Puppet Pals

Puppet Pals is a 2006 American computer-animated fantasy action-comedy film produced by 20th Century Fox Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film was directed by Steve Martino and Rich Moore (in their directorial debuts) and written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, Jon Vitti, Mike Reiss, and Peter Ackerman from a story by Chris Renaud, Drew Cohen and Jared Brady, and stars the voices of Jesse McCartney, Anne Hathaway, Josh Peck, Seth Rogen, Sandra Bullock, Matthew Broderick, Cedric the Entertainer, Kurt Russell, John Goodman, Jason Lee, and Sarah Vowell. In the film, Nathan Ritter has his life turned upside down when he ends up getting sent into a city named Tinywood and recruits the help of a weird-named team and a beautiful princess named Princess Joanna, and while trying to get back home, the team is trying to avoid an villainous woman who is out for the destruction of Tinywood.

Puppet Pals was animated in-house at 20th Century Fox Animation's main headquarters in Century City, Los Angeles, making this Fox's first fully computer-animated feature film without Blue Sky Studios' involvement.

The film premiered at the Mann Village Theater on June 12, 2006, and was released in the United States on June 30. It received universal acclaim from critics and audiences, and was a box office success, grossing $659.2 million worldwide on its $90 million budget, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of 2006. Puppet Pals was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but it lost to Happy Feet. It also received a nomination for Best Sound Mixing and Editing.

The film saw a 3D re-release in theaters on September 2, 2016 in honor of its 10th anniversary. The film's success helped spawn an expanded franchise, with four sequels—2010's Puppet Pals 2, 2013's Puppet Pals 3, and 2018's Puppet Pals Forever — a holiday special, several short films, a theme park attraction, and two television spin-offs.

Plot
A small spotted dog named Slippy attempts to find a place to store his bone in a small grass field. Eventually, as he tries to stomp it to the ground, he inadvertently causes a large crack to form in the ground that extends for miles before setting off a large earthquake that nearly crushes him. He barely escapes but finds himself getting stepped on by a group of townspeople heading to a large and complex town named Tinywood. Meanwhile, in an alternate world, a young man named Nathan Ritter, who loves the solitude of his own pampered life, finds his own life interrupted when an overweight and lazy man named Jeremy Johnson, who comes from an alternate world and comes spewing out of Nathan's bathroom, where he decides to stay and invade Nathan's home. Nathan schemes to get rid of Jeremy by luring him into the portal of where he came from, but Jeremy is not fooled, instead throwing Nathan into the portal and sending him away into the alternate world, where he later discovers Tinywood. Later, a talkative lizard named Toby along with other people and creatures who are being loaded into trucks for rewards, surrounded by guards. However, Toby attempts to escape, but he is stopped by the guards, whom they chase after him. Toby then finds Nathan, who he is trying to find a new home, where later Toby is soon rescued by Nathan, who fights the guards off. Toby joins Nathan, not wanting to be alone and unprotected. Nathan is later annoyed by Toby's constant and outgoing talk and wishes to live on his own, but Toby nonetheless convinces Nathan to live with him at his temporary new home for one night. Later that night, Nathan's new home is invaded again by the townspeople of Tinywood, whom they were exiled by the evil and vertically-challenged Rosie Storm. Angered by the intrusion, he decides to ask Rosie to exile them elsewhere, bringing Toby along as he is the only one willing to guide him to her palace, with the help of a mysterious young woman and a weird-named team named Puppet Pals. Meanwhile, Rosie's torture of a talkative magical creature named Steve Smiley for the location of the Puppet Pals is interrupted when his son, Rob, and her guards present her with the Magic Ball. She asks the Ball if she is ready to be the ruler of Tinywood, but is told that she is not even a ruler, and that her son must marry a princess. Rob Storm resolves to marry Princess Joanna, who is the lost and mysterious princess of Tinywood, where she is hiding from Rosie and her henchmen.

