Freddie as F.R.O.7

Freddie as F.R.O.7 (also known as Freddie the Frog) is a 1992 British animated musical action fantasy comedy film written and directed by Jon Acevski, and starring the voice of Ben Kingsley. Inspired by bedtime stories Acevski told to his son about his favourite toy frog working as a secret agent, it is a parody of James Bond.

The film was released in the United Kingdom in the summer of 1992 before being heavily truncated in its wide North American release, trimming nearly 20 minutes of material; regardless, both versions were negatively received by critics and audiences, the latter resulting in major commercial failure. It held the record of the lowest-grossing animated film at the US box office until The Ten Commandments in 2007.

Plot
The tale begins in the Middle Ages at Monaco, Monte Carlo, France. It tells of Prince Frederic, who is a 10-year-old boy who lived with his kingly father in a huge castle by the ocean at Monaco, and was taught magical powers. His mother, the queen, has been dead for over a year, drowned at sea in a storm. One day, while the two are out horse riding in the forest, Frederic loses his father who is thrown to his death from a great height (6 ft) after his mount is spooked by a strange red cobra. Frederic watches it slither away; he had never seen one of those in the forest before. Now an orphan, Frederic is taken in by his paternal aunt, Messina (Billie Whitelaw), who, as the king's sister, accedes to the throne, but only as regent, until her nephew comes of age to assume responsibility as the next ruler when she must step down. Soon Frederic realizes that the cobra he saw in the forest was Messina (also responsible for conjuring up the storm that took the life of his mother) 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 Frederic is saved in the jaws of a giant sea monster. The power-hungry Messina vows to rule the world and destroy Frederic. The monster really turns out to be Nessie (Phyllis Logan). As Messina departed, Nessie's tail became trapped under a boulder. She befriended Frederic, who in turn used his powers to free her tail from the boulder. Nessie took him near dry land, and notes that if Frederic ever needed her, he would whistle. Frederic then leaped into the night sky, jumped through time zones until the late 20th century and landed in a swamp full of frogs, where he would spend the rest of his childhood in his new life as Freddie the Frog.

Freddie eventually grows up to become a member of the French secret service, known as F.R.O.7. and also has an anthropomorphic car (the reason for which is never explained). He is then called to London, England by the British Secret Service, as some major famous buildings in the United Kingdom are vanishing. By the time Freddie arrives as he left Paris, France. 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 phone cord. Freddie is introduced to Daffers (Jenny Agutter), an Englishwoman who is an expert in martial arts, and Scotty, a Scotsman who is an expert with weapons. Things take a turn for the worse as Canterbury Cathedral disappears. Freddie also meets Trilby, a sneaky member of the secret service.

During a trip to Ascot, Freddie discovers that the villain capturing the buildings is called El Supremo, and he's working alongside Messina, who spends most of the time in her cobra form. Freddie also learns that El Supremo is planning to steal Big Ben next. Knowing Daffers and Scotty would not 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 (starting with the UK), which will put people to sleep, allowing him to invade and enslave them. Scotty then freaks out as the last required building is captured: Edinburgh Castle.

Freddie and Scotty are thrown into a pool of sea monsters to eat them, while Daffers is taken to be brainwashed into a mindless follower and slave of El Supremo and Messina. El Supremo uses the crystal to send his sleeping virus all across Great Britain and the whole country shuts down. Freddie whistles and Nessie appears to save them both from being devoured, and Scotty 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 Scotty 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 Scotty come too close to the crystal's energy and fall unconscious. Freddie manages to infiltrate the crystal's energy with his mind powers and destroys it, but also falls unconscious. El Supremo and Messina (who are preparing to attack their next target - The United States) arrive to kill Freddie, but he, Daffers and Scotty defeat El Supremo by shrinking him down to an ant's size and trapping him in a matchbox.

A final battle then ensues between Freddie and Messina, who attacks by shape-shifting consecutively into a bat, hyena, scorpion, and boa. As Messina begins to crush Freddie in her boa form, Freddie remembers comforting words from his late father and finds the strength to escape and toss Messina into an electrical pole high up and got electrocuted. Brigadier G and his team arrive 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.

