Twentieth Toons: Quest for the Toon Temple

Twentieth Toons: Quest for the Toon Temple is a 2022 American 3D computer-animated adventure comedy film produced by 20th Century Animation and based on the Twentieth Toons franchise. The film is directed by Kevin Lima and Mike Mitchell from a screenplay by Eyal Podell, Jonathon E. Stewart, Peter Ackerman, and Kevin Costello and a story by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger. It stars the voices of Tom Kenny, Phil LaMarr, Eric Bauza, Jeff Bergman, and Candi Milo, with Kathryn Newton (replacing Tara Strong), Jenny Slate, Paul Giamatti, Jake Gyllenhaal, Brie Larson, Ken Jeong, Bill Nighy, Pete Davidson, Lil Rel Howery, Tiffany Haddish, Fred Armisen, and Danny Trejo.

Plans for a CGI Twentieth Toons film began in November 2010 after the box office success of Alaina Gleen, when Fox announced that they would reboot the Twentieth Toons film series with Brad Garland writing a new film. After several years in development hell, the film was officially announced in August 2018 and Kevin Lima was initially hired to direct the film, with a new script written by Eyal Podell and Jonathon E. Stewart and a story by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger. Mike Mitchell later joined as the film's co-director in June 2019 and production began that same month. It will mark the first theatrically released film to feature the Twentieth Toons characters since the release of Twentieth Toons: Tooned Out (2005). It is the first film in the franchise to be fully animated in stylized CGI rather than traditional 2D animation.

Twentieth Toons: Quest for the Toon Temple premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on April 14, 2022, and was released in the United States on April 29, 2022, by 20th Century Studios. The film has grossed $4653 million worldwide becoming the highest grossing film of the franchise and received generally positive reviews from critics, calling it a "pleasant surprise that plays homage to the classic cartoons" while criticism was on it "playing it too safe".

Premise
The film follows Felix Fox (Tom Kenny) and his friends, who must take a journey to a mysterious island, where they must prevent a heartless, evil villain named Ryton (Paul Giamatti) from unleashing powerful forces from a lost temple called the "The Toon Temple". During their adventure, Felix and the gang encounter many strange and weird commodities of the island, and the gang they soon discover that some of their crazy personalities come from The Toon Temple.

Voice cast

 * Tom Kenny as Felix Fox / Melvin the Mouse
 * Phil LaMarr as Benjamin Bird
 * Kathryn Newton as Laura Reed
 * Jeff Bergman as Edward the Eagle / Furious Freddie
 * Eric Bauza as Ren the Rooster / Larry Watson / Tom Turtle / Sebastian Solar
 * Candi Milo as Lucille
 * Jenny Slate as Felicity Fox
 * Fred Armisen as Mayor Morgan
 * Keith Ferguson as Marvin Mole
 * John DiMaggio as Winston Weasel
 * Fred Tatasciore as Butch Bandicoot
 * Frank Welker as Charlie Cassowary (vocal effects)
 * Paul Giamatti as Ryton, a master criminal plotting to unleash the powerful forces of the The Toon Temple.
 * Pete Davidson as Terrence, Ryton's gullible assistant.
 * Jake Gyllenhaal
 * Brie Larson
 * Ken Jeong
 * Bill Nighy as Herb the Temple Keeper
 * Tiffany Haddish and Lil Rel Howery as Jodie and Jasper, two idiotic wolves who live in the caves of the jungle.
 * Danny Trejo

William P. Wolf also appears in the film, but he doesn't speak.

Development
Coming soon!

Casting
In January 2021, Tom Kenny, Phil LaMarr, Eric Bauza, Jeff Bergman, Candi Milo, and Richard Steven Horvitz was revealed to be reprising their roles as Felix Fox, Melvin the Mouse, Benjamin Bird, Edward the Eagle, Furious Freddie, Ren the Rooster, Larry Watson, and Lucille, respectively. Later that month, Kathryn Newton joined the voice cast as the role of Laura Reed. Tara Strong, the longtime voice of Laura Reed, claimed that she had not been contacted about the decision to recast her role.

