‘The King and I’ in Court of Public Opinion

Is getting to know Rodgers and Hammerstein something young moviegoers want to do?

The question could be answered as soon as this weekend when Warner Bros. releases “The King and I” as the first major Broadway musical to reach the big screen as an animated feature film. Based on the half-century-old musical by the legendary duo, the film doesn’t reprise all the songs from the original Broadway production, but it has the classic “Getting to Know You,” and has added a fire-breathing dragon to the tale.

Producer Arthur Rankin, a veteran TV animator, wants to launch more movies from the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalog--notably “Oklahoma” and “The Sound of Music.” But there’s a catch: Audiences and critics have to like “The King and I.” Otherwise, heirs to the legendary Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II say they won’t authorize any more projects.

“We’ll be taking a cautious wait-and-see,” said Bert Fink, spokesman for the New York-based Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, the family entity that controls the Broadway writing team’s properties. “We want to see how this film does . . . critically and, most important, we want to see how it does with the young audience. That is a very key question for us.”

With that in mind, production company Morgan Creek--producer of such films as “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” and the “Ace Ventura” movies--is mounting an aggressive marketing push.

Early critical response, however, doesn’t bode well. Reviews in the trade papers Daily Variety and Hollywood Reporter both found that the animation fell short of state-of-the-art and that the reworked story seemed to misfire.

Sources put the film’s budget at an inexpensive $22 million, largely because the work is similar to the way TV animation is made. That’s in contrast to budgets for big-event animated films, such as those from Walt Disney Co., of $100 million or more.

“The King and I” is a switch from the trend of recent years in which animated films become musicals, as Disney did with the hits “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King.”

But no one has yet to come close to matching Disney’s animation success. Warner Bros.’ most recent effort, the $80-million Arthurian tale “Quest for Camelot,” bombed last year with a box-office take of less than $23 million.

With “The King and I,” the studio’s role is limited to distributing the film; Morgan Creek is responsible for production and marketing costs.

Producers of “The King and I” are encouraged by the success of Paramount’s animated “The Rugrats Movie,” a $25-million feature that has reaped $100 million at the box office. But “Rugrats” does have the advantage of being a wildly popular TV show for kids, and the film was promoted heavily on the Nickelodeon network.

“The King and I” is a much-beloved musical about English schoolteacher Anna Leonowens tutoring the king of Siam’s 67 children. It has been retooled for younger audiences, who will see a dragon attacking Anna’s sailing ship, for starters.

“This is a fanciful version geared toward children, toward younger audiences,” said Fink of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization. “It’s not the purists’ ‘The King and I.’ We know we’re taking a risk and I think the purists will challenge the risk we took.”

In addition to the dragon, other changes involve introducing new comedy characters and situations, giving a key supporting character a villainous twist, reshuffling romantic interests and sending everyone off on a perilous balloon chase.

Rankin, who in 1964 created the perennial TV special “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and later the 1982 animated feature “The Last Unicorn,” said the idea of an animated “The King and I,” occurred to him five years ago as he was touring Thailand. He pitched the project as a production company with partner Jules Bass to principals of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, and the two sides struck a deal with the organization getting a share of the box office, said Brian Robinson, Morgan Creek’s marketing vice president.

Not everything went smoothly. In February, a dispute arose when Morgan Creek alleged in a Los Angeles lawsuit that two companies hired to work on the film were at the time “holding hostage” footage from the film in a payment disagreement.

Rankin-Bass brought in Morgan Creek, which distributes through Warner Bros., as the production company.

Now Rankin wants to do an animated “Oklahoma.”

“We have a first offer and last refusal with Rodgers and Hammerstein and, if this is successful at the opening, then we will move to the next project,” Rankin said. “The King and I” will open on 2,200 screens. Its biggest competition comes when Disney’s animated “The First Doug Movie” opens on March 26.

Comparisons will be inevitable, both with the Broadway version and the big-budget 1956 20th Century Fox production starring Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner. Brynner won the Oscar for best actor for the role.

Despite anxiety about the animated film, all the parties involved at least seem confident about prospects for the movie soundtrack, which includes the stage musical’s full score. The album is being released by Sony Classical, a division of Sony Music Entertainment Inc.

Whatever the response to the new film, Fink said, “The King and I” will live on.

“If this film turns out to be an enormous sensation and it’s embraced by the moviegoing public, ‘The King and I’ will still shine. If it turns out to be a disappointment, if it turns out to be a box-office failure, if it vanishes, ‘The King and I’ will still survive.”

Indeed, yet another film version of Margaret Landon’s novel, “Anna and the King of Siam,” is planned by 20th Century Fox, starring Jodie Foster.