Voice cast

 * Adrian Della Touche (British release) - Narrator
 * James Earl Jones (American release) - Narrator
 * Ben Kingsley - Freddie/Prince Frederic, a French prince. He is orphaned and turned into a frog by Messina and eventually becomes a member of the French secret service and the British secret service.
 * Edmund Kingsley - Young Freddie
 * Jenny Agutter - Daffers, a martial arts expert and Freddie's love interest
 * Brian Blessed - El Supremo, the main villain responsible for capturing various monuments, which he plans to use to create a sleeping virus. He is also married to Messina, which would make him Freddie's uncle.
 * Billie Whitelaw - Messina, Freddie's wicked power-hungry aunt who kills his parents, steals the throne and turns Freddie into a frog. She has the power to shape-shift into any animal, most notably a cobra.
 * John Sessions - Scotty, a weapons inventor who befriends Freddie and Daffers / Additional Voices
 * Phyllis Logan - Nessie, a Loch Ness monster that Freddie befriends as a frog. She assists him with escaping the sea in the climax of the film.
 * Nigel Hawthorne - Brigadier G, the head of the British secret service
 * Sir Michael Hordern - King, Freddie's father who is killed by his sister Messina
 * Victor Maddern - Old Gentleman Raven
 * Jonathan Pryce - Trilby, a sneaky member of the secret service
 * Prunella Scales - Queen, Freddie's mother who was killed by Messina one year prior to the events of the film / Additional voices

Production
The film was inspired by bedtime stories Acevski told to his son about his favourite toy frog working as a secret agent.

It was filmed from 1989 to 1991.

Release
Miramax Films purchased the film for distribution in North America. A week after its UK release, the film was released on 28 August 1992 in 1,257 theaters. It was released with a G rating, though some sources say it was given a PG rating. It was also released theatrically in Spain during the 1992 Christmas season. A contributing factor to its failure was that most animated features produced by mostly independent companies, in this case Hollywood Road Film Productions, tended to be critical and commercial disappointments at the time while Disney was at its peak of their popularity with new releases after a long stream of modestly successful films and disappointments since Walt Disney's death. Hollywood Road Films, and other studios like Sullivan Bluth Studios, could not compete with the universal acclaim of Disney. However, some non-Disney animated films would come close to matching the success of Disney's films.

Alternate versions
In 1995, MCA/Universal Home Video in conjunction with Shapiro-Glickenhaus Entertainment released the film on home video under an alternate re-edited version, under the title of Freddie the Frog with new narration from actor James Earl Jones. Odds and ends (including moments of conversation) were cut and sequences were re-edited, supposedly in the hope to make the film easier to follow. Potentially racially sensitive elements were removed or changed, like the KKK-members and Nazi axis-like soldiers during the "Evilmainya" song sequence and the tourist and punk crows were re-dubbed.

Home media
The film, whilst getting a VHS in the UK and the 1995 cut getting a VHS release, should be noted that it has an extremely small cult following, however, it is still regarded as a highly obscure animated film, which to this date has not been released on DVD or Blu-ray of the original 1992 UK version nor the 1995 US re-edit (although rumors persist on copies of the 1995 re-edit are known to exist in some European countries, most notably in Netherlands and Hungary). However, both versions of the film, including the original versions, can still be viewed on YouTube.

Reception
Despite a large publicity campaign and huge media coverage of the film's production, Freddie as F.R.O.7 was both a critical and financial flop. The film received negative reviews in its home country and in North America when it was released there. Renowned animation critic Charles Solomon said, "this 21-gun stinker makes Saturday-morning television look good." He continued by saying "the improbable story is so full of gaps, it's difficult to believe writer-producer-director Jon Acevski ever read his own screenplay." Derek Elley of Variety said, "A shake ‘n’ bake mixture of virtually every toon genre going, it makes up in energy what it lacks in originality". "The movie, which bills itself as the most ambitious animated film ever to come out of Britain, is a convoluted adventure story that swirls classic fairy-tale mythology together with modern pop-cultural iconography into an unwieldy hodgepodge," said Stephen Holden of The New York Times.

Box office
The film flopped at the domestic box office as well, grossing little over $1 million. On 21 May 2007, AOL claimed the film is the lowest grossing animated film of all time by counting its US gross ($1,119,368), while as of August 2009, two widely released animated features, The Ten Commandments, which grossed $952,820 in 830 theatres (and also had Ben Kingsley) and Delgo ($694,782 / 2,160 theatres) have grossed less than F.R.O.7.

Cancelled sequel
During the release of the film, a proposed sequel, entitled as Freddie Goes to Washington, was already placed into production just as the film was being released. There is little to no information on what the plot of the proposed sequel was like. However, it is speculated that after the events of the first movie, Freddie and his allies would have traveled to Washington D.C. to finally defeat Messina for good, and Freddie would've changed back into a human. Due to the disastrous critical and financial performance of the film, production was cancelled including the animation studio filing for bankruptcy shortly afterwards. As of 2016, no other information of Washington exists outside of a few pencil tests which still can be seen on YouTube; presumably from a former animator involved in the film's production.