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Animal House

February 26, 2023

For other uses, see Animal House (disambiguation).

National Lampoon's Animal House is a 1978 American comedy film directed by John Landis and written by Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney and Chris Miller. It stars John Belushi, Peter Riegert, Tim Matheson, John Vernon, Verna Bloom, Tom Hulce, Stephen Furst, and Donald Sutherland. The film is about a trouble-making fraternity whose members challenge the authority of the dean of the fictional Faber College.

National Lampoon's Animal House
Theatrical release poster by Rick Meyerowitz
Directed byJohn Landis
Written by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyCharles Correll
Edited byGeorge Folsey Jr.
Music byElmer Bernstein
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • July 28, 1978 (1978-07-28)
Running time
109 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$3 million[2]
Box office$141.6 million[3]

Produced by Matty Simmons of National Lampoon and Ivan Reitman for Universal Pictures, it was inspired by stories written by Miller and published in National Lampoon, which were based on Ramis' experience in the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at Washington University in St. Louis, Miller's Alpha Delta Phi experiences at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and producer Reitman's at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

Of the younger lead actors, only the 28-year-old Belushi was an established star, but even he had not yet appeared in a film, having gained fame as an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, which was in its third season in autumn 1977. Several of the actors who were cast as college students, including Hulce, Karen Allen, and Kevin Bacon, were just beginning their film careers. Matheson, also cast as a student, was already a seasoned actor, having appeared in movies and television since the age of 13.

Filming took place in Oregon from October to December 1977. Following its initial release on July 28, 1978, Animal House received generally mixed reviews from critics, but Time and Roger Ebert proclaimed it one of the year's best. Filmed for only $3 million, it garnered an estimated gross of more than $141 million in the form of theatrical rentals and home video, not including merchandising, making it the highest grossing comedy film of its time.[3][4]

The film, along with 1977's The Kentucky Fried Movie, also directed by Landis, was largely responsible for defining and launching the gross out film genre, which became one of Hollywood's staples.[5] In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed National Lampoon's Animal House "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. It was No. 1 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". It was No. 36 on AFI's "100 Years... 100 Laughs" list of the 100 best American comedies. In 2008, Empire magazine selected it as No. 279 of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time".

Plot

In fall 1962, Faber College freshmen Larry Kroger and Kent Dorfman seek to pledge a fraternity. Finding themselves ostracized at the prestigious Omega Theta Pi house party, the two visit the Delta Tau Chi house next door; Kent believes he cannot be rejected because his older brother Fred was a member, making him a "legacy." During the party, they meet the slovenly John Blutarsky ("Bluto"), chapter president Robert Hoover, smooth-talking Eric Stratton ("Otter") and his best friend Donald Schoenstein ("Boon"), motorcyclist Daniel Simpson Day ("D-Day"), and Boon's girlfriend Katy. Larry and Kent are accepted as Delta pledges and given the fraternity names "Pinto" and "Flounder," respectively.

Delta is on probation due to campus conduct violations and poor academic standing. Wanting to remove the fraternity from campus, Dean Vernon Wormer directs Greg Marmalard, the smug Omega president, to find a justification for him to do so. Various incidents deepen the animosity between Delta, Omega, and Wormer, including the prank-related accidental death of a horse that belongs to Omega member and ROTC Cadet Commander Douglas C. Neidermeyer, who has been bullying Flounder, as well as Otter flirting with Marmalard's equally stuck-up girlfriend, Mandy Pepperidge.

Bluto and D-Day steal the answer key to an upcoming psychology test from the trash, unaware that the Omegas have switched it for a fake. The Deltas all fail and their grade-point averages drop so low that Wormer tells them he needs only one more incident to revoke their charter and have them permanently dismissed from campus. To cheer themselves up, the Deltas organize a toga party and recruit Pinto and Flounder to shoplift food for it from a supermarket. There, Pinto meets a pretty young cashier named Clorette and invites her, while Otter invites Wormer's alcoholic, lecherous wife Marion. During the party, at which Otis Day and the Knights perform, Otter has sex with Marion, while Clorette makes out with Pinto until she passes out drunk. Pinto resists the temptation to have sex with her and instead takes her home in a shopping cart. He later discovers that she is the 13-year-old daughter of Carmine DePasto, the town mayor.

Outraged by Marion's escapades and threatened with personal harm by DePasto, Wormer organizes a kangaroo court with the Omegas and revokes the Deltas' charter, confiscating the entire contents of their house. To clear their heads, Otter, Boon, Pinto and Flounder take a road trip in Fred's car. They visit an all-girls' college, where Otter poses as the fiancé of a student who has recently died in order to find dates for himself and the others. They stop at a roadhouse bar where the Knights are performing, unaware that the clientele is exclusively African-American. Two of the patrons intimidate the Deltas into abandoning their dates and fleeing, during which Fred's car is heavily damaged.

Boon breaks up with Katy after discovering her sexual relationship with a professor, while Marmalard and other Omegas lure Otter to a motel and assault him, acting on a fabricated claim that Otter and Mandy have been seeing each other. Due to the Deltas' dismal midterm grades, Wormer gleefully expels them from Faber and notifies their local draft boards that they have lost their student deferments and are now eligible for military service. With Otter's support, Bluto rallies the Deltas to get revenge on Wormer, the Omegas, and the entire college during the annual homecoming parade. D-Day converts Fred's damaged car into an armored vehicle, which they conceal inside a cake-shaped breakaway float and sneak into the parade. The Deltas then sabotage all aspects of the parade and crash into the reviewing stand, collapsing it.

As chaos ensues, the futures of several of the characters are revealed. Many of the Deltas become respectable professionals, while the Omegas and the other adversaries suffer less fortunate outcomes; most notably, Neidermeyer is killed in Vietnam by his own troops, and Marmalard becomes an aide to President Nixon but is later raped in prison in 1974.

Cast

Delta House

Omega House

Others

Production

Development

Animal House was the first film produced by National Lampoon, the most popular humor magazine on college campuses in the mid-1970s.[6] The periodical specialized in satirizing politics and popular culture. Many of the magazine's writers were recent college graduates, hence its appeal to students all over the country. Doug Kenney was a Lampoon writer and the magazine's first editor-in-chief. He graduated from Harvard University in 1969 and had a college experience closer to the Omegas in the film (he had been president of the university's elite Spee Club).[6] Kenney was responsible for the first appearances of three characters that would appear in the film, Larry Kroger, Mandy Pepperidge, and Vernon Wormer. They made their debut in 1973's National Lampoon's High School Yearbook, a satire of a Middle America 1964 high school yearbook. Kroger's and Pepperidge's characters in the yearbook were effectively the same as their characters in the movie, whereas Vernon Wormer was a P.E. and civics teacher as well as an athletic coach in the yearbook.

However, Kenney felt that fellow Lampoon writer Chris Miller was the magazine's expert on the college experience.[6] Faced with an impending deadline, Miller submitted a chapter from his then-abandoned memoirs entitled The Night of the Seven Fires about pledging experiences from his fraternity days in Alpha Delta (associated with the national Alpha Delta Phi during Miller's undergraduate years; the fraternity subsequently disassociated itself from the national organization and is now called Alpha Delta) at Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire. The antics of his fellow fraternities, coupled with experiences like that of a road trip to University of Wisconsin–Madison and its Delta Chi Fraternity, became the inspiration for the Delta Tau Chis of Animal House, and many characters in the film (and their nicknames) were based on Miller's fraternity brothers.[6] Filmmaker Ivan Reitman had just finished producing David Cronenberg's first film, Shivers, and called the magazine's publisher Matty Simmons about making movies under the Lampoon banner.[7] Reitman had put together The National Lampoon Show in New York City featuring several future Saturday Night Live cast members, including John Belushi. When most of the Lampoon group moved on to SNL except for Harold Ramis, Reitman approached him with an idea to make a film together using some skits from the Lampoon Show.[7]

Screenplay

Kenney met Lampoon writer Ramis at the suggestion of Simmons. Ramis drew from his own fraternity experiences as a member of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at Washington University in St. Louis and was working on a film treatment about college called "Freshman Year", but the magazine's editors were not happy with it.[6] The famous scene of Bruce McGill as D-Day riding a motorcycle up the stairs of the fraternity house was inspired by Belushi's antics while a student at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater.[8] Kenney and Ramis started working on a new film treatment together, positing Charles Manson in a high school, calling it Laser Orgy Girls.[7] Simmons was cool to this idea so they changed the setting to a "northeastern college ... Ivy League kind of school".[5] Kenney was a fan of Miller's fraternity stories and suggested using them as a basis for a movie. Kenney, Miller and Ramis began brainstorming ideas.[7] They saw the film's 1962 setting as "the last innocent year ... of America", and the homecoming parade that ends the film as occurring on November 21, 1963, the day before President Kennedy's assassination.[5] They agreed that Belushi should star in it and Ramis wrote the part of Bluto specifically for the comedian,[4] having been friends with him while at Chicago's The Second City.[9]

Ramis, Miller and Kenney were all new to screenwriting,[5][4] so their film treatment ran to 110 pages, where most treatments average 15 pages. Reitman and Simmons pitched it to every Hollywood studio. Simmons met with Ned Tanen, an executive at Universal Pictures. He was encouraged by younger executives Sean Daniel and Thom Mount who were more receptive to the Lampoon type of humor;[6] Mount had discovered the "Seven Fires" film treatment as Tanen's assistant while investigating projects left by a fired studio executive.[4] Tanen hated the idea. Ramis remembers, "We went further than I think Universal expected or wanted. I think they were shocked and appalled. Chris' fraternity had virtually been a vomiting cult. And we had a lot of scenes that were almost orgies of vomit ... We didn't back off anything".[7] The writers eventually created nine drafts of the screenplay, and the studio gradually became more receptive to the project, especially Mount, who championed it.[10] The studio green-lighted the film and set the budget at a modest $3 million.[6] Simmons remembers, "They just figured, 'Screw it, it's a silly little movie, and we'll make a couple of bucks if we're lucky—let them do whatever they want.'"[7]

