Detective Carl Returns

Detective Carl Returns is an upcoming American adult computer animated buddy cop action comedy film directed by Conrad Vernon while serving as the sequel to the 1990 film Detective Carl. Jason Bateman and Jim Carrey reprise their roles as Carl Jenkins and Josh Heinken along with Ving Rhames, Johnny Depp, Robin Wright, Meg Ryan, Ryan Reynolds, and Bruce Dern returning from the original film along with the new voices of Alex Wolff, Lucas Till, and Wesley Snipes. The film will follow Carl and Josh whose plan to retire being cut in order to stop the son of Caine Brown as well as investigating a series of cold cases with the help of an old friend.

Development for the film started in 1992 but was cancelled and restarted after various script issues as well as creative differences between the studio and Ramis. By 2010, Ramis pitched a new script for the film but his death in 2014 put the film back in development hell until Bateman as well as Ryan Reynolds pitched a new script to MGM. With Orion Pictures being revived by MGM in 2014, it was announced that Orion would be back distributing the film as well as production eventually starting in 2019 and the film receiving more modern animation giving the characters a more glossy look while having a 2D like animation style in CGI similar to the technique used in The Peanuts Movie.

Detective Carl Returns premiered on January 2, 2023 at the TCL Grauman's Chinese Theatre and is scheduled to be released by United Artists Releasing in the United States on January 13, 2023 in Dolby Cinema and IMAX formats. It received generally positive reviews from critics who praised the chemistry of the cast, the darker tone, animation, and humor, with many considering it superior to its direct predecessor.

Plot
33 years after the events of the first film, Carl Jenkins and Josh Heinken who are now at the top of the police force after stopping various crimes and closing cold cases, want to relax and possibly retire until their plans get cut early after a series of murders as well as a druglord running rampant through the city as well as the death of an old friend.

Cast

 * Jason Bateman as Detective Lieutenant Carl Jenkins, a high-rank middle-aged detective/cop who is a lieutenant of the police force and Josh Heiniken's best friend/partner.
 * Jim Carrey as Detective Lieutentant Josh Heinken, a high-rank middle-aged detective/cop who is a lieutenant of the police force and Carl Jenkins' best friend/partner.
 * Ving Rhames as Officer Barry Johnson, the Director-General of Police (DGP) and the chief of police.
 * Wesley Snipes as Caine Brown Jr. / Junior / CBJ, the leader of the drug cartel/street gang, The Silent Death, and son of deadly murderer/gang lord Caine Brown.
 * Johnny Depp as Corporal Grant Cross, a Corporal sergeant of the police force whose is the close friend and former rival of Carl and Josh.
 * Robin Wright as Mary Jenkins, an English high school teacher who is Carl Jenkins' wife.
 * Alex Wolff as Carl "CJ" Jenkins Jr., an apathetic yet geeky man who is Carl Jenkins' and Mary Jenkins' son.
 * Lucas Till as Jeremy Heinken, Josh and Linda's son.
 * Meg Ryan as Linda Heinken, Josh's wife.
 * Bruce Dern as Walter Jenkins, Carl's father.
 * Bette Midler as Willow Jenkins, Carl's mother. She was previously voiced by Russi Taylor in other media until her death in 2019.
 * Tress MacNeillie as Grandma Jenkins, Carl's bipolar and aggressive grandmother who lead the FBI at one point in her life.
 * Ice Cube as Stephen Hill, the newest cop in the police force as well as Josh's old friend.
 * Ryan Reynolds as Austin Jenkins, an FBI agent who is the goofy younger brother of Carl Jenkins.
 * Sam Rockwell as Denzel Brown, the older brother of Junior and the eldest son of deceased druglord Caine Brown.
 * Margot Robbie as Brittany, Jeremy's nonchalant girlfriend who is his love interest.
 * Craig Robinson as Dave, the new intern at the police force.
 * Patton Oswalt as Chef Johnny, a timid chef who gets interrogated.
 * Michael Cera as Bruno, a quiet and anxious drug dealer.
 * Kevin Costner as Ben Jacobson, the long deceased former leader of the XAPD that was taken down 33 years ago. Coster reprises his role through a dream sequence.
 * Rob Paulsen as President Mongard, the former United States president from 33 years ago. Paulsen reprises his role from the tv series.
 * Corey Burton as Wilfred, an aging drug dealer who is often caught by Carl.

A statue of Commissioner Lawrence was shown at the beginning of the film along with archive recordings of Harold Ramis voicing Lawrence. Additionally, Sean Schemmel and Christopher Sabat voice Goku and Vegeta from the anime franchise Dragon Ball respectively as they appear during the LSD trip that Carl and Josh go through.

