Ico (film)

Ico is a 2019 American 3D motion captured computer animated fantasy adventure comedy film based on 2001 Video Game Of Same Name. Produced by Sony Pictures Animation, 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, with Keri Russell, and Mahershala Ali.

Production of film was 1 leaked online after in 2014 hacks of Sony computers which revealed studio co chairman Amy Pascal in talks with Gingo Animation for a feature film. It was eventually confirmed in 2017 with film intended on being in motion capture combined with photo realistic computer animation and principal photography began in late 2017 on a blue screen stage in Atlanta. Virtual reality utilized in Real Tag cinematography were used to a greater degree during film of Ico. Film was originally intended to be released under Gingo Animation brand until Gingo decided to give film to Sony Pictures Animation because studio found original Ico game too dark for children. Ico is also 1 film by Sony Pictures Animation to be rated PG 13 by MPAA, due to it stronger violence and darker and more disturbing content than their other films.

Ico premiered in Dolby Theater on November 5, 2019, and was released on November 27, 2019, in US by Sony Pictures under Columbia Pictures label. Film received generally positive reviews, praising animation, visual effects, it dark tone, vocal performances, action sequences and it faithfulness to video game, but it was criticized for lack of characterization for certain minor characters. Film has grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide, becoming 10 highest grossing film of 2019 and highest grossing film by Sony Pictures Animation and Sony respectively.

Plot
As Ico finally comes back to village he notices that everyone is under Queen spell, when he instantly decides that he should go along and battle her himself. Meanwhile, leads her army to defeat her minions and get everyone out of her spell. Ico finally faces evil Queen after easily going through her castle where she waits evil for him while he states his determination to protect his kingdom from her havoc.

Cast

 * Finn Wolfhard as Ico A young boy who 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 discovery of his unusual horns. Director Guillermo Del Toro describes Ico as, an outcast who differs himself from others of his age in little village while being a little boy in school who has trouble fitting in due to cultural as well as personal differences. Regarding Wolfhard casting, producer Brad Copeland said, Ico personal experiences can be much similar to most of Stranger Things specifically being closest to character 11 and Wolfhard distinct voice can definitely match what character would actually sound like. Character was 1 introduced in Universal Animation Studios film Computer Opolis Deep Web in 2018 while being voiced by Noah Schnapp which was originally intended voice actor for Ico in this film but was replaced by Wolfhard as Schnapp experienced scheduling conflicts which caused him to drop out film. In addition to voicing character, Wolfhard also performs motion capture as well. To do motion capture, Wolfhard received some advice in process of pre production from Andy Serkis who would later end up being cast in film as well. Ico distinct horns were created and animated through the use of CGI while his face and body were modelled and based on Wolfhard himself.
 * Millie Bobby Brown as Yorda Daughter of Queen who helps Ico. Her body is weaker than others due to Queen using some of Yorda soul to keep herself alive. Model of Yorda was described by character designer Shiyoon Kim as a realistic version of Gwen Stacy from Spider Man Into Spider Verse. Brown performs both motion capture and voice of character.
 * Emma Thompson as Queen Queen of castle that uses Yorda body in order to extend her lifespan. Thompson described character as that 1 person who misses their young days so much that they try to recreate them along with acting youthful themselves. But she is also that 1 parent who wants her own child to follow her footsteps in her own success. Character face was modelled to resemble Thompson herself.
 * Nicole Kidman as Margli A youthful elf who is caretaker of Ico after she found him in forest lying down alone. Kidman described her as that 1 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 director Guillermo Del Toro personally who treated her nice and with manners.
 * Harrison Ford as Oggoth Mystical wizard who ends up giving Ico his horns. Describing Oggoth, Del Toro said, He is Merlin to 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 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 character personality.
 * Andy Serkis as Shihriax Leader of various shadow creatures that are surrounding village. Describing Serkis performance, Del Toro said, He like a leader of a street gang but more fantasized and magical. That what it says in script, which he kind of doing. On bringing character to life, Serkis said, What Del Toro wanted, that you found out little by little as you were doing it, is that he wanted you to explore and just keep pushing character and keep creating him as you were in front of camera.
 * Rihanna as Eva 1 of Queen personal assistants who is also a slave because of her family poverty and also 1 of Ico childhood friends that he grew up with.
 * Forest Whitaker as Narco A former thief who now works for local mental hospital where Ico was trapped in for early half of his life. Narco is also Ico uncle who along with a select few of others, does not actually pick or treat Ico differently because of his unusual horns.
 * Daniel Kaluuya as Whizzaro Comical elf of Eastward Realm.
 * Adrien Brody as Emon A crooked thief.
 * Orlando Bloom as Jorgen alleged thief of the magical realm who is actually a good guy.
 * Ving Rhames as Lord Triton evil soul taker and king of shadow realm.
 * Keri Russell as Venex A tomboy woman who is head of Guardian Knights.
 * Mahershala Ali as Argo magical stallion who is Ico go to for transportation to any destination. Like human characters, character was completely CGI and was designated to be an all black horse.

