By: debbie lynn elias
With the same passion that he had with marketing and merchandising the universally beloved Thomas the Tank Engine and Teletubbies, Kenn Viselman steps into the world of feature films with Kenn Viselman Presents THE OOGIELOVES IN THE BIG BALLOON ADVENTURE. Jam-packed with heart, fun, adventure, childlike innocence and purity, OOGIELOVES fills a big screen void when it comes to family and children. Reminiscent of Syd & Marty Kroft’s imaginatively fun ” H.R. Pufnstuf”, OOGIELOVES takes that sort of programming format, bringing it forward into the 21st Century with a heightened reality that serves as a wonderful backdrop to colorful, fanciful, fun adventures….and a film that is fully interactive, encouraging and engaging kids to sing and dance along with the movie!
A magical place where balloons talk, sombreros fly through the air fueled by dance, over-sized teapots serve as houses way up high in trees and cows sing and dance while making milkshakes, welcome to the world of Lovelyloveville! Goobie, Zoozie and Toofie are the happiest Oogieloves ever. They live together in a comfy, cozy house filled with love and laughter and together with their friends J. Edgar (a vacuum cleaner), Windy Window (a magical talking window) and their faithful talking fish Ruffy, make every day a special day. But today is more special than most as today is their friend Schluufy’s birthday! A squishy happy little pillow, Schluffy always a smile on his soft fluffy face and the Oogieloves want to do something special to celebrate his special day. Of course, planning a surprise party is no easy task and the Oogieloves call on their friends for some help. Sadly, J. Edgar – in charge of getting the balloons – loses the five magical balloons which fly off into the skies high above Lovelyloveville! How can you have a birthday party without balloons?
Faced with this serious dilemma, THE OOGILOVES set out to find the balloons and along the way, run into some of Lovelylovevillefs other residents – Dotty Rounder who lives in the teapot treehouse and who loves everything round; Bobby Wobbly who wobbles and bobbles and loves his bubbles; Milky Marvin who owns the diner where he makes the most delicious milkshakes in town; Rosalie Rosebud, the famous singer who loves roses but who is very allergic to them; and, Lola and Lero Sombrero who fly around town in their oversized sombrero dancing the days away!
Enlisting the help of old and new friends alike, can THE OOGIELOVES find all five balloons and save Schluufy’s surprise party?
Together with his co-writer/creator Scott Stabile and director Matthew Diamond, Viselman creates a world that is not only fun to watch, but one that subliminally creates a sense of safety and security for the very young children. According to Viselman, “It’s very deliberate. We took all the sharp edges out of the film as much as we possibly could. We made everything have roundness. We tried to limit the color black as much as possible. We tried to go to the line as to how much color we could bring into a space. They live in Lovelyloveville. I wanted it to be literally the safest place ever created.” So intent on creating this world of “safety” that Viselman fought for “rounder” Oogieloves themselves! “At one point, THE OOGIELOVES weren’t as round but I said, ’No. I want them round, too. I want everything to be as round and to remove as many points as we could.’ That was all very, very deliberate.” And round is what we have. Notable are not only the over-sized characters, beds, tables, chairs, milkshakes & straws, teapot treehouses, but the fact that everything is, in fact, rounded with soft edges. Table edges are rounded, characters are round, balloons, hats, pancakes, windows, etc., everything has rounded edges and in the world of parenting and children (or even in my bruiseworthy klutzy world), round edges are always the optimum design for safety. Even with Jubilee Rounder, Dotty’s granddaughter, who celebrates squares, the squares have rounded edging. And Milky Marvin’s diner not only has rounded edges but the steel structure then gives another level of safety and security in the eyes of a child.
Designed with everything over-sized, the production design is perfect for little minds who see everything around them as soooo big and often intimidating and overwhelming. With these friendly, soft, happy characters and items on screen, not only does it give children levels of comfort, but also a sensibility that they don’t need to be afraid of “the bigness” of the world around them. Viselman “[W]anted THE OOGIELOVES to be bigger than adults, as well. That was very important to me. And everyone was like, ’You know how big they’re going to be?’ ’Yes, I know. I want it that way. I want them to be bigger than grown-ups because in a kid’s world everything is bigger than they are. So I want the OOGIELOVES to be even bigger than an adult as well.’ I just want them to be these big balls of love.“ Conceptually, Viselman and Stabile have left no stone unturned when it comes to THE OOGIELOVES and Lovelyloveville.
