Ama and the Mysterious Crystal

Ama and the Mysterious Crystal is a 1997 American animated fantasy adventure film produced by Universal Feature Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. The first feature film from the studio, it was co-written and directed by Michael Wildshill and co-written by Len Blum, Jonathan Roberts, and John August, and stars the voices of Christina Ricci, Jason Biggs, Jodi Benson, Martin Short, Patrick Stewart, and Jennifer Aniston. The film follows a young girl named Ama, who discovers a powerful magic crystal that came from the ancient city of Crystopia, where she learns that the ruthless sorcerer Lordous plans to place a spell that captures crystals from the city. Ama, along with her friend Edwin and her sister Shelly, embark on a journey to save the city and defeat Lordous.

Development of Ama, initially titled The Sisters and the Crystal of Jewels, began after Universal Feature Animation was established in 1993, when Wildshill conceived its original plot which was intended to be a musical influenced by the fairy tales Charles Perrault's Diamonds and Toads and the Brothers Grimm's The Crystal Ball. The film later went into production by May 1995, alongside a new story and title under its current name, and became a dark fantasy instead of a lighthearted musical comedy. It was the first Universal Pictures theatrical animated feature to be produced by its own animation division, which employed artists who had worked for Multimedia Animation led by Wildshill, as well as Walt Disney Feature Animation and Amblimation, totaling a crew of 300 people. The animation of the film, which was mostly done in Universal City, California, combines traditional animation and computer-generated imagery. The film's score was composed by James Horner.

Ama and the Mysterious Crystal premiered in Los Angeles on December 10, 1997, and was released in the United States on December 19, 1997. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its animation, story, performances, and score, and earned over $324 million worldwide on its $44 million budget, making it the fifth highest-grossing film of 1997, the highest-grossing animated film of the year, and the highest-grossing non-Disney animated film at the time. It received nominations for several awards, including for Best Original Song ("Find Your Dreams") and Best Original Musical or Comedy Score at the 70th Academy Awards. The film was re-released in 3D on March 28, 2014. The success of Ama later spawned an expanded franchise, with three direct-to-video follow-ups, a television series, video games, merchandise, and other media. A live-action remake was originally announced for a 2020 release, but was shelved indefinitely.

Plot
In the ancient city of Crystopia, a young sorcerer named Lordous steals a spellbook that he uses to make a large blue crystal in a cave do his bidding. The other sorcerers see this and try to stop him, only to be disintegrated by the crystal. Lordous manages to capture most of the crystals from the city, except one powerful crystal scattered away from Crystopia.

Years later, 15-year-old Ama lives in a small village near a coastline with her older sister Shelly, her pet goat Pongo, and her widowed mother. Wanting to travel on an adventure of her own, she meets a nervous boy named Edwin, whom she helps excavate a mysterious crystal that he discovered. Curious to learn more about the artifact, Ama takes the crystal home with her. That night, she finds a message from the Crystopian elder Chief Urrkle, telling her of the crystal's hidden power. Wanting to use the crystal to find the ancient city of Crystopia, Ama sets off along with Edwin, Shelly, and Pongo.

The group takes a boat ride and then travels on foot before setting up camp for the night. Lordous, now elderly, senses that there is someone on his island. While Ama and her friends are sleeping, Lordous attempts to scare them by lifting Pongo and treating him like a party balloon, shaping him into various animals; this, however, does not awake the group.

The next morning, the group continues their journey and arrive at an enchanted forest, where they meet Hubble, a bird-like creature magically created by the Crystopians, who offers to lead them to Crystopia. However, Lordous creates a spell on a monstrous lizard to attack the group, which leads to Ama protecting herself with the crystal. She uses its power to destroy the creature, causing it to burst into dust upon defeat.

Reaching Crystopia, the group is greeted by Urrkle, who tours them around the city while they manage to help him retrieve most of the crystals. Soon, Lordous casts a spell that spawns several small vulture-like creatures which attack the group, who manages to escape. While they explore more in Crystopia, Ama and the group eventually discover an abandoned campsite which leads them to the cave where Lordous put the spell on the crystal years before.

