Ico (film)

Ico is a 2019 American 3D neo-noir dark fantasy film based on the 2001 video game of the same name. Produced by Sony Pictures Animation, the film was directed by Guillermo del Toro from a screenplay by Brad Copeland and features an ensemble cast that includes Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Emma Thompson, Nicole Kidman, Harrison Ford, Andy Serkis, Forest Whitaker, Daniel Kaluuya, Adrien Brody, Orlando Bloom, Ving Rhames, Keri Russell, and Mahershala Ali.

Production of the film was first leaked online after the November 2014 hacks of Sony's computers which revealed studio co-chairman Amy Pascal in talks with Ico director Fumito Ueda for a feature film. It was eventually confirmed in October 2017 with the film intended on being filmed on set along with a combination of motion-capture and photo-realistic computer-animation and principal photography began in late-2017 on a blue screen stage in Atlanta. The "virtual-reality tools" utilized in Beowulf ' s cinematography were used to a greater degree during the filming of Ico. The film is the first film by Sony Pictures Animation to be rated PG-13 by the MPAA, due to its strong depictions of violence as well as darker and more disturbing content than the studio's other films.

Ico premiered in the Dolby Theater on November 5, 2019, and was released on November 27, 2019, in the United States by Sony Pictures Releasing under the Columbia Pictures label. The film received generally positive reviews, praising the animation, the visual effects, its dark tone, vocal performances, action sequences, and its faithfulness to the video game, but it was criticized for the lack of characterization for certain minor characters. The film has grossed over $1.2 billion worldwide, becoming the fourth highest-grossing film of 2019 and the highest-grossing film by Sony Pictures Animation and Sony respectively as well as the highest grossing videogame adaption of all time worldwide overtaking Cool Spot ($1.145 billion). The film won the award for Best Motion Picture at the 77th Golden Globe Awards and was nominated at the 92nd Academy Awards, losing to Parasite. A sequel titled Ico II, is scheduled to be released in 2023.

Plot
On a mysterious island, two parents enjoy the birth of their new son at a party, until during the time they are sleep, a magical wizard named Oggoth sneaks in and casts a spell on the young infant where three days later, he ends up growing horns and later gets abandoned by his parents. After being found by a beautiful yet youthful elf named Margli, the unusual boy is later named Ico and is taken by her side. In the current present time, Ico is later enjoying life with his parents when suddenly he is taken away by a group of warriors and sent to a castle to be sacrificed on the orders of Queen Michigore.

After a tremor falls on top of the warriors and later kills them, Ico is set free where he explores the castle and discovers a mystical sword that he later steals.

Coming soon!

As Ico finally comes back to the village he notices that everyone is under the Queen's spell, when he instantly decides that he should go along and battle her himself. Venex meanwhile, leads her army to defeat her minions and get everyone out of her spell. Ico finally faces the evil Queen after easily going through her castle where she waits evily for him while he states his determination to protect his kingdom from her havoc. As Ico almost gets killed by the overpowered Queen herself, she ends up taking Oggoth hostage and instantly kills him while fatally stabbing Ico. However, anger prompts him to wake up and ultimately kill the Queen with the sword after being able to withstand the huge power of it in revenge for Oggoth. Afterwards, peace is once restored in the kingdom, Ico and Yorda become a couple, Michigore's former slave Eva becomes the new Queen of the kingdom and Ico and Yorda share a kiss.

In a mid-credits scene, Yorda is awakened to a visit by a mystery boy named Rex who also has mutant abilities and asks for Ico's help while mutating.