Casting

Initially, Reitman had wanted to direct but had made only one film, Cannibal Girls, for $5,000.[7] The film's producers approached Richard Lester and Bob Rafelson before hiring John Landis, who got the director job based on his work on Kentucky Fried Movie.[10] That film's script and continuity supervisor was the girlfriend of Sean Daniel, an assistant to Mount. Daniel saw Landis' movie and recommended him. Landis then met with Mount, Reitman and Simmons and got the job.[7] Landis remembered, "When I was given the script, it was the funniest thing I had ever read up to that time. But it was really offensive. There was a great deal of projectile vomiting and rape and all these things".[11] Landis claims his big contribution to the film was that there "had to be good guys and bad guys. There can't just be bad guys, so there became a good fraternity and bad fraternity".[12] There was also early friction between Landis and the writers because the director was a high-school dropout from Hollywood and they were all college graduates from the East Coast. Ramis recalled, "He sort of referred immediately to Animal House as 'my movie.' We'd been living with it for two years and we hated that".[7] According to Landis, he drew inspiration from classic Hollywood comedies featuring the likes of Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and the Marx Brothers.[13]

The initial cast was to feature Chevy Chase as Otter, Bill Murray as Boon, Brian Doyle-Murray as Hoover, Dan Aykroyd as D-Day, and John Belushi as Bluto, but only Belushi was interested. Chase turned the film down in favor of Foul Play;[7] Landis, who wanted to cast unknown[5] dramatic actors[4][7] such as Bacon and Allen (the first film for both) instead of famous comedians,[7] takes credit for subtly discouraging Chase by describing the cast as an "ensemble".[5] Landis has also stated that he was not interested in directing a "Saturday Night Live movie" and that unknowns would be the better choice. The character of D-Day was based on Aykroyd, a motorcycle aficionado. Aykroyd was offered the part, but he was already committed to Saturday Night Live; according to Landis, the show's producer Lorne Michaels threatened to fire Aykroyd from the show's cast if he took the role of D-Day,[10] which ultimately went to Bruce McGill and provided him with his breakthrough role.[14] In August 2018, Aykroyd explained that although Michaels permitted him to do Animal House, he ultimately chose to stay behind on Saturday Night Live so as not to leave Michaels understaffed.[15][16] Belushi, who had worked on The National Lampoon Radio Hour before Saturday Night Live,[5] was also busy with SNL, but spent Monday through Wednesday making the film and then flew back to New York to do the show on Thursday through Saturday.[9] Ramis originally wrote the role of Boon for himself, but Landis felt that he looked too old for the part and Peter Riegert was cast instead. Landis offered Ramis a smaller part, but he declined. Landis met with Jack Webb to play Dean Wormer and Kim Novak to play his wife; at the time, Webb reportedly turned down the role because of concerns over his clean-cut Dragnet image, but later said he did not find the script funny. Ultimately, John Vernon was cast as Wormer after Landis saw him in The Outlaw Josey Wales.[4]

Belushi initially received only $35,000 for Animal House, but was paid a bonus after the film became a hit.[9] Landis also met with Meat Loaf in case Belushi turned down the role of Bluto. Landis worked with Belushi on his character, who "hardly had any dialogue";[5][17] they decided that Bluto was a cross between Harpo Marx and the Cookie Monster.[5][18] Belushi said he developed his ability to communicate without talking because his Albanian grandmother spoke little English.[19]

Belushi was considered a supporting actor and Universal wanted another star.[4] Landis had been a crew member on Kelly's Heroes and had become friends with actor Donald Sutherland, sometimes babysitting his son Kiefer.[7] He had also just worked with him on Kentucky Fried Movie. Landis asked Sutherland, one of the most popular film stars of the early 1970s, to be in the movie. For two days of work, Sutherland declined the initial offer of $20,000 plus "points" (a percentage of the gross or net income).[20] Universal then offered him his day rate of $25,000[21] or 2% of the film's gross.[20][21] Sutherland took the guaranteed fee, assuming that the film would not be very successful; although this made him the highest-paid member of the cast (Belushi and Neidermeyer's horse, Junior, each received $40,000),[22] the decision cost Sutherland what he estimates at around $14 million.[21] The star's participation, however, was crucial; Landis later said "It was Donald Sutherland who essentially got the film made."[4][21]

"Pinto" was screenwriter Chris Miller's nickname at his Dartmouth fraternity.[5] DeWayne Jessie adopted the "Otis Day" name in his private life and continued touring with the band.[5]

Locations

 
Plaque at the Delta House site (2007)
 
Otis Day and the Knights sang Shama Lama Ding Dong at the Dexter Lake Club (2012 photo)

The filmmakers' next problem was finding a college that would let them shoot the film on their campus.[7] Because it was set in the past, they needed a location with a classic look,[23] so submitted the script to several colleges and universities but "nobody wanted this movie" due to the script. According to Landis, "I couldn't find 'the look'. Every place that had 'the look' said, 'no thank you.'"[5] The University of Missouri (Columbia, Missouri) gave consent to shoot the movie at the college, but President Herbert W. Schooling withdrew permission to film there after reading the script.[22]

The president of the University of Oregon in Eugene, William Beaty Boyd,[24] had been a senior administrator at the University of California in Berkeley in 1966 when his campus was considered for a location of the film The Graduate. After he consulted with other senior administrative colleagues who advised him to turn it down due to the lack of artistic merit, the college campus scenes set at Berkeley were shot at USC in Los Angeles. The film went on to become a classic, and Boyd was determined not to make the same mistake twice when the producers inquired about filming at Oregon. After consulting with student government leaders and officers of the Pan Hellenic Council, the Director of University Relations advised the president that the script, although raunchy and often tasteless, was a very funny spoof of college life. Boyd even allowed the filmmakers to use his office as Dean Wormer's.[7] Because of the film's content, however, he insisted that "Oregon" not be mentioned in the film. The filmmakers paid $20,000 to use the campus.[23]

The actual house depicted as the Delta House was originally a residence near the campus in Eugene, the Dr. A.W. Patterson House. Around 1959, it was acquired by the Psi Deuteron chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity and was their chapter house until 1967, when the chapter was closed due to low membership. The house was sold, remained vacant and slid into disrepair, with the spacious porch removed and the lawn graveled over. At the time of the shooting, the Phi Kappa Psi and Sigma Nu fraternity houses sat next to the old Phi Sigma Kappa house, on the 700 block of East 11th Avenue.[25] The interior of the Phi Kappa Psi house and the Sigma Nu house were used for most of the interior scenes, but the scenes in Otter and Hoover's bedrooms were filmed on a soundstage. The Patterson house remained vacant after filming ended in 1977 and was demolished in 1986,[26] and the site (44°02′53″N 123°04′52″W / 44.048°N 123.081°W / 44.048; -123.081) is now occupied by Bushnell University's school of Education and Counseling. A large boulder placed to the west of the parking entrance displays a bronze plaque commemorating the Delta House location. The concluding parade scene was filmed on Main Street in downtown Cottage Grove, about twenty miles (30 km) south of Eugene via Interstate 5.

Principal photography

Filming began on October 24, 1977, and concluded in the middle of December 1977.[27] and Landis brought the actors who played the Deltas up five days early in order to bond. Staying at the Rodeway Inn motel in adjacent Springfield,[25] they moved an old piano from the lobby into McGill's room, which became known as "party central." James Widdoes ("Hoover") remembers, "It was like freshman orientation. There was a lot of getting to know each other and calling each other by our character names." This tactic encouraged the actors playing the Deltas to separate themselves from the actors playing the Omegas, helping generate authentic animosity between them on camera. Belushi and his wife Judy rented a house in south Eugene in order to keep him away from alcohol and drugs;[7][18] she remained in Oregon while he commuted to New York City for Saturday Night Live.

University of Oregon students got haircuts to appear as extras. Not knowing the story, they were bemused to see a horse being led into Johnson Hall.[28] Although the cast members were admonished against mixing with the college students,[5] one night, some girls invited several of the cast to a fraternity party; assuming the invitation had been made with the knowledge of the fraternity, the actors arrived and were initially greeted coldly which soon turned to open hostility.[7] It was obvious the group was not welcome, and as they were leaving, Widdoes threw a cup of beer at a group of drunk Oregon Ducks football players and a melee "like a scene from the movie"[5] broke out. Tim Matheson, Bruce McGill, Peter Riegert, and Widdoes narrowly escaped, with McGill suffering a black eye and Widdoes getting several teeth broken or knocked out.[7]

Other than Belushi's opening yell, the food fight was filmed in one shot, with the actors encouraged to fight for real.[5] Flounder's dexterous catching of flying groceries in the supermarket was another single shot; Furst deftly caught most of the grocery items Matheson and Landis rapidly threw at him from off camera, to the director's amazement.[4][5] By filming the long courtroom scene in one day, Landis won a bet with Reitman.[4]

The film's budget was so small that during the 32 days of shooting in Eugene, mostly in November,[18][25][29] Landis had no trailer or office and could not watch dailies for three weeks. His wife Deborah Nadoolman purchased most of the costumes at local thrift stores, and she and Judy Belushi made the party togas.[4] Landis and Bruce McGill staged a scene for reporters visiting the set where the director pretended to be angry at the actor for being difficult on the set.[30] Landis grabbed a breakaway pitcher and smashed it over McGill's head. He fell to the ground and pretended to be unconscious. The reporters were completely fooled, and when Landis asked McGill to get up, he refused to move.[30]