The group then encounters Lordous and realizes that he was behind the strange events that occurred before. Eventually, Lordous becomes hostile towards the group and casts some spells towards them, before storming off into a deeper part of the cave. He then throws a spell at the group that turns them into crystal statues, except for Ama and Hubble. Enraged, Ama confronts Lordous and attacks him. As Lordous is about to destroy Ama, she and Hubble use the power of the crystals, including her crystallized friends, causing Lordous to turn into a statue. Ama runs back to her friends and finds them uncrystallized since they are no longer under the influence of Lordous' spell.

With the city saved, Urrkle and the Crystopians thank those who helped Ama, who is crowned as the heroine of the city. Deciding to stay instead of returning home, Ama bids a heartfelt farewell to her mother, Edwin, Shelly, and Pongo, and begins a new life in Crystopia with Hubble. The film ends with Ama taking a crystal from the cave as a memento of sorts.

Voice cast

 * Christina Ricci as Ama, an adventurous 15-year-old girl who attempts to save the city of Crystopia with the mysterious crystal. Alexander Bates served as the supervising animator for Ama.
 * Jason Biggs as Edwin, a geeky and nervous boy who wants to help Ama on her journey to defeat Lordous. Randy Travelers served as the supervising animator for Edwin.
 * Jodi Benson as Shelly, Ama's older sister. Victor Eisenberg served as the supervising animator for Shelly.
 * Martin Short as Hubble, a bird-like creature magically created by the Crystopians who befriends Ama, Edwin, and Shelly. Bob Cokinn served as the supervising animator for Hubble.
 * Patrick Stewart as Lordous, a sorcerer obsessed with crystals who places a spell that captures them from Crystopia. He never liked people on the island and always stayed in the shadows. William Jennings served as the supervising animator for Lordous.
 * Jennifer Aniston as Ama and Shelly's Mother. Jack Reed served as the supervising animator for Ama and Shelly's Mother.
 * Jim Cummings as Urrkle, the chief of Crystopia. Phil Nibbelink served as the supervising animator for Urrkle.
 * Frank Welker as Pongo, Shelly's pet goat. John Madson served as the supervising animator for Pongo.
 * Welker also voices the Monstrous Lizard.
 * Edie McClurg as Edwin's Mother
 * Neil Ross as Oak
 * Michael Wildshill as Cal
 * Cynthia Marion as Debbie
 * Roger L. Jackson as Xan
 * Tress MacNeille as Native

Additional voices

 * Jack Angel
 * Bob Bergen
 * Rodger Bumpass
 * Philip L. Clarke
 * Kendall Cunningham
 * Jennifer Darling
 * Debi Derryberry
 * Bill Farmer
 * Jack Fletcher
 * Sherry Lynn
 * Mickie T. McGowan
 * Denise Pickering
 * Patrick Pinney
 * Phil Proctor
 * Jan Rabson
 * Erik Von Detten
 * Lillias White

Development
During the production of Multimedia Animation's Romeo and Juliet in 1993, then-MCA president Sid Sheinberg convinced Michael Wildshill to launch a new animation studio for Universal Pictures, in which Wildshill accepted. Prior to that, Universal had previously distributed a few of Wildshill's films: Liche's Wish (1990), East of the Sun and West of the Moon (1992), and Romeo and Juliet (1994). Despite the critical and financial flop of the former, Universal was impressed enough with the films' animation and the home video sales, encouraging Wildshill to produce further more animated feature films for the studio.

For the new division's first project, Wildshill pitched several story ideas to Universal which include animated adaptations of E. T. A. Hoffmann's story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, T. H. White's Mistress Masham's Repose and the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale "The Snow Queen". During that time, Wildshill was also developing an original idea inspired by Charles Perrault's Diamonds and Toads and the Brothers Grimm's The Crystal Ball, which immediately went into development under the title The Sisters and the Crystal of Jewels as the executives were more interested in that pitch. Meanwhile, Universal recruited John Cohen to serve as producer on the project while also promoting as president of Feature Animation.

