The Magic Voyage

The Magic Voyage (German: Die Abenteuer von Pico & Columbus, lit. 'The Adventures of Pico and Columbus') is a 1992 German animated fantasy film produced and directed by Michael Schoemann. It was released in Germany by Bavaria Film on 14 February 1992. The film was later dubbed in English and released in the United States and Canada: two English dubs were actually produced. The first one was a rare English dub released by Atlas Film, while the second English dub was produced by Hemdale Film Corporation, released as The Magic Voyage on 23 April 1993 with a new and more well-known voice cast. The latter dub had a different music soundtrack, and both English dubs had different translations.

The Magic Voyage
(The Adventures of Pico and Columbus)
DVD cover
Directed byMichael Schoemann
Produced byMichael Schoemann
Written byKlaus Birk
Jörg Grünler
Screenplay byEnglish adaptation:
Scott Santoro
David T. Reilly
Story byUte Schoemann-Koll
Narrated byHans Paetsch (German)
Jack Luceno (First English dub)
Mickey Rooney (Second English dub)
Music byHarald Kloser
Thomas Schobel
Sam Spence (Original German Version)
Edited byKarl Fugunt
Jean-Claude Piroué
Angelika Deumling
Günter Kujat
Cornelia Steinbrenner
Production
company
MS-Films
Bavaria Film
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)
Distributed byBavaria Film (Germany)
Warner Bros. Family Entertainment (UK)
Hemdale Picture Corporation (USA)
Release date
  • 14 February 1992 (1992-02-14) (Germany/UK)
  • 23 April 1993 (1993-04-23) (USA/CAN)
Running time
82 minutes
CountryGermany
LanguageGerman
Budget$14,500,000 (estimated)

Plot

The year is 1492. Many people believed that the world was flat, and that ships would fall off the edge of the earth and float off into space. However, an Italian navigator named Christopher Columbus had a revolutionary idea — he thought that the world was square. That is, until a small woodworm named Pico overhears him and convinces Columbus that the world is really round by eating up the edges of his square globe, making it look round. Finally realizing that the world is round, Columbus decides to take his discovery to King Ferdinand and his wife Queen Isabella. Pico joins him, and the duo instantly become friends.

As Columbus shows the King that the world is round and not flat, the King is outraged by this theory and has his guards throw Columbus out. But before they even get his hands on him, Isabella barges in and is instantly love-struck by Columbus. Columbus explains his voyage that will prove his newly discovered theory to Isabella, and she decides to finance Columbus' voyage to prove that the world is round. The King agrees to do this as well, but he tells Columbus that if he does not return with gold, he will be executed. As the three have a feast that night, Pico decides to leave them and snoop around the castle. He climbs a large tower and hops across from the window onto a chandelier, where he meets Marilyn, the fairy princess of a faraway land. All was well with her land until the evil Swarm Lord took her away and keeps her prisoner inside the chandelier until she tells him the secret of her powers, which do not work on the forces of evil. Pico and Marilyn try to escape, but the Swarm Lord returns and takes Marilyn away to his lair in the still-undiscovered new world of America. As the Swarm Lord flies away, Pico determines to get Marilyn back.

The next day, Columbus is about to set sail on the Santa Maria to discover the new world. Pico rushes to the ship, but is stopped by a trio of rats, who plan to eat him. Pico manages to escape, but the rats follow him, hopefully to get a free ride to the new world. Pico gets on board Columbus's ship. The two friends reunite, and Pico explains that he needs to save Marilyn. Columbus's shipmates overhear their captain talking to Pico, and come to the conclusion that Columbus is crazy. As the ships continue on their voyage, Pico bumps into the rats again. They want to leave the ship on one of the lifeboats, because they overheard that the ship is heading to the supposed "edge of the earth". Pico needs them to stay, in case if the shipmates want to plan a mutiny on Columbus, and the lifeboat is his only chance. Pico convinces the rats to stay with his lie that there's giant amounts of cheese at the new world.

