When Jays Fly to Barbmo

When Jays Fly to Barbmo is a 1976 American animated family feature film directed by Paul J. Smith, written by Cal Howard, based on the book of the same name by Margaret Balderson and it was produced by Tony Johnson and Mark Berman. It features the voices of Jodie Foster, Mackenzie Phillips, David Cassidy, Richard Dreyfuss, Beau Bridges, Anne Bancroft, Paris Themmen and Glenn Ford. The film's musical score was composed by John Williams.

It was produced by The Animated Feature Film Company and it was released by Universal Pictures on September 22, 1976, making it the last film to be produced by The Animated Feature Film Company. The film grossed $12.5 million in domestic distribution rentals, and an additional $27.5 million from worldwide rentals, for a total of $40 million, over a budget of $6 million. The film has however gained a cult following in recent years.

Plot
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Voice cast

 * Jodie Foster
 * Mackenzie Phillips
 * David Cassidy
 * Richard Dreyfuss
 * Beau Bridges
 * Anne Bancroft
 * Paris Themmen
 * Glenn Ford

More coming soon!

Production
In 1969, Walter Lantz obtained the rights to the 1968 novel When Jays Fly to Barbmo by Margaret Balderson and turned into a feature film. Margaret accepted Lantz's offer. Lantz said he hoped to be "faithful to the source material". It began production in early 1972, but Walter Lantz Productions was shut down in 1973 by Universal Pictures, while the film was in production, so it ceded producing duties to producers Tony Johnson and Mark Berman.

Jodie Foster was the first one to be cast in early 1972, after Lantz saw one of Foster's performances in TV guest stars, and the others follow suit in 1973. John Williams was hired as composer in 1974, after the producers were listening to the score of The Sugarland Express, another Universal film.

Release
The film was originally planned for release on April 9, 1976, but it was delayed to September 22, 1976 by Universal Pictures so that Family Plot, Alfred Hitchcock's last film (which also happens to feature music by John Williams), took over the original April date.

Home media
The film was first released on the MCA DiscoVision laserdisc format on October 17, 1980, and it skyrocketed on the Christmas and the early of 1981 to be "the most watched family videodisc of all time for the holidays", and by the end of 1981, it overtook The Black Pearl to became the best-selling MCA DiscoVision video of all time. It was later released on VHS and Betamax by MCA Videocassette on November 5, 1982, and it was meant for release on the holidays to became "the best-selling family video of all time" by the Christmas of 1982, and it became the top selling family video by early 1983.

More coming soon!

Box office
During its initial release, When Jays Fly to Barbmo earned $12.5 million in rentals in the United States and Canada, and it also grossed $27.5 million in foreign territories, including its native Australia, for a worldwide record of $40 million.

Critical reception
The film had a mixed-to-positive reception from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film earned a score of 78%, and its consensus states that "This 1976 animated take on the novel is ultimately good, but the visuals, animation and music are at least just good". Metacritic gave the film a score of 64 out of 100, indicating "generally mixed reviews".

Accolades
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Legacy
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Main transcript
To see the transcript of the film, click here.

Trailer transcripts
To see the transcripts for the trailers of the film, click here.