standardbearer 'Freddie as FRO7' is really an enjoyable little film. It might be a bit chaotic, and even weird, it has its very own, very different kind of charm. What's that you're saying? That this movie is a stinking bowl of manure? Wait just a second, and answer me this:WHICH VERSION ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?This is a vital question in this case, because if you're talking about the USA version, i must point out, that I'm talking about the original version. And both of us are totally right about each opinion.With this unfortunate little movie, American editors have gone way too far. While at some points I understand the concept behind their motive to chop this poor cartoon into shreds, but at many times, there doesn't seem be any kind of concept to talk about.For example, I can see why they cut the two jokes about Daffers' (a female secret agent) breasts. One of the jokes consisted of the main role gazing at her boobs while taking a comment about them, in the other one however she shows them off to Freddie (not to the audience). I was around nine, when I first saw this movie, and found the first joke funny, and the second one quite weird. But none of them offensive. Men are attracted to boobs. I don't have any problem with that, neither did back then. But okay, it's not children's material, so I can accept that it's been cut. Next thing: dancing soldiers. The problem with these evil minions lies in their appearance. They do look a bit like Nazis, and some of them wear KKK uniforms. As a nine year old kid, I knew quite a few things about WWII, but I knew how Nazis looked like, and I already knew many things to hate them for. So evil soldiers portrayed as Nazi look-alikes felt appropriate. But maybe i only knew these things because I'm European... but wait! I even understood the KKK references! Still, I may understand why the cut HALF of the song featuring these guys. At this point however, those enthusiastic US editors really got themselves into editing! Geesh, what to cut next? What to cut next? And there goes the fight scene at the end. I don't get it. It's not that they cut out the more violent parts. They've just erased half of it with no reason! Why? Were they short on celluloid? Anyway, this is a painful cut. It makes the ending totally anti-climatic, and makes the rest of the fight-scene entirely pointless.But why stop here? Let's trash out a whole plot line! Why? Seriously, WHY? You see, there is this guy at the yard who's always turning his eyes, snickering in a very slimy manner, and so on. He is just the evil slime-ball stereotype. In the original version he turns out to be a spy for the evil ones, and gets arrested at the end. In the US version, he doesn't turn out to be a spy, and doesn't get arrested. He just does his evil looks, eye-turnings, and snickering, and thats it. WHY???? Now he's a character that's not just totally useless, but also clearly insane! What was the point?!That's nice, the movie is in ruins now. But oh, we aren't finished yet! The original version starts off with Freddie cruising through France in his weird car, arrives at his apartment, starts feeding the fish, which gives him a flashback about a pond in France, where he spent his childhood. This neat touch gives the movie a needed framing. In the US version, the film starts with random medieval castle-parts. I really got confused at first, and thought the DVD might have the wrong film on it. Again, this edit makes absolutely no sense.No, that's not all, really that's only the tip of the crap-berg, but I think you got the idea.For the original version the score would be 7/10, While the American version barely lives up for a mere 3/10.Take my advice: If you really want to see this, DO NOT BUY THE US VERSION, which appears to be the only version for DVD. You better off with buying a VHS player and a copy of the original on tape.

unlikelyheroine For a long time when I was a kid, this film sat on the shelf of our local video store and I used to glance in its direction, seeing as the cover looked kind of fun. One day, I persuaded my mother to rent it for me, but when we got the tape home, it was corrupted, which meant no "Freddie as F.R.O.7" for me. At the time, I was disappointed. Having actually sat through this film when it was on satellite TV recently (precious moments of my life that I can never have back - it is perhaps no defence to say that there was something hypnotic about the awfulness), I am glad I did not endure this as a child.This film sums up everything that is bad with some kids' films. It's lazy, amateurish and uninspired. You get the impression the feeling was that the kids wouldn't really notice how bad the script and storyline were, and how unconvincing the characters. It seriously underestimates its audience; OK, I'm a grown-up now, but I hope as a kid, I would have called this for the nonsense that it was (and from other comments on here, I can see a fair few people who watched this as children did just that).Freddie is a French frog (not sure whether the whole idea of the character is actually politically correct these days, really) who ends up as a British secret agent, the logical career progression, I am sure, after you have started out life as a prince, but thanks to the evil machinations of your aunt, end up an amphibian in the palace moat. This curious medieval-set section from the beginning of the film, as others have noted, appears to belong in a different draft of the script. Then I don't know where the aunt goes, there's something about the Loch Ness monster and some woman and some disturbing suggestions that the frog fancies both of them and then Brian Blessed appears. Brian appears to be doing an animated version of his role in "Flash Gordon", and I kept expecting him to shout "Gordon's alive?!" at some moment where the stupid frog was doing something moronic. Brian Blessed is trying to take over Britain by stealing monuments and using them as power sources or shrinking them or... something. Somehow, people across Britain get sent to sleep (possibly they have been forced to watch this tripe). Then Freddie manages to remember that love is more powerful than a sword and then this helps him to use some power that comes out of his tongue or eyes or whatever, to kick Brian Blessed's behind, and then somehow Brian gets shrunk so that he can fit in a little matchbox. Then the aunt reappears as a scorpion or a snake or something and gets electrocuted. Then I think it's over.A few comments on IMDb have praised the animation; to me personally, it looks horrendously ropey, but I may be unfairly judging it by 2007 standards. In my view it's certainly not stood the test of time. Astonishingly, this film features a voice cast that looks incredibly strong on paper: as well as the aforementioned Blessed, we have (Sir) Ben Kingsley, Jonathan Pryce and Nigel Hawthorne, all fine actors who I suppose must have had tax bills to pay in 1992. They can do nothing to salvage this horrible, animated mess. The lines these guys have to work with are shockingly bad. The scriptwriter's idea of humour is for Freddie to express clichés such as: "Well, we can see 'ere dat, 'ow you say, your chickens 'ave come 'ome to roost!" I may have missed something, but I thought this line was said following a sequence that had nothing to do with chickens, coming home or roosting, and as such was entirely random and apropos of nothing - is there supposed to be a joke somewhere that I failed to grasp? I have no idea - perhaps it just filled a few more seconds of screen time and that was the idea. Then there's the dreadful songs and just... ugh. Horrible film, and an embarrassment for all involved. Kids (and the adults who watch films with them) deserve a lot better. Whilst I am sure it will not have had anything like the same budget, "Freddie as F.R.O.7" came out the same year as Disney's "Aladdin"; the latter is light years ahead for entertainment value, professionalism and treating children with even just a bit of intelligence and good taste.

