The Happy Cricket

Plot

Christopher is a music-loving cricket who spends his days playing his magic stringless guitar for his friends. But, his peace is interrupted when the tyrannical monitor lizard, King Wartlord, bans music. Making matters worse, Linda the Night Star falls from the sky. Making matters worse, Wartlord, having mistaken the star for a diamond, is also searching for her. Thus, it's up to Christopher and his friends to rescue the Night Star and stop Wartlord.

Production

The title character was first seen in local commercials for Sharp Electronics in the 1980s. The film spent over 20 years in development, and 30 months in production.

The team of approximately 70 illustrators, indenters, and colorists drew around 375,600 frames and 201,600 layouts that where later placed in the digital coloring phase using Silicon Graphics software, including mixing the use of CGI.

The film was transferred onto Exabyte to Record tapes and transferation of 118,080 files of the 82 minutes of film onto the 35MM film recording boards that were made at Cinesite in London.

The English-language dub is dedicated to one of its voice actors, the late Bob Papenbrook.

Sequel

In early 2009, 20th Century Fox released a CGI sequel, O Grilo Feliz e os Insetos Gigantes (The Happy Cricket and the Giant Bugs).