Tugging on Your Wallet

I woke up this morning to a news story that had been posted on Animated-News.net that rather caught my interest. I’ve noticed that CGI animated films are starting to crunch Hollywood nowadays, but this is the first time a movie has sucked so much that the investors are threatening lawsuits. Allow me to introduce a film I never heard of until this morning: “Tugger, the Jeep 4x4 Who Wanted To Fly.”

This is the story about the little Jeep that dreamed, an Orlando animator who dreamed him up, an industry that's all about dreams, a local studio that sold them -- and the nightmares that now haunt them all.

Tugger is a children's 3-D animated movie, conceived and created in Central Florida by Genesis Orlando, a small, independent studio in Celebration. It's the story of a World War II Jeep that spends the postwar years at a small airport, dreaming of flying. It played only a few days in a small number of theaters in 2005, then vanished.

At best, Tugger offers a cautionary tale about the difficulties, rewards and risks of independent studios where many Orlando-based filmmakers turned when Walt Disney Co. shut down its Central Florida operations in 2004.

Tugger's production and failed distribution efforts to date created a trail of angry investors, contractors and ex-employees who say they didn't get paid. There are now eight lawsuits against Genesis or its founder, Jeffrey J. Varab, including a move by 11 investors last month to have the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Orlando declare an involuntary bankruptcy of the company and wrestle away its assets -- notably Tugger.

Ok, so this movie royally stinks. I get the picture. Somehow, the title even sounds rather lame. People are ticked off and they have every right to be. It even looks like the film had some rather impressive talent working behind the movie. Check out the trailer here. The animation and rendering is smooth and the guy who does Tugger’s singing voice is terrific, but that doesn’t seem to outweigh the character weirdness, lack of proper sound engineering and the appearance of a weak premise. Hmm, maybe the movie isn’t that good after all.

In legal briefs answering the lawsuits in state circuit courts in Orlando and Kissimmee, Varab has denied all wrongdoing.

Varab, 51, of Celebration, spoke only briefly to the Orlando Sentinel for this article. In an e-mail to the Sentinel, he wrote, "Obviously, there are those who share our frustration and I respect their need to express their view points. But we have just begun to defend arguments."

In the federal case, Genesis is trying to decide whether to fight the involuntary bankruptcy or ask the court to allow the company to reorganize and try again to market Tugger. Genesis' bankruptcy attorney, R. Scott Shuker, said the company owes about $2 million to creditors, and it's just a matter of finding a way to make some money so they can get paid.

$2 million? (Whistles) Jeffrey and the boys down at Genesis will be working a lot of extra hours at the Piggly Wiggly to pay off this one.

But some people who worked at or financed Genesis told the Sentinel they don't trust Varab anymore and have no hope he would make money with the film."It's a case of no integrity," said Beryl "Woody" Woodman, a writer, animator and director who filed a lawsuit in state Circuit Court in Orange County claiming that he created the main characters and story that were the basis for the movie and was defrauded by Varab.

Shuker dismissed the bitter talk and legal claims from Genesis' critics as common reactions among creditors in business deals that wind up in bankruptcy court and insisted many other creditors are satisfied. He said Genesis is negotiating, with distributors he was not at liberty to name, for a new U.S. theatrical release around Christmas, and separate releases in Canada and South Africa.Woodman and the other former Genesis employees and investors who spoke to the Sentinel all said they have heard Varab say that too many times before: There were always distribution deals in the works, but nothing major ever materialized. Nor did the money.

Ah, Christmas. The perfect time of year to hear stories about flying cars.

Meanwhile, Tugger: The Jeep 4x4 Who Wanted To Fly may be like an uncashed, scratch-off lottery ticket that could be worth millions, "but you haven't scratched it yet to see what it's worth," said former Genesis Chief Operating Officer Alan Guimond, 60, of Alexandria, Va., one of the bankruptcy petitioners.

It's not just that movie. From the start, Genesis planned and promoted a whole series of Tugger movies. There were to be Tugger toys and Tugger children's books.

"Tugger was my baby," Woodman said.

This is where I admit things get really sad. If you check out the film’s website at TuggerJeep.com, you’ll see a whole list of future episodes in pre-production. These dreams will now probably never come true thanks to a poor concept and a babykiller named Jeffrey J. Varab.

Woodman also joined the bankruptcy petition. In his state suit, Woodman claimed Varab fraudulently obtained copyrights for Woodman's movie characters behind his back, then further defrauded him with a series of contracts that Woodman charges Varab never intended to honor. Woodman also claimed he never got paid, never got the screen credits on Tugger that his contracts required and lost control of his own characters.

Most of the other state suits, filed in Osceola and Orange counties, claim breach of contracts, charging that various employees, contractors and investors never got paid.

Now, Woodman said everyone's dream of making a hit independent film franchise is in tatters. "Everybody's. In fact, even Jeffrey's. He's turned this into a red-tape nightmare," Woodman said.

My theory is this: Jeffrey J. Varab saw “The Producers,” got the idea that he could pull the same kind of scam, found “Tugger, the Little Jeep 4x4 Product Placement That Could” and set it in motion. The only problem was, he never anticipated this much to hit the fan. Shoulda learned from Bialy there, Jeff.

And to put one last spin on this story, Cartoon Brew has theorized that Varab may have used Christianity as part of the scam.

First, watch the TRAILER for this independent CG feature called TUGGER: THE JEEP 4X4 WHO WANTED TO FLY. Then, go and read this story in the ORLANDO SENTINEL about how this became the independent animated feature from hell, thanks to the film's director, animation veteran Jeffrey Varab. What isn't mentioned in the article is that Varab probably convinced a lot of investors to part with their money by selling this as a "Christian" project. The Christian aspect of the story comes out in the article's comments section as well as in this post from the blog of SENTINEL film critic Roger Moore. I find it odd that the SENTINEL decided not to discuss the obvious religious aspect of the scam, especially because it's so obvious. Even the name of Varab's studio—Genesis Orlando—makes it evident that his whole idea was to find Christian financial backers.

Perhaps, but that doesn’t mean Sega called their old system the Sega Genesis because it was exactly pious in any way. I met a guy named Genesis once. That didn’t make him a Christian. Same goes for folks I’ve met named Christian.

Where was I going with this article again? Oh yeah. Tugger sucks, end of story.