The Pixelators

Pixelators is a 2016 American 3D computer animated comedy film produced by 20 Century Fox Animation and distributed by 20 Century Fox. It was written and directed by Phil Lord And Christopher Miller from a screenplay by Derek Connolly, and Rodney Rothman, with a story by Lord, Miller, Connolly, and Nicole Perlman, and features an cast with voices of Tom Holland, Anna Kendrick, Kevin Hart, Jason Statham, Ryan Reynolds, Zoe Saldana, Keegan Michael Key, Jason Sudeikis, Gabriel Iglesias, Ellie Kemper, with Kristen Wiig, and Jenny Slate and tells story of 2 video game designers which they get sucked into an video game universe deep inside realms of a magic arcade cabinet.

Pixelators premiere on November 23, 2016 at Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles, and went into general release on December 9 in 3D, IMAX and Dolby Cinema. Film received mixed reviews from critics who praised animation, score, character design, and voice acting but criticized plot and lack of originality with several negative comparisons to Wreck It Ralph and Luna And Zak. Film was a box office success, grossing $592 million worldwide against a $155 million budget and receiving a nomination for Best Animated Feature at 44 Annie Awards, and was also nominated for Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing at 89 Academy Awards.

Film launch New Franchise, with a TV series, Pixelators Game On, which debuted on June 8, 2018 on Fox Family. Sequel directed by Mike Bell and Emma Maxwell, title Pixelators 2, was released on February 7, 2020. 3 film, title Pixelators 3 Supercharged, is set for release in 2023.

Plot
Bryce Jones is a 19 year old video game design living with his mother Harper. After his father died, he began to profess his love for video games when he was just 6 years old. 12 years later, after being inspired by games and graduating from gaming school, he finally became a video game design along with his best friend Carl Stevenson. 1 year after becoming a video game design, he has been work on his own video game titled Cop Stories. With game almost complete, Bryce design main character of game, Alice Summers, a young woman who is struggling to become police officer in game story. Later that day, Carl meets up with Bryce to tell him that he found an old game arcade cabinet title Pixel City over at an abandoned arcade. Later that night, Bryce and Carl discover arcade machine at abandoned arcade and then they tried that machine out. Bryce push start button on machine, then not happens at 1 with Bryce say it not work, but all of a sudden, arcade starts to have a blind white flash that begins to suck up random things in arcade build. Bryce and Carl try to escape, but they fail and get suck into arcade cabinet.

Bryce and Carl discover a video game city deep inside realms of arcade cabinet, and they meet a penguin name Peppy Penguin that can talk and be understood in video game universe, though game play his own game simply hear him as a normal penguin. Later, gang are then attack by a party of Virus Ninjas, which are Lord Hex minions. Trio escape and Peppy explains to Bryce and Carl that Hex is plan to wipe out and erase entire video game universe with power of hack out the Pixel Gems in Game Temple.

In order to defeat Hex and stop him from wiping out video game world, gang must form a team name Pixelators. Peppy leads gang to Bryce own video game, Cop Stories. Enter game, Bryce becomes enthralled with his own game, coming to life and his own action oriented adventures. Peppy shows trio to a secret underground battle arena where all game characters can fight off their enemies. Arena owner, Carlos recognizes Peppy, who injured his Black Dragon in a previous battle, and demands another rematch. He doses Black Dragon with gas that makes creatures go wild, stirring dragon into a violent rage, and Peppy is unable to summon powers to fight back. While attempting to save Peppy, Bryce knocks Carlos over and breaks several gas vials, send arena creatures into a frenzy. Arena is raided by police and gang is take by Alice Summers, who is actually try to save them from city criminal Carlos, and friends, Master Rapper and Big Bill.

Carlos and friends try to stop gang, starting a car chase between 2, with help of Alice amazing driving talent to escape criminals. Unfortunately Peppy accidentally take steer wheel, making police car crash under a bridge, but surprisingly escape from Carlos. Later at police station, chief suspends Alice from her job after not try to catch Carlos, and for destroy her own police car, leaving Alice saddened. Bryce then apologizes to Alice for get her suspended, but she tells him that it her fault, since she is try very hard to become a great cop but fail due to her clumsy and childish acts. Alice then invites Bryce, Carl, and Peppy to her apartment and tell trio how Alice became a cop after Lord Hex invaded her home and kidnapped her mom when she was young. Bryce then tells Alice if she is interested in join Pixelators and defeat Hex once and for all, and Alice thinks about it, remembering her kidnapped mother, and finally accepting it.