Noah Schnapp appears as Melvin Wander, a youthful teenage orphan that is lost in world who searches to look for himself. Writer Brad Copeland called him a self centred dummy who does not realize that lonely and lost but instead explores dangerous world. Director Del Toro, based character on Wander character of Shadows Of Colossus and made Melvin more distinct by changing gender of character and actually giving him a name. Dylan O Brien portrays Larz, more known son of Queen, and Yorda older brother, who is mostly told to be 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 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 bully to Ico. In response to negative backlash of character, Del Toro responded by saying, this is only beginning, sequels and prequels will explain how she changed from her videogame self. Steinfeld said that reason for Mono hating Ico is because she 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 basis of the character, Glass Ball based character on a mix of character Dennis from Spongebob Squarepants Movie 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 proclaimed hero of village. Larenz Tate and DC Young Fly respectively play Washington and Jackson, 2 descendants of shadow realm they are accomplices of Michigore who use their dark magic powers to start terror. Del Toro describes them as comic relief for film and praised Tate and Paul chemistry. Dennis Haysbert and Selenis Leyva play Ico long lost real parents who abandoned him after seeing horns grow out of his head. Idris Elba as Grah, original King who was assassinated mysteriously. George Takei and BD Wong play an odd elf gay couple who gets killed after Michigore power goes wild. Alexandra Holden voiced a baby elf while Jason O Mara voices Que, Argo young brother.

Development
A film adaption of Ico originally came about based on success of proposed film adaptation of Shadow Of Colossus by Misher Films in conjunction with Sony Pictures and Fumito Ueda. Following In 2014 hack of Sony computers, emails between Sony Pictures co chairman Amy Pascal and president Doug Belgrad were released stating that Sony was in talks with Gingo Animation about an animated film based on Ico. Emails also mentioned a possibility where Sony would handle film US distribution while Universal Pictures would handle international distribution.

In 2017, it was officially announced that Sony would be teaming up with Gingo to make an animated Ico adaptation, with Brad Copeland writing film script. 2 months later, Guillermo Del Toro, called original Ico game a masterpiece, was announced as director. In 2018, Sony set film for a December 27, 2019 release, and announced that film would be produced by Gingo adult label Glass Ball Productions. Film was initially intended to be produced under traditional Gingo Animation banner, but Gingo Entertainment president Clive Nakayashiki felt original game was too dark for children. Nakayashiki and Del Toro disagreed over various elements of it but since Del Toro had final cut privilege, he refused to make alterations. Athena Christaniakis, vice president, felt it was appropriate to produce film under their Glass Ball Productions banner instead of Gingo banner.

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

Animation
As with Star, Sony Pictures Animation will have animation produced by another studio other than Sony Pictures Imageworks, which handles digital production for most of SPA films. For this film, Ico will be animated by computer animation division Creativestep Animation Studio and will also be animated in a combination of motion capture along with photo realistic computer animation. However, it was later announced that Sony Pictures Imageworks will handle additional animation duties for film. Film budget is estimated to be around $300 million due to expensive nature of motion capture combined with computer animation, making it biggest for an animated film, Creativestep Animation Studios, and 1 of most expensive films of all time.

Visual effects
Creativestep Studio, who does animation, also provides visual effects, which were supervised by Robert Legato, Elliot Newman and Adam Valdez. Film utilizes virtual reality tools, per Visual Effects Supervisor Rob Legato. Virtual Production Supervisor Girish Balakrishnan said on his professional website that filmmakers used motion capture and VR AR technologies, with production team combining VR technology with cameras in order to film remake in VR simulated environment. New software had to be developed for movie and made it possible to create scenes with a shaky cam look of a handheld camera, to make film seem as realistic as it can be similar to a modern videogame. Sanford Panitch, Columbia Pictures President of Production, called film visual effects a new form of filmmaking, and felt that Historical definitions do 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 technology used in Beowulf and Jungle Book (2016).

Rather than animators do everything, team also used artificial intelligence to allow virtual characters to behave in ways that mimicked real human beings.

Music
In 2018, Michael Giacchino was announced to compose film score. Film features remastered version You Were There from original game sung by Skylar Grey which was released on November 22, 2019, 5 days before film release.