In April 2021, Jake Gyllenhaal, Brie Larson, Ken Jeong, Bill Nighy, and Tiffany Haddish were announced to be joining the cast. In July 2021, Danny Trejo, Pete Davidson, and Lil Rel Howery were added to the cast.

Animation
Quest for the Toon Temple will be animated at the Fox Animation Century City studio, as Fox stated that the same stylized animation used with Alaina Gleen: World's Most Wanted will be also used for this film. Clay Kaytis stated that the film will feature both traditional and CG animation. The film's budget is around $200 million, making it the most expensive film of the franchise.

Production of the film was also being done remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Music
On March 9, 2021, it was announced that Mark Mothersbaugh will compose the film's score.

Theatrical
Twentieth Toons: Quest for the Toon Temple was theatrically released by 20th Century Studios first in several international markets, including France, Mexico, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands on April 22, 2022, and was later released in the United States on April 29, 2022 in RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema and IMAX. The film was originally scheduled to be released on September 16, 2022. On March 23, 2021, the film was moved up to the current April 29 release, as a result of Disney's updated film slate.

On February 28, 2022, Disney cancelled the Russian release in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The film had its world premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on April 14, 2022, where the cast and filmmakers were attendees at the premiere.

The film is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) for “some cartoon violence, rude humor, some thematic elements, brief language, and action/peril".

Marketing
The teaser poster was revealed on September 13, 2021 and the teaser trailer was officially released online on 20th Century Studios' YouTube channel on September 16, 2021 and attained 124.2 million views within the first 24 hours.

The film's first official trailer was later released online on December 16, 2021, along with a new poster. 20th Century Studios and Disney released a short film, titled Felix's Christmas Wish, as a Christmas styled promotion for the film on December 22, 2021. A second and final official trailer was released on February 14, 2022.

On April 1, 2022, a faux 20th Century Studios YouTube channel named "Felix Fox" uploaded a video purporting to be a bootleg recording of the film. Spanning nearly 1.75 hours in length, the opening minute shows the production logo sequences followed by a scene from the film, before spending the remainder of its runtime depicting Felix Fox and Benjamin Bird both performing aerobics to an upbeat, 1980s-inspired tune. The video and the channel were deleted shortly a week after. Burger King promoted the film with a set of 7 kids' meal toys featuring the characters from the film.

Lego has revealed three new sets based on scenes from Twentieth Toons: Quest for the Toon Temple. The three sets were available on March 20, 2022.

Reception
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 70% based on 205 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

North America
As of May 13, 2022, Twentieth Toons: Quest for the Toon Temple has grossed $215.9 million in North America and $249.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $465.5 million.

In United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Memory, and was projected gross over $60–70 million in 4,478 theaters (playing in 2,670 3D theatres, 420 IMAX theatres, 800 premium large format screens, and 300 D-Box/4D enhanced theatres) during its opening weekend, which would automatically make it the highest grossing film of the franchise although Comscore's senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian thought the film would open closer to $50 million due to the performances of recent animated films and some sources projecting the film to gross as much as $120 million. However after making $38.3 million in its opening day (including $8.4 million during Thursday night previews), projections were increased to as much as $90–105 million in its opening weekend. It ended up grossing $98.7 million in its opening weekend, the fourth biggest opening during the pandemic as well as being the third biggest opening for an animated film during the pandemic. The film dropped to second in its second weekend and grossed $46.5 million dropping 54%.

Internationally
In international regions, the film opened from April 20 to April 22, 2022 in 13 markets and grossed $21.3 million in its first weekend. It opened up in 20 more markets and grossed $61.6 million in its second weekend. The film then opened up to eight more markets in its third weekend, including China which had the highest opening with $70 million.

Future
After the successful box office opening of the film, a sequel was announced to be in development.