In March 1994, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story director Ralph Zondag joined Universal Feature Animation to co-write the screenplay with Wildshill following a couple of early drafts for the film, which was originally envisioned as a musical comedy that centered around two sisters who stumble upon a sorcerer in disguise who offers the younger sister a crystal ball filled with jewels, much to the older sister's jealousy. Cohen likened the script for The Sisters and the Crystal of Jewels to "The Crystal Ball meets Diamonds and Toads" and offered Zondag to co-direct the film with Wildshill. The studio was also considering Phil Nibbelink and Dick Zondag to be the additional directors, but they declined.

During the fall of 1994, the team was later joined by screenwriter Jonathan Roberts, with a second screenwriter, Len Blum, joining a few months later. The following year, some of the animators and artists who came from Multimedia Animation, including story artist Cynthia Marion, joined the project. Marion found the script lackluster and suggested a The Dark Crystal-esque approach to the story with one that involved the sisters joining a young boy on a journey to stop the sorcerer's obsession with crystals. She also suggested the story be a departure from its lighthearted musical approach, and desired for the film to be a serious, dark fantasy adventure epic. Building on the idea, fellow story artists Audel LaRoque, Kurt Anderson, Gary Hall, Ken Bruce, Phil Mendez, Drew Cohen, and Gary Graham developed a new storyline. However, Zondag was removed from the project because of the persistent story problems. After several failed attempts to find a new co-director to replace Zondag, Wildshill only remained as sole director. Karey Kirkpatrick and Michael J. Wilson did an uncredited rewrite of the script. On May 23, 1995, Universal Feature Animation announced the beginning of the production on its first feature-length animated film, retitled Ama and the Mysterious Crystal.

Casting
Megan Mullally initially auditioned as the titular role of Ama, but she turned it down because she felt that voicing a teenage girl didn't fit for her personality. Following Mullally's departure, Jodi Benson was approached for the role. According to Wildshill, the studio chose Benson in the cast because they were impressed with her voice role as Ariel from Disney's The Little Mermaid. However, shortly before production on Ama began, Wildshill, Cohen and executive producer Roy Kobayashi approached Christina Ricci during the post-production of Casper, where they thought Ricci "definitely fits perfect as a teenager" and Ricci signed on to the role, replacing Benson who was later cast as Ama's older sister Shelly instead. For the role of Edwin, Jason Biggs was cast after the producers watched his performance in The Boy Who Cried Bitch. Before Biggs was selected, Matthew Broderick and Elijah Wood were originally considered for the role.

Hank Azaria was originally intended to voice Hubble, but later turned it down to voice Bartok in the 20th Century Fox animated film Anastasia, the role was eventually given to Martin Short, who had also previously auditioned for the role of Bartok in Anastasia. In addition to Azaria, Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Robin Williams and Jim Carrey were also considered for the role of Hubble. Anthony Hopkins was considered for the role of Lordous, but Patrick Stewart was hired because of his popularity from the Star Trek franchise. Helen Hunt, who previously worked with Wildshill in Liche's Wish, was supposed to voice Ama and Shelly's mother, but she turned down the offer, saying she was "too tired" to work more with Wildshill, so she was replaced by her Friends guest co-star Jennifer Aniston.

Animation and design
The film was mainly animated at the main Universal Feature Animation facility located in the backlot of Universal Studios at Universal City, California with a staff of 300 artists and technicians whom worked with Michael Wildshill in North Hollywood, California, for Multimedia Animation, and from Walt Disney Feature Animation and Amblimation. Additional animation was outsourced to Bardel Entertainment in Vancouver, where they assisted in clean-up animation, Heart of Texas Productions in Austin, and A. Film A/S in Copenhagen where about a quarter of the film was animated overseas. As at Disney's, each character in this film had its own supervising animator – Alexander Bates for Ama, Randy Travelers for Edwin, Victor Eisenberg for Shelly, Bob Cokinn for Hubble, and William Jennings for Lordous.