Meanwhile, Nathan and Toby head to a dark alley, where they meet Joanna, who turns out to be the mysterious woman that Toby was talking about, where she is hiding in her faithful boat, the "Lucky Ocean". Joanna is initially irritated by Nathan, and she is appalled at his lack of romanticism, but ends up taking him along. Rosie's henchmen, John and Dave, suddenly invade the boat where the two capture Nathan, Joanna, and Toby, after finding Joanna's deceased father's prized diamond, which she stole back from Rosie years ago. Later, the five later head to Rosie's palace, and Rob then challenges Nathan and Toby to fight off Rosie's guards, but they ignorantly defeat them. Rosie then plans to have Nathan, Joanna, and Toby melt with boiling lava. The three escape, but they are attacked by Rosie's guard dragon, who corners Toby. In desperation, he sweet-talks the beast, learning that it is female. The dragon falls in love with Toby and carries him to her chambers. However, Nathan rescues Toby, with Joanna taking a unique electrical key that is required to control the large dam of Tinywood. After escaping Rosie's palace, Nathan discovers that the diamond is a fake and breaks it in front of Joanna. Enraged, Joanna tries to attack Nathan, but eventually calms down and explains that she is only angry because her grandfather died trying to obtain it just for her, only to find that it was just a worthless fake. Nathan offers Joanna a real diamond if she takes him back to his own world, to which she agrees, and the trio first stop to meet the rest of the Puppet Pals before setting off. Later that night, Nathan explains to Toby his frustration at how society judges him for his attitude; Joanna overhears this, with Natalia Miller, the youngest member in the team, convincing Joanna to be kind to Nathan. Later, the team almost reaches the portal, only to encounter a forming river of lava. Nathan, Captain Matt, Toby, and Natalia, along with Ryan Woods, make it across safely, but Joanna ends up hanging on a cliff, about to fall into the lava. Nathan saves her, narrowly missing certain death by falling into the lava himself. After that, Nathan and Joanna spend personal time together, and Nathan falls in love with her. After being frustrated by her minions' repeated failures, Rosie Storm sends for her son Rob to hunt the Puppet Pals down, while it has been revealed that Rosie was originally a Puppet Pal member and she was taught by Matt when she was a teenager, but although Rosie was a proficient member of the Puppet Pals, Captain Matt's now-deceased father sensed corruption within her and refused to give her the Silver Scroll, making her enraged by severely attacking Tinywood and tried to take the scroll by force, but Matt stopped her and kicked her out of the team, resulting in her hatred of the Puppet Pals and the city of Tinywood. The next day, after spending the night, the team later evade John and Dave, pursuing them in a small electric boat, with the rest of Rosie's guards on jet skis. They successfully escaped, but they are later surrounded by Rob Storm and his subordinates, and they intercept Nathan, Toby, and Joanna into a waterfall, while they capture Natalia, Ryan, and Captain Matt. Nathan retrieves the key, sinking the Lucky Ocean in the process, but the trio use a grappling hook right into the portal to save and send themselves to Nathan's old home. Back home, Nathan pays Joanna the promised diamond, then shows her around his house. She at first believes he has family in the home, but notices a picture of Nathan's parents, whom they died years ago. Joanna tries to persuade Nathan to come with her, but he is too proud to admit that he is lonely, having Joanna depart from him, while Nathan angrily abandons Toby and goes back to his own life.

