# Foodfight!
**Foodfight!** is a 2012 computer-animated comedy film directed by Lawrence Kasanoff and produced by Threshold Animation Studios, set in a supermarket that becomes a city after closing time, where brand mascots led by the detective Dex Dogtective battle the villainous [Brand X](https://www.edgepedia.org/brand-x).[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/foodfight) Financed with roughly $45 million to $65 million, delayed for about a decade by production problems and the theft of hard drives holding its animation files, and released with little promotion, it earned a tiny fraction of its cost and is widely described as one of the worst animated productions ever made.[2](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/why-foodfight-cost-45-million-and-was-still-unwatchable-87138.html) • [3](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-incredibly-strange-story-of-foodfight/) • [4](https://www.fantasy-animation.org/current-posts/foodfight-and-how-not-to-make-a-movie)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / studio | Lawrence Kasanoff; Threshold Animation Studios (Threshold Digital Research Labs)[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/foodfight) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/foodfight) |
| Budget | $45 million raised, per the New York Times; $65 million at the upper end of estimates[2](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/why-foodfight-cost-45-million-and-was-still-unwatchable-87138.html) • [3](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-incredibly-strange-story-of-foodfight/) |
| Box office | $120,141 international with no domestic gross per Box Office Mojo; Know Your Meme gives $73,706[6](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0249516/) • [1](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/foodfight) |
| Release path | Announced in 2000, planned for Christmas 2003, released direct-to-video in the United States in 2013 after a 2012 international rollout[7](https://animesuperhero.com/times-the-troubled-production-foodfight/) • [6](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0249516/) |
| Reception | IMDb 1.3/10 from about 13,000 votes; Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 12% from three critics[8](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0249516/ratings/) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/foodfight) |
| Main cast | Charlie Sheen (Dex Dogtective), Hilary Duff (Sunshine Goodness), Eva Longoria (Lady X), Wayne Brady (Daredevil Dan), Christopher Lloyd (Mr. Clipboard)[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/foodfight) |
| Product references | Around 80 individual products or their characters, including Mr. Clean, Charlie the Tuna, Cap'n Crunch, and the Energizer Bunny[3](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-incredibly-strange-story-of-foodfight/) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and plot
The film takes place in a supermarket that, after the doors close at night, opens into a sprawling city inhabited by the advertising icons of the products on the shelves.[3](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-incredibly-strange-story-of-foodfight/) The hero is Dex Dogtective, a brand mascot voiced by [Charlie Sheen](https://www.edgepedia.org/charlie-sheen) who dresses like [Indiana Jones](https://www.edgepedia.org/indiana-jones), complete with leather jacket and fedora, and runs a nightclub called the Copabanana.[3](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-incredibly-strange-story-of-foodfight/) • [9](https://www.netflixmovies.com/foodfight-2012) The villain is Lady X ([Eva Longoria](https://www.edgepedia.org/eva-longoria)), the femme fatale mascot of Brand X, a generic "no-name" brand whose minions are portrayed as goose-stepping Nazis; she is behind the disappearance of mascots from the store.[10](https://themanitoban.com/2025/01/foodfight-and-the-appeal-of-abysmal-art/48827/) • [11](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/foodfight)
Reviewers noted the film's heavy borrowing from *[Casablanca](https://www.edgepedia.org/casablanca-film)*: like [Humphrey Bogart](https://www.edgepedia.org/humphrey-bogart)'s Rick, the monosyllabically named Dex is a cynic nursing a lost love who has driven him to open a nightclub, and the script paraphrases lines from the 1942 film.[11](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/foodfight) Common Sense Media, whose reviewer Barbara Shulgasser-Parker rated it for ages 10 and up, described a film that tries to serve young children and innuendo-aware adults at once, with suggestive dialogue in G-rated language alongside bloodless cartoon violence.[11](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/foodfight)
## Development and the brand-mascot premise
Kasanoff, the producer of *True Lies* and the *Mortal Kombat* films, founded Threshold to make a computer-animated family film in the vein of Pixar's *Toy Story*, announcing production in 2000.[3](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-incredibly-strange-story-of-foodfight/) • [7](https://animesuperhero.com/times-the-troubled-production-foodfight/) The concept, drafted as a treatment in 1997 by Kasanoff and Joshua Wexler, was funded by an investment from the Korean company Natural Image and a facilities sponsorship from IBM arranged by producer George Johnsen.[4](https://www.fantasy-animation.org/current-posts/foodfight-and-how-not-to-make-a-movie) Visual development began in early 1999, with Jim George, previously an animator for [Walt Disney Animation Studios](https://www.edgepedia.org/walt-disney-animation-studios), hired as character designer.[4](https://www.fantasy-animation.org/current-posts/foodfight-and-how-not-to-make-a-movie)
The film's distinguishing feature was its cast of real brand mascots. Roughly 50 mascots, from [Mr. Clean](https://www.edgepedia.org/mr-clean) to Twinkie the Kid, signed on to appear, and the finished film references around 80 products or their characters, including [Cap'n Crunch](https://www.edgepedia.org/capn-crunch), the [Energizer Bunny](https://www.edgepedia.org/energizer-bunny), Charlie the Tuna, Coke, M&Ms, Skittles, and Spam.[4](https://www.fantasy-animation.org/current-posts/foodfight-and-how-not-to-make-a-movie) • [3](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-incredibly-strange-story-of-foodfight/) Kasanoff insisted that no company paid a licensing fee or product-placement fee to appear; Threshold instead relied on the brands' existing fame to sell the film, reversing the usual arrangement in which brands pay for exposure.[12](https://www.wired.com/2001/05/film-tooned-into-products/) • [3](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-incredibly-strange-story-of-foodfight/) The advertising watchdog Commercial Alert objected in 2001; its director Gary Ruskin called the project "a two-hour parade of junk food at a time when we have skyrocketing levels of childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes".[3](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-incredibly-strange-story-of-foodfight/)
