The Sean Santos Movie

The Sean Santos Movie is a 1998 American animated comedy film based on the Skyscore animated television series Sean Santos. It was the first film to be based a Skyscore television series, and it was the first film produced under the Skyscore Movies label. Directed, co-written, and produced by series creator Sean Santiago in his feature directorial debut, the film stars the regular television cast of Nancy Cartwright, Rob Paulsen, Jeannie Elias, Pamela Segall, E.G. Daily, Jim Cummings, Kath Soucie, Billy West, Charlie Adler, Tress MacNeille, and Jason Marsden, with guest roles from John Goodman, Christina Ricci, William H. Macy, and Richard Kind. In the film, Vio enacts a plan to imprison all of Rapid Rivers by kidnapping Mayor Mockles and taking his place as the mayor of the town. Sean sets out along with the rest of his gang with the help of the mayor's teenage daughter Laura to foil Vio's plan in order to save the mayor and all of Rapid Rivers.

In 1994, Skyscore began development of the film and a writing team consisting of Santiago, Conner Jones, J. David Stem, David N. Weiss, Dianne Dixon, Henri Dosclz, Dan McGrath and Mimi Pond was assembled. They conceived numerous plot ideas, with Santiago's being the one developed into a film. The script was rewritten over a hundred times, also continuing after work on the animation began in late 1996. Originally, the film was intended to serve as the series finale, but Skyscore ordered more episodes of the series up until 2002 as the film's critical reviews and test screenings had become increasingly positive, so Jones resigned as showrunner to work on Randy Rabbit, which premiered on television roughly two years prior.

The Sean Santos Movie premiered at Mann Village Theatre in Los Angeles on May 27, 1998, and was released theatrically in the United States on June 5 by Universal Pictures. It significantly underperformed at the box office as it fell short of Universal's financial expectations earning over $89 million worldwide on its $60 million budget. The film received generally favorable reviews from critics and fans, who praised its writing, soundtrack, animation, voice cast and humor. The film was nominated for numerous awards, including an Annie Award for Best Animated Feature at the 26th Annie Awards. Through home video releases and television syndication, the film gathered a cult following. A standalone sequel, titled Sean Santos: Most Wanted, was released on September 23, 2022.

Plot
On an ordinary day at Rapid Rivers, Sean and his family and friends attend at Mayor Mockles' speech where he announces plans to demolish Vio's lair and replace it with a museum dedicated to Rapid Rivers' history. Upon hearing this, Vio becomes infuriated and decides to build up a new plan: kidnap all citizens of Rapid Rivers. At night, Vio and his henchmen Maxio, Big Guy, Mikey, Joe and Clef carry out the plan by kidnapping Mockles and sending him to a river so that Vio can take his place as the mayor of Rapid Rivers. The next morning, at the Santos house, Sean and his brothers Roge, Leno and Cole hear news that the mayor has strangely disappeared, in which they become skeptical about this. They are visited by Mockles' teenage daughter Laura Mockles, who tells the brothers that Vio has captured her father and took him away to the river to take his place as the mayor.

Sean enlists the rest of his friends—including Claire Jones, Adam Feldman, Jan Soto, Jeffrey, Becky Wright, Mallory McDonnell, Patricia Gordon, and Mr. Loseit as well as Sean's uncle Loy—to head off for the river to help Laura rescue her father and save Rapid Rivers. They are also joined by Adam's cousin Kevin, who develops a crush on Laura. Meanwhile, Vio and his team begin invading Rapid Rivers and renaming the city to "Viotropolis," but the townspeople stall them long enough for the occupants including Sean's family and the Elves to escape. However, one of the Elves accidentally blurts out that Sean has gone off, and Vio sends off his henchmen to track down Sean.

While Loy is driving the children in the Santos car, Mikey and Joe catch up Sean and the gang and give chase, causing Loy to briefly lose control of the car which soon afterwards veers off the road and careens down a hill, crashing into a forest where they encounter Laura's twin uncles Warren and Darren, who help them find the way to the river. Unfortunately, Leno and Cole accidentally get separated from the group and captured by Vio's henchmen who send both to a jail cell in Vio's lair. The remaining group find a motel for the night, where Kevin and Laura spend the whole time together, making her requite his feelings.