 
The closed Dexter Lake Club in 2011

Black extras had to be bused in from Portland for the segment at the Dexter Lake Club (43°54′50″N 122°48′41″W / 43.914°N 122.8115°W / 43.914; -122.8115) due to their scarcity around Eugene. More seriously, the segment alarmed Tanen and other studio executives, who perceived it as racist and warned that "'black people in America are going to rip the seats out of theaters if you leave that scene in the movie.'" Richard Pryor's approval helped retain the segment in the film.[5][4] The studio became more enthusiastic about the film when Reitman showed executives and sales managers of various regions in the country a 10-minute production reel that was put together in two days.[10] The reaction was positive and the studio sent 20 copies out to exhibitors.[10] The first preview screening for Animal House was held in Denver four months before it opened nationwide. The crowd loved it and the filmmakers realized they had a potential hit on their hands.[7]

The original cut of the movie was a lengthy 175 minutes and more than an hour was dropped; the deleted scenes included:

  • a John Landis cameo as a cafeteria dishwasher who tries to stop Bluto from eating all the food. Landis is dragged across a table and thrown to the floor by Bluto who then says "You don't fuck with the eagles unless you know how to fly."
  • a scene where Boon and Hoover tell Pinto the tales of legendary Delta House frat brothers from years before who had names like Tarantula, Bulldozer, Giraffe, and his girlfriend, Gross Kay.
  • two different deleted scenes with Otter and a couple of his girlfriends (one played by Sunny Johnson—listed in the credits as "Otter's Co-Ed" although her scene was deleted—and the other played by location scout Katherine Wilson, whose deleted scene can be seen in the theatrical trailer).
  • an extended version of the scene where Bluto pours mustard on himself and starts singing "I am the Mustard Man."

Soundtrack and score

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack:
National Lampoon's Animal House
Soundtrack album by
various artists
Released1978
RecordedRCA Studios, New York and Sound Factory West, Hollywood
GenreRock and roll, R&B, film score
Length36:23
LabelMCA
ProducerKenny Vance

The soundtrack is a mix of rock and roll and rhythm and blues with the original score created by film composer Elmer Bernstein, who had been a Landis family friend since John Landis was a child.[31] Bernstein was easily persuaded to score the film, but was not sure what to make of it. Similar to his preferring dramatic actors for the comedy, Landis asked Bernstein to score it as though it were serious. He adapted the "Faber College Theme" from the Academic Festival Overture by Brahms, and said that the film opened yet another door in his diverse career, to scoring comedies.[31][4]

The soundtrack was released as a vinyl album in 1978, and then as a CD in 1998. In the late 2000s, the very first song on the soundtrack, the "Faber College Theme", came to prominence due to its purported resemblance to the Bosnian national anthem.[32][33][34]

Soundtrack album listing
Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Performed byLength
1."Faber College Theme"Johannes Brahms, adapted by Elmer BernsteinElmer Bernstein0:35
2."Louie Louie"Richard BerryJohn Belushi2:56
3."Twistin' the Night Away"Sam CookeSam Cooke2:39
4."Tossin' and Turnin'"Ritchie Adams, Malou ReneBobby Lewis2:49
5."Shama Lama Ding Dong"Mark DavisLloyd Williams (Otis Day and the Knights)2:48
6."Hey Paula"Raymound HildebrandPaul & Paula2:47
7."Animal House"Stephen BishopStephen Bishop3:41
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Performed byLength
1."Intro (The Riddle Song)"TraditionalStephen Bishop0:49
2."Money (That's What I Want)"Berry Gordy Jr., Janie BradfordJohn Belushi2:31
3."Let's Dance"Jim LeeChris Montez2:28
4."Dream Girl"Stephen BishopStephen Bishop4:34
5."(What a) Wonderful World"Sam Cooke, Herb Alpert, Lou AdlerSam Cooke2:06
6."Shout"Ronald Isley, Rudolph Isley, O'Kelly IsleyLloyd Williams (Otis Day and the Knights)5:04
7."Faber College Theme"Elmer BernsteinElmer Bernstein1:16
Additional music in the film

Reception

Critical reception

At the time of its release, Animal House received mixed reviews from critics[5] but several immediately recognized its appeal,[35] and it has since been recognized as one of the best films of 1978.[36][37][38] The film holds a 91% positive rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes from 52 critics. Its consensus states "The talents of director John Landis and Saturday Night Live's irrepressible John Belushi conspired to create a rambunctious, subversive college comedy that continues to resonate."[39] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100 based on 13 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[40]

Roger Ebert gave the film four stars out of four and wrote, "It's anarchic, messy, and filled with energy. It assaults us. Part of the movie's impact comes from its sheer level of manic energy. ... But the movie's better made (and better acted) than we might at first realize. It takes skill to create this sort of comic pitch, and the movie's filled with characters that are sketched a little more absorbingly than they had to be, and acted with perception".[17] Ebert later placed the film on his 10 best list of 1978, the only National Lampoon film to have received this honor.[41] In his review for Time, Frank Rich wrote, "At its best it perfectly expresses the fears and loathings of kids who came of age in the late '60s; at its worst Animal House revels in abject silliness. The hilarious highs easily compensate for the puerile lows".[42] Gary Arnold wrote in his review for The Washington Post, "Belushi also controls a wicked array of conspiratorial expressions with the audience. ... He can seem irresistibly funny in repose or invest minor slapstick opportunities with a streak of genius".[43] David Ansen wrote in Newsweek, "But if Animal House lacks the inspired tastelessness of the Lampoon's High School Yearbook Parody, this is still low humor of a high order".[44] Robert Martin wrote in The Globe and Mail, "It is so gross and tasteless you feel you should be disgusted but it's hard to be offended by something that is so sidesplittingly funny".[45] Time magazine proclaimed Animal House one of the year's best.[46]

When the film was released, Landis, Widdoes and Allen went on a national promotional tour.[30] Universal Pictures spent about $4.5 million promoting the film at selected college campuses and helped students organize their own toga parties.[47][48] One such party at the University of Maryland attracted some 2,000 people, while students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison tried for a crowd of 10,000 people and a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.[48] Thanks to the film, toga parties became one of the favorite college campus happenings during 1978 and 1979.[9]

In 2000, the American Film Institute placed the film on its 100 Years...100 Laughs list, where it was ranked #36.[49] Then in 2005, AFI ranked John "Bluto" Blutarsky's quote "Toga! Toga!" at #82 on its list of 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes,[50] with the quotes "Over? Did you say "over?" Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, no!" and "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son" being nominated.[51] The New York Times placed the film on its Best 1000 Movies Ever list.[52] In 2001, the Library of Congress deemed the film to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it as one of 25 films preserved in the National Film Registry that year.[53]

Box office

In its opening weekend, Animal House grossed $276,538 in 12 theaters[3] in New York before expanding to 500 theaters.[54] It grossed $120.1 million in the United States and Canada in its initial release and went on to achieve a lifetime gross of $141.6 million, generating theatrical rentals of $70.8 million.[3][55] It was the highest grossing comedy film until the release of Ghostbusters (which was also written by Ramis and produced by Reitman) and the seventh highest-grossing film of the 1970s.[4] Adjusted for inflation, it is the 68th highest-grossing film in North America.[56] Internationally, it did not do as well, earning rentals of only $9 million, for a worldwide total of $80 million.[57]

Spin-offs

Main article: Delta House

The film inspired a short-lived half-hour ABC television sitcom, Delta House, in which Vernon reprised his role as the long-suffering, malevolent Dean Wormer. The series also included Furst as Flounder, McGill as D-Day, and Widdoes as Hoover.[58] The pilot episode was written by the film's screenwriters, Kenney, Miller, and Ramis.[59] Michelle Pfeiffer made her acting debut in the series (playing a new character, "Bombshell"), and Peter Fox was cast as Otter. Belushi's character from the film, John "Bluto" Blutarsky, is in the Army, but his brother, Blotto, played by Josh Mostel, transfers to Faber to carry on Bluto's tradition.[59] Jim Belushi was asked to play the role of Blotto, but declined.

Animal House inspired Co-Ed Fever, another sitcom but without the involvement of the film's producers or cast.[58] Set in a dorm of the formerly all-female Baxter College, the pilot of Co-Ed Fever was aired by CBS on February 4, 1979, but the network canceled the series before airing any more episodes.[60] NBC also had its Animal House-inspired sitcom, Brothers and Sisters, in which three members of Crandall College's Pi Nu fraternity interact with members of the Gamma Iota sorority.[58] Like ABC's Delta House, Brothers and Sisters lasted only three months.[61]

The film's writers planned a film sequel set in 1967 (the so-called "Summer of Love"), in which the Deltas have a reunion for Pinto's marriage in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco.[62] The only Delta to have become a hippie is Flounder, who is now called Pisces. Later, Chris Miller and John Weidman, another Lampoon writer, created a treatment for this screenplay, but Universal rejected it because the sequel to American Graffiti, which contained some hippie-1967 sequences, had not done well. When John Belushi died, the idea was indefinitely shelved.[62]

A second attempt at a sequel was made in 1982 with producer Matty Simmons co-authoring a script which saw some of the Deltas returning to Faber College five years after the events of the film. The project got no further than a first draft script.[63]

Where Are They Now?

The 2003 "Double Secret Probation Edition" DVD included a short film, Where Are They Now?: A Delta Alumni Update, a mockumentary purporting that the original film had been a documentary and Landis was catching up with some of the cast (played by their original actors). It was never shown theatrically.

