The Little Mole (2004 film)

The Little Mole is a 2004 Czech-American animated adventure comedy film based on the characters The Little Mole and friends created by Zdeněk Miler.

Produced and directed by Ron Myrick, Phil Roman and Jeffrey Gatrall from the screenplay Adam Scheinman. the film stars the voices of Richard Kind, Nikita Hopkins, Jim Cummings, Tara Strong, Lara Jill Miller, Joe Alaskey, Michael Bell, Peter Cullen, and Ken Sansom.

It is the first theatrical feature-length animated film featuring the mole and his animal friends. Although largely mute in the original Czech cartoons, the animal friends speaks throughout this film.

This film was released on November 14, 2004 in United States. Film was released in Czech Republic on June 3, 2004. The film was later adapted into a TV series on February 24, 2005 on Nickelodeon in the US, and on ČT1 in Czech Republic which premiering on July 4, 2005.

Premise
The Mole’s (Nikita Hopkins) home got completely destroyed by the bulldozers in order to make new city from Czech Republic. The Mole makes new friends: The Hare (Richard Kind), The Mouse (Tara Strong), The Hedgehog (Jim Cummings), and The Frog (Lara Jill Miller). They go on the adventure to get back to rescue the Little Puppy (Jeff Bergman) from being kidnapped by Mašek and Kenny.

Plot
The film begins with the forest, The Mole wakes up as he starts his new day with his old home. he sniffed flower, then he played with his new friend (the blue butterfly). the sees the robin bird, and flew away from the tree branch. The Mole went fishing as he caught a fish, then he ate it for dinner. he saw many deers running in the forest as he felt shocked to see it, then it was nighttime that he went to bed to get some sleep. later in the morning, The Mole woke up to the bulldozers that are going to destroy his old home. he called to the blue butterfly that he might get to the safest place in the forest, the trees and rest of the forest was destroyed by the bulldozer. The Mole loses his home, and he started crying while it’s raining. he may have willing to find his new home, he discovers a new forest as he heard an eagle. he fell off for walking too fast, and he almost got hurt because he got hit by a rock. wakes up as he saw an animal which it’s very mysterious, he couldn’t even remember which animal he saw. The Mole opened his eyes as he saw The Mouse, she saw him too. they make new friends with The Hare, The Hedgehog, and The Frog.

More to be added.

Cast

 * Nikita Hopkins as The Mole, an adorable mole that has black and grey fur color, red nose, three hair on top of his head, and the flesh colored hands and feet who decides to think of living in the underground who comes to his adventure to meet his friends, right in order to team up with his friends.
 * Tara Strong as The Mouse, The Mole’s best friend who is a brown mouse who decides that she is embarrassed with a long happening after she lost her old home.
 * Richard Kind as The Hare, The Mole’s 2nd friend who is a brown hare. He helps his friends to team up and work together for an animal team.
 * Jim Cummings as The Hedgehog, The Mole’s 3rd friend who is a blue hedgehog. He eats fruits, but he teams up with his friends to work together as a team.
 * Lara Jill Miller as The Frog, The Mole’s 4th friend who is a green and yellow frog. She wonders to make worth with her husband and children. But she will team up with her friends to work together as a team.
 * Joe Alaskey as The Bear
 * Joe Alaskey also voiced Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in the taxidermy center when they’re shown, and they were escaped from it.
 * Michael Bell as The Fox, Main antagonist who kidnaps The Mole while he’s in danger.
 * Peter Cullen as The Cricket, a cricket who plays violin as he met The Mole. In the sequel, he does not speak throughout the film.
 * Ken Sansom as Mašek Miler, secondary antagonist who wants to sent The Hedgehog to the taxidermy center in order to kill him.
 * Tom Kenny as Kenny Eben, Mašek’s assistant who decides to hunt animals.
 * Kath Soucie as Lisa Goodwin, a forest ranger who protects The Mole and his friends from the enemies who attack them.
 * Jeff Bergman as The Puppy/Mole with overalls and blue hat
 * June Foray as The Caterpillar
 * Zdeněk Miler's daughters as The Mole and other animals (sound only), and the singing worms (some archival recordings)
 * Billy West as Marek Slovákova, Lisa Goodwin’s boyfriend who arrests the poachers for kidnapping animals.
 * Travis Oates as David Oates, Lisa Goodwin’s friend who arrests the poachers for kidnapping animals and helps the animals to recover the injuries.
 * Frank Welker as various fishes, ocean animals, river animals, various animals, various cats, various mice, various moles, various hedgehogs, various frogs, and various dogs
 * Rob Rackstraw as Dr. Eben, a veterinarian who helps animals to recover injuries.

