Lix

Lix is a 2019 American computer-animated musical comedy film produced by Frenzy Animation and Paramount Animation for Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by Kevin Lima and Mark Osborne from a screenplay by Chris Matheson, Maya Forbes, Wally Wolodarsky, and Billy Frolick. It stars the voices of Gwen Stefani, Jenny Slate, Zooey Deschanel, Chris Wallace, Stephanie Beatriz, James Corden, Keegan-Michael Key, and Jennifer Coolidge. The film follows a music-loving teenage girl named Lix (Stefani), who lives in a world where music takes form of living creatures and objects. She sets out with her best friend Melody (Slate) on a journey to become a popstar like her idol Ricky Tune (Wallace).

Lix was released in theaters and RealD 3D on July 26, 2019. It received positive reviews and grossed $266 million worldwide against its $70 million budget. Lix received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, as well as Golden Globe nominations for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Song ("I Wanna Be a Superstar"). Along with Araceli, it marked the first time that Frenzy Animation released two feature films in the same year.

An animated series, titled Lix & Melody: The New Tunes, premiered on Nickelodeon on September 19, 2020.

Plot
Lix is a teenager that lives with her mother Cora in Harmonia, a world where music takes form of living creatures and objects. As a longtime singer and musician, she dreams of becoming a famous popstar just like her idol Ricky Tune and attends the Harmonia High School where her music teacher Miss Treble wants her to participate in a band performance, but during which, the band ends up playing terrible when Lix keeps forgetting her notes, humiliating herself and leading to get dismissed.

To redeem herself as a musician, Lix decides to journey across the country to Musicwood, where Tune's concert for competition will be viewed live on television, and convinces her best friend Melody to come along. On the way, the duo find a group of fellow musicians, led by dancer Viva, who help Lix and Melody in their quest to Musicwood and they travel to various places they have planned beginning with Westville. There, Lix meets up with country singer Haley Cowsbag, whom she offers him to help her take some notes from Cowsbag's performance so she can help her improve her act. However, Lix is inadvertently taken into a country dance with Melody, Viva and the others, which they later take her to a cow stampede, leading them to El Música, the home of Mexican musicians. Lix's attempts to take notes from dancer Roberto Diaz for a performance in El Música become successful, improving herself. As a result, Lix, Melody and the other musicians go to different locations that satisfy both of them.

The group eventually reaches Musicwood, where Lix finds Tune in his crib and convinces him to help her become a popular popstar like him, but ends up threatened and discouraged by Tune to demoralize her. Dejected, Lix decides to give up as a musician and walks away from Melody and the musicians but unexpectedly finds Miss Treble in a bar. Treble reveals to Lix that she was once a famous popstar, named Sandra Treble, and the star of Musicwood, writing successful songs to the whole world. However, her fans and audiences become more interested in other songs from rivals, causing her to lose her passion and later retire as a result. Lix convinces Sandra to help her stage in Tune's concert that will restore her former glory.

Lix, Melody, Sandra and the others make it to Tune's concert, where the audience is surprised to see Sandra there. Melody is initially refused entry into the concert, but a chance meeting with Tune gives Lix a chance to show off her musical and singing skills, astounding the audience and allowing the CEO of Music Corp to let Lix compete. During Tune's performance in the "Talent" category, Sandra is angered to learn that Tune had stolen their planned performance, but rather than waiting for their own performance, they attempt to sneak backstage but end up onstage and challenge Tune to a dance off, watched by Cora and the rest of Lix's friends and family and other people on separate televisions. The challenge is long, fierce, and musical, but Lix and Sandra manage to out-sing Tune's, overtaking him, and winning the competition.

As Lix and Sandra celebrate their victory, everyone else isolates Tune. While being praised for her performance, Lix even forgives the devastated and remorseful Tune, and he befriends her. Sometime later, Lix and the others return back home in Harmonia, thriving Lix's fame and Sandra's returning spectacular success. They then set up a music group led by Lix named "Lix & Co.", Cora and Sandra for a new performance at the Harmonia High School, which happens to be a success for the school. As for Lix, she discovers that Cora has kept CDs of her own songs in a drawer, much to Lix's surprise.