Cast
A young boy who's seen as a freak due to being born with horns. In this film adaption, Ico is written as an unknown orphan who was abandoned by his own parents after the discovery of his unusual horns. Director Guillermo del Toro describes Ico as, "an outcast who differs himself from the others of his age in the little village while being a little boy in school who has trouble fitting in due to cultural as well as personal differences." Regarding Wolfhard's casting, producer Brad Copeland said, "Ico's personal experiences can be much similar to most of Stranger Things specifically being the closest to the character Eleven and Wolfhard's distinct voice can definitely match what the character would actually sound like." Fellow Stranger Things actor Noah Schnapp was originally the intended voice actor for Ico in this film but was replaced by Wolfhard as Schnapp experienced scheduling conflicts which caused him to drop out the film. In addition to portraying the character in live-action, Wolfhard also performs the motion-capture as well in certain scenes. To do the motion-capture, Wolfhard received some advice in the process of pre-production from Andy Serkis who would later end up being cast in the film as well. Ico's distinct horns were created and animated through the use of CGI while his face and body were modelled and based on Wolfhard himself. The daughter of The Queen who helps Ico. Her body is weaker than others due to the Queen using some of Yorda's soul to keep herself alive. The model of Yorda was described by character designer Shiyoon Kim as a realistic version of Gwen Stacy from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Brown performs both the motion-capture and the voice of the character. The queen of the castle that uses Yorda's body in order to extend her lifespan. Thompson described the character as "that one person who misses their younger days so much that they try to recreate them along with acting youthful themselves. But she is also that one parent who wants her own child to follow her footsteps in her own success." The character's face was modelled to resemble Thompson herself. A youthful elf who is the caretaker of Ico after she found him in the forest lying down alone. Kidman described her as "that one awkward friend at school who ends up being your best bud and is always by your back through everything." Initially, Kidman described her casting as being absurd and pointless until she later met the director Guillermo del Toro personally who treated her nicely and with manners. The mystical wizard who ends up giving Ico his horns. Describing Oggoth, del Toro said, "He is the Merlin to the Ico who is supposed to be Prince Arthur. He has a real humble mind set and knows danger by sensing it. He is also a father-like figure to the parent-less Ico." Ford described Oggoth as a "grandfather" and "godly-like" person. Ford was cast due to his unique and deep voice which fits the character's personality. The leader of the various shadow creatures that are surrounding the village. Describing Serkis' performance, del Toro said, "He's like a leader of a street gang but more fantasized and magical. That's what it says in the script, which he's kind of doing." On bringing the character to life, Serkis said, "What Guillermo [del Toro] wanted, that I found out little by little as I was doing it, is that he wanted me to explore and just keep pushing the character and keep creating [him] as I was in front of the camera." One of the Queen's personal assistants who is also a slave because of her family's poverty and is also one of Ico's childhood friends that he grew up with. A former thief who now works for the local mental hospital where Ico was trapped in for nearly half of his life. Narco is also Ico's uncle who along with a select few of others, doesn't actually pick or treat Ico differently because of his unusual horns. The comical elf of the Eastward Realm who is very known for his wits and jokes that makes everyone he's around cry of laughter which can possibly kill them as well. A crooked thief who is depressed and was also without a family his whole entire life. The alleged thief of the magical realm who is actually a good guy. The evil soul-taker and the king of the shadow realm. A tomboy woman who is the head of the Guardian Knights. The magical stallion who is Ico's go-to for transportation to any destination. Unlike the human characters, the character was completely CGI and was designated to be an all-black horse. This character was added because del Toro said it seemed like a nice addition to give Ico a companion with Ali doing the voice after seeing his performance in The Hunger Games franchise.
 * Finn Wolfhard as Ico:
 * Millie Bobby Brown as Yorda:
 * Emma Thompson as Queen Michigore:
 * Nicole Kidman as Margli:
 * Harrison Ford as Oggoth:
 * Andy Serkis as Shihriax:
 * Rihanna as Eva:
 * Forest Whitaker as Narco:
 * Daniel Kaluuya as Whizzaro:
 * Adrien Brody as Emon:
 * Orlando Bloom as Jorgen:
 * Ving Rhames as Lord Triton:
 * Keri Russell as Venex:
 * Mahershala Ali as the voice of Argo:

Noah Schnapp appears as Melvin the Wander, a youthful teenage orphan that is lost in the world who searches to look for himself. Writer Brad Copeland called him "a self-centred dummy who doesn't realize that's lonely and lost but instead explores the dangerous world." Director del Toro, based the character on the Wander character of Shadow of the Colossus and made Melvin more distinct by changing the gender of the character and actually giving him a name. Dylan O'Brien portrays Larz, the more-known son of the Queen, and Yorda's older brother, who is mostly told to be the future prince but also suffers from anxiety. Hailee Steinfeld plays Mono, a young newly wedded woman who is wealthy and bullies Ico. Rather than being described as a much older woman who is cursed and slowly dying as in the videogame, Mono was re-imagined as "a wealthy, selfish young lady" to reflect more realistic effects of being rich but a maiden, by crafting him more into a heartless rich person and also serves as the bully to Ico. In response to the negative backlash of the character, Del Toro responded by saying, "this is only the beginning, the sequels and prequels will explain how she changed from her videogame self." Steinfeld said that the reason for Mono hating Ico is because "she's mad that he is more unique than her with his horns and often causes a riot to chase after him which is the main reason why he is banished." Director Del Toro portrays Willem Ford, a bounty hunter who is trying to kill Ico. For the basis of the character, Sony based the character on a mix of the character Dennis from The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004) along with Tony Stark / Iron Man. Del Toro called this character, "an accident-prone bounty hunter who always lets his bounties get away", and is compared to Ed from Ed, Edd and Eddy.

Additionally, Jon Favreau plays Sir Roderick, a clumsy knight who is the proclaimed hero of the village. Larenz Tate and DC Young Fly respectively play Washington and Jackson, two descendants of the shadow realm; they are accomplices of Michigore who use their dark magic powers to start terror. Del Toro describes them as "the comic relief for the film and praised Tate and DC Young Fly's chemistry." Dennis Haysbert and Selenis Leyva play Ico's long lost real parents who abandoned him after seeing horns grow out of his head. Idris Elba plays as Grah, the original King who was assassinated mysteriously. George Takei and BD Wong play an odd-elf gay couple who gets killed after Michigore’s power goes wild. Alexandra Holden voiced a baby elf while Jason O'Mara voices Que, Argo’s younger brother. Noah Jupe has an uncredited appearance as Rex in the post-credits scene, who is based on the character The Boy from the Team Ico game The Last Guardian.

Additional Voices

 * Ranjani Brow
 * William Calvert
 * David Cowgill
 * Holly Dorff Long
 * Moosie Drier
 * Jeffrey Todd Fischer
 * Jackie Gonneau
 * Wendy Hoffmann
 * Karen Huie
 * Jessica Kardos
 * Ashley Lambert
 * James Taku Leung
 * Edie Mirman
 * Constance Parng
 * Melissa Sturm
 * Kirk Thornton
 * Ruth Zalduondo

Development
A film adaption of Ico originally came about based on the success of the proposed film adaptation of Shadow of the Colossus by Misher Films in conjunction with Sony Pictures and Fumito Ueda. Following the November 2014 hack of Sony's computers, emails between Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal and president Doug Belgrad were released stating that Sony was in talks with Ueda about an animated film based on Ico.

In October 2017, it was officially announced that Sony would be teaming up with Ueda to make an animated Ico adaptation, with Brad Copeland writing the film's script. Two months later, Guillermo del Toro, called the original Ico game a “masterpiece,” was announced as director. In May 2018, Sony set the film for a December 25, 2019 release, and announced that the film would be produced by Sony Pictures Animation/ As Sony animation president Kristine Belson felt the original game was too dark for children, she and Del Toro disagreed over various elements of it but since Del Toro had the final cut privilege, he refused to make alterations. According to director Guillermo del Toro, he had high expectations for the film as it is expected to duplicate or at least acquire the same success that Cool Spot had due to the videogame itself being a cult classic.

In late October 2018, Sony Pictures reached a new multi-film agreement with IMAX Corporation to release their films in IMAX, including Ico.

Casting
In June 2018, it was announced that Stranger Things co-stars Finn Wolfhard and Millie Bobby Brown were cast as Ico and Yorda respectively, while Emma Thompson will voice the Queen. Pascal also announced newer characters will be introduced in the film.

Animation and visual effects
Sony Pictures Imageworks, who does the animation, also provides the visual effects, which were supervised by Robert Legato, Elliot Newman and Adam Valdez. The film utilizes "virtual-reality tools", per Visual Effects Supervisor Rob Legato. Virtual Production Supervisor Girish Balakrishnan said on his professional website that the filmmakers used motion capture and VR/AR technologies, with the production team combining VR technology with cameras in order to film the remake in a VR-simulated environment. New software had to be developed for the movie and made it possible to create scenes with a shaky-cam look of a handheld camera, to make the film seem as realistic as it can be similar to a modern videogame. Sanford Panitch, Columbia Pictures' President of Production, called the film's visual effects "a new form of filmmaking", and felt that "Historical definitions don't work", stating that "[it] uses some techniques that would traditionally be called animation, and other techniques that would traditionally be called live-action. It is an evolution of the technology used in Beowulf and The Jungle Book".