Talking to Jeremy, Nathan pieces together Rosie's plan: to open the gates of the dam, with a huge great water wave forming and wiping out the entirety of Tinywood, killing everyone, where Rosie will finally become the ruler of Tinywood and repopulate the city with her newly-built robots. Back in Tinywood, Joanna is later captured by John and Dave, where Rob is ready to marry her (with a secret plan) while Rosie finally uses the electric key to unlock the security gate of the dam. Nathan and Jeremy then arrive in Tinywood, where Nathan tries to confront an angered Toby. Toby then explains that Joanna is about to get married to Rob, where Rosie's guards are going to tie her up in front of the dam, where she will be killed by the giant wave. Toby urges Nathan to express his feelings for Joanna before she is killed, and the two travel to Rosie's palace quickly by riding Rosie's now-tamed guard dragon, who had escaped her confines and followed Toby. Nathan, Toby, and Captain Matt interrupt the wedding before Rob can kiss Joanna, and Nathan tells her that she can't marry Rob, where she would be killed if she does. Captain Matt is suddenly knocked unconscious, while Rob kidnaps Joanna, where Nathan, Toby, and Captain Matt try to rescue her, and are chased by Rosie's guards across the city, but leave Natalia and Jeremy behind. The group arrive at the dam, where Joanna is currently being tied up, but she is freed by Nathan. Later, Natalia and Jeremy arrive with the whole town of Tinywood beside them, where a battle between the Puppet Pals, Rosie's henchmen and guards, and the town of Tinywood. Rob then attacks Nathan, frustrating him with confusing fighting techniques with his own new techniques. However, Rob momentarily bests Nathan, where he explains to him that he's just a nobody and a pampered and lonely man, but Nathan refuses to accept that and continues attacking Rob before Nathan and Joanna defeat him together, and they freeze the giant wave with Rosie's ice gun. Nathan is praised by the townspeople of Tinywood and earns the respect of the Puppet Pals, who fully acknowledge him as a true Puppet Pal master. However, Rosie turns up outraged and orders Nathan and Joanna to be executed, but luckily, the Guard Dragon bursts in alongside Toby and devours Rosie alive. Nathan and Joanna profess their love and share a kiss, where they marry in Tinywood and leave on their honeymoon. Somewhere else far from Tinywood, Slippy, trapped in a small box, ends up on the shores of a tropical island. Slippy then finds a coconut and tries to stomp it into the ground, only to accidentally trigger a volcanic eruption.

Cast

 * Jesse McCartney as Nathan Ritter, a pampered but lonely man.
 * Zachary Gordon as young Nathan Ritter
 * Anne Hathaway as Princess Joanna, a beautiful young woman who is the princess of Tinywood.
 * Josh Peck as Toby, a magical and geeky lizard-like creature.
 * Seth Rogen as Jeremy Johnson, an overweight and lazy guy from Tinywood and is an acquaintance of Princess Joanna and the Puppet Pals.
 * Sandra Bullock as Rosie Storm, a villainous, corrupt, greedy and selfish woman who plots to destroy the city of Tinywood.
 * Matthew Broderick as Captain Matt, the leader of the Puppet Pals.
 * Sarah Vowell as Natalia Miller, a cheerful and kind teenage girl who is the youngest member of the Puppet Pals.
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Ryan Woods, a tough and strong man who is one of the members of the Puppet Pals.
 * Jason Lee as Rob Storm, Rosie Storm's son.
 * Chris Wedge (uncredited) as Slippy the Dog
 * Cedric the Entertainer as John, one of Rosie Storm's henchmen. He is sympathetic, and is also ignorant and gullible.
 * Kurt Russell as Dave, one of Rosie Storm's henchmen. He is the quicker-witted and most aggressive of the two.
 * John Goodman as Mayor Adam, the mayor of Tinywood.
 * Patrick Warburton as Milo, a tourist.
 * Betty White as Wendy, a tourist.
 * Patton Oswalt as Steve Smiley, a magical talking yellow round creature who looks similar to a yellow smiling face.
 * Susanne Blakeslee as an old lady
 * Corey Burton as Brian, a police officer
 * Tom Kenny as The Magic Ball
 * Chris Wedge, David Silverman, Chris Renaud, Dee Bradley Baker, and Steve O'Connell (uncredited), as the Smileys