In a mid-credits scene, Mr. Nigs, Lix's neighbor, gets annoyed by Lix & Co.'s new performance, but ends up singing along.

Voice cast

 * Gwen Stefani as Lix, a 15-year-old teenage singer and musician
 * Lilly Rodgers as young Lix
 * Jenny Slate as Melody, a cheerful music-obsessed nerd whose hair resembles an eighth note
 * Zooey Deschanel as Miss Treble, Lix's music teacher
 * Chris Wallace as Ricky Tune, a pop singer who is Lix's idol
 * Stephanie Beatriz as Viva, a dancer who is Lix's biggest fan
 * James Corden as Normy, a friend of Lix
 * Keegan-Michael Key as DJ Dan, a disc jockey
 * Jennifer Coolidge as Cora, Lix's mother
 * Joe Whyte as Cim, a talking cymbal
 * Patton Oswalt as Drummy, a talking drum
 * Phil Morris as Haley Cowsbag, a country singer
 * Gabriel Iglesias as Roberto Diaz, a Mexican dancer
 * Kristin Fairlie as Sophia, a Canadian musician
 * TBA as Mr. Nigs, a neighbor who is often annoyed by Lix's music
 * TBA as Jimmy, Melody's ill-tempered brother
 * TBA as Stacy, Melody's younger sister
 * Kellen Goff as Diane, Melody's father
 * TBA as Sam, a Elvis wannabe
 * TBA as Rungo, a guy who tries to sing but fails
 * Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lin
 * Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo appears in a voice cameo, amongst additional voices

Additional voices

 * Keith Anthony
 * Cam Clarke
 * Debi Derryberry
 * Terri Douglas
 * Will Finn
 * Jeff Fischer
 * Grant George
 * Jackie Gonneau
 * Bridget Hoffman
 * Daniel Kaz
 * Yuri Lowenthal
 * Scott Menville
 * Caitlin McKenna
 * Mark Mothersbaugh
 * Latifa Ouaou
 * Bryce Papenbrook
 * Shannon Stein
 * Tara Strong
 * Pepper Sweeney
 * Shane Sweet
 * Conrad Vernon

Development
TBA started working on the film in 2011, when TBA came up with the idea. In April 2014, Variety reported that Mark Osborne and Kevin Lima would direct on an animated musical comedy film by Frenzy Animation. It was once expected to be released in 2017 under the title Musix.

In December 2016, Frenzy Animation revealed the film's new title to be Lix, which would be produced by Marcus Crawford and Chris Jenkins, with Chris Matheson, Maya Forbes, Wally Wolodarsky, and Billy Frolick writing the film's screenplay.

Casting
To be added

Music
The film's score was composed by John Debney. Marc Shaiman wrote the songs for the film. The score was released on July 19, 2019.

Release
Lix was originally scheduled for release on November 2, 2018, but in April 2016, the film was pushed back to April 5, 2019. In June 2017, Paramount pushed back the release date three months later to July 3, 2019. In February 2019, the film was moved up by three weeks to July 26, 2019 to avoid competition with Spider-Man: Far from Home. The first trailer was released on November 14, 2018, and was carried as a trailer before Instant Family, Ralph Breaks the Internet and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The second trailer was released on March 27, 2019, and was shown before Dumbo, Pokémon Detective Pikachu, and The Secret Life of Pets 2.

Home media
Lix was released on Digital HD on October 18, 2019, and on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and Ultra HD Blu-ray on November 5, 2019.

Box office
To be added

Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 74% based on 235 reviews with an average rating of 6.6/10, with its critical consensus reading, "Bolstered by a trippy art style, a collection of melodious numbers, and a batch of moments that build up fluently, Lix will satisfy both animation followers and musical enthusiasts." On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 70 out of 100 based on 51 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Television series
In June 2020, Frenzy Animation announced that there would be an animated series entitled Lix & Melody: The New Tunes, which premiered on Nickelodeon on September 19, 2020.

Possible sequel
In October 2019, Lima was in the talks about the possibility of a Lix sequel. In the same month, in an interview about challenges and ideas for Lix 2, Gwen Stefani revealed that she wishes to reprise her role as Lix in a sequel.

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

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