Arlene

Arlene is a 1999 traditional animated film based off of the graphic novel by Robert Nadal and produced by Universal Feature Animation and Universal Pictures. The film was directed by Robert Nadal and Michael Wildshill

Opening Line
"“Long ago, there once lived a planet far far away called Mystico. This planet was the home of two different species. The humans and the drogans. The humans live a normal lifestyle similar to of earth’s humans. The drogans, however, were classified as dinosaur and dragon hybrids who live in a more monarchy lifestyle with kings and queens. When they first stood on the lands, they fought for territory. But with much lives lost, they settled on an agreement to split the land in half and never intrude. But just when they thought the fighting would be over, they didn’t realize it was too late. The wrath and hatred between the two tribes have created a dark spirit fueled by rage, violence, and genocide. The spirit would feed the tribes hatred towards each other by tricking them back into war. And it worked. The two tribes went back to war and the spirit would feed on the wrath between the two tribes and transform into a monster of chaos and destruction. The Dragon of Shadows. Free to unleash its unlimited power, he engulfed the entire planet into the shadows, leaving the planet gone from the rest of the universe. The two tribes blamed each other for causing this, but they soon realized it was on both of them. Feeling guilty as the darkness continued to spread and enclose the planet, the two tribes called off the war and agreed to live in peace and harmony from now on. Their peace agreement would unleash 6 different elemental spirits. Intelligence, Agility, Power, Courage, Leadership, and Assistance. And those who represented the spirits would fuse them together to create the ultimate weapon against the darkness. The Staff of Serenity. The two tribes would use the staff to absorb the darkness around the planet. The Dragon of Shadows came back and tried to release more darkness and stop the two tribes from absorbing it all. But too much darkness released caused the Dragon of Shadows to be absorbed into the staff. With all the darkness and the Dragon of Shadows sealed into the staff. They soon hid it in a place where no living organism ever goes. To ensure the darkness is forever sealed, the element spirits would be passed down to each new representative from each generations.”"

Cast

 * Natalie Portman

Production
After the success of the original graphic novel, author, Robert Nadal, formed a partnership with Universal Pictures to make an animated adaptation of Arlene. He originally talked with Disney, but they turned down. Productions of the film began in early 1996 and would cost around $40,000,000.

Release
The film was originally scheduled for April 1999, but was pushed back to July 7th 1999.

On July 7th 1999, the film was released worldwide in theaters