## The stolen footage and a decade of delays
Production was planned for a Christmas 2003 theatrical release, but in late 2002 Kasanoff announced that hard drives containing the film's animation assets had been stolen in what he called an act of "industrial espionage".[13](https://whatculture.com/film/10-insane-ways-movies-got-sabotaged?page=8) • [1](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/foodfight) The film never reached that date, and the delays stretched across the following decade.[3](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-incredibly-strange-story-of-foodfight/)
The production changed course repeatedly. Kasanoff, who had no prior experience directing animation, shifted the film mid-production from conventional CGI to a motion-capture-driven style, an approach later described as ill-fated.[2](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/why-foodfight-cost-45-million-and-was-still-unwatchable-87138.html) • [7](https://animesuperhero.com/times-the-troubled-production-foodfight/) In 2004 he scrapped most of the existing work and fired most of his team to restart the animation.[4](https://www.fantasy-animation.org/current-posts/foodfight-and-how-not-to-make-a-movie) A layout artist, Kenneth Wiatrak, described an unpredictable process in which Kasanoff's notes asked for scenes to be "more awesome" or "30 percent better".[2](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/why-foodfight-cost-45-million-and-was-still-unwatchable-87138.html)
When Kasanoff failed to deliver the film after years of missed dates, and his production company defaulted, the investors invoked a contract clause allowing the insurer, Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, to complete and release the film as quickly and cheaply as possible.[9](https://www.netflixmovies.com/foodfight-2012) The finished film was auctioned on September 26, 2011, with an opening bid of $2.5 million.[14](https://www.awn.com/news/foodfight-animated-feature-auction) The released version contains many shots that were never completed.[2](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/why-foodfight-cost-45-million-and-was-still-unwatchable-87138.html)
## Release and reception
Foodfight! opened theatrically only in a handful of markets, beginning in the United Kingdom on June 15, 2012, followed by the [United Arab Emirates](https://www.edgepedia.org/united-arab-emirates) in April 2013 and Russia; in the United States it went straight to video-on-demand and DVD.[6](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0249516/) • [3](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-incredibly-strange-story-of-foodfight/) [Box Office Mojo](https://www.edgepedia.org/box-office-mojo) records $120,141 grossed internationally and no domestic theatrical gross; Know Your Meme gives the figure as $73,706.[6](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0249516/) • [1](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/foodfight) Against a budget estimated between $45 million and $65 million, this made the film an exceptionally large failure relative to cost.[3](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-incredibly-strange-story-of-foodfight/)
Critics attacked the unfinished-looking animation, the voice acting, and the innuendo in a film marketed to children. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 12% Tomatometer score from three critics and an audience rating of 1.2 out of 5 from more than 1,000 users; on IMDb it holds 1.3/10 from about 13,000 votes.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/foodfight) • [8](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0249516/ratings/) Reviewer Tim Brayton called it "the absolute ugliest animated feature that has ever been released by something resembling an actual animation studio".[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/foodfight)
## Cult following
The film's reputation grew through YouTube reviewers. Jon Jafari (JonTron) posted a review on February 26, 2014, and Doug Walker ([Nostalgia Critic](https://www.edgepedia.org/nostalgia-critic)) followed on April 9, 2014; Know Your Meme credits these videos with building the film's cult following.[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/foodfight) Like *The Room*, it is now watched ironically, and its production history has become a case study in animation-industry failure, covered by the New York Times and Cartoon Brew.[2](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/why-foodfight-cost-45-million-and-was-still-unwatchable-87138.html) • [4](https://www.fantasy-animation.org/current-posts/foodfight-and-how-not-to-make-a-movie) In September of an unspecified year, Cartoon Brew reported that Universal had partnered with Threshold Animation Studios on further direct-to-video CGI films.[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/foodfight)
## References
1. [Foodfight! – Know Your Meme](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/foodfight)
2. [Why "Foodfight!" Cost $45 Million And Was Still Unwatchable – Cartoon Brew](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/why-foodfight-cost-45-million-and-was-still-unwatchable-87138.html)
3. [The Incredibly Strange Story of Foodfight – Den of Geek](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-incredibly-strange-story-of-foodfight/)
4. [Foodfight! and How Not To Make a Movie – Fantasy/Animation](https://www.fantasy-animation.org/current-posts/foodfight-and-how-not-to-make-a-movie)
5. [Foodfight! – Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/foodfight)
6. [Foodfight! – Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0249516/)
7. [NY Times on the Troubled Production of "Foodfight!" – Anime Superhero News](https://animesuperhero.com/times-the-troubled-production-foodfight/)
8. [Foodfight! (2012) – Ratings – IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0249516/ratings/)
9. [Foodfight! – NetflixMovies.com](https://www.netflixmovies.com/foodfight-2012)
10. [Foodfight! and the appeal of abysmal art – The Manitoban](https://themanitoban.com/2025/01/foodfight-and-the-appeal-of-abysmal-art/48827/)
11. [Foodfight! – Parents' Guide & Movie Review – Common Sense Media](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/foodfight)
12. [Film Tooned Into Products – WIRED](https://www.wired.com/2001/05/film-tooned-into-products/)
13. [10 Insane Ways Movies Got Sabotaged – WhatCulture](https://whatculture.com/film/10-insane-ways-movies-got-sabotaged?page=8)
14. [Foodfight Animated Feature Up for Auction – Animation World Network](https://www.awn.com/news/foodfight-animated-feature-auction)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2011 to 2012 › Released in 2012*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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