Team later head to an adventure video game title Nature Legend where Nya and Jay are in, and later on, they are attack by Virus, chasing them through forest, but are fended off by a shockwave bomb which Peppy threw at ninjas. They then end up in a field of colossal Nature Giants, where Nya saves team. After Nya save Bryce, Carl, Peppy, and Alice, they are subsequently attacked by men on motorbikes which Nya call them Forest Savages, but manage to escape by fleeing through trees and jump off a cliff into a river where they find 1 of river whales, where team are engulfed and they travel to forest village, inside whale. At forest village, Nya explains Lord Hex steal game own Forest Crystal from it shrine, gaining control of all forest animals and plan to use it to have animals invade Pixel City along with his plans to erase video game universe. Nya then tells Alice to warn every 1 in Pixel City that only way to get back there is to go through Fox World. There, Alice befriends Fox Animation Girls, being encouraged by them to address her sense of unfulfillment and reach an epiphany. Lord Hex forces invade village, where Bryce and Nya attempt to fight them off, but they are soon confronted by Hex himself, only just escaping when Jay throws a smoke grenade as a distraction and leads them to a secret passage. Alice meet back up with team at a mountain, where she forgot to tell citizens of Pixel City, after being caught up with Fox Animation Girls, get Peppy, Carl and Nya frustrated, but Bryce forgives her.

Bryce, Peppy, Carl and Alice leave Nature Legend end up in a game call Dance Frenzy. While there, team must dance their way out in order to leave and get to Game Temple, as told by Trinity, host of game. They are once again attack by Virus, and their actions cause game to delete game off of their console. Bryce and Alice escape, but Peppy and Carl are take along with game and end up in trash. As a result of losing their friends, Bryce gets outraged and end his friendship with Alice, leaving her tears while Bryce decides to find temple himself.

Suddenly, after Bryce left, Alice is captured by Hex and henchmen, along with Peppy and Carl where they end up in Hex prison while Alice is take captive by Hex himself. Bryce finds Game Temple but temple guardians told him to find his epiphany in order to save universe. Bryce, Nya and Jay devise a plan to infiltrate Hex lair and save Alice, Peppy, and Carl from his prison. Bryce later save Alice, Peppy, and Carl and helps them escape prison, set off all security alerts, overloading prison system. However, Hex captures Alice and strap her to top of Pixel Tower, where Hex unveils gems to destroy game universe once and for all. Peppy finally summons his powers to battle Hex henchmen while Bryce frees Alice from tower. 2 escape, but Hex traps Bryce under rubble and threatens to kill him when every video game hero appears to fight off Hex crew. Bryce later finds Hex in his lair, just about to break gems. Bryce fights Hex throughout lair and Hex accidentally knocks gems into energy beam, break them. With Bryce nearly kill, he realizes that he must follow epiphany that temple guardians told him. Bryce knocks Hex with 1 of his own weapons and throws him at self destruct button, with a huge explosion destroy Hex lair. Townspeople of Pixel City believe Bryce is dead, but it turns out that he survived explosion. Hex and his enforcers are arrested and Bryce repairs gems, saving video game universe. Bryce embraces responsibilities of his new life with Pixelators now being hailed as heroes. Despite saving video game universe, Alice and Peppy are fired from their games for disobedience and major city destruction, but however, they are quick reinstated by Game Temple guardians and Mayor Mark, mayor of Pixel City, to form Pixelators team, and assures gang team was only begin for them.

Hex, still in possession of 1 of Pixel Gems and having lost his sanity, begins plotting his revenge.

