Detective Carl

Detective Carl is a 1990 American adult animated action buddy cop comedy film starring Jason Bateman as Carl Jenkins, and is directed by Ralph Bakshi.

The film follows Carl, a low-ranked cop, as he takes on a mission to arrest the evil mastermind of the XAPD gang.

The film released on May 11, 1990 by Orion Pictures to positive reviews although it was criticized for it's excessive violence but nonetheless it was considered one of the best films of 1990 by critics while also becoming a huge box office success, grossing over $126 million against its $8 million budget which was at the time, the highest grossing R-rated animated film before Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train (2020) surpassed it. The film has since become a cult classic through syndicated and cable airings with the film's mature themes as well as adult humor has since been the inspiration for future adult animated TV series as well as films, including South Park, Beavis and Butt-Head, Family Guy, Jeremy Monroe, and The Teenagers.

It's success spawned a franchise including a TV series, which was shown to be as successful as the film, directly following up the events of the movie and was aired on NBC from 1991 to 1998 as well as a novel series.

A sequel titled Detective Carl Returns with Jason Bateman and Jim Carrey reprising their respective roles was released on January 13, 2023.

Plot
The film starts off with Carl Jenkins who frequently hops from job to job failing to keep a steady job due to his extreme short temper but ends up deciding to become a detective after getting recommended by his childhood friend Grant Cross who is a Corporal for the police force. Later on, Jenkins now being a rookie cop is sent by Commissioner Lawrence find the leader of the XAPD gang, after various cops and detectives go missing. Initially, Jenkins goes against this idea with him being a rookie until the police chief Barry Johnson convinces him to go after the mission after finding out his old high school friend Mary Brown was one of the missing victims. To prepare for the mission, Jenkins was paired with a goofy yet violence centered cop, Josh Heinken whom Jenkins later discovers him to be one of his old classmates in elementary school. Jenkins is informed by the FBI as well as the police department that Heinken is hard to deal with but knows how to solve the case.

Jenkins takes Heinken on a cruise in order to scope out possible suspects that are involved in the crimes of the XAPD gang where they later meet Jim, a business man that gives the duo a deal on free cosmetics. However, after discovering that Jim and Ralph are in fact drug dealers, this leads to a shootout on the cruise where a masked man later attacks Heinken and ends up letting Jim getting away while Ralph ends up being knocked out by Jenkins. Jenkins and Heinken later interrogate Ralph where he gives out information that the XAPD gang leader is working with druglord Caine Brown. Heinken initially wants to kill Ralph but Jenkins stops him and instead subdues him to avoid more casualties. Afterwards after getting the civilians out of the cruise, Jenkins discovers that his sister Linda and his old high school friend Mary Brown is on the cruise to their surprise while Heinken instantly falls in love with Jenkins' sister to his dispair. After returning to the Police office, Johnson and Lawrence scold the duo for letting leader get away but ends up praising them for finding out more information. Heinken and Jenkins later fall out which results in the split up of the duo.

After getting angry with Jenkins, Heinken ends up searching for the leader of the XAPD gang only to find a businessman named Jim and a mysterious man named Ben. Ben greets Heinken and ends up trying to sell him a piece of profit for his business only to be hogtied and knocked out. He wakes up to find out that Jim is Ben's henchman and that Ben is the leader of the XAPD gang whose been smuggling drugs and murdering people through out the city. Meanwhile, Jenkins who is hopeless finds out that his friend Heinken has been kidnapped by Ben and Jim, and after motivation by his parents Walter and Willow as well as Linda, Jenkins sets off to find Heinken and stop Ben. He later pulls up to the XAPD leader's hideout where Heinken finds Caine Brown and has a pistol match with him until he is fatally shot. After Brown's death, a mysterious shadow which is revealed to be Ben knocks Heinken out. He later wakes up to being tied up and beaten up with Ben threating to kill Heinken if he doesn't surrender.