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

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

Rothman presented new footage of film at Cinemacon 2019, and acknowledged that it revealed film version of Ico by saying, See, we did forget to put Queen in movie Di Placido was more positive of this trailer, praising appearance of and visuals for characters, but was concerned about voice acting of Ico noting that it perfect but does not fit for a person of his age.

2 trailer which included Queen song Bohemian Rhapsody, debuted on June 12, 2019, and was attached to screenings for Men In Black 4 International. This trailer received universal acclaim praising animation which most critics called beautiful and unreal and selection of music which fit moments of trailer was praised as well.

Final trailer was released on September 4, 2019, and was attached to screenings of It 2.

Video game
On July 19, 2019, Geo G announced that a video game tie in based on film will be released for Play Station 4 a day before film release date. It is intended to be an HD remaster remake of original 2001 Play Station 2 game with additional gameplay added and redone voices.

Release
Ico was released in the US on November 27, 2019, by Columbia Pictures in 3D, RealD 3D, Digital 3D, Dolby Cinema, and IMAX 3D. It was previously scheduled for release on December 27, 2019, and later on November 22, 2019, but was pushed back a week of November 29 to avoid competition with Frozen 2 before being moved forward to it current date. Film was shown in IMAX theatres as part of multi film deal with Sony Pictures.

Rating
Film was rated PG 13 for strong bloody violence and action, language, sexual content, and brief suggestive comments, making it 1 Sony Pictures Animation film to receive that rating under MPAA. It was also rated 15 in UK by BBFC for strong violence, threat, language, and frightening images being toned down from a 18 rating by cutting out 1 scene of very strong violence.

Home media
Ico was released on Digital HD and Movies Anywhere on February 18, 2020, followed by an 4K Ultra HD Blu ray, Blu ray, and DVD releases on March 3, 2020.

Reception
In 2018, film was named as most anticipated 2019 film, most anticipated animated film of all time and 2 most anticipated blockbuster of 2019 according to ticketing service Fandango, and most anticipated animated film by Atom Tickets.

Critical reception
Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 100% with an average score of 9.8 10, based on 356 reviews. Site critical consensus reads Ico is able to not only recapture heart and innocence of videogame, but it enhances it into an adventurous and enjoyable flick. On Metacritic, film has a weighted average score of 100 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating generally favourable reviews. Audiences polled by Cinemascore gave film an average grade of A+ on an A+ to F scale, while Posttrak reported filmgoers gave it an 100% positive score and a 100% definite recommend.

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

Box office
Ico grossed $385.6 million in US and UK and $801.2 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $1.186 billion. With a production budget of $300 million, film needed to gross $750 million to break even. Film reached $1 billion on January 9, 2020, making it 1 animated film not made by Disney, Fox, or Universal to ever reach $1 billion as well as 1 Spider Man and James Bond film to reach that mark. Deadline Hollywood calculated net profit of film to be $186 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.

In US and UK, Ico was released alongside Knives Out and Queen And Slim, and was projected to gross anywhere from $110 150 million from 4,600 theatres which is widest November open of all time, in it 5 day open week. It is play in 3,500 3D theatres, 500 IMAX theatres, 900 premium large format screens, and 415 D Box 4D enhanced theatres. Film made $39.5 million on it open day including $10.3 million from Tuesday night previews, biggest for a Thanksgiving film, and another $29.3 million on it 2 day leading increasing 5 day projections to $165 170 million. It went on to make $180.3 million in it 5 day open including $111.4 million in traditional 3 day week, both highest of all time for a film released during Thanksgiving week and 1 1 to gross over $100 million during it 3 day week. Film remained in 1 place in it 2 week while grossing $37.9 million. It placed 3 in it 3 and 4 week respectively while grossing $18 million and $13.9 million. It drop to 5 in it 5 week and grossed $16.3 million and a total of $26.2 million over 5 day Christmas frame. In film 10 week, it increased 100% from it last week, grossing $3.2 million while moving up to 7 place.

Film open in China on November 22, 2019, and made $39.1 million on it open day, biggest of all time for an animated film. It went on to make $119.2 million, biggest Disney open of year and biggest animated open of all time in China. Due to film big open in China, most box office analysts speculated film to end it run over $1 billion with some saying that it has potential to surpass Spider Man Far From Home $1.131 billion to become Sony highest grossing film of all time.

Sequel spin offs
In 2018, Guillermo Del Toro stated that he intends to make sequels to film and as well as starting a franchise for Ico with adaptions of other Team Ico such as Shadows Of Colossus (2005) and Last Guardian as long as film is successful enough which all depends on audience. Del Toro also stated, if it flops or does not 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 and put into production along with a Shadows Of Colossus (2005) spin off in production as well.

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

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