Additional voices

 * Tom Amundsen
 * Kirk Baily
 * Ranjani Brow
 * John Carnochan
 * Mitch Carter
 * David Cowgill
 * Holly Dorff
 * Elisa Gabrielli
 * Johnny Gidcomb
 * Jackie Gonneau
 * Nicholas Guest
 * Wendy Hoffmann
 * Emily Johnson
 * Anne Lockhart
 * Scott Menville
 * Gregory Perler
 * Hans Tester
 * Thalia Ward
 * Debi Mae West

Development
Chris Renaud came up with the concept for Puppet Pals in 1999 during the production of 2002's Ice Age. At the beginning of production, Renaud began work on the film with Steve Martino in 2000, shortly after the release of Titan A.E. By late 2000, Jon Vitti and Mike Reiss had drafted a treatment with Martino that bore some resemblance to the final film. Renaud pitched the story to 20th Century Fox Animation in January 2001. He and his story team left with some suggestions in hand and returned to pitch a refined version of the story in March.

The film was originally developed under the working title of "Tinywood", but it was changed. By November 2002, Fox revealed the film's title to be Puppet Pals, then planned for a holiday 2005 release. In addition, it would be animated with computer-animation, rather than traditional hand-drawn animation that had been done with Fox's previous films, similar to Ice Age.

By March 2003, The Simpsons animation director and producer David Silverman was brought in to produce the film. By February 2004, Vitti and Reiss were fighting constantly with the director about how the film's humor and how it should work in the script. Vitti refused to be intimidated by Martino and had an argument with him how much should the film appeal to adults. Martino wanted both audiences, but he deemed some of Vitti's ideas, such as adding adult jokes and classic rock music to the soundtrack, to be too outrageous. By June 2004, Martino brought in Karey Kirkpatrick to rewrite some of the film's script, to help emphasize a funnier and more action-packed tone. Reiss noted, "50 percent of the things (in the third draft of the script)—based on where we were ten weeks ago—are no longer in the movie." Originally, before the dragon scene was added by Kirkpatrick, Nathan (along with Toby and Joanna) land in his house after escaping from Tinywood (while the trio are still small), where they are chased by Nathan's giant pet dog. One idea was to have Joanna getting Nathan and Toby lost, which was featured on the DVD. At one point, Joanna was going to have herself a musical number, as a direct parody to Disney songs, but it was cut. Reiss said it "got pretty far along in the animation, and then we got scared that the movie began to drag in that section." Thalia Ward and Chris Wedge worked as creative consultants on the film.

Casting
Coming soon!

Animation
Animation production on Puppet Pals began in late May 2004 at the 20th Century Fox Animation facility in Century City, California, with more than 150 animators involved in the project. Fox selected 50 percent of its new CGI animation team from its 2D animation staff and placed them through a rigorous training program, which included an introductory to Alias's Maya that would serve as the main 3D animation software used on the project. Fox BOOM, a new rendering system that offered the studio's animation and lighting software through the entire production, was introduced with this film.

Many of the character designs were supplied by Edward Mendez, Travis Massey, and Eric Guillon. Mike Reeves, stated that Princess Joanna "wasn't any ordinary princess." Reeves was inspired by Disney animated films in the Renaissance era he had enjoyed watching years earlier, so he decided that Joanna's design would be loosely styled in akin to Disney's character art style in their animated films. He had done over 100 sketches of Joanna before Steve Martino chose the final design. Other character designers for the film include Yarrow Cheney, Andy Bialk, Tony Fucile, Carter Goodrich, Carlos Grangel, Pete Moss, Tina Mickzon, Robin Joseph, H.B. 'Buck' Lewis, and Colin Stimpson.

Production wrapped on April 29, 2006.

Music
Main article: Puppet Pals/Soundtrack

The film's original score was composed by Michael Giacchino and John Powell. The soundtrack album was released on June 27, 2006 by Varèse Sarabande.

