Freddie as F.R.O.7 is a 1992 British animated film written and directed by Jon Acevski. It is a parody of James Bond. The film was inspired by bedtime stories Acevski told to his son about his favourite toy frog working as a secret agent.[citation needed]
Plot
The tale takes place in the 16th century in France. It tells of Prince Fredrick, who lived with his kingly father in a huge castle by the ocean, and was taught magical powers. His mother has been dead for over a year, drowned at sea in a storm. One day, Freddie went horse riding in the forest with his father, but after his evil aunt, Messina spooked the horse his father was riding, his father fell to his death from a great height. Freddie spotted a long, red cobra; he had never seen one of those in the forest before. Freddie became orphaned, and Messina took him in. Soon Freddie realizes that the cobra he saw in the forest was Messina and rather than killing the young prince, she transformed him into a frog and tried to capture him. Soon, both fall from the castle window and into the raging ocean, and Freddie is saved in the jaws of a giant sea monster. Messina blurts out she will rule the world and destroy Freddie. The monster really turns out to be Nessie, the Loch Ness monster. As Messina left, Nessie's tail became trapped by a boulder. She befriended Freddie, who in turn used his powers to free her tail from the boulder. Nessie took him near dry land, and notes that if Freddie ever needed her, he would whistle. Freddie then leaped into the night sky, and fell into a swamp full of frogs, where he would spend the rest of his childhood.
Freddie eventually grows up to become a member of the French secret service, known as F.R.O.7. He is then called to London by the British Secret Service, as some major famous buildings in the United Kingdom are vanishing. By the time Freddie arrives, Nelson's Column, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, St. Pauls Cathedral, and Stonehenge are already missing. Freddie meets the Brigadier G (Nigel Hawthorne), who seems to have trouble keeping himself and his comrades from getting tangled up in the phonecord.
Freddie is introduced to Daffers (Jenny Agutter), an English woman who is an expert in martial arts, and Scottie (John Sessions), a Scotsman who is an expert with weapons. Things take a turn for the worse as Canterbury Cathedral disappears. Freddie also meets Tribly, a sneaky member of the secret service.
After visiting the Grand National, Freddie discovers that the villain capturing the buildings is called El Supremo (Brian Blessed). Freddie also finds out that El Supremo is planning to steal Big Ben next. Knowing Daffers and Scottie won't want to be taken, Freddie tells them the next target is Windsor Castle and they hide on Big Ben - and are promptly captured by a giant robotic snake.
They go to a secret island in Scotland and discover that El Supremo plans to use the buildings, by shrinking them to a size of a trophy and using them as batteries to a giant crystal, which will send a powerful sleeping virus across the world, which will put people to sleep and eventually kill them. Scottie then freaks out as the last required building is captured: Edinburgh Castle.
Freddie and Scottie and thrown into a pool of sea monsters, while Daffers is brainwashed into a mindless follower of El Supremo and his mysterious cobra.
Freddie whistles and Nessie appears to save them both from being eaten, and Scottie is saved from drowning. Nessie shows her family to Freddie, who then asks them to help defeat El Supremo by submerging the patrolling submarines. Freddie and Scottie save Daffers from the snake guards in disguise and the three return to stop El Supremo from conquering the world. They have to battle an army of soldiers, but in the process, Daffers and Scottie come too close to the crystal's energy and fall unconscious. Freddie manages to infilrate the crystal's energy with his mind powers and destroys it, but also falls unconscious. El Supremo and his snake arrive to kill Freddie, but he, Daffers and Scottie defeat El Surpremo by shrinking him down to an ant's size and trapping him in a matchbox.
The snake then reveals herself to be Messina, and she battles Freddie by shapeshifting into a gargoyle, hyena, scorpion and boa. But he uses his mind control to transform Messina into a buzzard and she flees. Brigadier G arrives in time, and Trilby is discovered to be a spy for the villains. Britain is restored to normal and Freddie heads off to deal with some bad guys in the United States.
Characters
Prince Fredrick (aka Freddie): the protagonist of the film. He is adopted by his aunt Messina after his father dies, and ultimately defeats her using his mind-control powers.
Messina: Freddie's aunt who kills his father by spooking his horse and causing him to fall to his death, whereupon she takes Freddie in and tries to capture him. She can also shape-shift. Messina is the main villain alongside El Supremo.
El Supremo: the primary villain of the film. He has captured numerous buildings and plans to capture Big Ben next. His ultimate goal is to create a sleeping virus that will kill everyone in town.
Reaction
Freddie received poor reviews in its home country, the United Kingdom, and despite huge media coverage of the making of the film on television and huge publicity, it was a critical and financial flop. A sequel, Freddie Goes To Washington was already in the works long before this film was released, but because of the poor performance at the box office, the project was shelved, never to be seen or heard of again.
Another contributing factor to its fall was that it was made by an independent company, Hollywood Animation Studios. At the time, Disney was at its peak with its new releases, meaning other companies, such as Sullivan Bluth Studios (known for An American Tail and The Land Before Time) couldn't compete with the popularity of Disney.
The fact the film was a flop in the UK meant that overseas, the distributors released the film straight to video, although it did get a very extremely limited theatrical release in the United States. An alternate version in the United States, not released until three years later, includes a title change (Freddie The Frog) and a new narration from James Earl Jones. Parts of the animation were also cut, including that of Freddie transforming Messina into a buzzard, and an almost entire song from the UK version was trimmed, replaced with a narration that was dubbed over by Jones. It is still a very little known animated film, which to this date has never been released on DVD in neither the original 1992 UK version or the 1995 US re-edit.
On May 21st, 2007, AOL.com claimed the film is the lowest grossing animated movie of all time by counting it's US gross ($1.19 million,) while as of August of 2009, two widely released animated features, The Ten Commandments ($952,820 / 830 theatres) and Delgo ($694,782 / 2,160 theatres) have actually grossed even less than F.R.O.7.
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