This film was originally planned as a direct-to-video release under the title The First Doug Movie Ever as shown in trailers, but due to the success of The Rugrats Movie, they decided to make it a theatrical release.

This is the last American theatrical animated film to use traditional cels, in which the title sequence of the film used digital ink and paint.

Release

The film was theatrically released with the short "Opera Box", featuring Donald and Daisy Duck, from the television series Mickey Mouse Works.

Critical reception

Doug's 1st Movie garnered a 26% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with 9 of a total 34 reviews being determined as positive. The critical consensus reads, "Doug's 1st Movie may entertain very young fans of its main character, but essentially amounts to a forgettable feature-length episode of his show."^[7] Critics were harsh to Doug's 1st Movie when it was released theatrically. Many noted that the film felt too much like an extended episode of the show (story- and animation-wise) and many mention that the film should have stayed a direct-to-video release. Most of the criticism came from the plot, writing, and music, though they praised the animation, voice acting and ending. Screenit.com awarded the film 4 out of 10, determining that it was mediocre and did not have "that magic or cinematic feel to warrant the big screen treatment" and it felt like the regular series.^[8]

Roger Ebert gave the film 1½ out of 4 stars, quoting "Doug's 1st Movie is a thin and less than thrilling feature-length version of a Saturday morning animated series, unseen by me. Chatter on the Web suggests it was originally intended to go straight to video, but was rechanneled into theaters after the startling success of The Rugrats Movie. Since Doug originally started on Nickelodeon, where Rugrats resides, the decision made sense – or would have if this had been a better movie."^[9]

Box office

Doug's 1st Movie opened at #5 in its opening weekend with $4,470,489, for an average of $1,971 from a very wide 2,268 theaters. While this may be deemed as low for an average Hollywood film, Doug only cost $5 million to make due to its direct-to-video budget and a somewhat low-key promotional campaign. As such, the film still managed to gross $19,421,271 in ticket sales, barely creating a large profit for Disney and making it a box office failure.

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for a Stinker Award for Worst Achievement in Animation, but lost to Pokémon the First Movie.^[10]

Home media

The film was released on VHS on September 21, 1999, and on DVD as a Disney Movie Club exclusive on July 20, 2012. The VHS featured, after the movie, a "Never-Before-Seen Dougumentary" that featured the creators of the show offering trivia facts and answering questions from fans; also featured is voice actor Fred Newman who demonstrates his ability to make sound effects while doing the voice of Skeeter Valentine. The DVD used a TV edit, with fade-ins and fade-outs to make way for commercial breaks, as well as sped-up closing credits. As of 2024, the film has still not officially been released on Blu-ray.

The film, along with Disney's Doug, was released on Disney+ on November 12, 2019, its first day of release. This used a new transfer of the film sourced from the master print, allowing the end credits to be seen at their intended speed.