Cast

 * Tom Holland as Bryce Jones, a video game design.
 * Jason Drucker as young Bryce Jones
 * Anna Kendrick as Officer Alice Summers, an optimistic police officer who is protagonist of Bryce game Cop Stories.
 * Kevin Hart as Carl Stevenson, Bryce best friend.
 * Ryan Reynolds as Peppy Penguin, a sarcastic, wise crack penguin.
 * Jason Statham as Lord Hex, a mean spirited corrupt villain who wants to hack and wipe out video game universe.
 * Zoe Saldana as Nya, a nature warrior princess.
 * Jason Sudeikis as Jay, a speedy bird like creature who is Nya companion.
 * Ellie Kemper as Amelia, gatekeeper of Pixel City
 * Gabriel Iglesias as Carlos
 * Keegan Michael Key as Master Rapper
 * John Cena as Big Bill, a tough fighter
 * Kristen Wiig as Harper Jones, Bryce mother
 * Jenny Slate as Trinity, a super cool dancer.
 * Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill as Ed and Elliot, 2 multicolored shape shifting creatures who annoy Bryce.
 * Nick Offerman as Wizman, a wizard
 * Patrick Stewart as Mayor Mark, mayor of Pixel City
 * Will Forte as Mr Marshmallow
 * Danny Mcbride as Mike Jones, Bryce father and Harper husband
 * Ike Barinholtz as Mr Duckett, an anthropomorphic duck who is basically afraid of everything.

Additional voices

 * Seth Green, Chris Hardwick, Quinton Flynn, Christopher Nicholas Smith, and Grey Griffin as Hack Masters, Lord Hex henchmen.
 * Nolan North as Police Chief
 * Phil Lamarr, Christopher Miller, Jeff Lieberman, Conrad Vernon, and Scott Mosier as Cop Stories Police Officers.
 * Cam Clarke, John DiMaggio, and Kari Wahlgren as Game Temple Guardians.
 * Kevin Michael Richardson, Lily Jensen, and Jonathan Gaines as Cop Stories Thugs.
 * Matt Flynn, Steve Mccarthy, Kirk Hooper, and Ben Potts as Apes
 * Ben Potts also voices Biker Leader.
 * Robert Tinkler as Felony Felix
 * Jorma Taccone as Doctor Pyro
 * Joseph Haro as Timmy
 * Alex Borstein as Timmy Grandma
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Bread Vendor Benny

Several characters from other Fox films and media also make cameo appearances with their original or current voice actors, such as Kristen Bell as Alaina Gleen, Mandy Moore as Kate Anderson from Kate And Chris (2007), Selena Gomez as Crystal, Anne Hathaway as Princess Joanna from Puppet Pals, Jodi Benson as Marie from Spring Of Rosemary, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Audrey Martinez from History Island, John Leguizamo as Sid from Ice Age, Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson from Simpsons, Jeff Bergman as Daniel Wyatt from Bad Life Of Daniel, Meg Ryan as Anya from Anastasia, Rebecca Wilkinson as Alice Rose from Sister Light, Sister Dark, and Andy Serkis as Caesar from Planet Of Apes reboot films.

ADR Voice Performers

 * Stephen Apostolina
 * Maggie Baird
 * Daniel Booko
 * Jennifer Cain
 * Catherine Cavadini
 * David Cowgill
 * Debi Derryberry
 * Terri Douglas
 * Jeff Fischer
 * Johnny Gidcomb
 * Jackie Gonneau
 * Wendy Hoffmann
 * Joanna Leeds
 * Susan Leslie
 * Yuri Lowenthal
 * Scott Menville
 * Max Mittelman
 * Heidi Brook Myers
 * Matt Nolan
 * Arthur Ortiz
 * Devika Parikh
 * Courtney Peldon
 * Ben Pronsky
 * Jason Grant Smith
 * Kelly Stables
 * Skip Stellrecht
 * Pepper Sweeney
 * Fred Tatasciore
 * Randy Thom
 * Lisa Wilhoit
 * Matthew Wood
 * Ruth Zalduondo

Popular culture cameos and references
Coming soon!

Development
Concept of an animated film based on a story about 2 teens get magic transported into world of video games originated from Fox Animation supervising animator Edward Mendez in 2004. In 2006, Mendez pitched idea to 20 Century Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch, short after release of Puppet Pals. In 2007, film was announced as Pixel City as 3D computer animated feature scheduled for a 2011 release, which Computer Opolis like version of film that revolved around an entirely different concept. In 2009, Pixel City was push back to 2013 release in order to give in order to give Mendez more time to work on story.

It had originally been announced in 2010 that Kung Fu Panda director John Stevenson would be co directing film alongside Edward. In 2011, it was reported that Stevenson and Mendez had step down as directors due to other commitments, making 20 Century Fox remove film from it plan release schedule. In 2012, Fox announced that production for Pixel City was cancelled, usually due to story issues and lack of directors. In 2012, Edward conceived of a new idea for film and began discussing it with Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, where he let them have his original idea. In 2013, revealed that film was back in production, as Lord and Miller were select to write and direct film. In 2013, Lord and Miller revealed film new title, Pixelators, and a reworked storyline.

