Nepola II

Nepola II is a 2007 American computer-animated fantasy comedy-adventure film produced by Megamation. The sequel to the 2002 film Nepola, The film was directed by Andrew Speckle from a screenplay by Speckle, David Lindsay-Abaire, Bob Tzudiker, and Noni White. Drew Barrymore, Paul Rudd, Ben Stiller, Patrick Stewart, Emma Thompson, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Jennifer Aniston, Alex Borstein, and Kelsey Grammer reprised their roles, joined by new cast members including Isla Fisher, David Tennant, James Marsden, Chris Parnell, Will Arnett, Jonah Bobo, Dakota Fanning, and Kenan Thompson. Sometime after the first film, Nepola, Perseus, and their new son Mestor go visit Nepola's childhood friend, the goddess of the rainbow Iris, along with her family. But the reunion quickly takes a bizarre turn when Nepola's rival Pandora comes in, with emerging plans to unleash her cursed box with her miseries to get rid of Nepola.

Nepola II premiered at the Mann Village Theater on January 27, 2007, and was theatrically released by Sony Pictures Releasing in the United States on February 9. It was met with mixed reviews from critics and grossed $486 million worldwide against a production budget of $88 million. The film was nominated for the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature but lost to Pixar's Ratatouille. Although not successful enough to be followed by a third theatrical film, its television spin-off, premiered on Cartoon Network in 2009, served as the follow-up to the sequel.

Plot
After the events of ''the first film, Nepola, now the goddess of everything, and her new fiancé Perseus are finally married and are living happily together with the gods in Mount Olympus alongside rodent friend Deimos. Nepola later finds out that she is pregnant and later, she gives birth to a baby boy named Mestor. Her rival Pandora becomes jealous and disapproval of Nepola being a much powerful goddess and living with the other gods due to the fact that she wasn't created by Zeus and was born down in the valley before she became a goddess. Realizing that Nepola does not fit with the gods, Pandora attempts to get rid of her by using her cursed box of miseries—Greed, Meany, and Selfish—who receive Pandora a mythical scepter to help her become powerful.

As Nepola and Perseus soon believe that Mestor is too young to become a god, Zeus and Hera insist they take their son to Iris, the goddess of the rainbow who happens to be Nepola's childhood friend, so she can teach him how to act like a god and become one like his mother. This in turn causes Pandora and the miseries, who overheard the conversation, to follow them without the other gods knowing. Iris welcomes Nepola and her family to her home, where they meet her husband, the god of west wind Zephyrus, and their son Pothos, who immediately befriends Mestor.

During their journey to track down Nepola, Pandora attracts the attention of the god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses Poseidon, not before Greed manipulates him into believing that Pandora should help him scheme the plan to stop Nepola. However, this attempt fails when Poseidon inadvertently summons a tidal wave during a conversation, causing Pandora to lose her contact with Poseidon and get marooned on an island with the miseries. Meanwhile, Nepola and Iris spend the night together, and Iris reveals that she, like Nepola, also went on a long journey to find the Realm of Gods where she became a goddess, much to Nepola's delight.

Pandora and the miseries continue to find Nepola but find themselves lost in a temple. There, Pandora discovers that the scepter allows her to see anything she wishes to see on it, so she uses it to see Nepola in Iris' home, where she overhears her say some of the gods including Pandora made fun of her and did not want to be in Mount Olympus even if she is a powerful goddess, as well as overhearing Deimos say that he'd be extremely shocked if Pandora were more powerful than Nepola. As a result, this leads Pandora to have a new, better plan to oust Nepola with her miseries.

Nepola and her family and friends including her mother Astydameia and the siblings Eric and Lilas later attend an annual party in Mount Olympus, with Iris and her family being invited. While seeking help to make her son powerful like a god, Nepola is then confronted by Pandora, who insists that Nepola challenge with her to show off who is the best goddess in Mount Olympus. As the contest begins, the miseries (who are disguised as humans) manipulate Pandora into letting her win and become powerful and stronger, thus resulting in Nepola's humiliating defeat. Eventually, a dejected Nepola is then stripped of her powers and her god license and is banished from Mount Olympus by Zeus and Hera, while Pandora takes her place as the goddess of everything.

Back at Nepola's birth village in the mortal world, Astydameia notices that Nepola is still depressed about no longer being a goddess and tells her daughter to talk to Pandora, admitting that she was afraid of her as a goddess. Pandora shows up and tells everyone that she is their powerful goddess before she reveals her miseries from her box, which causes everyone in the village to flee. During the chaos, Greed, Meany, and Selfish kidnap Mestor, Pothos, Eric and Lilas and take them to Pandora. As the children are taken, Nepola, Perseus, Deimos, Astydameia, Iris, Zephyrus, and the rest of the gods including Poseidon rescue the children, but Nepola realizes that she still has a lack of powers and isn't a goddess anymore. Zeus and Hera then appear from the skies, revealing to Nepola that they have been brainwashed by Pandora's miseries into banishing her just before they give her powers back as an apology. This made Nepola realize that the miseries are making Pandora do bad things.