According to character designer John France, Ama was initially going to wear glasses while first designing the character, but Wildshill later suggested France remove the glasses as the design would look better without them; the glasses were later given to Shelly. Wildshill also suggested a "much more appealing" design for Ama, taking inspiration from Alice from Alice in Wonderland and Aurora from Sleeping Beauty in which, coincidentally, both characters have blond hair and the letter "A" at the start of their names. Additionally, France stated that the inspiration for Hubble's character design came from his daughter's drawing of a "crystal bird" in which he felt that it "makes sense for a comic-relief character".

In October 1995, Wildshill and a group of producers, designers, animators and story artists embarked on research trips to Cave of the Crystals in Mexico, Crystal Cave in Wisconsin, and Meramec Caverns in Stanton, Missouri where they studied the crystals and landscape in hopes of making the film's architecture look authentic. They also took additional research trips through the Colorado Plateau where they traveled on the Mesa Verde National Park, Zion National Park, and Capitol Reef National Park. Soon, the team used a plenty of crystals they saw during their trips as the model for the Ama crystals and brought them to the Universal City animation studio for the animators to study. In 1998, Wildshill repeated the journey accompanied by journalists to promote the film's home video release.

To create the Monstrous Lizard creature and some other CG elements including the crystals, Ama ' s production team used Silicon Graphics' Alias Research software under the supervision of Tim Harmon. For the Monstrous Lizard, the design was sculpted into a clay model where the dimensions were digitized into the computers as a wire-frame model by which the monster was animated. Over 20 animators and technicians spent almost a year creating the four-minute monster sequence.

Music
The instrumental score was composed by James Horner, making his sixth collaboration with Wildshill after The Workers, Liche's Wish, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, The Three Princes and Their Beasts, and Romeo and Juliet. Although the film was originally intended to be a musical with five written songs during early production, Wildshill decided to scrap the musical approach by the time the film was being rewritten during late production, but only one song titled "Find Your Dreams", performed by Vanessa Williams, retained in the film's soundtrack.

Theatrical
Ama and the Mysterious Crystal was originally slated for release on November 26, 1997, but by February 1997, it was later pushed back a month later to December 19, 1997, to avoid competition with Disney's Flubber, as well as 20th Century Fox's Anastasia and the re-release of Disney's The Little Mermaid. The release date change was also a few days after Warner Bros. changed the release date of Quest for Camelot, from November 1997 to May 1998.

On September 29, 1997, Universal screened the film's first 30 minutes, which received a positive reaction. The film held its premiere at Los Angeles on December 10, 1997, with its wide release occurring on December 19. It was also screened out of competition at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. After the success of the 3D re-release of Jurassic Park, Universal announced a 3D re-release of Ama scheduled for January 31, 2014, but this was pushed back to March 28, 2014. The film later played a limited engagement in the Microsoft Theater at Los Angeles, California from December 2017 to January 2018 for its 20th anniversary. AMC Theaters screened the movie from February 7-13, 2020.

Marketing
Marketing for the film included $40 million spent by Universal for advertising, as well as partnerships with Mattel, Pizza Hut, Oreo, Motel 6, Kellogg's, Gingo, NBC, and Random House.

Home media
Ama and the Mysterious Crystal was released on VHS and LaserDisc on May 26, 1998 with no bonus material. In its first week, the VHS release debuted at number one, with rentals totaling $4.8 million. Over 19.5 million VHS copies went on to be sold in its first year of sales.

On December 12, 2000, the film was released for the first time on DVD as a collector's edition in widescreen and fullscreen formats. It also includes an audio commentary by the filmmakers, behind-the-scenes footage, and supplements detailing the film's development. On April 17, 2001, the film was re-released on VHS and DVD, this time as the first release to be part of the Universal Animated Features Collection. This release went on to sell over two million copies. On May 30, 2006, the film was released on HD DVD. On June 19, 2007, a two-disc DVD was released for the film's tenth anniversary, featuring much of the bonus material from the 2000 DVD as well as newer features. Ama was first made available on Blu-ray on July 22, 2008. It was later released on Blu-ray 3D on June 17, 2014.