Heinken later surrenders and as the duo prepares for death, the police force with Cross, Johnson, and Lawrence, all arrive to arrest the XAPD gang. Together with Heinken and Jenkins freed, the cop force along with Jenkins' younger brother Austin, all come and kill the XAPD while also killing Jim. Jenkins and Ben later fist fight with Jenkins knocked to the ground and nearly death. Fearing for the worse, Jenkins prepares for his death only for Heinken to shoot Ben death in his tracks. The team later relinquishes all the drugs smuggled and arrest all the members who fleed after the death of their leader. Days later, Heinken and Jenkins are awarded for their efforts in stopping the XAPD gang while Austin is offered a spot in the FBI. In a prologue, Heinken marries Linda while Jenkins and Brown get married as well while Heinken and Jenkins are given a promotion as well as having kids with their respective wives.

Cast

 * Jason Bateman as Detective Carl Jenkins, a low-ranked rookie cop who is violent with a short temper and has a huge amount of strength.
 * Jim Carrey as Detective Josh Heinken, a goofy and dim-witted cop who often goes to violent solutions.
 * Harold Ramis as Commissioner Lawrence, the Commissioner of the police force that Carl works with.
 * Ving Rhames as Officer Barry Johnson, the Director-General of Police (DGP) and the chief of police.
 * Johnny Depp as Corporal Grant Cross
 * Robin Wright as Mary Brown, one of Carl's old high school friend's who becomes his girlfriend and eventual wife.
 * Meg Ryan as Linda Jenkins, Carl's older sister who Josh later marries.
 * Kevin Costner as Ben, the leader of the XAPD gang.
 * Robin Harris as Caine Brown, a mob boss/murderer/gang leader of New York who works with Ben.
 * Bruce Dern as Walter Jenkins, Carl's father.
 * Russi Taylor as Willow Jenkins, Carl's mother
 * Joe Alaskey as Ralph, a local drug dealer who Carl interrogates.
 * Anthony Michael Hall as Jim, a drug dealer who disguises himself as a businessman and is Ben's best friend/henchman.
 * Ryan Reynolds as Austin Jenkins, a teenage boy who is the younger brother of Carl Jenkins. This was Reynolds' first feature film role albeit a minor role.

Production
Coming soon!

Release
The film was released by Orion Pictures on May 11, 1990 in the United States. Internationally, the film was released under Universal Pictures.

The MPAA initially gave the film a NC-17 rating for "graphic violence and non-stop strong language" which Bakshi came to surprise with the rating while Orion and Bakshi both requested an R rating. After 2 edits, it eventually received an R rating for "intense violence and pervasive strong language." In the United Kingdom, the film was given a 18 certificate by the British Board of Film Classification for "frequent coarse language and graphic bloody violence." In Australia, it was rated MA15+ (Mature accompanied for those under 15) by the Australian Classification Board. In Canada, the film received 18A and 14A certificates in most provinces, and a 13+ certificate in Quebec.

On September 13, 2022, it was announced that the film would be re-released in China on December 9, 2022 ahead of its sequel's release on January 27, 2023.

Home media
The film was released on home video in the United States in March 1991 and sold 549,000 units. Detective Carl was released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 11, 2010, and was re-released on Blu-ray on January 12, 2014, and again on November 14, 2017.

Box office
The film became a sleeper hit at the box office grossing $50.2 million domestically and $76 million overseas for a worldwide total of $126.2 million after overperforming expectations.

In the United States, the film made $8.9 million, topping box office while having the biggest opening for an R rated animated movie at the time.

Critical Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 71% based on reviews from 56 critics, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's critical consensus states: "Even though at moments the plot and pacing can seem like a mess, Detective Carl is an entertaining adult skewed toon when the kids are asleep." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 50 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale. However, some critics at the time criticized the film's excessive use of violence.

Sequel
A sequel for the film which was in development since 1992. However, after various creative issues between Ralph Bakshi and Orion caused the film to be in development hell. The film was released on January 13, 2023 by Orion Pictures and Universal Pictures with Bateman, Carrey, Rhames, Depp, Ryan, Wright, Dern, and Reynolds all reprising their roles. It was also released in IMAX as well, the first ever Orion film to do so.

TV Series
A TV series was aired from 1991 to 1998 on NBC.