irocks Gross! I went to Florida with my two favorite cousins and in the nice rented beach house we stayed at, the owner left a bunch of kiddie movies, including this one. We were going to watch "Little Shop of Horrors" (which I had seen before and loved) but then this little creepshow caught our interest. You must understand that my cousins, my brother and I all love to make fun of stupid things. A lot. This may not be such a good thing, but we do. So we watched "Freddie the Frog."First of all, Freddie(as a human)'s anorexic aunt wants to get rid of him so she can rule the throne. Why then, with her magical powers, didn't she just kill him instead of turning him into a frog?!?!?? Then Freddie (as a frog for good now) meets up with a morbidly obese loch Ness monster named (this is creative) Nessie who claims she is ten-years-old but maybe ten years later has grandchildren. Freddie then flies away to frog land which is really just a fanchy-schmancy way of saying "an ugly pond that looks like someone's overflowed septic tank." Freddie hits on a bunch of female frogs and then one hot summer day, while lounging about in his heart-dotted boxers, he somehow "grew, and grew, and grew until he reached his adulthood. And then he knew he knew he knew, he was not..." FREDDIE: I am not, I am not!!! CREEPY FROG CHORUS: A frog, he is not a log! No joke! This is that stupid! Then he decides he wants to become a secret agent and his frog friends dress him.The movie continues in this idiotic fashion for about an hour and twelve minutes. It includes the following: 1) Freddie's real name and "top secret" code name being displayed with pride on the headline of a newspaper. 2) Freddie being attracted to a totally useless human woman. 3) Freddie french-kissing a human man who is also useless. 4) A fat man who is supposedly a villain who threatens Freddie and friends with a dinky sword that goes BOING! 5) Stupid dialogue like this HENCHMAN: I have a message for you Freddie. And the message is....Death!!! FREDDIE THE FROG: Well, then you'd better give me the message. Freddie then leaps onto some bleachers like a Peter Pan wannabe. 6) Freddie accidentally kills innocent civilians and then nonchalantly replies "Oh, I'm sorry my friend" and leaves!!!This movie is now a tradition with us and my cousins (I bought the tape. It isn't even released on DVD!) and we watch and make fun of it every time we see each other. We also watched it with my friend and my brother's friend and they agreed that compared to the movie we like to make fun of with them (My Neighbor Totoro), "Freddie the Frog" makes "My Neighbor Totoro" look Oscar-quality. If you love to make fun of movies, here is a list starting from dumbest to least dumb (but still very dumb): 1. Freddie the Frog 2. My Neighbor Totoro 3. Barney's Great Adventure - The Movie 4. Balto III - Wings of Change 5. Any episodes of Caillou 6. Any episodes of Dragon Tales 7. Any episodes of The Berenstein Bears 8. Rock-a-DoodleI hope this review made you laugh and was helpful in enriching your life.

Nicholas Bellerophon I have seen this film a few times, and have always enjoyed it. It is a fairy-tale; it is for children; if you can allow yourself to see it in that light, it will be entertaining. Clearly the creators of this film have a lot more imagination than your average Hollywood hack, though perhaps a little more respect for contemporary audience's expectations would have gone a long way to making this more popular. I really love the songs, though. Especially "Lay Down Your Arms" by Asia. Nothing like a bit of moral 80's cheese-rock.