It shows the main Animal House characters 30 years on, following Landis to cities all over America in search of the former Deltas, Omegas, and Dean Wormer, and describes the various locales and professions the characters have settled into:

  • Donald Schoenstein – Film editor and documentarian, New York City. Currently in his third marriage to Katy. He has a son named Otis. Otis's face is badly marked up, reminding viewers of Donald's "pepperoni pizza" face alluded to in the original film.
  • Babs Jansen – Tour guide, Universal Studios Hollywood. She mentions to Landis that she is organizing an upcoming Faber reunion, and seems to be successful at her job.
  • Marion Wormer – Seemingly unemployed in Chicago. She tells Landis of how her husband Vernon accepted the blame for the parade debacle, and was subsequently fired, leading to their divorce. She becomes progressively more tipsy throughout the interview, eventually falling off her chair.
  • Kent Dorfman – Executive director, Encounter Groups of Cleveland, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. He recalls trying to diet during the 1970s with a special program requiring him to shoot up the urine of pregnant women.
  • Robert Hoover – Assistant district attorney, Baltimore, Maryland. Hoover recounts how he quit being a public defender after he realized many of his clients were insane. He also boasts of how his legal advice was sought during the O. J. Simpson murder case.
  • Chip Diller – Landis receives a letter from Diller, who is currently serving as a missionary in Africa. He recalls how he was prevented from going to Vietnam as his father was a prime donor to several right-wing political campaigns. When he learned of Doug Neidermeyer's fragging in Vietnam, he fell into alcoholism and despair. When he began seeing Jesus in his food, he became a born-again Christian and fell into his current profession as minister and missionary.
  • Dean Vernon Wormer – Wormer is seen at a nursing home in Florida, under the watchful eye of a male nurse. He appears to be senile, not recognizing Landis at first (calling him "Larry"), and not remembering his tenure as Dean of Faber. When Landis mentions the Deltas, Wormer erupts into a violent, profanity-laced tirade against the boys who cost him his job. He lashes out against the nurse and then physically attacks Landis, consequently knocking out the camera.
  • Eric Stratton – Gynecologist, Beverly Hills, California. Otter is depicted as still being the affable, suave gentleman he was in his college days. He remarks that gynecology has been very enjoyable for him and that he has straightened up a bit since leaving Faber. An attractive, blonde patient in her underwear then tells Otter she's ready for her examination. Otter politely ends the interview and goes into the examination room.
  • Daniel Simpson Day – Landis remarks in a voiceover that D-Day has been the hardest to track down for the documentary, saying that rumors have flown around, with his whereabouts ranging from a Buddhist monastery in Nepal to the Yukon Territory. Landis eventually approaches a house in Modesto, California, where a man opens the door by a crack and claims, in a Hispanic accent, "I don't know no D-Day person! I don't know him!" He slams the door in Landis' face and then bursts out of the garage in a car. He pulls out onto the street to the strains of the William Tell Overture, gives a manic laugh exactly like D-Day's, and speeds off.
  • John Blutarsky – In a final voice-over (since John Belushi was already dead in real life) featuring a shot of the White House, Landis remarks that the viewers all know what happened to Bluto and Mandy Pepperidge: they became the President and First Lady of the United States. (After finishing his time in the Army, Bluto married Mandy and became a senator, eventually being elected president.)

Home media

Animal House was released on videodisc in 1979.[64] It was released on VHS in 1980, 1983, 1988, and 1990. In 1992, it was released in a 2-pack VHS set that included The Blues Brothers. It was first released on DVD in February 1998 in a "bare bones" Full Screen presentation. A 20th Anniversary Widescreen Collector's Edition DVD and a coinciding THX special edition VHS and a widescreen Signature Collection Laserdisc was released later that year, with a 45-minute documentary titled "The Yearbook — An Animal House Reunion" by producer J.M. Kenny, with production notes, theatrical trailer, and new interviews with director Landis, writers Harold Ramis and Chris Miller, composer Elmer Bernstein, and stars Tim Matheson, Karen Allen, Stephen Furst, John Vernon, Verna Bloom, Bruce McGill, James Widdoes, Peter Riegert, Mark Metcalf and Kevin Bacon.[65] In 2000, the collector's edition DVD was packaged along with The Blues Brothers and 1941 in a John Belushi 3-pack box set. The "Double Secret Probation Edition" DVD released in 2003 features cast members reprising their respective roles in a "Where Are They Now?" mockumentary, which posited the original film as a documentary. One major change shown in this mockumentary from the epilogue of the original film is that Bluto went on from his career in the U.S. Senate to become the President of the United States, with a voiceover on a shot of the north portico of the White House, since by then Belushi had died. This DVD also includes "Did You Know That? Universal Animated Anecdotes", a subtitle trivia track, the making of documentary from the Collector's Edition, MxPx "Shout" music video, a theatrical trailer, production notes, and cast and filmmakers biographies.[66] The DVD was also available in both Widescreen and Full Screen formats. In August 2006, the film was released on an HD DVD/DVD combo disc, which featured the film in a 1080p high-definition format on one side, and a standard-definition format on the opposite side.[67] Along with the film Unleashed, Animal House was one of Universal's first two HD/DVD combo releases,[68] but was later discontinued in 2008 after Universal decided to switch to the Blu-ray optical disc format following the conclusion of the high-definition optical disc format war.[69]

It became available on Blu-ray optical disc on July 26, 2011.[70]

The film was released on 4K on May 18, 2021.[71]

Precursors and legacy

Animal House was a great box office success despite its limited production costs and started an industry trend,[13] inspiring other comedies such as Porky's, the Police Academy films, the American Pie films, Up the Academy (made by rival humor magazine MAD), and Old School among others.[6][13][28] Belushi became the most successful male comedy star in the world until his 1982 death; Bacon also became a star, and he, Matheson, and Allen are among those who have had lengthy acting careers. Reitman, Landis, and Ramis became successful filmmakers; Landis' use of dramatic actors and soundtrack to make the comedy believable became the traditional approach for film comedies.[4]

The film has caused many parents to worry about their children joining fraternities and sororities.[28] One writer suggested, half-seriously, that the film's impact was such that future college students seeking to emulate Delta House's antics in real life led to "a drop of American college students’ GPA's an average of .18 grade points, per semester".[72]

On the left-wing and counterculture side, the film included references to topical political matters like President Harry S. Truman's decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Richard Nixon, the Vietnam war, and the civil rights movement.[6] Precursors of this counterculture subversive humor in film were two non-"college movies", M*A*S*H, a 1970 satirical dark comedy, and The Kentucky Fried Movie, a 1977 formless comedy consisting of a series of sketches (which was also directed by Landis).[13]

At the start of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), also directed by John Landis, a scene set in Vietnam includes a soldier saying "I told you guys, we shouldn't have shot Lieutenant Neidermeyer."

In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.[73] Animal House is first on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies.[74] In 2000, the American Film Institute ranked the film No. 36 on 100 Years... 100 Laughs, a list of the 100 best American comedies.[75] In 2006, Miller wrote a more comprehensive memoir of his experiences in Dartmouth's AD house in a book entitled, The Real Animal House: The Awesomely Depraved Saga of the Fraternity That Inspired the Movie, in which Miller recounts hijinks that were considered too risqué for the movie. In 2008, Empire magazine selected Animal House as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.[76] The film was also selected by The New York Times as one of The 1000 Best Movies Ever Made.[77]

In 2012, Universal Pictures Stage Productions announced it was developing a stage musical version of the movie. Barenaked Ladies were originally announced to write the score, but they were replaced by composer David Yazbek.[78] Casey Nicholaw will direct;[79] author Michael Mitnick is also reportedly involved.[80]

The University of Oregon celebrates its participation in the film. It offers visitors a guide to filming locations, and the Knight Library has a collection of material on the film's production.[23] Between the third and fourth quarter of every football game at Autzen Stadium, "Shout" from the toga party scene is played, to which the entire stadium sings along.

See also

Citations

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General and cited sources

  • Hoover, Eric (2008) "'Animal House' at 30: O Bluto, Where Art Thou?", Chronicle of Higher Education, v55 n2 pA1 Sep 2008
  • Daniel P. Franklin (2006). Politics and film: the political culture of film in the United States, pp. 133–4
  • Krista M. Tucciarone (2007). "", in Journal of College Student Development
  • Patterson, Joanna (November 9, 2006). . The Dartmouth. Dartmouth College. Archived from the original on January 7, 2008.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Animal House.
 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Animal House.

