[3] Originally commissioned as two separate specials, it spoofs the Summer and Winter Olympic Games and features the voices of Billy Crystal, Gilda Radner, Harry Shearer and Michael Fremer.

[4] The film is a series of vignettes presented as the broadcast of the first animal Olympic Games through the fictional ZOO television network.

The only mention of areas other than continents are the New York City Rats soccer team, Dean Wilson being from California, a Central American marathon runner named Pepé Repanosa, an Acapulco cliff diver named "Primo Cabeza", marathon runner Terry Hornsby being from Boulder, Colorado, René Fromage being from France, and Kurt Wüfner appearing at the downhill event right before a Scandinavian is given a gold medal.

Another important story is that of Kurt Wüffner, a West German dachshund skier, and his disappearance to Dogra-la during a mountain climbing expedition shortly after the slalom event.

With the boxing game, viscous brawler Janos Brushteckel is known for overpowering his opponents with excessive force; yet aspiring boxer Joey Gongolong manages to outmaneuver him with clever strategy and out-boxer style to wear him down and ultimately deal the winning blow.

But after the Soviet Union had invaded and gained control of Afghanistan, then United States President Jimmy Carter decided to boycott the Moscow Summer Olympics.

Director Lisberger went on to conceive, co-write and direct the science fiction cult classic Tron, which some of the Animalympics crew were involved in.

"The Hut on Hen's Legs (Baba Yaga)" from Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky plays during Tatyana Tushenko's floor exercises.

[14] All tracks are written by Graham Gouldman[15][16] Side 1 Side 2 Per vinyl liner notes[16] Despite the 1980 NBC premiere being cancelled midway, Lisberger Studios prepared a theatrical version for overseas markets by editing together the Summer and Winter Olympic Games sections, alongside other additions and changes to increase its run-time for theatrical exhibition.

Though Animalympics never found a theatrical distributor in the U.S., Telepictures did acquire US home video and pay-TV distribution rights to it shortly after the NBC cancellation.

Animalympics also aired in its theatrical form on HBO[17][18][19] and Showtime nationwide in summer 1984,[20] as well as intermittently during the early to mid-1990s on The Disney Channel.