Kirby (2007 film)

Kirby is a 2007 computer-animated action-adventure comedy film based on the franchise of the same name by HAL Laboratory. The film is directed by Tim Hill and produced by Nintendo, based on a screenplay written by Paul Higgins and a story by David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin. It is also the third film in the Nintendo Cinematic Universe (NCU). Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai serves as an executive producer along with Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha. The film stars Makiko Ohmoto as the lead role, with Antonio Banderas, Ben Mendelsohn, Brian Dobson, Karen Disher, James M. Palumbo, Jason Fricchione, Casey M. Roberts, and Frank Welker.

The film follows Kirby, a pink, spherical body with small stubby arms and large red feet who has the ability to inhale objects and shoot them as projectiles. Meta Knight's planned attack on Dream Land was alerted to Kirby, and he decides to team up with King Dedede, his long-time archenemy, to help defeat Meta Knight before Dream Land is destroyed. Production on a Kirby film dated back to 2001. With the release of The Crystal Shards in 2000, Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai became interested in adapting the character to film. Signing a first-look deal with Sony Pictures in 2002, the project was scrapped until Universal Pictures picked up the rights in 2004, and declared production in September.

Kirby premiered in Kansas on November 4, 2007, and was theatrically released in the United States on November 21, 2007, and in Japan on January 12, 2008 as part of Phase One of the NCU. Upon release, the film polarized critics; some praised the animation, voice cast (particularly Ohmoto, Banderas, Mendelsohn and Dobson), faithfulness to the source material and musical score by Hans Zimmer, though some criticized the thin plot, runtime and storyline. It was a box office success, grossing $1.029 billion against its budget of $100 million, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2007, and the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time until Metroid was released a couple of months later.

Plot
Kirby is a cheerful pink creature and has been known for being a hero in Dream Land. When he sees most of the food being stolen by King Dedede and the Waddle Dees, Kirby investigates to see if he can bring the food back to Dream Land.

While at Dedede's castle, he was trying to get his food back, but Dedede chases him and kicks him out from his castle. Kirby assumes that Dedede as his arch-nemesis, so he gains his inhale ability to copy any special powers. First, he turns into Fire Kirby to battle Whispy Woods. He quickly defeats it, leading him on his way to battle King Dedede in his castle. Kirby tries to end his battle by smashing Dedede, but Dedede apologizes to Kirby for stealing it and offers to join him in an adventure, to which he agrees. However, the skies in Planet Popstar has gone wrong as the Sun and Moon began to fight. A jester Marx visits the Planet Popstar and tells Kirby that the only way to stop the fight is to gather the power of the stars and use them to stop the fight. Kirby then accepts Marx's request, but King Dedede became suspicious of Marx's tricks.

Suddenly, Kirby and King Dedede both encounter the Halberd landing at Popstar and they were greeted by Meta Knight, who requests a superstar warrior for sword battle in his Halberd by midnight. He choses Kirby as he learns Kirby is the new superstar warrior in Planet Popstar. Before he starts fighting Kirby, he offers Kirby a sword, which Kirby picks up to become Sword Kirby. Meta Knight's mask broke after Kirby defeats Meta Knight in the sword duel, but he tells Kirby "they will meet again" before escaping with his Dimensional Cape. King Dedede then tells Kirby that Meta Knight will join the adventure later. Kirby also received the first power of the star. Meanwhile, Marx makes a plan to trick Kirby with his wish when Kirby reaches the Nova after Kirby gathers all the power stars.

While returning to Dream Land, the crops were being destroyed in Dream Land, King Dedede suspected Dyna Blade is the one that destroys the crops before Kirby goes out to stop her. He reached the Candy Mountain to find Dyna Blade. He sees pieces of crops that leads him the trails to reach Dyna Blade's nest (that was built on top of the Candy Mountain). He then sees Dyna Blade getting crops from Dream Land, and he proceeds to battle her. Dedede also came to help defeat Dyna Blade, but however, Kirby and King Dedede learn that she was trying to feed her chicks. Kirby takes care of the chicks. Dyna Blade thanks Kirby for taking care of her chicks before she flies away. Meta Knight then finally joins the adventure to save Planet Popstar.

