Daniel's Big Return

Daniel's Big Return is a 2018 American computer-animated comedy film based on the long-running Fox series The Bad Life of Daniel. The film focuses on Daniel who has to overcome his senior year in high school where he gets the hang of being in school while finding out a dark secret of the school that he must stop.

it is the first film in the franchise to be fully animated in stylized CGI rather than traditional 2D animation and being the seventh film in the franchise.

Following the mixed reaction of Hey Daniel, Where is Mom?!, Gary Goldman and the rest of the crew from the series decided to take a break from the theatrical films and instead focus on the series while creating new episodes instead. Attempts of making a sequel were conceived in the early 2000's but were cancelled due to Fox instead focusing on their other IP's. Eventually in the early 2010's, it was announced that another Daniel film would be made but in 3D with more different animation. Kevin Lima, who is the director of this film, made sure that the film kept up with the newer times like the series did.

Daniel's Big Return premiered in Los Angeles on August 7, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on August 24, 2018 in Digital 3D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX, IMAX 3D, and 4DX formats, the first film in the franchise to do so. The film received largely positive reviews from critics, with praise for its animation, humor, writing, musical score, and callbacks to earlier seasons as well as it being a warm return of the theatrical franchise with most critics claiming it as the best movie in the franchise since the beginning.

It was the last Daniel film to be released before the Disney acquisition. A sequel, Daniel: Bigger, Badder, and Meaner was released on July 23, 2021.

Plot
Coming soon!

Cast
Archive recordings of Bell, MacNeille, Mel Blanc, Gary Owens, Jean Vander Pyl, Richard Pryor, Nicole Jaffe, Kirk Douglas, Gene Wilder, and Russi Taylor can be heard in the film through flashback sequences. This would be the final time Douglas' voice would be used in a Daniel production before his death in 2020.
 * Jeff Bergman as Daniel Wyatt, Jeff Wyatt, Marty Wyatt, Alex Wyatt, Devin Silverman, Jasper, Wu Lee, Stan Streeter, Dank Hill, Frank Hill, Walter Simmons, Benny Hill, Bobby the Dog, Johnny Brown, the Strawberry man, Phil Shakar, Susan's father, and Lester Banks
 * Michael Bell as Carl Wickerson, Charlie the Ostrich, Billie Dooberson
 * Tress MacNeille as Susan Wyatt, Mary Moore, Josie Banks, Jennifer Bregit, Muriel Jones, and Officer Jenni Brown
 * Godfrey as Derrick Jackson, Robert Jackson, Richie, and Leonard Hills
 * Jim Cummings as Matthew Wyatt
 * Eric Bauza as Alfred Wyatt, the grandfather of Daniel Wyatt. He was previously voiced by Kirk Douglas in the previous Daniel films.
 * Candi Milo as Jenny and Menny Wyatt
 * Cree Summer as Leelah Jackson, Terry and Lerry, Mary Ann Jackson
 * Thomas Haden Church as Dr. Teyaki, a chemistry teacher at Daniel's school whose plot is revealed to evaporate the world and deleting Daniel out of existence.
 * Margot Robbie as Beth Aganie, a new student at Daniel's high school who Billie Dooberson later has a crush on.
 * Olivia Cooke as an exchange student that Daniel befriends and teams up with to stop Dr. Teyaki.
 * Stacy Keach as Leonard, the new janitor of Daniel's high school who turns out to be Dr. Teyaki's assistant.
 * Jeffrey Wright as Officer Terrance, the leader of the police department.
 * Roscoe Orman as Professor Willie Dynamite, a professor at Daniel's school.
 * Phil LaMarr as:
 * Andre Wilson, Derrick's best friend in the world. He and Richie Barberson were both previously voiced by Spike Lee in the spin-off series The Derrick Jackson Show.
 * Richie Barberson, one of Derrick's co-workers at the barbershop. He and Andre Wilson were both previously voiced by Spike Lee in the spin-off series The Derrick Jackson Show.
 * Bob Newhart as George Martin, a former running mate of April Linston, whose the main antagonist of the first film, whose now 80 years old and at a retirement home. Newhart reprises his role from The Bad Life of Daniel Movie.
 * John DiMaggio as Ricardo, a buff bully at the high school of Daniel's.

Development
After the release of Hey Daniel, Where is Mom?! in 1998, 20th Century Fox announced that another Daniel film wouldn't be made anytime soon due to the mixed reception of the film. It wasn't unlike on September 2008, where the show's current showrunner, Godfrey, stated in response to if another movie was to be made and stating that "If that another film was released, this time it'll be different with a more comedic tone as well as bringing the series back to it's 1970s routes." He intended the film to include aged versions of the characters while being set in the future after the series however, Godfrey felt as this wouldn't work. Instead in 2010, he decided that the film should be a film described by him as a "comeback" film for the franchise. It was officially announced in 2010 that another Daniel film would be in production with Columbia Pictures returning to produce the film and distribute it overseas. The majority of the TV series actors once again returned.