February 26, 2023
animal, house, other, uses, disambiguation, national, lampoon, 1978, american, comedy, film, directed, john, landis, written, harold, ramis, douglas, kenney, chris, miller, stars, john, belushi, peter, riegert, matheson, john, vernon, verna, bloom, hulce, step. For other uses see Animal House disambiguation National Lampoon s Animal House is a 1978 American comedy film directed by John Landis and written by Harold Ramis Douglas Kenney and Chris Miller It stars John Belushi Peter Riegert Tim Matheson John Vernon Verna Bloom Tom Hulce Stephen Furst and Donald Sutherland The film is about a trouble making fraternity whose members challenge the authority of the dean of the fictional Faber College National Lampoon s Animal HouseTheatrical release poster by Rick MeyerowitzDirected byJohn LandisWritten byHarold Ramis Douglas Kenney Chris MillerProduced byMatty Simmons Ivan ReitmanStarringJohn Belushi Tim Matheson Peter Riegert John Vernon Verna Bloom Tom Hulce Donald SutherlandCinematographyCharles CorrellEdited byGeorge Folsey Jr Music byElmer BernsteinDistributed byUniversal PicturesRelease dateJuly 28 1978 1978 07 28 Running time109 minutes 1 CountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget 3 million 2 Box office 141 6 million 3 Produced by Matty Simmons of National Lampoon and Ivan Reitman for Universal Pictures it was inspired by stories written by Miller and published in National Lampoon which were based on Ramis experience in the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at Washington University in St Louis Miller s Alpha Delta Phi experiences at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and producer Reitman s at McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario Of the younger lead actors only the 28 year old Belushi was an established star but even he had not yet appeared in a film having gained fame as an original cast member of Saturday Night Live which was in its third season in autumn 1977 Several of the actors who were cast as college students including Hulce Karen Allen and Kevin Bacon were just beginning their film careers Matheson also cast as a student was already a seasoned actor having appeared in movies and television since the age of 13 Filming took place in Oregon from October to December 1977 Following its initial release on July 28 1978 Animal House received generally mixed reviews from critics but Time and Roger Ebert proclaimed it one of the year s best Filmed for only 3 million it garnered an estimated gross of more than 141 million in the form of theatrical rentals and home video not including merchandising making it the highest grossing comedy film of its time 3 4 The film along with 1977 s The Kentucky Fried Movie also directed by Landis was largely responsible for defining and launching the gross out film genre which became one of Hollywood s staples 5 In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed National Lampoon s Animal House culturally historically or aesthetically significant and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry It was No 1 on Bravo s 100 Funniest Movies It was No 36 on AFI s 100 Years 100 Laughs list of the 100 best American comedies In 2008 Empire magazine selected it as No 279 of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 2 1 Delta House 2 2 Omega House 2 3 Others 3 Production 3 1 Development 3 2 Screenplay 3 3 Casting 3 4 Locations 3 5 Principal photography 4 Soundtrack and score 5 Reception 5 1 Critical reception 5 2 Box office 6 Spin offs 7 Where Are They Now 8 Home media 9 Precursors and legacy 10 See also 11 Citations 12 General and cited sources 13 External linksPlot EditIn fall 1962 Faber College freshmen Larry Kroger and Kent Dorfman seek to pledge a fraternity Finding themselves ostracized at the prestigious Omega Theta Pi house party the two visit the Delta Tau Chi house next door Kent believes he cannot be rejected because his older brother Fred was a member making him a legacy During the party they meet the slovenly John Blutarsky Bluto chapter president Robert Hoover smooth talking Eric Stratton Otter and his best friend Donald Schoenstein Boon motorcyclist Daniel Simpson Day D Day and Boon s girlfriend Katy Larry and Kent are accepted as Delta pledges and given the fraternity names Pinto and Flounder respectively Delta is on probation due to campus conduct violations and poor academic standing Wanting to remove the fraternity from campus Dean Vernon Wormer directs Greg Marmalard the smug Omega president to find a justification for him to do so Various incidents deepen the animosity between Delta Omega and Wormer including the prank related accidental death of a horse that belongs to Omega member and ROTC Cadet Commander Douglas C Neidermeyer who has been bullying Flounder as well as Otter flirting with Marmalard s equally stuck up girlfriend Mandy Pepperidge Bluto and D Day steal the answer key to an upcoming psychology test from the trash unaware that the Omegas have switched it for a fake The Deltas all fail and their grade point averages drop so low that Wormer tells them he needs only one more incident to revoke their charter and have them permanently dismissed from campus To cheer themselves up the Deltas organize a toga party and recruit Pinto and Flounder to shoplift food for it from a supermarket There Pinto meets a pretty young cashier named Clorette and invites her while Otter invites Wormer s alcoholic lecherous wife Marion During the party at which Otis Day and the Knights perform Otter has sex with Marion while Clorette makes out with Pinto until she passes out drunk Pinto resists the temptation to have sex with her and instead takes her home in a shopping cart He later discovers that she is the 13 year old daughter of Carmine DePasto the town mayor Outraged by Marion s escapades and threatened with personal harm by DePasto Wormer organizes a kangaroo court with the Omegas and revokes the Deltas charter confiscating the entire contents of their house To clear their heads Otter Boon Pinto and Flounder take a road trip in Fred s car They visit an all girls college where Otter poses as the fiance of a student who has recently died in order to find dates for himself and the others They stop at a roadhouse bar where the Knights are performing unaware that the clientele is exclusively African American Two of the patrons intimidate the Deltas into abandoning their dates and fleeing during which Fred s car is heavily damaged Boon breaks up with Katy after discovering her sexual relationship with a professor while Marmalard and other Omegas lure Otter to a motel and assault him acting on a fabricated claim that Otter and Mandy have been seeing each other Due to the Deltas dismal midterm grades Wormer gleefully expels them from Faber and notifies their local draft boards that they have lost their student deferments and are now eligible for military service With Otter s support Bluto rallies the Deltas to get revenge on Wormer the Omegas and the entire college during the annual homecoming parade D Day converts Fred s damaged car into an armored vehicle which they conceal inside a cake shaped breakaway float and sneak into the parade The Deltas then sabotage all aspects of the parade and crash into the reviewing stand collapsing it As chaos ensues the futures of several of the characters are revealed Many of the Deltas become respectable professionals while the Omegas and the other adversaries suffer less fortunate outcomes most notably Neidermeyer is killed in Vietnam by his own troops and Marmalard becomes an aide to President Nixon but is later raped in prison in 1974 Cast EditDelta House Edit John Belushi as John Bluto Blutarsky Tim Matheson as Eric Otter Stratton Peter Riegert as Donald Boon Schoenstein Tom Hulce as Larry Pinto Kroger Stephen Furst as Kent Flounder Dorfman Bruce McGill as Daniel Simpson D Day Day James Widdoes as Robert Hoover Karen Allen as Katy Douglas Kenney as Dwayne Stork Storkman Christian Miller as Curtis Wayne Hardbar FullerOmega House Edit James Daughton as Gregory Marmalard Mark Metcalf as Douglas C Neidermeyer Kevin Bacon as Chip Diller Mary Louise Weller as Mandy Pepperidge Martha Smith as Barbara Babs Sue JansenOthers Edit John Vernon as Dean Vernon Wormer Verna Bloom as Mrs Marion Wormer Donald Sutherland as Professor Dave Jennings Cesare Danova as Mayor Carmine DePasto Sarah Holcomb as Clorette DePasto DeWayne Jessie as Otis DayProduction EditDevelopment Edit Animal House was the first film produced by National Lampoon the most popular humor magazine on college campuses in the mid 1970s 6 The periodical specialized in satirizing politics and popular culture Many of the magazine s writers were recent college graduates hence its appeal to students all over the country Doug Kenney was a Lampoon writer and the magazine s first editor in chief He graduated from Harvard University in 1969 and had a college experience closer to the Omegas in the film he had been president of the university s elite Spee Club 6 Kenney was responsible for the first appearances of three characters that would appear in the film Larry Kroger Mandy Pepperidge and Vernon Wormer They made their debut in 1973 s National Lampoon s High School Yearbook a satire of a Middle America 1964 high school yearbook Kroger s and Pepperidge s characters in the yearbook were effectively the same as their characters in the movie whereas Vernon Wormer was a P E and civics teacher as well as an athletic coach in the yearbook However Kenney felt that fellow Lampoon writer Chris Miller was the magazine s expert on the college experience 6 Faced with an impending deadline Miller submitted a chapter from his then abandoned memoirs entitled The Night of the Seven Fires about pledging experiences from his fraternity days in Alpha Delta associated with the national Alpha Delta Phi during Miller s undergraduate years the fraternity subsequently disassociated itself from the national organization and is now called Alpha Delta at Dartmouth College in Hanover New Hampshire The antics of his fellow fraternities coupled with experiences like that of a road trip to University of Wisconsin Madison and its Delta Chi Fraternity became the inspiration for the Delta Tau Chis of Animal House and many characters in the film and their nicknames were based on Miller s fraternity brothers 6 Filmmaker Ivan Reitman had just finished producing David Cronenberg s first film Shivers and called the magazine s publisher Matty Simmons about making movies under the Lampoon banner 7 Reitman had put together The National Lampoon Show in New York City featuring several future Saturday Night Live cast members including John Belushi When most of the Lampoon group moved on to SNL except for Harold Ramis Reitman approached him with an idea to make a film together using some skits from the Lampoon Show 7 Screenplay Edit Kenney met Lampoon writer Ramis at the suggestion of Simmons Ramis drew from his own fraternity experiences as a member of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at Washington University in St Louis and was working on a film treatment about college called Freshman Year but the magazine s editors were not happy with it 6 The famous scene of Bruce McGill as D Day riding a motorcycle up the stairs of the fraternity house was inspired by Belushi s antics while a student at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater 8 Kenney and Ramis started working on a new film treatment together positing Charles Manson in a high school calling it Laser Orgy Girls 7 Simmons was cool to this idea so they changed the setting to a northeastern college Ivy League kind of school 5 Kenney was a fan of Miller s fraternity stories and suggested using them as a basis for a movie Kenney Miller and Ramis began brainstorming ideas 7 They saw the film s 1962 setting as the last innocent year of America and the homecoming parade that ends the film as occurring on November 21 1963 the day