Meanwhile in Vio's lair, Leno and Cole try to escape from prison, but are unexpectedly broke free by the Mockles twins and a few Elves. Warren tells the boys that the Elves were going out a walk at the river until they encountered the mayor and managed to free him. In a meantime, Sean and his gang minus Leno and Cole eventually reach the river, only to notice that the mayor is missing leading to them believing that he drowned in the river. Furious, Laura blames Sean for the loss of her father, and the group abandons the latter for his actions in favor of the former after a heated argument. Soon, the remaining group is captured by Vio and his henchmen.

Upon witnessing this, Leno, Cole and the Mockles twins find Sean alone near the river and tell him about the news. Leno and Cole convince Sean that they should rescue their friends and believe they must also save Rapid Rivers in order to save themselves. They head back to Rapid Rivers to find the citizens on the verge of war with Vio's henchmen. Sean, Leno, Cole, and the Mockles twins free the remaining friends with the help of the citizens and fight Vio's henchmen for a long battle. During the battle, Vio kidnaps Laura and takes her to a tall building, where his henchmen sets off a bomb in the building. Kevin, runs into the building and rescues Laura, just before the bomb detonates into a massive explosion, collapsing the building, and Kevin jumps out of the explosion with Laura. Vio arrives personally and prepares to kill Sean and his friends, but the Elves knocks him unconscious with a rock. Vio and his henchmen are arrested and taken to Tromson Jail, while Sean and his friends celebrate their victory, while Laura and Kevin kiss.

With Vio gone, Rapid Rivers has been resorted back to peace, and the townspeople, Mockles and Laura thank Sean for his bravery. Soon, everyone starts a party which causes the entire world to celebrate; Kevin and Laura start a relationship, stating that they have plans for marriage sometime in the future.

Cast

 * Nancy Cartwright as Sean Santos, Joey Kinney, Adrienne Santos, Little Boy, Woman in Crowd, Mindy Mockles, and Additional Voices
 * Rob Paulsen as Roge Santos, Loy Santos, Clef, Mr. Kinney, Radio Announcer, TV Guy, and Additional Voices
 * Jeannie Elias as Leno Santos and Additional Voices
 * E. G. Daily as Claire Jones, Adam Feldman, and Additional Voices
 * Pamela Adlon as Cole Santos and Heidi Santos
 * Kath Soucie as Becky Wright, Malcolm, Mrs. Kinney, Little Girl, Mrs. Jones, Jogger, and Additional Voices
 * Billy West as Jan Soto, Mikey, the Elves, Mr. Loseit, Jarvis, Police Officer, and Additional Voices
 * Charlie Adler as Marvin Santos, Maxio, and Additional Voices
 * Tress MacNeille as Christine Santos
 * April Winchell as Jeffrey, Susie Kinney, and Additional Voices
 * Jim Cummings as Vio, Joe, Mr. Jones, Construction Worker, Radio Announcer, Police Officer, and Additional Voices
 * Jeff Bennett as Big Guy, Principal Shiggens, Nitroman, News Reporter, Man, and Additional Voices
 * Jodi Benson as Patricia Gordon, Mrs. Feldman, Maggie, Danielle Soto, and Additional Voices
 * Carolyn Lawrence as Mallory McDonnell
 * Jason Marsden as Kevin Feldman and Eddie and Freddie
 * Gregg Berger as Dr. Winston, Mr. Feldman, Lou, and Additional Voices
 * Tino Insana as Frank Santos
 * Betty White as Stella Santos
 * Eric Idle as Dr. Rupert Santos
 * Jennifer Hale as Mrs. Picksit, Nurse Smith, Barbara Jackson, and Additional Voices
 * Danny Mann as Mr. Zeedle and Additional Voices
 * Corey Burton as Kirk and Dirk
 * John Goodman as Mayor Mockles
 * Christina Ricci as Laura Mockles
 * William H. Macy as Warren Mockles
 * Richard Kind as Darren Mockles

Loop Group

 * Tom Amundsen
 * Moosie Drier
 * Ike Eisenmann
 * Dominic Hoffman
 * Danielle Judovits
 * Scott Menville
 * Jonathan Osser
 * Melissa Osser
 * Doug Stone
 * Claudette Wells
 * Ruth Zalduondo

Development
Coming soon.