An Ultra HD Blu-ray was released for the film's 20th anniversary on December 19, 2017, containing a new 4K restoration and a DTS:X audio remix.

On September 1, 2017, Ama became available on Netflix.

Box office
The film was released on December 19, 1997, in the United States and Canada, and made $22,474,839 in its opening weekend from 2,483 theaters, ranking as #3 behind Titanic and Tomorrow Never Dies. It closed on May 21, 1998, after earning $107,214,113 in the United States and Canada with an additional $217,432,840 overseas for a worldwide total of $324,646,953. Ama became the first non-Disney animated feature to gross over $100 million in the US. It remained the top-grossing non-Disney animated film until being surpassed by DreamWorks' Shrek in 2001 and remained the highest-grossing traditionally animated non-Disney film until 2007 when it was out-grossed by 20th Century Fox's The Simpsons Movie, as well as remaining the highest-grossing Universal Pictures animated film until it was surpassed by Computeropolis in 2004.

The film was released in the United Kingdom on March 13, 1998, and opened at number three, Titanic and Good Will Hunting.

Critical reception
Ama and the Mysterious Crystal received mostly positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 81% based on 64 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's consensus reads, "It may feel unpolished in some spots, but Ama and the Mysterious Crystal is, in the end, a vivid, adventurous, and charming experience." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 70 out of 100 points, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of 4, calling it "beautifully animated and very entertaining for the whole family." Richard Corliss of Time reviewed the film positively, calling it an "absolute classic". However, Anita Gates of the New York Times gave a negative review of the film, saying, "Universal's Disney wannabe feels bland and flat-out predictable."

Legacy

 * See also: Ama (franchise)

Sequels

 * Main articles: Ama II: Return to Crystopia, Ama III: The Lost Crystals and Ama: The Secret Palace

In January 1998, Universal announced it was planning a sequel to Ama. The sequel titled Ama II: Return to Crystopia was released on DVD and VHS on March 21, 2000, with Kath Soucie replacing Ricci as the voice of Ama. The film also served as the pilot for the television spin-off.

A third direct-to-video sequel titled Ama III: The Lost Crystals was released on DVD and VHS on March 19, 2002. A fourth film, titled Ama: The Secret Palace, was released on DVD on February 5, 2008.

Television series
A spin-off animated series, simply titled Ama, ran from 2000 to 2002 on Gingo and later USA Kids. Produced and developed by Universal Television Animation, the series is set one year after the events of the 1997 film.

Video games
A video game based on the film was developed by Traveller's Tales, Tiertex Design Studios and Tiger Electronics and released by Universal Interactive Studios and THQ for various systems including PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Color and Game.com. The game's storyline was similar to the film's, with a few changes. The game received mixed to positive reviews.

Another game inspired by the film entitled Ama and the Mysterious Crystal Activity Center was developed by Sound Source Interactive and published by Digital Media International in partnership with Universal in November 1997 for PC. It features 10 games and a bonus level that can be attained if a certain item is obtained in a game. Yet another PC game titled Ama and the Mysterious Crystal Animated Moviebook was released, also developed by Sound Source Interactive and published by Digital Media International.

Proposed live-action film adaptation
On September 13, 2018, Universal announced that a live-action remake of Ama was in production and would begin filming in 2019. The remake was to be written and directed by Spike Jonze and produced by Neal H. Moritz under his Original Film company. On November 7, 2018, it was announced that the remake would be released on May 8, 2020, with Chloë Grace Moretz in talks for the starring role as the title character. On April 12, 2019, it was announced that the film had been moved to September 18, 2020, taking the original date of DreamWorks Animation's The Croods: A New Age. However, on November 17, 2019, the film was pulled from Universal's release schedule.

Other media
Ama and other Universal Animation characters will make guest appearances in the upcoming 2021 film Computeropolis: Webcation.

Main
To see the main transcript of the film, click here.

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