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, David Cross, Jason Lee, and Isla Fisher. 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 17, 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. Puppet Pals saw a 3D re-release in theaters on September 2, 2016 to celebrate 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 Travis, 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 Travis by luring him into the portal of where he came from, but Travis 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. Meanwhile, Rosie's torture of a talkative magical creature named Steve Smiley is interrupted when his son, Rob, and her guards present her with the Magic Ball. She asks the Ball if her son, Rob is ready to be the king of Tinywood, but is told that he is not even a king, and that her son must marry a princess. Rob Storm resolves to marry Princess Joanna, who is the royal 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 invadethe boat where the two capture Nathan, Joanna, and Toby, after finding Joanna's deceased grandfather's prized diamond, which she stole back from Rosie weeks 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. Joanna initially despises Nathan, who wants to get back home, but she ends up taking him and Toby along. In the forest, Nathan, Joanna, and Toby are captured by a mysterious man named Matt Barker, where he is revealed to be the founding member of the Puppet Pals. Matt and her daughter, Natalia later invite them to spend the night in their secret hideout. Later that night, Nathan explains to Toby his frustration at how society judges him for his attitude; Joanna overhears this, with Natalia 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, 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's now-deceased father when she was a teenager, but although Rosie was a proficient member of the Puppet Pals, Matt's 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 on the Lucky Ocean, 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 the same time Joanna lost her grandfather. 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 Travis, 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 Travis 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 Travis behind. The group arrive at the dam, where Joanna is currently being tied up, but she is freed by Nathan. Later, Natalia and Travis 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 frozen liquid nitrogen. 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 member. 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.
 * 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 Travis, 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, and selfish woman who plots to destroy the city of Tinywood.
 * Matthew Broderick as Captain Matt Barker, the leader and founding member of the Puppet Pals.
 * Isla Fisher as Natalia Barker, a cheerful teenage girl and Matt's only daughter.
 * Patton Oswalt as Steve Smiley, a magical talking yellow round creature who looks similar to a yellow smiling face.
 * Jason Lee as Rob Storm, the son of Rosie.
 * Cedric the Entertainer as John, one of Rosie's henchmen. He is sympathetic, and is also ignorant and gullible.
 * Kurt Russell as Dave, one of Rosie's henchmen. He is the quicker-witted and most aggressive of the two.
 * David Cross as Mayor Adam, the empathetic mayor of Tinywood.
 * Patrick Warburton and Whoopi Goldberg as Milo and Wendy, two tourists.
 * Alan Tudyk as Barney, an fearful citizen who believes the end of Tinywood is upon the city.
 * Thomas Lennon as Gene, a guard who works for Rosie.
 * Brian Stepanek as the Guard Captain
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Ryan Woods, Rosie's tough servant and bodyguard.
 * Chris Wedge (uncredited) as Slippy the Dog
 * Susanne Blakeslee as an old lady
 * Corey Burton as Brian, a police officer
 * Ray Winstone voices the character in the UK version.
 * Tom Kenny as The Magic Ball
 * Phil Anderson, Chris Renaud, Michael Patrick Bell as the Smileys

Additional voices

 * Tom Amundsen
 * Kirk Baily
 * Ariel Winter
 * 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 Tom Rothman, the CEO and chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment, about how the film's humor and how it should work in the script. Rothman refused to be intimidated by Martino and had an argument with him how much should the film appeal to adults and young teenagers, similar in tone to DreamWorks' Shrek, which became a huge success at the American box office. Martino wanted both audiences, but he deemed some of Rothman's ideas, such as adding adult jokes and classic rock music to the soundtrack, which was deemed 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." 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
Paul Rudd was originally cast for the role of Nathan Ritter. Although Rudd had recorded most of the dialogue, Tom Rothman felt that the character needed "a lighter & more comedic touch". Rothman decided to look for a young adult actor for the new voice of Nathan. Seann William Scott, Shia LaBeouf, and Zach Braff were also considered for the role of Nathan Ritter. Chris Meledandri and Rothman took the role to Jesse McCartney, who was appearing in the daytime drama All My Children, and he accepted. For the role of Princess Joanna, Reese Witherspoon, Zooey Deschanel, Kirsten Dunst, Renée Zellweger, and Winona Ryder were all considered but Anne Hathaway was ultimately cast after producer Meledandri saw her performance in Disney's The Princess Diaries (2001). For the role of Toby, Jack Black, Tobey Maguire and Dave Foley were considered, but Josh Peck won the role for his natural comedy in the Nickelodeon sitcom Drake & Josh.

In December 2004, it was announced McCartney, Hathaway and Peck were officially cast in the film, along with other cast members including Sandra Bullock, Matthew Broderick, Kurt Russell, David Cross, Cedric the Entertainer, and Jason Lee. Isla Fisher and Seth Rogen would later join the cast in October 2005.

Both McCartney and Hathaway finished recording their voice roles in December 2005, while Peck and Bullock were still in their recording sessions.