After collecting the rest of the power stars, Kirby reaches into space to summon Nova and make a wish to stop Sun and Moon from fighting. However, before he can make a wish, Marx knocks Kirby off and makes his wish to dominate the Planet Popstar. After that, Marx transforms into his monster form that and he reveals to Kirby, Meta Knight, and King Dedede that he tricked the Sun and Moon to fight each other, and Kirby into falling for Marx's master plan to conquer Planet Popstar. This causes Kirby, Meta Knight, and King Dedede to battle Nova and later Marx. Kirby First, the three enter Nova. The three have no choice, but to destroy Nova's core, which led Nova to be injured. This infuriated Marx and he attempts to attack Kirby, Meta Knight, and King Dedede himself in the purple arena. He then captured Meta Knight and King Dedede with his vines. He tries to shoot lasers on all 3 warriors, but Kirby manages to defeat Marx in his Fighting form and sends him flying into Nova, destroying them both. Following the defeat of Marx and Nova, the Sun and Moon stopped fighting each other. Kirby, Meta Knight, and King Dedede went back to the Planet Popstar via Warp Star and they all were honored as heroes of the Planet Popstar.

Voice cast

 * Makiko Ohmoto as Kirby
 * Antonio Banderas as Meta Knight
 * Ben Mendelsohn as King Dedede
 * Brian Dobson as Marx
 * Karen Disher as Dyna Blade
 * James M. Palumbo as Waddle Dee and Waddle Doo
 * Jason Fricchione as Bronto Burt
 * Casey M. Roberts as Blade Knight
 * Frank Welker as Whispy Woods
 * Randall Thom provided various voices

Development
Rumors about a possible Kirby film had circulated since the success of The Crystal Shards in 2000. The first attempt at a film adaptation was in development at ClearWorld Entertainment in 2001. However, the film did not materialize since the studio could not find a script that they liked.

On August 10, 2003, a computer-animated feature film based on the Kirby series was announced by Sony Pictures and Nintendo. Steven Dean Moore was announced to write and direct, with Aaden Chase and John A. Davis producing. Moore said, "One of the biggest questions in Nintendo history we've gotten in the last few years is "Are you going to make a Kirby movie?" As in matter of fact, yes, we are. When I came up with this new idea, I just could not stop thinking about it. I was so excited about it that I knew we had to make this movie—and I wanted to direct it myself."

The initial script of Kirby, written by David Fincher, was bought by Focus Features for a reported sum of $450,000 in November 2003. The script was written for a year, but it was thought to be unsuitable for Sony Pictures because it was "a racier PG-13-rated movie", inspired by the comedy movies in the 1980s and 1990s such as Coming to America and Dr. Dolittle. The first draft of the script had Kirby being mistaken for a citizen when he arrives in New York City. The film was initially scheduled to be released in 2006 with Rob Marshall as director but he withdrew due to "creative differences" between the producers and him. In June 2004, director Sam Raimi was set to direct the film but he left soon after, later working with Sony and Marvel on the Spider-Man trilogy. Adam Shankman became the film's director in August 2004, while Bob Schooley, Aaron Sorkin and Mark McCorkle were hired by Nintendo to rewrite the script once again. At the time, Nintendo considered offering the role of Kirby to Kate Hudson or Reese Witherspoon. However, the project did not take off.

On November 8, 2004, Variety reported that Tim Hill had been hired as director and Aaron Sorkin had returned to the project to write a new version of the script. Zemeckis worked with Sorkin on the script to combine the main plot of a computer animated Kirby film with the idea of a "action homage" to Sony's heritage. He created visual storyboard printouts that covered the story of Kirby from beginning to end, which filled an entire floor of a production building. After Hill showed them to Ronald Meyer, the president of Universal Pictures, he received the green light for the project and a budget of $85 million. Hill began designing the world of Dream Land and storyboarding the movie before a cast was chosen to play the characters.

Casting
In October 2004, Makiko Ohmoto was confirmed to be reprising her role as Kirby for the film. In November 2005, Antonio Banderas, Ben Mendelsohn, and Brian Dobson joined the voice cast.

Marketing
Nintendo released a series of trading cards featuring images from the film, including a limited edition Kirby card only available the first weekend of the film's release. Along with TCG booster pack sets, they produced a limited edition Kirby Figure Collection bundle. A set of 6 Kirby toys were also sold at Burger King. Wicked Cool Toys, the current toy partner for the franchise, released figures and plush toys for retail as well.