Release
Puppet Pals premiered on June 12, 2006, at the Mann Village Theatre, Westwood in Los Angeles, and was released in the United States on June 30, 2006. The film's theatrical release was accompanied by Fox Animation's 2004 Academy Award-nominated short film The Mushies!.

The film was originally scheduled for release on November 18, 2005, but on December 8, 2004, its release date was pushed back to June 30, 2006 to give the production team more time to finish the film; Walk the Line, another Fox title, took over its original slot. The release date change was also the day after Disney and Pixar changed the release date of Cars to November 4, 2005 to June 9, 2006.

A montage of "outtakes" were made and included in the end credits of the film starting on July 28, 2006, which was done because Fox hoped it would encourage people to view the film a second time.

In May 2005, IMAX decided to plan a big-screen 3D version of Puppet Pals. The film would have been re-released during the Christmas season of 2006, or the following summer, after its conventional 2D release. The re-release would have also included new sequences and an alternate ending. Plans for this was dropped due to "creative changes" instituted by Fox and resulted in a loss of $1.12 million, down from IMAX's profit of $4.11 million. However, in February 2016, Fox and IMAX announced that the film would be reissued and digitally re-mastered for IMAX 3D theaters during the film's conventional 3D re-release on September 2.

Puppet Pals was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for "mild language, crude humor, some action and peril".

Marketing
The film's teaser trailer was released on May 18, 2005 and was attached into Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith a day later. The teaser depicts the film's first two minutes, where Slippy tries to store his bone in the ground, but inadvertently sets off a large earthquake.

Another teaser trailer was released on November 4, 2005 and was attached into Chicken Little and Cheaper by the Dozen 2. The first full trailer was released on February 8, 2006 and was shown with Curious George two days later.

The final trailer debuted on Fox on April 23, 2006 during a new episode of The Simpsons, and was later released theatrically in front of Beastz, Over the Hedge, and X-Men: The Last Stand.

The film was backed by a large marketing campaign, with toys, books, games, clothes, and many other items becoming available throughout 2006.

Burger King promoted the film with a set of 8 kids' meal toys featuring the characters from the film.

Video game
A video game based on the film was released on June 27, 2006 on PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, PC, and Macintosh. It was also released on November 21, 2006, for Wii, as a launch title.

Home media
Puppet Pals was first released on a two-disc collector's edition DVD set on December 8, 2006 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The DVD set included sneak previews of the Fox animated features Kate &amp; Chris and The Simpsons Movie, deleted scenes, playable games, a THX optimizer, theatrical trailers and TV spots, a gallery of concept art, a 21-minute-long documentary of how the film was made, and two newly commissioned short films, The Puppet Pals Crazy Dance Party and Slippy's Missing Adventure, which were made specifically for this home-video release, and The Mushies!, a short film that premiered alongside the feature film in its original theatrical release. It was the highest-selling DVD of 2006, with 18.12 million copies sold. Since videos were traditionally released on Tuesdays, Fox responded that it "simply shifted the release to a Friday to make it more of an event and predicted that it and other studios would do so more frequently with important films." Fox re-released the film on DVD and for the first time on Blu-ray in North America on October 12, 2010. It was later released on Blu-ray 3D and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on November 22, 2016, to honor the 10th anniversary of the franchise.

Critical response
Puppet Pals received widespread critical acclaim, becoming a cult hit among critics upon release. On the aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an "Certified Fresh" rating of 88% based on 198 reviews, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Even if it's not an animated classic, Puppet Pals is clever and fun, and the jokes cater to family members of all ages." On Metacritic, it received a score of 76 out of 100, based on 73 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an "A" grade on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 89% of audience members gave it a positive score, with 73% saying they would definitely recommend it.

