Digital Defenders

Digital Defenders is a 2003 American CGI-animated comedy and action film produced by Nickelodeon Movies. The film was directed by Craig McCracken and co-directed by Lauren Faust, a screenplay by John A. Davis, Steve Oedekerk, Charlie Bean, Derek Drymon, Craig McCracken, Lauren Faust, Charlie Bean, and Tim Hill, and stars the voices of Debi Derryberry, E.G. Daily, Rob Paulsen, Tom Kenny, Dee Bradley Baker, Josh Server, Grey DeLisle, Reese Witherspoon, Dwayne Wade, and Janice Kawaye. The movie points a lot of references to Microsoft Windows softwares and products, majorly, Windows XP. The tale follows two twin coders, Adrian and Adian Turner and their friends Madison Shipling, and Khloe Reyes who work on a new game called "Popeye". The gang discover a secret hidden universe beyond their computer called Cybercity. The gang must go on a very dangerous mission to defeat "Lord Hacker" and save Cybercity from being plagued by a virus.

McCracken drafted the storyline in 1999, which was about a teenage boy getting sucked into a computer and brawling a digital villan overlord. In 2001, after production for The Powerpuff Girls Movie was completed, him and his then-fiancee Lauren Faust began developing ideas and concepts for the movie. It had been pitched to Nickelodeon Movies with McCracken, Faust, John A. Davis, Steve Oedekerk, Charlie Bean, Derek Drymon, Charlie Bean, and Tim Hill writing the screenplay.

Digital Defenders made it's grand debut at the AMC Dine-In Block 37 on May 12th, 2003 and was privately shown to a group of 100 people. The movie however made it's public debut, July 16th, 2003. It was a box office sucess and grossed $5 billion worldwide on its $75 million budget, making it the highest grossed film of 2003 and the highest grossed film of all time. The film won the 2003 Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production for Spade, and was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2004, but lost to The Incredibles. The film's success spawned a growing franchise with four sequels, Digital Defenders 2, Digital Defenders 3, Digital Defenders: Lord Hacker's Last Stand, and Digital Defenders: Backstories.