before President Kennedy s assassination 5 They agreed that Belushi should star in it and Ramis wrote the part of Bluto specifically for the comedian 4 having been friends with him while at Chicago s The Second City 9 Ramis Miller and Kenney were all new to screenwriting 5 4 so their film treatment ran to 110 pages where most treatments average 15 pages Reitman and Simmons pitched it to every Hollywood studio Simmons met with Ned Tanen an executive at Universal Pictures He was encouraged by younger executives Sean Daniel and Thom Mount who were more receptive to the Lampoon type of humor 6 Mount had discovered the Seven Fires film treatment as Tanen s assistant while investigating projects left by a fired studio executive 4 Tanen hated the idea Ramis remembers We went further than I think Universal expected or wanted I think they were shocked and appalled Chris fraternity had virtually been a vomiting cult And we had a lot of scenes that were almost orgies of vomit We didn t back off anything 7 The writers eventually created nine drafts of the screenplay and the studio gradually became more receptive to the project especially Mount who championed it 10 The studio green lighted the film and set the budget at a modest 3 million 6 Simmons remembers They just figured Screw it it s a silly little movie and we ll make a couple of bucks if we re lucky let them do whatever they want 7 Casting Edit Initially Reitman had wanted to direct but had made only one film Cannibal Girls for 5 000 7 The film s producers approached Richard Lester and Bob Rafelson before hiring John Landis who got the director job based on his work on Kentucky Fried Movie 10 That film s script and continuity supervisor was the girlfriend of Sean Daniel an assistant to Mount Daniel saw Landis movie and recommended him Landis then met with Mount Reitman and Simmons and got the job 7 Landis remembered When I was given the script it was the funniest thing I had ever read up to that time But it was really offensive There was a great deal of projectile vomiting and rape and all these things 11 Landis claims his big contribution to the film was that there had to be good guys and bad guys There can t just be bad guys so there became a good fraternity and bad fraternity 12 There was also early friction between Landis and the writers because the director was a high school dropout from Hollywood and they were all college graduates from the East Coast Ramis recalled He sort of referred immediately to Animal House as my movie We d been living with it for two years and we hated that 7 According to Landis he drew inspiration from classic Hollywood comedies featuring the likes of Buster Keaton Harold Lloyd and the Marx Brothers 13 The initial cast was to feature Chevy Chase as Otter Bill Murray as Boon Brian Doyle Murray as Hoover Dan Aykroyd as D Day and John Belushi as Bluto but only Belushi was interested Chase turned the film down in favor of Foul Play 7 Landis who wanted to cast unknown 5 dramatic actors 4 7 such as Bacon and Allen the first film for both instead of famous comedians 7 takes credit for subtly discouraging Chase by describing the cast as an ensemble 5 Landis has also stated that he was not interested in directing a Saturday Night Live movie and that unknowns would be the better choice The character of D Day was based on Aykroyd a motorcycle aficionado Aykroyd was offered the part but he was already committed to Saturday Night Live according to Landis the show s producer Lorne Michaels threatened to fire Aykroyd from the show s cast if he took the role of D Day 10 which ultimately went to Bruce McGill and provided him with his breakthrough role 14 In August 2018 Aykroyd explained that although Michaels permitted him to do Animal House he ultimately chose to stay behind on Saturday Night Live so as not to leave Michaels understaffed 15 16 Belushi who had worked on The National Lampoon Radio Hour before Saturday Night Live 5 was also busy with SNL but spent Monday through Wednesday making the film and then flew back to New York to do the show on Thursday through Saturday 9 Ramis originally wrote the role of Boon for himself but Landis felt that he looked too old for the part and Peter Riegert was cast instead Landis offered Ramis a smaller part but he declined Landis met with Jack Webb to play Dean Wormer and Kim Novak to play his wife at the time Webb reportedly turned down the role because of concerns over his clean cut Dragnet image but later said he did not find the script funny Ultimately John Vernon was cast as Wormer after Landis saw him in The Outlaw Josey Wales 4 Belushi initially received only 35 000 for Animal House but was paid a bonus after the film became a hit 9 Landis also met with Meat Loaf in case Belushi turned down the role of Bluto Landis worked with Belushi on his character who hardly had any dialogue 5 17 they decided that Bluto was a cross between Harpo Marx and the Cookie Monster 5 18 Belushi said he developed his ability to communicate without talking because his Albanian grandmother spoke little English 19 Belushi was considered a supporting actor and Universal wanted another star 4 Landis had been a crew member on Kelly s Heroes and had become friends with actor Donald Sutherland sometimes babysitting his son Kiefer 7 He had also just worked with him on Kentucky Fried Movie Landis asked Sutherland one of the most popular film stars of the early 1970s to be in the movie For two days of work Sutherland declined the initial offer of 20 000 plus points a percentage of the gross or net income 20 Universal then offered him his day rate of 25 000 21 or 2 of the film s gross 20 21 Sutherland took the guaranteed fee assuming that the film would not be very successful although this made him the highest paid member of the cast Belushi and Neidermeyer s horse Junior each received 40 000 22 the decision cost Sutherland what he estimates at around 14 million 21 The star s participation however was crucial Landis later said It was Donald Sutherland who essentially got the film made 4 21 Pinto was screenwriter Chris Miller s nickname at his Dartmouth fraternity 5 DeWayne Jessie adopted the Otis Day name in his private life and continued touring with the band 5 Locations Edit Plaque at the Delta House site 2007 Otis Day and the Knights sang Shama Lama Ding Dong at the Dexter Lake Club 2012 photo The filmmakers next problem was finding a college that would let them shoot the film on their campus 7 Because it was set in the past they needed a location with a classic look 23 so submitted the script to several colleges and universities but nobody wanted this movie due to the script According to Landis I couldn t find the look Every place that had the look said no thank you 5 The University of Missouri Columbia Missouri gave consent to shoot the movie at the college but President Herbert W Schooling withdrew permission to film there after reading the script 22 The president of the University of Oregon in Eugene William Beaty Boyd 24 had been a senior administrator at the University of California in Berkeley in 1966 when his campus was considered for a location of the film The Graduate After he consulted with other senior administrative colleagues who advised him to turn it down due to the lack of artistic merit the college campus scenes set at Berkeley were shot at USC in Los Angeles The film went on to become a classic and Boyd was determined not to make the same mistake twice when the producers inquired about filming at Oregon After consulting with student government leaders and officers of the Pan Hellenic Council the Director of University Relations advised the president that the script although raunchy and often tasteless was a very funny spoof of college life Boyd even allowed the filmmakers to use his office as Dean Wormer s 7 Because of the film s content however he insisted that Oregon not be mentioned in the film The filmmakers paid 20 000 to use the campus 23 The actual house depicted as the Delta House was originally a residence near the campus in Eugene the Dr A W Patterson House Around 1959 it was acquired by the Psi Deuteron chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity and was their chapter house until 1967 when the chapter was closed due to low membership The house was sold remained vacant and slid into disrepair with the spacious porch removed and the lawn graveled over At the time of the shooting the Phi Kappa Psi and Sigma Nu fraternity houses sat next to the old Phi Sigma Kappa house on the 700 block of East 11th Avenue 25 The interior of the Phi Kappa Psi house and the Sigma Nu house were used for most of the interior scenes but the scenes in Otter and Hoover s bedrooms were filmed on a soundstage The Patterson house remained vacant after filming ended in 1977 and was demolished in 1986 26 and the site 44 02 53 N 123 04 52 W 44 048 N 123 081 W 44 048 123 081 is now occupied by Bushnell University s school of Education and Counseling A large boulder placed to the west of the parking entrance displays a bronze plaque commemorating the Delta House location The concluding parade scene was filmed on Main Street in downtown Cottage Grove about twenty miles 30 km south of Eugene via Interstate 5 Principal photography Edit Filming began on October 24 1977 and concluded in the middle of December 1977 27 and Landis brought the actors who played the Deltas up five days early in order to bond Staying at the Rodeway Inn motel in adjacent Springfield 25 they moved an old piano from the lobby into McGill s room which became known as party central James Widdoes Hoover remembers It was like freshman orientation There was a lot of getting to know each other and calling each other by our character names This tactic encouraged the actors playing the Deltas to separate themselves from the actors playing the Omegas helping generate authentic animosity between them on camera Belushi and his wife Judy rented a house in south Eugene in order to keep him away from alcohol and drugs 7 18 she remained in Oregon while he commuted to New York City for Saturday Night Live University of Oregon students got haircuts to appear as extras Not knowing the story they were bemused to see a horse being led into Johnson Hall 28 Although the cast members were admonished against mixing with the college students 5 one night some girls invited several of the cast to a fraternity party assuming the invitation had been made with the knowledge of the fraternity the actors arrived and were initially greeted coldly which soon turned to open hostility 7 It was obvious the group was not welcome and as they were leaving Widdoes threw a cup of beer at a group of drunk Oregon Ducks football players and a melee like a scene from the movie 5 broke out Tim Matheson Bruce McGill Peter Riegert and Widdoes narrowly escaped with McGill suffering a black eye and Widdoes getting several teeth broken or knocked out 7 Other than Belushi s opening yell the food fight was filmed in one shot with the actors encouraged to fight for real 5 Flounder s dexterous catching of flying groceries in the supermarket was another single shot Furst deftly caught most of the grocery items Matheson and Landis rapidly threw at him from off camera to the director s amazement 4 5 By filming the long courtroom scene in one day Landis won a bet with Reitman 4 The film s budget was so small that during the 32 days of shooting in Eugene mostly in November 18 25 29 Landis had no trailer or office and could not watch dailies for three weeks His wife Deborah Nadoolman purchased most of the costumes at local thrift stores and she and Judy Belushi made the party togas 4 Landis and Bruce McGill staged a scene for reporters visiting the set where the director pretended to be angry at the actor for being difficult on the set 30 Landis grabbed a breakaway pitcher and smashed it over McGill s head He fell to the ground and pretended to be unconscious The reporters were completely fooled and