Writing and casting
In 2010, when Edward and John Stevenson were directing original Pixel City film, Wallace Wolodarsky and Maya Forbes were select to write film. When film got cancelled in 2012, Forbes explained that film was just not work right. In 2014, 20 Century Fox announced that Derek Connolly and Rodney Rothman would be co writing film, alongside Lord and Miller. In 2014, Ryan Reynolds, Jason Statham, and Anna Kendrick were add to voice cast of film. In 2015, Deadline Hollywood report that Kevin Hart will voice a main character name Carl. Tom Holland later join cast as lead character. Full cast announced their respective roles via announcements on Fox Animation Century City official Twitter. Team was able to secure all Fox Animation Girls original voice actresses, except for Alicia Silverstone as Alice Rose from Sister Light, Sister Dark, as filmmakers could get Silverstone into cast of Pixelators, and Rebecca Wilkinson, 1 of film lead animators, who performed Alice Rose voice for temporary tracks, but team considered it a good substitute, allow Wilkinson to voice her in final film.

Animation and design
Over 7 years before film release, Fox Animation Century City had substantially over hauled it production workflow and animation software since development of Alaina Gleen (2010). Pixelators was 1 Fox Animation Century City film that use Fox BOOM 20, a update rendering system of original Fox BOOM that offered studio new animation and light software through entire production as part of overhaul of original BOOM rendering system use since 1 Puppet Pals. Call by Fox Animation president Robert Baird as next generation of Fox Animation Century City. Before new system, artists had to build reflections and shadows manually, which became increasingly complex as models and set up became more technologically advanced.

Custom software program was used for film, to create over distinctive characters, and later including highest number of characters in any Fox Animation film, with 386 individual characters with 5,119 variants. 1 of Fox Animation who help out to bring some of Fox Animation Girls into CG animation was Michael Hodge. In designing characters and art style, Lord and Miller were inspired by Walt Disney Animation Studios films, and they decided that characters in Pixelators would be loosely styled in akin to Disney art style in their modern CGI animated films, such as Tangled, Frozen and Wreck It Ralph.

Fox Animation had contracted Korean Disney animators Shiyoon Kim and Jin Kim, who were finish work on Universal Paradoria, to begin work on character design alongside fellow Fox character design Edward Mendez, Travis Massey, Carter Goodrich, and Sylvain Deboissy as well as former Disney veteran Glen Keane who was later uncredited in film, while Peter De Seve served as the character design for Peppy Penguin. Although characters were initially design by Mendez, Jin Kim altered on some of characters faces. Production wrapped.

Music and post-production
Most of soundtrack comes from older songs from 70, 80, and 90. This was because Phil was so fascinated with nostalgia that he wanted film to be unique as well. Additionally, Week record a new song title You Feel It Coming, where it was use in film end credits.

Lead cast members record film dialogue in 2015 at LA Studios record studio in Los Angeles under supervision of original dialogue Carlos Sotolongo. Additional dialogue was record at an ADR facility on Soundtrack Group New York studio, since production team had to work around busy schedules of other cast members. Final orchestrations of score were all recorded at Newman Scoring Stage on 20 Century Fox studio lot in Century City by an 80 piece orchestra, and Alan Meyerson mixed score at Eastwood Scoring Stage on Warner Bros  studio lot in Burbank.

Although the music and almost all the dialogue were all recorded elsewhere, most of the sound effects and the final re-recording mix to the Dolby Atmos format were performed at Skywalker Sound by Gary Rydstrom, Randy Thom, Lora Hirschberg, Jeremy Bowker and Gary Summers.

Release
Pixelators was initially scheduled for release on December 16, 2016, but in 2016, it was push back a week back to December 9, 2016, to avoid competition with Lucasfilm Rogue 1. Film premiere at Regency Village Theater on November 25, 2016 in Los Angeles in an out of competition screen. In US, it received a wide theatrical release by 20 Century Fox starting on December 9, 2016 in RealD 3D, IMAX, Dolby Cinema, premium large formats, and D Box. Film was later released in UK on December 30, 2016 and in Australia on December 22, 2016. Film was released 2 months later in China on February 17, 2017.