Box office
Puppet Pals opened in 3,922 North American theaters on its opening weekend, grossing $31,292,306 on its first day (Friday, June 30, 2006), which was the biggest Friday opening day in June at that time. During its opening weekend, Puppet Pals earned $70,230,484 million from its North American theaters, which at the time set new records such as the highest opening for a Fox-animated film (later overtaken by The Simpsons Movie). The film opened at #1 at the box office on its opening weekend beating Fox's own The Devil Wears Prada and Warner Bros' Superman Returns. The film closed on December 14, 2006 after 24 weeks of release, grossing $280,714,564 million in the United States and Canada, along with $279,056,987 million overseas for a worldwide total of $559,771,551 million. The film sold an estimated 48,430,650 tickets in North America.

The film was released in the United Kingdom three months later on September 22, 2006, and topped the country's box office for the next two weekends, before being dethroned by The Devil Wears Prada.

3D re-release
Puppet Pals 3D was opened in 2,979 theaters on September 2, 2016, and made $18.2 million in its opening weekend, finishing in second at the box office. The film closed on November 3, 2016, with a worldwide gross of $98.8 million. Puppet Pals 3D was also released on September 23, 2016 in the U.K., and October 6, 2016, in Argentina.

Accolades
The film appeared on numerous critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2006.

Sequels and spin-offs
A sequel, titled Puppet Pals 2, was released on April 16, 2010. Directed by Phil Anderson, Rich Moore returned as co-director, with Lori Forte as producer, and Dan Fogelman, Phillip Melton, Drew Cohen, and Peter Ackerman. In this film, Nathan and Toby meet Joanna's parents for the first time as they try to fit in with the community of Golden City, while one of Joanna's longtime friends, zealous Bianca Blue, plots to destroy Nathan and Joanna's new marriage. Meanwhile on their new adventure, Nathan and Toby team up with a swashbuckling talking dog named Wayne to foil Bianca's plans.

A second sequel, titled Puppet Pals 3, was released on February 8, 2013. This film was written and directed by Ryan Marshall and co-written by Brad Garland and Joe Stillman. In this film, Blake Blue (Jonah Hill), plots to overthrow Nathan Ritter (Jesse McCartney) and Princess Joanna (Anne Hathaway), who have inherited the throne of Golden City following King Floyd's death. However, Nathan attempts to convince Joanna's underachieving, 16-year-old cousin Edwin (Zac Efron) to become king instead. Meanwhile, Nathan discovers a terrifying secret about his childhood past, and discovers a new enemy (John Malkovich) who has a powerful weapon that he plans to conquer both Tinywood and Golden City with it and has something to do with Nathan's troubled past.

A third and final sequel, titled Puppet Pals Forever, was released on September 21, 2018. Directed by Steve Martino and written by Seth Grahame-Smith, Peter Ackerman, Mike Reiss, and Jon Vitti, the film's plot follows Nathan Ritter, struggling with his own family with no privacy, and now wanted to live his own life before joined the Puppet Pals, started his own family, and became a hero. However, he is tricked by a con artist named Wyatt Woodard into signing a contract into a world where Nathan was never born, which it leads to disastrous consequences, so Nathan must try to save his own life and get his friends back before time runs out. Meanwhile, Slippy, finds a mysterious bone that has a treasure map on it that directs him towards a magical island. While the first sequel received similar acclaim from critics, the third and fourth films, however, got mixed reviews but was still a box office hit.

A upcoming spin-off prequel film centered around Princess Joanna titled Princess Joanna and the Four Kingdoms will be released in theaters on September 16, 2022.

Beside the films, the Puppet Pals franchise also includes three short films titled Slippy's Missing Adventure, The Puppet Pals Crazy Dance Party, and Camp Toby, and two television specials: A Puppet Pals Christmas and Puppet Pals: Haunted Halloween. A television series based on the films also started airing on Fox Family on May 21, 2011 and ended on April 29, 2016.

From 2009 to 2017, Fox and Dark Horse Comics produced a Puppet Pals comic book series adaptation, which was written by Edward Mendez, one of the main character designers for the films.

Main
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Trailers
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