when Landis asked McGill to get up he refused to move 30 The closed Dexter Lake Club in 2011 Black extras had to be bused in from Portland for the segment at the Dexter Lake Club 43 54 50 N 122 48 41 W 43 914 N 122 8115 W 43 914 122 8115 due to their scarcity around Eugene More seriously the segment alarmed Tanen and other studio executives who perceived it as racist and warned that black people in America are going to rip the seats out of theaters if you leave that scene in the movie Richard Pryor s approval helped retain the segment in the film 5 4 The studio became more enthusiastic about the film when Reitman showed executives and sales managers of various regions in the country a 10 minute production reel that was put together in two days 10 The reaction was positive and the studio sent 20 copies out to exhibitors 10 The first preview screening for Animal House was held in Denver four months before it opened nationwide The crowd loved it and the filmmakers realized they had a potential hit on their hands 7 The original cut of the movie was a lengthy 175 minutes and more than an hour was dropped the deleted scenes included a John Landis cameo as a cafeteria dishwasher who tries to stop Bluto from eating all the food Landis is dragged across a table and thrown to the floor by Bluto who then says You don t fuck with the eagles unless you know how to fly a scene where Boon and Hoover tell Pinto the tales of legendary Delta House frat brothers from years before who had names like Tarantula Bulldozer Giraffe and his girlfriend Gross Kay two different deleted scenes with Otter and a couple of his girlfriends one played by Sunny Johnson listed in the credits as Otter s Co Ed although her scene was deleted and the other played by location scout Katherine Wilson whose deleted scene can be seen in the theatrical trailer an extended version of the scene where Bluto pours mustard on himself and starts singing I am the Mustard Man Soundtrack and score EditOriginal Motion Picture Soundtrack National Lampoon s Animal HouseSoundtrack album by various artistsReleased1978RecordedRCA Studios New York and Sound Factory West HollywoodGenreRock and roll R amp B film scoreLength36 23LabelMCAProducerKenny VanceThe soundtrack is a mix of rock and roll and rhythm and blues with the original score created by film composer Elmer Bernstein who had been a Landis family friend since John Landis was a child 31 Bernstein was easily persuaded to score the film but was not sure what to make of it Similar to his preferring dramatic actors for the comedy Landis asked Bernstein to score it as though it were serious He adapted the Faber College Theme from the Academic Festival Overture by Brahms and said that the film opened yet another door in his diverse career to scoring comedies 31 4 The soundtrack was released as a vinyl album in 1978 and then as a CD in 1998 In the late 2000s the very first song on the soundtrack the Faber College Theme came to prominence due to its purported resemblance to the Bosnian national anthem 32 33 34 Soundtrack album listingSide oneNo TitleWriter s Performed byLength1 Faber College Theme Johannes Brahms adapted by Elmer BernsteinElmer Bernstein0 352 Louie Louie Richard BerryJohn Belushi2 563 Twistin the Night Away Sam CookeSam Cooke2 394 Tossin and Turnin Ritchie Adams Malou ReneBobby Lewis2 495 Shama Lama Ding Dong Mark DavisLloyd Williams Otis Day and the Knights 2 486 Hey Paula Raymound HildebrandPaul amp Paula2 477 Animal House Stephen BishopStephen Bishop3 41 Side twoNo TitleWriter s Performed byLength1 Intro The Riddle Song TraditionalStephen Bishop0 492 Money That s What I Want Berry Gordy Jr Janie BradfordJohn Belushi2 313 Let s Dance Jim LeeChris Montez2 284 Dream Girl Stephen BishopStephen Bishop4 345 What a Wonderful World Sam Cooke Herb Alpert Lou AdlerSam Cooke2 066 Shout Ronald Isley Rudolph Isley O Kelly IsleyLloyd Williams Otis Day and the Knights 5 047 Faber College Theme Elmer BernsteinElmer Bernstein1 16 Additional music in the film Theme from A Summer Place composed by Max Steiner performed by Percy Faith and his Orchestra Who s Sorry Now written by Ted Snyder Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby performed by Connie Francis The Washington Post March composed by John Philip Sousa Tammy by Jay Livingston and Ray EvansReception EditCritical reception Edit At the time of its release Animal House received mixed reviews from critics 5 but several immediately recognized its appeal 35 and it has since been recognized as one of the best films of 1978 36 37 38 The film holds a 91 positive rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes from 52 critics Its consensus states The talents of director John Landis and Saturday Night Live s irrepressible John Belushi conspired to create a rambunctious subversive college comedy that continues to resonate 39 On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100 based on 13 reviews indicating generally favorable reviews 40 Roger Ebert gave the film four stars out of four and wrote It s anarchic messy and filled with energy It assaults us Part of the movie s impact comes from its sheer level of manic energy But the movie s better made and better acted than we might at first realize It takes skill to create this sort of comic pitch and the movie s filled with characters that are sketched a little more absorbingly than they had to be and acted with perception 17 Ebert later placed the film on his 10 best list of 1978 the only National Lampoon film to have received this honor 41 In his review for Time Frank Rich wrote At its best it perfectly expresses the fears and loathings of kids who came of age in the late 60s at its worst Animal House revels in abject silliness The hilarious highs easily compensate for the puerile lows 42 Gary Arnold wrote in his review for The Washington Post Belushi also controls a wicked array of conspiratorial expressions with the audience He can seem irresistibly funny in repose or invest minor slapstick opportunities with a streak of genius 43 David Ansen wrote in Newsweek But if Animal House lacks the inspired tastelessness of the Lampoon s High School Yearbook Parody this is still low humor of a high order 44 Robert Martin wrote in The Globe and Mail It is so gross and tasteless you feel you should be disgusted but it s hard to be offended by something that is so sidesplittingly funny 45 Time magazine proclaimed Animal House one of the year s best 46 When the film was released Landis Widdoes and Allen went on a national promotional tour 30 Universal Pictures spent about 4 5 million promoting the film at selected college campuses and helped students organize their own toga parties 47 48 One such party at the University of Maryland attracted some 2 000 people while students at the University of Wisconsin Madison tried for a crowd of 10 000 people and a place in the Guinness Book of World Records 48 Thanks to the film toga parties became one of the favorite college campus happenings during 1978 and 1979 9 In 2000 the American Film Institute placed the film on its 100 Years 100 Laughs list where it was ranked 36 49 Then in 2005 AFI ranked John Bluto Blutarsky s quote Toga Toga at 82 on its list of 100 Years 100 Movie Quotes 50 with the quotes Over Did you say over Nothing is over until we decide it is Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor Hell no and Fat drunk and stupid is no way to go through life son being nominated 51 The New York Times placed the film on its Best 1000 Movies Ever list 52 In 2001 the Library of Congress deemed the film to be culturally historically or aesthetically significant and selected it as one of 25 films preserved in the National Film Registry that year 53 Box office Edit In its opening weekend Animal House grossed 276 538 in 12 theaters 3 in New York before expanding to 500 theaters 54 It grossed 120 1 million in the United States and Canada in its initial release and went on to achieve a lifetime gross of 141 6 million generating theatrical rentals of 70 8 million 3 55 It was the highest grossing comedy film until the release of Ghostbusters which was also written by Ramis and produced by Reitman and the seventh highest grossing film of the 1970s 4 Adjusted for inflation it is the 68th highest grossing film in North America 56 Internationally it did not do as well earning rentals of only 9 million for a worldwide total of 80 million 57 Spin offs EditMain article Delta House The film inspired a short lived half hour ABC television sitcom Delta House in which Vernon reprised his role as the long suffering malevolent Dean Wormer The series also included Furst as Flounder McGill as D Day and Widdoes as Hoover 58 The pilot episode was written by the film s screenwriters Kenney Miller and Ramis 59 Michelle Pfeiffer made her acting debut in the series playing a new character Bombshell and Peter Fox was cast as Otter Belushi s character from the film John Bluto Blutarsky is in the Army but his brother Blotto played by Josh Mostel transfers to Faber to carry on Bluto s tradition 59 Jim Belushi was asked to play the role of Blotto but declined Animal House inspired Co Ed Fever another sitcom but without the involvement of the film s producers or cast 58 Set in a dorm of the formerly all female Baxter College the pilot of Co Ed Fever was aired by CBS on February 4 1979 but the network canceled the series before airing any more episodes 60 NBC also had its Animal House inspired sitcom Brothers and Sisters in which three members of Crandall College s Pi Nu fraternity interact with members of the Gamma Iota sorority 58 Like ABC s Delta House Brothers and Sisters lasted only three months 61 The film s writers planned a film sequel set in 1967 the so called Summer of Love in which the Deltas have a reunion for Pinto s marriage in Haight Ashbury San Francisco 62 The only Delta to have become a hippie is Flounder who is now called Pisces Later Chris Miller and John Weidman another Lampoon writer created a treatment for this screenplay but Universal rejected it because the sequel to American Graffiti which contained some hippie 1967 sequences had not done well When John Belushi died the idea was indefinitely shelved 62 A second attempt at a sequel was made in 1982 with producer Matty Simmons co authoring a script which saw some of the Deltas returning to Faber College five years after the events of the film The project got no further than a first draft script 63 Where Are They Now EditThe 2003 Double Secret Probation Edition DVD included a short film Where Are They Now A Delta Alumni Update a mockumentary purporting that the original film had been a documentary and Landis was catching up with some of the cast played by their original actors It was never shown theatrically It shows the main Animal House characters 30 years on following Landis to cities all over America in search of the former Deltas Omegas and Dean Wormer and describes the various locales and professions the characters have settled into Donald Schoenstein Film editor and documentarian New York City Currently in his third marriage to Katy He has a son named Otis Otis s face is badly marked up reminding viewers of Donald s pepperoni pizza face alluded to in the original film Babs Jansen Tour guide Universal Studios Hollywood She mentions to Landis that she is organizing an upcoming Faber reunion and seems to be successful at her job Marion Wormer Seemingly unemployed in Chicago She tells Landis of how her husband Vernon accepted the blame for the parade debacle and was subsequently fired leading to their divorce She becomes progressively more tipsy throughout the interview eventually falling off her chair Kent Dorfman Executive director Encounter Groups of Cleveland Inc Cleveland Ohio He recalls trying to diet during the 1970s with a special program requiring him to shoot up the urine of pregnant women Robert Hoover Assistant district attorney Baltimore Maryland Hoover recounts how he quit being a public