Songs
Only two original songs appeared in the movie.

However there are two other songs that are not original that are used as well. See in soundtrack tracks 52 and 53.
 * Can’t Find My Friend - Nikita Hopkins
 * I Miss You, Friend - Nikita Hopkins and Richard Kind

Scenes

 * 1) Opening credits
 * 2) Meet The Mole
 * 3) The Loss of Home
 * 4) New Friends
 * 5) Gardening/Spring Fun
 * 6) Meeting Lisa Goodwin
 * 7) Problem Solver
 * 8) The River’s Dock
 * 9) Fly Birds Go By
 * 10) The Cricket
 * 11) The Grizzly Bear’s Breakfast
 * 12) My Beautiful Trousers
 * 13) Summer Carnival
 * 14) Meeting the Caterpillar
 * 15) Lisa’s Boat Ride
 * 16) Mašek and Kenny
 * 17) The Danger at Night
 * 18) The Fox
 * 19) Saving Little Mole
 * 20) Animal Protection
 * 21) The Fruit Treasure
 * 22) The Arrival
 * 23) Kidnapping
 * 24) Can’t Find My Friend
 * 25) Finding The Hedgehog
 * 26) The Ducks
 * 27) Into the Ocean/Mole’s Boat Ride
 * 28) Lisa’s Call
 * 29) The Cricket’s Reprise
 * 30) The Fox Returns
 * 31) I Miss You, Friend
 * 32) Terrible Nightmares/The Swamp
 * 33) The Waterfall/The Taxidermy Center
 * 34) Rescuing The Hedgehog
 * 35) Rescuing the Animals and The Puppy/Danger
 * 36) Final Battle/The Death of the Fox
 * 37) The Arrest of Mašek and Kenny
 * 38) The Recovery
 * 39) Reunited/Rewarded
 * 40) Ending
 * 41) Post Credit Scene

Development
After Tom and Jerry: The Movie hits $3.6 million box office. In 1994, Zdeněk Miler wanted to create the feature full length film featuring the mole and his friends which is distributed by Warner Bros. when he continued to work on the animated short. But in 2001, Miler announced that he would no longer be making more films, citing health reasons since the film’s project has failed to reach out to creation’s viewers and then his ideas were scrapped in that year. on January 1, 2002, Ron Myrick and Phil Roman recently revived the film’s production as they joined the interview over the viewers. The movie was filmed by December of 2002 to July of 2003. In the early development of the script by Adam Scheinman, some of its dialogue and actions in other scenes, including the characters talking throughout at the beginning before the ranger encountered them. They worked hard on the scripts and is completely finished. The animation completed the work as well as for the release.

Deleted Scenes
The film’s deleted scenes that will never to been in the movie:


 * 1) Alternate Opening - Where The Mole and Mouse got kicked out of the woods by the poachers and losing their home as well.
 * 2) The River/Saving The Hare from the Waterfall - which he fell into a river, so The Mole and his friends saves him from falling into a waterfall.
 * 3) Dangerous Fear - Where The Mole gets taken away by the poachers which it’s too dark for the film.
 * 4) The Death of The Fox (Alternate scene) - Which Fox fell into a cliff after his last words: “No! Never!”. In which it’s also too dark for the film.
 * 5) Fly Birds Go By (Long version) - which the scene where The Mole tries to get killed by falling into a river which it’s too dark for the film.
 * 6) The Museum Scene - Where the Mole and his friends go to the museum which it’s very shortened in the movie.
 * 7) The Martens - scene where the Mole and his friends after the Hedgehog got kidnapped tries to get attacked by the Martens which it’s too dark for the film.
 * 8) Mole’s Boat Ride (Alternative version) - which it’s shortened into an original version.
 * 9) The Death of Kenny and Mašek - which it’s changed to “The Arrest of Mašek and Kenny” because the film is too dark for children, and because they fell into a cliff and causing them to get killed by wolves.
 * 10) The Fruit Treasure (Alternative version) - was changed to extended version.

Sequels and Spin-offs
the sequel The Little Mole II: The Adventures of The Hedgehog was released in fall of 2006 as of yet and Tara Strong voices The Mole and his friend The Mouse (as for replacing Nikita Hopkins for retirement in 2005). and it is a same animation as the 2004 film. it was distributed by Columbia Pictures.

the spin-off film Adventures of The Cricket was released in 2007 which it’s distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures for this creation as for the dedication. Unlike the 2004 film, the cricket can talk as for the spin-off film.