Film had it TV broadcast debut on February 22, 2019, airing on FX. Airing achieved over 5.2 million viewers, lifting FX usual ratings in 2019

Marketing
Video Game based on film was released on December 6, 2016 for Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Xbox 1, and Play Station 4, and published by Activision and developed by Beenox.
 * Film teaser trailer was released online on December 7, 2015, and was later attached into theatrical screenings of Paradoria, Kung Fu Panda 3, Zootopia, Jungle Book, and Angry Birds Movie.
 * 1 theatrical trailer was released on June 15, 2016, and was attached in front of theatrical screenings of Find Dory, BFG, Secret Life Of Pets, Ice Age 5 Collision Course, Pete Dragon, Kubo And 2 Strings, and 3D re release of Puppet Pals.
 * Final theatrical trailer was released on September 22, 2016, and was released theatrically in front of Storks, Miss Peregrine Home For Peculiar Children, Trolls, Fantastic Beasts And Where to Find Them, and Moana.
 * TV spots aired between September and December of 2016.

Home media
Pixelators was released on Digital on March 17, 2017, and on Blu ray, Blu ray 3D, 4K Ultra HD Blu ray, and DVD on March 28, 2017 by 20 Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Box office
Pixelators grossed $248.2 million in US and UK and $344.2 in other countries for a worldwide total of $592.4 million, against a budget of $155 million.

North America
In US and UK, Pixelators was released alongside Office Christmas Party and expansions of Miss Sloane and Nocturnal Animals and pre release track suggested film would open to $55 60 million from 4,054 theaters in it open week. It play in 3,460 3D theaters, 425 IMAX theaters, and 315 premium large format screens. It earn $5.2 million from Thursday night previews. By good word of mouth, it earn $22.9 million on it open day, break record for biggest open day for an original Fox Animation film. It end up overperforming in it open week, grossing $70.2 million, which is 2 biggest animated open behind Paradoria $113.9 million. In it 2 week, film made $43.6 million, drop 100%, and finish 2 behind newcomer Rogue 1 A Star Wars Story $155 million.

Critical response
Pixelators received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 47% based on 174 reviews and an average rating of 5.1 10. Site critical consensus reads, "Even though The Pixelators boasts a talented cast and top-notch CG animation, they aren't enough to save the disappointing end result from a muddled story, pop-culture references, and loud and frenetic action that has little replay value." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 100 out of 100 based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Michael Rechtshaffen of Hollywood Reporter considered film very amazing and hilarious well done. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave film 4 out of 4 stars, say Eye pop and irreverent animated experience from guys who brought you Lego Movie and Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs. Pixelators is a fast, fizzy and frenetically entertaining film that proceeds to obliterate with a 2 hour blast of color, noise, ingenuity and funny. Joe Morgenstern of Wall Street Journal criticized film story, describing it as too formulaic. Glenn Kenny of New York Times gave film a negative review, writing, Let be clear, then Pixelators is pointless because it based on video games. It pointless because it pointless. Andy Webster of New York Times call it, Poor man Wreck It Ralph. In his review for Wrap, Alonso Duralde wrote, Pixelators is an awful candy coat, hard shined brick of postmodernism a mix of pop culture references, 80 nostalgia, product placements and internet memes.

Sequels and potential spin-off
Sequel title Pixelators 2 was confirmed by 20 Century Fox on January 13, 2017 and was released in theaters on February 7, 2020. Lord and Miller return to produce and write sequel with a script written by Nicholas Stoller and Rodney Rothman. All of main cast also reprised their roles in sequel, and are join by Zach Galifianakis, Daisy Ridley, Tiffany Haddish, James Mcavoy, Sterling K Brown, with Trey Parker, and Josh Gad. Sequel takes place 3 years after 1 film, with a new powerful supervillain name Dr Silverclaw from an abandoned 80 video game kidnap Bryce friends and plan to threaten to destroy entire video game universe, Bryce and Lord Hex may have to make impossible choice to team up and fight against Dr Silverclaw. Alice Summers has been crown princess in a new video game title Flower Heaven. Directors Lord and Miller also said that a Pixelators spin off film focus on Fox Animation Girls could be made depending on audience response, and if there a good story to be told.

Television series
A traditionally animated television series based on film title Pixelators Game On debuted on June 8, 2018 on Fox Family. All of main cast were replaced by Josh Keaton, Amanda Leighton, Seth Green, Phil Lamarr, Catherine Taber, Roger Craig Smith, Grey Griffin, with Kari Wahlgren, and Michael Gough, respectively.

Main
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Trailers
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