And what kid doesn’t like music! With OOGIELOVES, the songs and dances are cute, easy to remember and I highly suspect will have kids singing them over and over and over again from the minute they leave the theater!!! But taking the singing and dancing a step further, Viselman really ups the ante. Little kids cannot sit still in the theater and when amped up even higher on candy and soda, it becomes impossible, thus keeping parents from taking kids to the movies because they don’t want to have to wrangle them. With a film that has built in “get up and dance in the aisles” sensibility, not only will the children have fun, but the parents can breathe a little easier knowing no one is going to be nagging them about controlling their child.
With a blend of live action and puppetry, the animal puppets themselves and accompanying puppeteering are beyond enchanting. Furry, feathery, fluffy, they not only have a “happy” look to them, but all have a safe, comfortable warmth to them. Personally, I want one of each for my own house. This was equally important to Viselman. “We wanted things to just come to life. I didn’t try to make real looking raccoons. I deliberately made stuffed animal raccoons because in a kid’s world – – – Children [make everything real and talking] with their plush, with their pillows, with their wallpaper, with their everything and I just wanted that world to feel magical. So we just let everyday random things come to life. Thatfs why itfs a vacuum cleaner, a pillow and a window. The world where anything is possible is the world that I would like children to grow up in.” They are adorable in both their creation and the basic puppeteering movements used to bring them to live, are akin to something a child could do himself/herself.
But there’s more than just appeal for children with THE OOGIELOVES. It’s also important to note that Stabile and Viselman play to the adults with some witty dialogue and naming of objects, i.e., J. Edgar the vacuum cleaner, as in “Hoover” vacuum or J. Edgar Hoover and his “cleaning up” of America. Nice touch!
But then we look at our actors – Cloris Leachman, Christopher Lloyd, Jamie Pressly, Cary Elwes, Toni Braxton and Chazz Palminteri. While I am not surprised by the presence of Leachman and Lloyd (Leachman has been doing “kid” films and tv as far back as the Shirley Temple Theater in 1960 and is thrilled that THE OOGIELOVES will expose her to new generations “like the circle of life”), the real surprises are Elwes and Palminteri. As Dotty, Lero, Lola, Bobby Wobbly, Rosalie Rosebud and Milky Marvin, respectively, the ebullience that each actor brings to their respective role is just so much fun to watch as they embody and bring to life these over-the-top exaggerations designed to bring smiles and laughs to not only children, but adults. I found myself smiling and laughing at the performances, particularly those of Leachman and Elwes. According to Viselman, “We brought in, I think, some of the best character actors in America to play in this film with us, so an adult would go, ‘Oh my God! Look at Chazz Palminteri doing that.’ A kid could care less who it is, but for an adult it’s kind of funny to see that. Or to see Cloris [Leachman] be the squirrely lady who lives in a tree and collects round things.” Joyful is that an entirely new generation will be exposed to these gifted performers. It was also important that the cast be a diverse and generational blend of actors. “That was important for us. We wrote the characters very specifically. We knew who we wanted. We fought hard for many of them. We knew we wanted a good ethnic mix, we wanted different ages. We had it sorted out. I wanted a grandmother to see herself on that screen. I wanted a grandfather to see himself. I wanted a father figure. I wanted a variety of different things.”
An ardent supporter and fan of children and family films, Leachman is exuberant about playing Dotty Rounder, especially since she gets to sing and dance and the film makes the audience want to get up and dance. “I love singing and dancing.” And to prove her point she goes into dreamlike movements mimicking a portion of her dance in the film. ” Point-Point-Back-Side-Front. Point-Point-Back-Side-Front. Turn. Arabasque.” But most important to Leachman is that this is a film for the whole family. “I didn’t want to do anything that wasn’t appropriate for small children.”
Welcome to the world of Kenn Viselman, a man who “[doesn’t] want evil.” A man who fervently believes and embraces the ideology that “We’re bound together by love whatever your molecular unit is. . .And I think for 83 minutes we can put evil on a shelf and just enjoy our family together.” THE OOGIELOVES IN THE BIG BALLOON ADVENTURE is the perfect interactive adventure for the young and the young at heart.
Cloris Leachman – Dotty Rounder
Christopher Lloyd – Lero Sombrero
Jamie Pressly – Lola Sombrero
Cary Elwes – Bobby Wobbly
Toni Braxton – Rosalie Rosebud
Chazz Palminteri – Milky Marvin
Directed by Matthew Diamond. Written by Scott Stabile and Kenn Viselman. Created by Kenn Viselman.