As day fades into night, Pico overhears that the shipmates really plan to kill Columbus and turn back in order to stay away from the edge of the earth. Pico tells this to Columbus, and Columbus is worried. However, he distracts his crew by singing a song to them about life on the sea and other leaders from other time periods, including Ulysses, the Romans and the Vikings. Though he gets carried away with the final lyrics to the song that insults the crew (I heard a tale of travelers who feared they would reach the edge / But long before, a serpent came and ate them up instead), they let Columbus live. The next day, Columbus and the crew think they see land, but it is actually a deserted Viking ship. The crew is angry at Columbus once more and try to hang him. As he hangs, Columbus sees the new world. Just then, the Swarm Lord flies over the ship and tries to kill everyone on the ship. The ship manages to get away, and lands on The New World by crashing into a dam made by a beaver named Bob. While the crew stays behind, Pico, Columbus, Bob, and two of the rats (one of them did not survive the Swarm Lord's wrath) go through the jungles of the island to the Swarm Lord's Aztec temple.

Meanwhile, the Swarm Lord still wants Marilyn's powers, but Pico and his friends come in and save the day. Columbus climbs up to the top of the Swarm's giant honeycomb and takes a golden idol while Pico saves Marilyn. Columbus uses the idol to squash the Swarm Lord, and Bob has finished chewing through the honeycomb, which causes it crumble. The temple starts to crumble as well. The team escapes, but Marilyn drowns in a waterfall and is found lifeless on a floating flower. Once the sun rises, she comes back to life and Pico and Marilyn kiss. Afterward, they encounter the island's natives, who thank Columbus for destroying the Swarm Lord. The group sail off back to Spain, and Columbus is happy knowing that he discovered the new world and proved that the world is round.

The film ends with Columbus imagining what America will be like many years later, showing the city of Manhattan. The Hemdale English dub's end credits play the song "Heaven Is" by Al Jarreau.

Cast
Character Original German English dub (Atlas Film version) English dub (Hemdale version)
Christopher Columbus Michael Habeck Donald Arthur Dom DeLuise
Pico the Woodworm Jens Wawrczeck TBA Corey Feldman
Marilyn the Firefly Katja Nottke Elisabeth Von Molo Irene Cara
Queen Isabella Beate Hasenau Helena Jungwirth Samantha Eggar
King Ferdinand IV Christian Schult TBA Dan Haggerty
The Swarm Lord Eric Vaessen TBA
Diego TBA Gino Conforti (Unconfirmed)
Bob the Beaver Lutz Mackensy TBA Lenard Carson (Unconfirmed)
Narrator Hans Paetsch Jack Luceno Mickey Rooney
Ritso the Rat TBA Daran Norris (Unconfirmed)
Julias the Rat TBA Donald Arthur James Knapp (Unconfirmed)
Gutter the Rat TBA Phil Nibbelink Ted Prior (Unconfirmed)
Mortimer the Seagull Chris Howland James Knapp (Unconfirmed)
Native Chief Eric Vaessen Osman Ragheb Peter Harris (Unconfirmed)
Herald Thomas Karallus TBA Hank Crowell, Jr. (Unconfirmed)

Daran Norris, Henry Crowell, Jr., James Knapp, Brett Baxter Clark, Ted Prior and Rosemary Alexander provide additional voices in the Hemdale dub.

Marshall Raynor, Marcus Calvin, David Creedon, Nick Lloyd, Helena Jungwirth, Dilys Goggins, Elmore James, J. Drew Lucas, David Kehoe, Phil Nibbelink, Deborah Norris, Jack Luceno, Marian Schikorn, Ron Williams, Osman Ragheb, Ziad Ragheb, Elisabeth Von Molo, and David Williamson provide additional voices in the Atlas dub, though many of their roles are unidentified since they weren't given specific credits.

Songs

The songs are written by Scott Santoro, except "Heaven Is" written by Harald Kloser, Tommy Schobel, Al Jarreau and Robby Scharf

  • Christopher Columbus – Instrumental
  • Pico the Adventurer – Pico (Corey Feldman)
  • A Fellow Like You – Pico and Christopher Columbus (Corey Feldman and Dom DeLuise)
  • The World of Magic – Marilyn (Irene Cara)
  • The Life of the Sea – Christopher Columbus (Dom DeLuise)
  • We'll Always Be Together – Pico and Marilyn (Corey Feldman and Irene Cara)
  • Heaven Is – Al Jarreau

Production

The film was originally released Germany in 1992, the year when America celebrated the 500th anniversary of the famous voyage of Christopher Columbus. Other films released during this time of year include 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Carry On Columbus and Christopher Columbus: The Discovery.