Meanwhile, Pandora and the miseries take the children, now tied up, to Methana Volcano where they attempt to throw them into a pit of lava, but just as they are about to do this, Nepola and the others show up to rescue the children. Nepola warns Pandora that her miseries are manipulating her into doing bad things, restoring her confidence. As Pandora realizes Nepola is right, the livid miseries betray Pandora and threaten to throw the children into the lava but Nepola quickly rescues them. While the others manage to escape from Methana Volcano, Nepola and Pandora ride on the latter's scepter (which also has the ability to fly), but the miseries catch up to them where they engage in a long battle. The women successfully defeat the miseries by throwing them off the scepter with their powers.

Nepola, Pandora and the others head back to the village where a remorseful Pandora apologies to everyone and admits that the miseries have been manipulating her all along. Having been won over by Nepola's claim, Pandora puts her miseries back into her box and tells her never to bother her friends again right before she throws the box into a river. The group then returns to Mount Olympus where Pandora offers Nepola the scepter, but she declines. The two become best friends, and they celebrate with their friends and family in Mount Olympus, with Poseidon becoming Pandora's mate.

In a mid-credit scene, a man discovers Pandora's box near a beach and as he opens it, the miseries show up.

Voice cast

 * Further information: List of Nepola characters


 * Drew Barrymore as Nepola, the goddess of anything and Perseus' wife.
 * Paul Rudd as Perseus, Nepola's husband.
 * Freddie Highmore as Mestor, Nepola and Perseus' son.
 * Isla Fisher as Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, Nepola's childhood friend and Zephyrus' wife.
 * David Tennant as Zephyrus, the god of west wind and Iris' wife.
 * Jake T. Austin as Pothos, Iris and Zephyrus' son.
 * Jennifer Aniston as Pandora, Nepola and Iris' rival who was created by Zeus.
 * Ben Stiller as Deimos, Nepola's wise-cracking rodent friend.
 * Patrick Stewart as Zeus, the ruler of the Greek gods.
 * Glenn Close as Hera, Zeus' wife and assistant.
 * James Marsden as Poseidon, Pandora's crush.
 * Chris Parnell as Greed, the leader of Pandora's miseries.
 * Will Arnett as Meany, one of the miseries from Pandora's box.
 * Kenan Thompson as Selfish, one of the miseries from Pandora's box.
 * Jonah Bobo and Dakota Fanning as Eric and Lilas respectively, a pair of siblings who look up to Nepola.
 * Alex Borstein as Astydameia, Nepola's mother.
 * Kelsey Grammer as Hades, the god of the underworld.
 * David Cross as Apollo
 * Bob Odenkirk as Dionysus
 * Wayne Knight and Fred Stoller as Phobos and Deimos
 * Jim Cummings as the Cyclops
 * Jennifer Hale‎‎ as Atlanta
 * Minnie Driver as Persephone
 * Lauren Tom as Pheme
 * Hynden Walch as Athena
 * Frank Welker (uncredited) as Cerberus
 * Harland Williams as Hermes

Production
Coming soon!

Music
In March 2006, it was announced that John Powell, who scored the first film, had signed on to score the sequel.

Release
Nepola II premiered on January 27, 2007, as a special screening at the Mann Village Theater in Los Angeles, and was released in the United States on February 9. It was originally scheduled for release on September 29, 2006, but in November 2004, its release date was pushed back to December 15, 2006. In February 2006, the film was pushed back two months later to February 9, 2007, to avoid competition with the following competing family films Night at the Museum and Charlotte's Web.

The film was released on February 23, 2007 in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Mexico, and Taiwan, and on March 22, 2007 in Australia and the Netherlands.

Marketing
Sony teamed up with marketing partners in the United States and Canada to promote the film through McDonald's Happy Meals with a set of 9 toys. The artwork book The Art of Nepola 1 & 2 was published on February 1, 2007, by authors Sharon Gosling and Adam Newell with a foreword by Speckle, and shows the artwork that went into the making of the first two films, with storyboards, research photographs, and character sketches.

A video game based on the film was released on February 6, 2007, for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Nintendo GameCube, and Wii, published by Ubisoft.

Home media
Nepola II was released on Blu-ray and DVD on July 17, 2007. Both releases were accompanied by a new short film titled No More Mr. Nice Cyclops.

Box office
Coming soon!

Critical response
On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a score of 61% based on 175 reviews with a rating average of 5.94/10. The website's consensus reads: "Quirky, innovative, and maintaining the first installment's charm while admittedly feeling out of place on its story, Nepola II supplies an engaging sequel in its own right." On another aggregator Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average, the film has a rating score of 54 out of 100 based on 56 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Main
To see the main transcript of the film, click here.

Trailers
To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here. Coming soon!