Rather than animators do everything, the team also used artificial intelligence to allow virtual characters to behave in ways that mimicked real human beings. Despite being animated, Sony themselves considers the film to be live-action with evidence of it being filmed on site in some scenes along with some actual actors being on set without motion-capture gear.

Music
In June 2018, Michael Giacchino was announced to compose the film's score. The film features a re-recorded and remastered version of "You Were There" from the original game sung by Skylar Grey released on November 22, 2019, 5 days before the film's release.

Marketing
For the Sony Pictures panel at Comic-Con Experience 2018, Del Toro and Wolfhard appeared in a video from the film's set to promote it.

Sony released a teaser poster for the film on February 14, 2019, along with a teaser trailer on the same day. The trailer received mixed to positive reviews and acclaim for the animation with most calling it "more realistic than any modern video game released" as well as praise towards the characterization of the title character. However, criticism was made from The Queen's lack of dialogue and short appearance in the trailer. Sony chairman Tom Rothman later acknowledged this, explaining that the intention had been to "heighten anticipation" for the film.

Rothman presented new footage of the film at CinemaCon 2019, and acknowledged that it revealed the film's version of Ico by saying, "See, we didn't forget to put The Queen in the movie!" Di Placido was more positive of this trailer, praising the appearance of and visuals for the characters, although he was concerned about the voice acting of Ico noting that it's perfect but doesn't fit for a person of the character's age.

The second trailer which included the Queen song "Bohemian Rhapsody", debuted on June 12, 2019, and was attached to screenings for Men in Black: International. This trailer received universal acclaim praising the animation which most critics called "beautiful and unreal" and the selection of music which fit moments of the trailer was praised as well.

The final trailer was released on September 4, 2019, and was attached to screenings of It: Chapter Two.

Video game
On July 19, 2019, Amy Pascal announced that a video game tie-in based on the film will be released for the PlayStation 4 a day before the film's release date. It was originally intended to be an HD remaster/remake of the original 2001 PlayStation 2 game with additional gameplay added and redone voices. However, the final version of the game ended up being closer to the movie than the original videogame with Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Emma Thompson, and Keri Russell reprising their roles from the movie while the rest of the cast was replaced with sound-a-like voice actors.

Theatrical
Ico was released in the United States on November 27, 2019, by Columbia Pictures in RealD 3D, Digital 3D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX, and IMAX 3D. It was previously scheduled for release on December 25, 2019, and later on November 22, 2019, but was pushed back a week of November 29 to avoid competition with Frozen II before being moved forward to its current date. The film was shown in IMAX theatres as part of the multi-film deal with Sony Pictures.

The film was banned in the Arab world (including Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates), as well as in Malaysia and Kazakhstan, due to a scene featuring a gay couple, however, in August 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the film received a limited release in the banned countries in drive-in theaters. The People's Republic of China (PRC) also requested that the scene in question be removed, however Sony declined to make the cuts and despite this, the film was still released in China uncut.

Rating
The film was also rated PG-13 for "strong bloody violence and action, language, sexual content, and brief suggestive comments", making it the first Sony Pictures Animation film to receive that rating under the MPAA. It was also rated 15 in the UK by the BBFC for strong violence, threat, language, and frightening images. When the film's rating was officially announced by the MPAA, debates were sparked saying that the film was too violent for a PG-13 and too dark for the rating as well, while the MPA themselves explained that "the film falls in line with the category for a PG-13 as the violence seems tamer than an R rated flick."

Home media
Ico was released on digital and Movies Anywhere on February 18, 2020, followed by an Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD releases on March 3.

Reception
In late December 2018, the film was named as the most anticipated 2019 film by IMDb, the most anticipated animated film of all time and the second-most anticipated blockbuster of 2019 according to the ticketing service Fandango, and the most anticipated animated film by Atom Tickets.