At the time, the film was the most-expensive animated production in Germany, costing $14.5 million. During the film's release in German theaters, director Schoemann stated that the film was intended to be a film about the discovery of America "from a more satirical view in order to differentiate ourselves clearly from the lofty views of history so we can present Columbus as a lovable, charming and befuddled scholar".[1]

During initial stages of the film's production, the film would star the woodworm from Stowaways on the Ark (another German animated film produced by MS-Film), as well as a modest Columbus. However, the film was altered once American partners started investing on it, and it saw potential for an international market. Phil Nibbelink was the animation director, while American animators Stanley Green, Kevin Richardson, Rick Morrison and George Singer assisted the animation department. Production lasted for three years.[1]

There are two English dubbed versions of the film produced; the first dubbed version including the voices of Donald Arthur as Christopher Columbus, as well as Phil Nibbelink and several German voice actors playing miscellaneous roles.[2] The availability of this version is rare, but it can be obtained through Malaysian VCD releases distributed by Berjaya HVN Sdn Bhd and Croatian VHS ones with subtitles.[3] The second English dub was recorded for the North American home-video release with a more well-known cast, including Dom DeLuise as Christopher Columbus, Corey Feldman as Pico, Irene Cara as Marilyn and Mickey Rooney as the Narrator. Particularly notable in this dub is an abundance of ad-libbing. The U.S. dub was written by David T. Reilly and Visual Effects supervisor Scott Santoro.

Reception

The Magic Voyage was widely panned by critics and audiences, including web comedian Doug Walker as the Nostalgia Critic, being criticized for its poor animation quality, fairy tale plot, nonsensical voice acting, constant noise and poorly-written script. In Cinema.nl, the film was noted for its special effects and its historically inaccurate story.[4]

Home media

The film was released under its original German version by Warner Bros. in home media, in France and Germany. Specifically, Warner Home Video released the film in Germany on VHS and LaserDisc, and Warner Vision on DVD in France, in co-operation with the Jean-Paul Bretagnolle Group (which would previously release it on VHS), on November 1999.[5][6][7]

In North America, the second English dubbed version came out on Hemdale Home Video on 3 December 1993. Image Entertainment has carried over the Hemdale English dub onto the DVD release, which came out on 28 September 1999. In the Netherlands, this version was dubbed in Dutch and released on VCD and VHS in 1995 by CNR Film & Video,[8] and on DVD by First Look.[9] Its title is Pico en het geheim van de gouden tempel (English: Pico and the Secret of the Golden Temple). An Italian dub of it, starring Tullio Solenghi as Columbus and Mino Caprio as Pico, was released on VHS.[10]

Merchandise

A book titled Pico & Columbus, written Anna Benthin, was released in Germany in 1991 by Loewe Bindlach, prior the film's release.[11] It was re-released in 1993 by Habel.[12]

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See also

References
  1. "Ausgabe 50-2/1992 - DIE ABENTEUER VON PICO UND COLUMBUS" [Issue 50-2 - THE ADVENTURES OF PICO AND COLUMBUS]. Kinder- und Jugendfilm Korrespondenz (in German). 1992. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  2. http://www.trickfilmstimmen.de/features/others3/pico.htm
  3. "The Magic Voyage 1994:Part I - YouTube". YouTube.com. 25 March 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  4. "Die Abenteuer von Pico und Columbus". Cinema.nl. Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  5. "Die Abenteuer von Pico & Columbus Warner Laserdisc". Amazon.de. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  6. "Pico et Columbus : Le Voyage magique". Amazon.fr. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  7. "K7 VHS / CASSETTE VIDEO - LE VOYAGE MAGIQUE / PICO ET COLUMBUS". Ebay.fr. Archived from the original on 23 May 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  8. "Pico en het geheim van de gouden tempel - VCD video CD". Catawiki. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  9. "Pico En Het Geheim Van De Gouden Tempel". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  10. "VHS FILM Ita Animazione IL VIAGGIO FANTASTICO alfadedis no dvd cd mc lp (V18)". Ebay.it. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  11. "Pico und Columbus". AbeBooks. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  12. "Pico und Columbus : nach einer Idee und der Geschichte von Ute Koll und dem Drehbuch von Scott Santoro". AbeBooks. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
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