defender after he realized many of his clients were insane He also boasts of how his legal advice was sought during the O J Simpson murder case Chip Diller Landis receives a letter from Diller who is currently serving as a missionary in Africa He recalls how he was prevented from going to Vietnam as his father was a prime donor to several right wing political campaigns When he learned of Doug Neidermeyer s fragging in Vietnam he fell into alcoholism and despair When he began seeing Jesus in his food he became a born again Christian and fell into his current profession as minister and missionary Dean Vernon Wormer Wormer is seen at a nursing home in Florida under the watchful eye of a male nurse He appears to be senile not recognizing Landis at first calling him Larry and not remembering his tenure as Dean of Faber When Landis mentions the Deltas Wormer erupts into a violent profanity laced tirade against the boys who cost him his job He lashes out against the nurse and then physically attacks Landis consequently knocking out the camera Eric Stratton Gynecologist Beverly Hills California Otter is depicted as still being the affable suave gentleman he was in his college days He remarks that gynecology has been very enjoyable for him and that he has straightened up a bit since leaving Faber An attractive blonde patient in her underwear then tells Otter she s ready for her examination Otter politely ends the interview and goes into the examination room Daniel Simpson Day Landis remarks in a voiceover that D Day has been the hardest to track down for the documentary saying that rumors have flown around with his whereabouts ranging from a Buddhist monastery in Nepal to the Yukon Territory Landis eventually approaches a house in Modesto California where a man opens the door by a crack and claims in a Hispanic accent I don t know no D Day person I don t know him He slams the door in Landis face and then bursts out of the garage in a car He pulls out onto the street to the strains of the William Tell Overture gives a manic laugh exactly like D Day s and speeds off John Blutarsky In a final voice over since John Belushi was already dead in real life featuring a shot of the White House Landis remarks that the viewers all know what happened to Bluto and Mandy Pepperidge they became the President and First Lady of the United States After finishing his time in the Army Bluto married Mandy and became a senator eventually being elected president Home media EditAnimal House was released on videodisc in 1979 64 It was released on VHS in 1980 1983 1988 and 1990 In 1992 it was released in a 2 pack VHS set that included The Blues Brothers It was first released on DVD in February 1998 in a bare bones Full Screen presentation A 20th Anniversary Widescreen Collector s Edition DVD and a coinciding THX special edition VHS and a widescreen Signature Collection Laserdisc was released later that year with a 45 minute documentary titled The Yearbook An Animal House Reunion by producer J M Kenny with production notes theatrical trailer and new interviews with director Landis writers Harold Ramis and Chris Miller composer Elmer Bernstein and stars Tim Matheson Karen Allen Stephen Furst John Vernon Verna Bloom Bruce McGill James Widdoes Peter Riegert Mark Metcalf and Kevin Bacon 65 In 2000 the collector s edition DVD was packaged along with The Blues Brothers and 1941 in a John Belushi 3 pack box set The Double Secret Probation Edition DVD released in 2003 features cast members reprising their respective roles in a Where Are They Now mockumentary which posited the original film as a documentary One major change shown in this mockumentary from the epilogue of the original film is that Bluto went on from his career in the U S Senate to become the President of the United States with a voiceover on a shot of the north portico of the White House since by then Belushi had died This DVD also includes Did You Know That Universal Animated Anecdotes a subtitle trivia track the making of documentary from the Collector s Edition MxPx Shout music video a theatrical trailer production notes and cast and filmmakers biographies 66 The DVD was also available in both Widescreen and Full Screen formats In August 2006 the film was released on an HD DVD DVD combo disc which featured the film in a 1080p high definition format on one side and a standard definition format on the opposite side 67 Along with the film Unleashed Animal House was one of Universal s first two HD DVD combo releases 68 but was later discontinued in 2008 after Universal decided to switch to the Blu ray optical disc format following the conclusion of the high definition optical disc format war 69 It became available on Blu ray optical disc on July 26 2011 70 The film was released on 4K on May 18 2021 71 Precursors and legacy EditAnimal House was a great box office success despite its limited production costs and started an industry trend 13 inspiring other comedies such as Porky s the Police Academy films the American Pie films Up the Academy made by rival humor magazine MAD and Old School among others 6 13 28 Belushi became the most successful male comedy star in the world until his 1982 death Bacon also became a star and he Matheson and Allen are among those who have had lengthy acting careers Reitman Landis and Ramis became successful filmmakers Landis use of dramatic actors and soundtrack to make the comedy believable became the traditional approach for film comedies 4 The film has caused many parents to worry about their children joining fraternities and sororities 28 One writer suggested half seriously that the film s impact was such that future college students seeking to emulate Delta House s antics in real life led to a drop of American college students GPA s an average of 18 grade points per semester 72 On the left wing and counterculture side the film included references to topical political matters like President Harry S Truman s decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Richard Nixon the Vietnam war and the civil rights movement 6 Precursors of this counterculture subversive humor in film were two non college movies M A S H a 1970 satirical dark comedy and The Kentucky Fried Movie a 1977 formless comedy consisting of a series of sketches which was also directed by Landis 13 At the start of Twilight Zone The Movie 1983 also directed by John Landis a scene set in Vietnam includes a soldier saying I told you guys we shouldn t have shot Lieutenant Neidermeyer In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film culturally historically or aesthetically significant and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry 73 Animal House is first on Bravo s 100 Funniest Movies 74 In 2000 the American Film Institute ranked the film No 36 on 100 Years 100 Laughs a list of the 100 best American comedies 75 In 2006 Miller wrote a more comprehensive memoir of his experiences in Dartmouth s AD house in a book entitled The Real Animal House The Awesomely Depraved Saga of the Fraternity That Inspired the Movie in which Miller recounts hijinks that were considered too risque for the movie In 2008 Empire magazine selected Animal House as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time 76 The film was also selected by The New York Times as one of The 1000 Best Movies Ever Made 77 In 2012 Universal Pictures Stage Productions announced it was developing a stage musical version of the movie Barenaked Ladies were originally announced to write the score but they were replaced by composer David Yazbek 78 Casey Nicholaw will direct 79 author Michael Mitnick is also reportedly involved 80 The University of Oregon celebrates its participation in the film It offers visitors a guide to filming locations and the Knight Library has a collection of material on the film s production 23 Between the third and fourth quarter of every football game at Autzen Stadium Shout from the toga party scene is played to which the entire stadium sings along See also EditRevenge of the NerdsCitations Edit NATIONAL LAMPOON S ANIMAL HOUSE AA British Board of Film Classification August 29 1978 Archived from the original on November 7 2017 Retrieved August 29 2015 Lee Grant February 15 1980 Box Office Power Animal House Earns Respect Los Angeles Times a b c d National Lampoon s Animal House Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on June 19 2017 Retrieved October 10 2007 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Neumer Chris 2003 Animal House The Movie that Changed Comedy Stumped Archived from the original on April 6 2019 Retrieved October 28 2015 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Animal House The Inside Story August 13 2008 a b c d e f g h i Peterson Molly July 29 2002 National Lampoon s Animal House National Public Radio Archived from the original on January 28 2010 Retrieved February 1 2010 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Nashawaty Chris July 29 2002 Building Animal House Entertainment Weekly Archived from the original on February 8 2007 Retrieved December 4 2021 Famous people of Whitewater Royal Purple February 25 2015 Archived from the original on May 9 2017 Retrieved October 1 2020 a b c d Schwartz Tony October 23 1978 College Humor Comes Back Newsweek p 88 a b c d e Medjuck Joe July 1978 The Further Adventures of Ivan Reitman Take One Olson Eric October 23 1978 Director John Landis The Dean Speaks Digital Movie Talk Cheney Alexandra February 25 2014 John Landis on Harold Ramis He Was Very Angry Not to Be Cast in Animal House Variety Archived from the original on January 31 2021 Retrieved January 8 2019 a b c d Mitchell Elvis August 25 2003 Revisiting Faber College Toga Toga Toga The New York Times Archived from the original on January 31 2021 Retrieved January 28 2011 Biography for Bruce McGill Turner Classic Movies Retrieved February 11 2023 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Mike Fleming Jr August 23 2018 Dan Aykroyd Says Lorne Michaels Didn t Keep Him From Playing D Day In Animal House Blues Brothers Update Yahoo Retrieved February 11 2023 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Conner Schwerdtfeger August 29 2018 No SNL s Lorne Michaels Didn t Stop Dan Aykroyd From Joining Animal House CinemaBlend Retrieved February 11 2023 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link a b Ebert Roger January 1 1978 National Lampoon s Animal House Chicago Sun Times Retrieved July 24 2008 a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint url status link a b c Wyant Dan December 2 1977 The chief animal Eugene Register Guard Oregon p 1B Archived from the original on January 31 2021 Retrieved October 15 2020 Lights Camera Summer 20 20 May 23 2018 ABC a b Frank Palotta April 3 2014 The Huge Animal House Blunder That Cost Donald Sutherland Millions Business Insider Archived from the original on November 17 2015 Retrieved November 11 2015 a b c d Riley Jenelle November 5 2014 Donald Sutherland Reflects on Long Run of Success Looks to Snowy Future Variety Archived from the original on January 31 2021 Retrieved December 10 2017 a b NATIONAL LAMPOON S ANIMAL HOUSE TCM 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Theories of Student Development in Journal of College Student Development Patterson Joanna November 9 2006 Miller 63 Reveals the Real History of Animal House The Dartmouth Dartmouth College Archived from the original on January 7 2008 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Animal House Wikiquote has quotations related to Animal House United States portal 1980s portal Film portal Comedy portalAnimal House at IMDb Animal House at AllMovie Animal House at Box Office Mojo Animal House at Rotten Tomatoes Animal House at Metacritic Animal House 1978 review by tigersweat com Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Animal House amp oldid 1139663232, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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