Critical reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 91% with an average score of 8.5/10, based on 356 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "Ico is able to not only recapture the heart and innocence of the videogame, but it enhances it into an adventurous and enjoyable dark neo noir flick." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an 87% positive score and a 72% "definite recommend".

Writing for NPR, Glen Weldon gave the film a positive review and found the film to be a worthy videogame adaption, stating, "Del Toro's decision to stick close to the videogame but also adding additional details that fit within the plot, gives you a good film as a result. The long runtime also gives it praise as it is distinct from other blockbusters." Peter Travers in his review for Rolling Stone gave the film 4 out of 5 stars.

Box office
Ico grossed $389.7 million in the United States and Canada and $822.5 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $1.212 billion. With a production budget of $300 million, the film needed to gross $750 million to break-even and was later estimated to reach that point within its first month following the overperformance of the film in China. It broke records for a videogame film and became the highest grossing video game adaption of all time until Cool Spot: Spot Goes to Hollywood overtook it two years later but remains the highest grossing live-action adaptation. The film reached $1 billion on January 9, 2020, making it the first non-Spider-Man and James Bond film by Sony to reach that mark and currently their highest grossing film that isn't related to Spider-Man or Bond. Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $354 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.

In the United States and Canada, Ico was released alongside Knives Out and Queen & Slim, and was projected to gross anywhere from $80–110 million from 4,600 theatres which is the widest November opening of all time, in its 5-day opening weekend although some box office forecasters stated that the length of the film might hurt the box office. It played in 3,500 3D theatres, 500 IMAX theatres, 900 premium large format screens, and 415 D-Box/4D enhanced theatres. The film made $39.5 million on its opening day (including $10.3 million from Tuesday night previews), the biggest for a pre-Thanksgiving film, and another $29.3 million on its second day leading increasing five-day projections to $165–170 million. It went on to make $180.3 million in its 5-day opening (including $111.4 million in the traditional 3-day weekend), both the highest of all time for a film released during the Thanksgiving weekend and the first one to gross over $100 million during its 3-day weekend. Tony Vinciquerra, CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, called this result "surprising and extravagant" calling something that is "unseen" for a film released on Thanksgiving weekend, while also adding that "non-Disney films can succeed on Thanksgiving weekends" and attributed the rising star power of Finn Wolfhard and Millie Bobby Brown to the film's successful box office despite it's long runtime. The film remained in first place in its second weekend while grossing $37.9 million. It placed third in its third and fourth weekends respectively while grossing $18 million and $13.9 million. It dropped to fifth in its fifth weekend and grossed $16.3 million (and a total of $26.2 million over the five-day Christmas frame). In the film's tenth weekend, it increased 60.6% from its last weekend, grossing $3.2 million while moving up to seventh place.

The film opened in China on November 22, 2019, and made $39.1 million on its opening day, the biggest of all time for a Sony film. It went on to make $119.2 million, the biggest non-Disney opening of the year and the biggest animated opening of all time in China. Due to the film's big opening in China, most box office analysts speculated the film to end it's run over $1 billion with some saying that it has the potential to surpass Spider-Man: Far From Home ($1.131 billion) to become Sony's highest-grossing film of all time. It later surpassed that film three months after the film's theatrical release. The film's highest grossing overseas markets are China ($282.3 million), Japan ($105.2 million), United Kingdom ($72.3 million), Germany ($52.2 million).

Sequel and expanded franchise
Main article: Ico II In November 2018, Guillermo del Toro stated that he intends to make Ico a trilogy and as well as starting a franchise for Ico with adaptions of other Team Ico games such as Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian as long as the film is successful enough which all depends on the audience. Del Toro also stated, "if it flops or doesn't perform to expectations, there will be no more films and this franchise will be cancelled." On December 19, 2019, it was announced that a sequel has been green-lit due to the overperformance of the film at box office and put into production along with a Shadow of the Colossus spin-off in production as well. The Hollywood Reporter said the film would be a sequel not based on a videogame, focusing on Ico years later into his adulthood facing something he has never faced before in his youth while being a more original idea.

The sequel titled, Ico II, will be released on February 3, 2023 in IMAX and Dolby formats.

Main
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Trailers
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