Animation
Coming soon.

Casting
Coming soon.

Release
On September 4, 1996, Universal Pictures originally announced that The Sean Santos Movie would be released in the United States on December 19, 1997; however, in February 1997, its release date was moved to July 17, 1998, which in turn was later moved up a month to June 5. According to director Sean Santiago, the release date change not only allowed the production team to work more time on the film but was also the reason that Santiago wanted to put the film on a summer release schedule with home video sales occurring during the holiday shopping season.

The film held its premiere on May 27, 1998 at Mann Village Theatre in Los Angeles, and was released into theaters across the United States on June 5.

Marketing
Universal and Skyscore teamed up with several marketing partners in the United States and Canada to promote the film including Burger King, who produced a line of Sean Santos toy figures that were given away with a Kid's Meal, and ran a series of Santos-themed television adverts to promote this.

Home media
The Sean Santos Movie was released on VHS and LaserDisc on December 8, 1998. Both releases included an animated short film titled Leno Did It, which takes place after the events of the film. In addition to the short, the LaserDisc also includes a 20-minute featurette and a commentary by the film's cast and crew. On July 3, 2001, the film was released for the first time on DVD as a 2-disc collector's edition in widescreen and fullscreen formats. It also includes an audio commentary by the filmmakers, behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes, games, and supplements detailing the film's development. On December 5, 2006, the film was released on HD DVD. It was released for the first time on Blu-ray on July 22, 2008, then again on June 5, 2012, as a part of Universal's Universal 100th Anniversary releases.

The Sean Santos Movie was included on NBCUniversal's streaming service Peacock with its launch on July 15, 2020.

The film was later released on 4K Blu-ray on September 6, 2022.

Critical response
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 76% based on 173 reviews, with an average rating of 8.8/10. The site's consensus reads: "The Sean Santos Movie's sparkling self-image and quirky humor should entertain both children and their parents." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score to reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film an average score of 59 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying "If your kids love Sean Santos on TV, then take them to go see The Sean Santos Movie in movie theaters. They will love it even more now. The ideas are interesting, the humor is brilliant, and the action sequences are stunning." On the negative side, however, Anita Gates of the New York Times wrote "With so many stupid ideas for the its story, The Sean Santos Movie has unexpectedly destroyed the entire Sean franchise. It feels like an one-hour series finale that should've made for TV instead of movie theaters."

Box office
Despite the critical positive reception and making back its budget, The Sean Santos Movie was considered a box office disappointment. The film earned $2,129,199 on its opening day. In its opening weekend, it went on to earn $9,649,793 from 2,483 theaters, ranking as #4 behind Godzilla, A Perfect Murder, and The Truman Show. The film closed on November 19, 1998, after earning $27,705,196 in the United States and Canada and $51,694,388 overseas, for a worldwide total of $89,851,603.

Accolades
Coming soon.

Legacy
Coming soon.

Standalone sequel
On November 17, 2019, a year after the series revival, it was announced that Universal and Skyscore were developing a new theatrical film featuring Sean Santos, which was scheduled for a May 13, 2022 release with Wes Archer and Raymie Muzquiz set to direct from a screenplay by Conner Jones, Erica Rivinoja, and David I. Stern. It was expected to be traditionally animated like the series. Series creator Sean Santiago, who executive produced the film had said the film would be the "very best creation out of Santos". On September 28, 2020, Muzquiz said that the script was completed and accepted by the studios. On October 17 of that year, voice actress Nancy Cartwright confirmed that work on the film was being done remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while also revealing that recording for the film has already begun, with the cast reprising their roles from the television series.

On July 28, 2021, the film's title was revealed as Sean Santos: Most Wanted, with Kathryn Hahn joining the voice cast as Vio's long-lost mother Vickie, a character who was only mentioned frequently throughout the series. On June 23, 2022, it was announced that Awkwafina, Josh Gad, Zooey Deschanel, Chloë Grace Moretz, Kristen Bell, and Seth MacFarlane were added to the cast, while recurring voice actors Lauren Tom and Richard Kind would return.

Main
To see the main transcript of the film, click here.

Trailers
To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here.