The Imps of Nature

The Imps of Nature is a 1996 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment through its UK-based Amblimation studio and distributed by Universal Pictures. It ​was the fourth and final animated feature produced by Amblimation before it became DreamWorks Animation (which would later be acquired by Universal's parent company NBCUniversal in 2016) as well as being the first Universal animated feature released after Multimedia Animation/Gingo executive Michael Wildshill took control of Universal's animation group.

The film was directed by Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells, written by Philip LaZebnik and John Patrick Shanley based on a story by Nibbelink, and stars the voices of Lucas Black, Mila Kunis, Alan Rickman, Nicolas Cage, Courteney Cox, and Ben Stiller. It follows Genot (Black), a young boy who was raised in a mysterious forest of imps and later develops a close relationship with a girl named Thea (Kunis) while exploring the forest, but soon, the boy discovers that Thea is actually the daughter of Fynn Jäger (Rickman), an imp hunter who plans to wipe out all the imps so Genot must help Thea save the imps before it is too late.

The Imps of Nature was released in theaters on July 26, 1996 in the United States. It made $32.8 million worldwide on a production budget of $40 million, being a box-office bomb. The film was released on home media on December 3, 1996.

Plot
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Voice cast

 * Lucas Black as Genot
 * Mila Kunis as Thea Jäger
 * Alan Rickman as Fynn Jäger
 * Nicolas Cage
 * Courteney Cox
 * Ben Stiller

Additional voices
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Production
Production and development on The Imps of Nature began in May 1989 at Universal City Studios in Universal City, California and Amblimation in London, along with An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993) and Balto (1995). After the voice cast recorded their lines for the characters, animation and filming began in November 1993. However, because the animation department was occupied with Balto, the studio devoted more animators and resources on that film than on Imps of Nature. James Horner composed the film's music score.

While the film was in production, Universal's parent company MCA Inc. announced on October 9, 1995 that it would be acquiring most of Multimedia's assets including Multimedia Animation and Gingo, and as a result, Michael Wildshill not only became the chief executive officer of both Gingo and Universal Feature Animation, but also took primary responsibility for other animation operations. When he saw an early screening for the movie, he told the film's directors Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells that he did not find the villain threatening enough, and suggested that they make some changes. Four months later, almost 60% of the film had been scrapped and redone. The villain had improved, and the ending was changed.

Release
The Imps of Nature was initially scheduled to be released on April 5, 1996, but was pushed back to July 26, 1996, due to the Multimedia/MCA merger. When released in theaters, it was preceded by The Whackems short, Magilli's Boombox Party.

Home media
The Imps of Nature was released on VHS and Laserdisc by MCA/Universal Home Video on December 3, 1996. On August 11, 1998, the film was re-released on VHS as part of the "Universal Family Features" collection. The film was later released on DVD on April 4, 2000. It was initially released in widescreen on Blu-ray for the first time exclusively at Walmart retailers on April 4, 2017 before its wide release on July 4, 2017.

Box office
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Critical response
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Accolades
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Main
To see the transcript of the film, click here.

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