Another sequel film The Little Mole and the Lost Blue Dragon was released in 2009 which it was distributed by Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures. For the third film, Seth Green voiced The Mole while The Mouse was voiced by Tara Strong. The rest of the cast reprise their roles in two sequels as well.

The film which consisted the fourth film named The Little Mole: The Chronicles of the Mythical Forest will be released on May 6, 2022 which featured the voices of Tara Strong (as Mole and Mouse), Richard Kind (as Hare), Jim Cummings (as The Hedgehog), and Lara Jill Miller (as The Frog). the new characters were added and the original characters were returned as the traditional animated film was returned as of the movie will be distributed by Columbia Pictures, it will be produced by Sony Pictures Animation which Sony will release the 2D animated film instead of the 3D animated film in the summer, and the film will be featured on the television series on July 4, 2022 on Tubi streaming service.

CGI Reboot
The film was remade and will be released on June 9, 2023 which the film will be called The Little Mole produced by Sony Pictures Animation and Imagine Entertainment, the film was computer animated remake of the original film. the characters were different than the original characters, and the new animals will be voiced by various actors and actresses.

Release
The film was planned to be released on March 26, 2004 by 20th Century Fox when the schedule is going to be released in spring, but it was moved to Columbia Pictures as it had pushed back to November 14, 2004 to avoid the competition with Warner Bros. Pictures’ Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. It was released in United States and Czech Republic on June 3, 2004 and November 14, 2004, the result that Lionsgate released the film internationally on March 26, 2004 and monthly onwards of 2005. It does released the film on May 22, 2005 in Germany, thus WDR made the film really good and smart to be created.

In 2022, it was announced that the film will be certified to be re-released on November 14, 2024 on its 20th anniversary in theaters and IMAX.

Marketing
The teaser released was released on September 22, 2003 on ALF’s 17th anniversary and it was attached to Good Boy!, Brother Bear and Looney Tunes: Back in Action in the theaters, the film’s official trailer was released on between January 7 and March 23, 2004. it was only received with the trailer of the 2005 film “Pooh’s Heffalump Movie” as it was attached to Shrek 2, The Polar Express , and Shark Tale as well, the film was first released for TV spot on July 22, 2004.

The merchandise has the plush items, toys, puzzles, books, video games, activity books, and keepsakes.

Home media and streaming
The film was released on VHS and DVD on February 2005, the UK DVD also distributed the same company as in the USA. The UK VHS version was released on November 22, 2004 which was distributed by both of Lionsgate Home Entertainment and Columbia Tristar Home Entertaiment. It was released in Czech Republic in Summer of 2004 as the VHS release by Země pohádek, and the DVD was released on Fall of 2012 which it’s also distributed by Země pohádek.

Tubi released the film on June 2018, however the movie was removed in 2021. In 2022, it was announced that Shout! Factory will be releasing the film on DVD on November 15 of that year after its 18th anniversary.

On June 1, 2022, Peacock has added the film to its service. Tubi has re-added the film to its service on September 1, 2022 along with Shout! Factory TV as well.

Box Office
The Little Mole grossed $425.6 million in the United States and Canada.

Critical response and awards
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval of 100% based on its 200 reviews, with some ratings of 10/10 the film has an average grade of "A+” in order to make reviews, the critic reads “The Little Mole is a very powerful movie based on the cartoon that was made in Czech Republic, it gave the most beautiful family-friendly adventure ever since the action for the last time that Tom and Jerry: The Movie has not much of been able of improvements before the film.” as the audiences polled for the film to make the grades “A+”. In 2007, the critic reads that “The Little Mole is probably sure as way better than Tom and Jerry: The Movie that Phil Roman directed, that is a superb film adaptation of the Czechoslovakia cartoon of the name.” as the film was scored with grade “A+” again. however in 2009, the Academy Awards has the film nominated for the best film in 2000s since it got the grade “A+” once again. In 2015, the film was scored with the grade “A+” with extra reviews, the Academy Awards has this film won in the best film of 2000s category as well. The critic spoke “there’s somehow that The Little Mole was even good as Shark Tale, this film is absolutely stunning and has the best arts in the movie featuring The Mole and his friends. it tells the story of how they saved The Hedgehog, and the forest ranger will rescue the animals. however this movie has been a best film ever since 2004, and it became popular in 2008.” as the film was first won the category for the best film of 2000s.