Casting
Before the film was green-lit, it was already announced that the film would feature once again the reprised roles from the TV series. However, due to Kirk Douglas' various health issues as well as his strokes and age, he was unable to reprise his role as Alfred Wyatt, while David Frye who was the voice-double for Douglas died in 2011, so instead voice actor Eric Bauza was brought in to voice Alfred. Voice actor Cree Summer performed the voice of Mary Ann Jackson after the retirement of Diahann Carroll in 2015. Remastered archive recordings of Mel Blanc's voice were used in parts of the film that are reanimated flashbacks from previous sources of media in the franchise during some sequences along with Jeff Bergman impersonating his voice. Additionally, it was announced that some background characters would also be featured in the film as well. New voices were also included with Margot Robbie being cast in 2016.

Animation
In some scenes of flashbacks, animators worked with older animators in the earlier seasons of the series as well as more recent to recreate scenes from flashbacks including remaking certain scenes from the previous movies as well as episodes in computer-animation.

Theatrical
The film was released on August 24, 2018 by 20th Century Fox in the United States in Dolby Cinema, 3D, and IMAX 3D formats, making this film the first film in the franchise to be released in 3D as well.

Home media
Daniel's Big Return released on digital on November 20, 2018 while its 4K Blu-ray and DVD release was on December 11, 2018 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Box Office
Daniel's Big Return grossed $405.3 million in the United States and Canada and $485.1 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $890.2 million worldwide. On September 2, 2018 the film reached over $600 million mark, becoming the third Fox release of 2018 to do so after Deadpool 2 and Cool Spot and the fastest grossing one.

North America
In the United States and Canada, Daniel's Big Return was released alongside Kin, The Happytime Murders and A.X.L. and was projected to gross $85–90 million from 4,329 theaters in it's opening weekend. However, after it grossed $12.1 million from Thursday night previews, the biggest in the franchise and had an opening day of $55.2 million including the preview gross, the biggest of all time in the franchise, projections were raised to $125–130 million. It later grossed $135.1 million in it's opening weekend topping box office, making it the highest grossing film of the franchise domestically even after inflation within it's opening weekend as well as it's biggest opening weekend. It dropped -76% in it's second Friday but remained at top. The film remained at the top of box office with $52.5 million, despite a higher than expected -61.2% drop from its opening weekend, earning the biggest August second-weekend gross. It also passed the $200 million mark in ten days and was able to hold the top spot for the second time in a row. It dropped to second in its third weekend with $23.1 million dropping -55.9%. The film reached $300 million by it's fourth weekend and grossed $11 million dropping -52.5% and to fourth. By it's fifth weekend, it dropped to seventh and grossed $4.2 million dropping -61.1%. It later grossed $3.4 million in its sixth weekend dropping to ninth place then grossed $2 million and dropped to tenth by its seventh weekend. It grossed $1.7 million in it's eighth weekend and dropped out of the top 10 by it's ninth weekend. By it's thirteenth weekend, it reached $400 million domestically.

Internationally
Worldwide, the film was expected to make $205–245 million in its opening weekend, including $120–155 million internationally. Just like in North America, the film ended up over performing and made $190 million from 65 countries in its opening weekend, becoming the top film in all it's markets and earning a global debut of $349.2 million, the biggest of all time for Fox and an animated film at the time surpassing Cool Spot 's 2 month record until being surpassed by Frozen II 's $358.5 million in 2019 then 2021's Cool Spot: Spot Goes to Hollywood with $582.7 million and 2022's Princess Joanna and the Four Kingdoms ($651.1 million).

Mexico was the largest debut with $18.9 million, followed by Australia ($11.2 million) and Russia ($15.4 million) both having the biggest openings of all time for Fox. In its second weekend, it opened as the top film in Belgium, Russia, and Spain. In its third weekend it opened up in 5 more territories with the biggest being the United Kingdom as it grossed $43.2 million.

Coming soon!

By November 2018, the film was granted an extension release until November 29, 2018, due to the film's overperformance based on it's initially projected total gross of $40 million there. As of December 1, 2018, the highest-grossing markets are China ($153.2 million), United Kingdom ($62.2 million), Japan ($17.3 million), Brazil ($12.5 million), and France ($9.2 million).

Critical Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported the film holds an approval rating of 96% based on 445 reviews, with an average rating of 9.20/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Daniel's biggest comeback in cinema is not only amazing and a crowd-pleaser but a film that will also give out nostalgia to the long time fans while gaining new fans." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 63 out of 100 based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale, the first film in the franchise to receive this rating, while those at PostTrak gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars and a 89% "definite recommend".

Sequels
A sequel titled Daniel: Bigger, Badder, and Meaner was released on July 27, 2021 while a final film titled The Wyatts Forever is scheduled to be released in 2024.