Japan
Initially, Sony Pictures was due to handle distribution outside Japan, while Toho would handle the Japanese distribution. On January 18, 2007, Universal announced they had taken over worldwide distribution duties (except in Japan and China) from Sony, with the release date unchanged.

When the film's Japanese release was announced on April 29, 2007, Kenichi Ogata was confirmed to voice King Dedede in the Japanese version. On September 20, 2007, it was confirmed that Atsushi Kisaichi would voice Meta Knight and Ken Watanabe would reprise his role as Marx, in the Japanese dub. When the film premiered in Japan on May 3, 2019, Hidetoshi Nishijima was confirmed to have voiced Waddle Dee and Waddle Doo in the Japanese dub.

International
The US premiere was held on November 6, 2007, in Westwood, Los Angeles and featured a pink carpet. Kirby released shortly after on November 18, 2007, in Europe, November 20, 2007, in South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia, and November 21, 2007, in China, UK, Ireland, Canada, and the US.

Home media
Kirby was released on DVD by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on May 6, 2008, and Blu-ray Disc on September 30, in the United States. The film was also collected in a 10-disc box set titled "Nintendo Cinematic Universe: Phase One – The Beginning" which includes all of the Phase One films in the Nintendo Cinematic Universe, was released on May 10, 2011.

Box office
Kirby earned $8 million on the day of its release in the United States, placing at #1. It was also placed at #1 on Thanksgiving Day, earning $6.7 million to bring its two-day total to $14.6 million. The film grossed $14.4 million on the following day, bringing its total haul to $29.0 million placing ahead of other contenders. Kirby made $34.4 million on the Friday-Sunday period in 3,730 theaters for a per location average of $9,472 and $49.1 million over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday in 3,730 theaters for a per location average of $13,153. Its earnings over the five-day holiday exceeded projections by $7 million. Ranking as the second-highest Thanksgiving opening after Toy Story 2, which earned $80.1 million over the five-day holiday in 1999, Kirby is the first film to open at #1 on the Thanksgiving frame in the 21st century.

Kirby opened at #1 above Beowulf, grossing $46,630,690 in its opening weekend and $70,625,971 since its Wednesday launch, alongside August Rush, Enchanted, Hitman, I'm Not There, The Mist, and This Christmas. On its second weekend, it was also the #1 film, earning nearly $26.6 million behind Enchanted at 3,730 locations for a per theater average of $3,689. It is also the #1 film in its third weekend, with a gross of $10.7 million in 3,520 theaters for a per theater average of $3,042. It finished its fourth weekend at #2 with a gross of $15.5 million in 3,066 locations for a per theater average of $1,804. Kirby earned a gross of $453.8 million in the United States and Canada as well as $576.2, combining into a total of $1.029 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film worldwide released in 2007.

In other territories, the film was projected to debut to $90–120 million from 62 countries, including $40–60 million in China. Prior to its worldwide release, the film grossed $21 million from openings and previews in several international markets, including Japan, through Thursday. The film had an international opening weekend debut of $103 million (and a five-day debut of $112.4 million), dethroning Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End at the top of the international box office. Kirby topped the international box office again in its second weekend. Despite breaking records, the film fell below expectations due to the high budget.

In Japan, the film opened at number three (behind Hero and Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai), grossing ¥948 million ($8.6 million) in its opening weekend, before topping the box office in its second weekend, with a cumulative ¥1,465,395,700 ($13,327,837). In China, Kirby had an opening day gross of $16.4 million, and topped the box office with a weekend debut of $40.8 million. It topped the Chinese box office again in its second week, with a cumulative $69.3 million. In the United Kingdom, it topped the box office with a £4.9 million ($6.6 million) debut. As of December 8, 2007, the film's largest international markets are China ($84.4 million), Japan ($21.2 million), the United Kingdom ($13.6 million), Mexico ($10.4 million), and Germany ($9.5 million).

Critical reception
Kirby received mixed to average reviews by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 62% based on 116 reviews and an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Kirby was always the odd one in the shed. It decided to go down an overused path of real world breaching and did a good job at it.". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 67 out of 100 based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

Sequels
Coming soon

Transcripts
Coming soon