Andre (film)
| Andre | |
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| Directed by | George Miller |
| Produced by | Annette Handley & Adam Shapiro |
| Screenplay by | Dana Baratta |
| Based on |
A Seal Called Andre by Harry Goodridge & Lew Dietz |
| Starring | |
| Narrated by | Annette O'Toole |
| Music by | Spencer Proffer Bruce Rowland |
| Cinematography | Thomas Burstyn |
| Edited by | Harry Hitner |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by |
Paramount Pictures (USA) Turner Pictures (internationally; these rights are now owned by Warner Bros.) |
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Release date
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Running time
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95 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $8 million |
| Box office | $16,820,893 |
Andre is a 1994 family comedy-drama feature film starring Tina Majorino about a child's encounter with a seal. It is an adaptation of the book A Seal Called Andre, which in turn was based on a true story. It was shot in Vancouver and Mississippi.
In 1962 a seal drowns in a fishing net cast by the film's main antagonist, the financially struggling fisherman, Billy Baker (Keith Szarabajka) - much to his fury. He and the other local fishermen discuss shooting the seals as a way to improve their flagging fishing season. Toni Whitney (Tina Majorino), a seven-year-old girl, and her Rockport, Maine family subsequently adopt the seal's orphaned newborn pup (played by a sea lion named Tory), naming it Andre. The vet doesn't hold out much hope, but Toni incites him to survive, with the promise that she will be his best friend forever, and that she will always take care of him. After several failed attempts to get him to take a bottle - with both warm and cold milk - Toni's father, Harry (Keith Carradine), the harbor master, constructs an "artificial mother" for him out of wetsuit material, a bucket, and two feeding bottles, which he finally accepts, ensuring his survival.
As Andre grows up, Toni forms an inseparable bond with him, even taking him to school for show and tell, with the help of Harry and the permission of her teacher, the prim and prickly Mrs. McCann (Shirley Broderick). He becomes attached to the Whitneys - especially to Toni - living in the harbor, learning tricks, and attracting a huge local following of fans. The irony of his success as an entertainer further angers Billy, who becomes increasingly jealous of Andre's and the Whitneys' success and esteem within the village. Relations between Harry and Billy deteriorate rapidly. Meanwhile, Billy's son, Mark (Joshua Jackson), and Toni's sister, Paula (Aidan Pendleton), become romantically involved, increasing tension between Paula and Harry over Andre. Mark and Billy have a strained relationship as it is. Under pressure from his family and the locals, Harry reluctantly makes the decision to release Andre into the wild once he is weaned, but reconsiders and does not go through with it when he encounters the body of a seal covered in bullet holes at the place where he had planned to release him.
In his first winter, Andre escapes the confines of the barn, and the water home that Harry built for him there when the harbor froze over. He cuts himself badly - leaving a trail of blood which the Whitneys discover upon realizing that he is missing - and remains gone for the winter. However he returns in spring, physically weak but unchanged in character, and recovers quickly from his ordeal.
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