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

Prologue
"“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, forming a group called The Galactic Comets.”"Transitioning from a vision to reality, we see a little 7 year old orphan girl named Tiffany. She’s been a somewhat independent kid when her mother died when she was 3. Before that, she encouraged her daughter as she read a book on the legendary Galactic Comets. As Tiffany grown more attached to the stories, she took the GC story to heart. Even believing in them, but everyone felt like she took her beliefs too seriously. But little do they or Tiffany knows that some stories, not all stories, but some stories really can be true.

As we go out into the cosmos we see a meteor heading to Earth. But before it can reach atmosphere, a laser shoots the meteor into smithereens, forming a meteor shower(the non-lethal ones). We look to see the laser was fired by a starship. Inside were the remaining 3 members of the current generation Galactic Comets observing the worlds around them. These members include Tiberius, representatives of Intelligence, his friend, Thomas, of Agility, and Tom’s younger sister, Tori, of Power. They used their free time to explore the solar system and even beyond. Tiberius, however, looks back at his past. How his home and his other friends who represented the rest of the elements was destroyed by the dark monster. Luckily, Tom and Tori comfort him saying he shouldn’t be ashamed he couldn’t stop him and they were under the same responsibility for not saving them. Though it didn’t stop him from thinking that the beast might be on the loose and could strike at any moment. They insisted that it hasn’t been spotted in almost 7 years. But speaking of whom.

Cast

 * Natalie Portman as Arlene
 * Taylor Momsen as Tiffany
 * George C. Scott as Tiberius
 * Corey Feldman as Thomas
 * Winona Ryder as Tori

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