Animation
Animation production on Puppet Pals began in early June 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 Yarrow Cheney, Edward Mendez, Travis Massey, Craig Kellman, and James McDermontt. 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 Andy Bialk, Tony Fucile, Carter Goodrich, Carlos Grangel, Pete Moss, Tina Mickzon, Peter de Sève, H.B. 'Buck' Lewis, and Sylvain Deboissy.

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 at the Mann Village Theater in Westwood, Los Angeles, California on June 17, 2006, and was theatrically released by 20th Century Fox on June 30 in the United States and Canada. 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 9, 2004, its release date was pushed back to July 7, 2006 to give the production team more time to finish the film; Walk the Line, another Fox title, took over its original slot. In October 2005, the release date was moved forward a week earlier on June 30, 2006 to avoid competition with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. A montage of fully-animated "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.

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

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 9, 2006 during a new episode of The Simpsons, and was later released theatrically in front of The Wild, Over the Hedge, and X-Men: The Last Stand.

Fox partnered the film with licensing and promotional partners valued at $80 million for the marketing campaign. Burger King promoted the film with a set of 8 kids' meal toys featuring the characters from the film. Additional marketing partners for the film included General Mills, Krispy Kreme, Baskin-Robbins, Pepsi, Ad Council, MasterCard, Best Buy, Dodge, THX, and Kodak.

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 released on a two-disc collector's edition DVD set and on Blu-ray on December 19, 2006 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Physical copies included sneak previews of Kate & Chris and The Simpsons Movie, deleted scenes, interactive games, theatrical trailers and TV spots, a "making of" featurette, concept art galleries, two newly commissioned short films, The Puppet Pals Crazy Dance Party and Slippy's Missing Adventure, which were made specifically for the home-video release, and The Mushies!, a short film that was shown alongside the feature film in its theatrical release. The film was the best-selling DVD in its initial week of release, selling over 3 million copies, making it the biggest opening weekend in retail DVD sales since Shrek in 2001. An single-disc DVD release was eventually released on April 6, 2010, along with another Blu-ray release. It was later released on Blu-ray 3D and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on November 22, 2016.

Puppet Pals became available on Disney's streaming service Disney+ on April 10, 2020, following Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox on March 20, 2019.

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 89% based on 198 reviews, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Having enough vivid animation, hilarious humor and action-packed scenes to compete with the likes of DreamWorks and Pixar, Puppet Pals is an surprisingly stunning addition to the line of animation." On Metacritic, it received a score of 79 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an "A" grade on an A+ to F scale.

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three out of four stars, saying "In its first fully computer-generated feature without the help of Blue Sky Studios, Fox's Puppet Pals offers audiences an delightful and imaginative adventure for the whole family, though the film's confusing story might be hard to understand. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times give the film a three out of four stars, and called it "Even if its clever humor don't quite live up to Finding Nemo and Shrek, Puppet Pals is an surprisingly fun treat that most families will definitely adore." Richard Corliss of Time Magazine praised Josh Peck's performance as Toby.

However, some critics disliked the film's lack of originality. A. O. Scott of The New York Times criticized the film's story, describing it as "too formulaic."

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 a year later). 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 $228,714,564 million in the United States and Canada, along with $331,056,987 million overseas for a worldwide total of $559,771,551 million. The film sold an estimated 48,430,650 tickets in North America.

Chris Meledandri, then president of 20th Century Fox Animation, credited this film and Ice Age: The Meltdown's successful performances to the studio's strength in global marketing and distribution, the diversity of the crew, and the filmmakers' method of using images rather than words to solve creative problems. Meledandri cited the success of Martino and Moore's model as a main factor in his decision to leave 20th Century Fox and found Illumination Entertainment the following year.

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 conversion
In 2016, Puppet Pals was converted to 3D for a two-week limited theatrical re-issue in RealD 3D and IMAX 3D to celebrate the film's 10th anniversary. The film opened in 2,660 North American theaters (along with approximately 370 IMAX theaters) on September 2, 2016, earning $5.6 million on its first day, and finished the Labor Day holiday weekend with $18.2 million, finishing first at the box office. It held off very well on its second weekend, despite finishing in second to $13.8 million. After its initial box-office success, many theaters decided to continue to show the film for more than two weeks.

In North America, the 3D re-release ended its theatrical run on November 3, 2016, with a worldwide gross of $99.3 million including $52 million in the United States and $47.3 million.

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 14, 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 spin-off/prequel of the main series of films entitled Princess Joanna and the Four Kingdoms, directed by Pamela Porter, was released on September 16, 2022. Anne Hathaway also reprised her role as Princess Joanna, and was joined by Justice Smith, Hailee Steinfeld, Ben Schwartz, Ian McShane, and Keanu Reeves. Set before the events of the Puppet Pals films, Joanna and her friends must leave Tinywood with her friends to travel to mysterious kingdoms full of enchanting landscapes where she must stop Darius and his evil forces from destroying her own city.

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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