Development
Discussions for a sequel to Detective Carl were made since 1991 and eventually were cancelled due to creative differences between Harold Ramis and Orion along with budget issues with Ramis stating that he would focus more on the television series than a sequel. By August 2010, Harold Ramis pitched a new script for the Detective Carl sequel. In However, in 2018, the project was revived after a revised version of Harold Ramis script by Jason Bateman, Jim Carrey, and Ryan Reynolds was pitched to MGM with Bateman stating that "this was his passion project and I would wanna finish it" while Carrey himself stating that he "always dreamt of making a sequel to Detective Carl '; Reynolds previously voiced Austin Jenkins in a brief minor role in the original film. The film eventually started production in 2019. By 2021, it was announced that Bateman, Carrey, Johnny Depp, Meg Ryan, and Reynolds were all announced to reprise their roles as well. Depp stated in an interview that it was a good reunion with Bateman and his other fellow cast members. By January 2022, it was announced that Ving Rhames would reprise his role as Barry Johnson while Wesley Snipes was cast in June 2022 as Caine Brown Jr and Alex Wolff and Lucas Till as Carl and Josh's respective sons. Reynolds, Bateman, and Carrey all reiterated their interest in all the surviving cast members of the original film to return. Despite his character's prison sentence at the end of the original film, Kevin Costner also stated that he was interested in returning for the sequel as well, in the final film he was featured in a flashback role. Additionally, Bateman and Carrey also reiterated that the film will be rated R like the first installment. MGM also stated that the film will be even more adult-oriented than the first film. On November 4, 2022, Bette Midler was announced to be replacing Russi Taylor as Willow Jenkins, Carl's mother. Ironically, both Carrey and Bateman stated that Midler was the original choice for Willow Jenkins for the first film but was voiced by Russi Taylor due to Midler's schedule with Taylor's voice being ironically a Midler impression.

Animation
Like the first film, the film will be animated by Moving Picture Company with additional animation by Animal Logic and MGM Animation Canada. The film will be computer-animated with a cel-animated look. It is the most expensive R-rated CGI film of all time with a budget of $185 million. Half of the animation team from MGM Animation Studios's Hailey worked on the film as well with the animators paying attention to the details that were animated in 2015's Upside Mystery 3 while following the techniques from Hailey.

Music
In 2021, it was announced that James Newton Howard will return from the original film to do the score for this film.

Release
Detective Carl Returns held early screenings on December 28, 2022 and will be released on January 13, 2023 in IMAX, 4DX, and Dolby. The film was previously set to be released on December 9, 2022 until getting pushed back to January 27, 2023 to take advantage of the empty month and to avoid being sandwiched between The Teenagers Movie and Avatar: The Way of Water. Later the film was pushed up to January 13, 2023 due to Kraven the Hunter being pushed to October as well as production of film is being done at a more quicker pace. It'll be shown in Dolby Cinema, IMAX, 4DX, and ScreenX formats. Like the first film, Universal Pictures will distribute the film internationally while Orion Pictures (thru United Artists Releasing) will distribute the film domestically. The film was approved for Chinese release as well with the first film set to have a re-release in China on December 9, 2022 with remastered sound and remastered picture in 4K.

The film is rated R by the MPA (like the original film) for "strong bloody violence and gore, drug use, pervasive language, and some sexual content." The film was cut by 5 seconds because of graphic scene to receive the R rating after previously being rated NC-17 by the MPA. Universal Pictures China reportedly didn't have to make cuts for the film in it's China release with the China government calling the content in the film suitable for release.

Marketing
The official website for the film was launched on March 1, 2022; while introducing a marketing campaign as well as an interactive layout to promote the film with interactive character fun facts on the website as well. On June 23, 2022, Reynolds, on his Instagram, uploaded a first look at the main antagonist of the film, Caine Brown Jr, with finished animation.

MGM's official YT channel released a red-band teaser trailer on August 3, 2022, and was released in front of Bullet Train in theaters. The trailer received universal praise for the trailer with commentators calling the animation "crisp, bright, and beautiful" while calling the return of the titicular Detective Carl Jenkins and Josh Heinken "outstanding" and stating that "the chemistry of Bateman and Carrey never faded away after over 3 decades" with the trailer receiving 182.2 million views within 24 hours, the most for an R rated film, a red-band trailer, and an R rated animated feature film. Additionally, character posters for Carl, Josh, Barry, Caine, and Grant were all released that same day as well as 90 seconds of footage from the film being released. A green-band trailer was later released on August 10, 2022, with new footage replacing the explicit footage rather than an edited version of the trailer.

The official trailer was released on October 12, 2022 and was shown in front of Halloween Ends. The final trailer was shown in front of The Teenagers Movie and later released online on December 6, 2022.

Critical reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 36 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Peter Debruge, of Variety, gave the film a positive review, saying that the film "one of best adult legacy sequels and is a milestone in adult animation." Emma Stefansky, of IndieWire, also gave a positive review, enjoying the fact that the film "has fluid energy through and will keep audiences entertained while showing respects to older fans of the original while reeling in newer viewers."

Box office projections
In the United States and Canada, Detective Carl Returns will be released alongside House Party, A Man Called Otto, and Plane and is projected to gross $65–70 million during its four day opening weekend.

Worldwide, it is projected to make $185–190 million in its four day weekend including $120–125 million overseas.