Me & Mobo

Me & Mobo is a 2006 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Universal Feature Animation. The film was directed by Steve Samono from a screenplay by Samono, Peter Baynham and Stacey Harmon and a story by Samono, and stars the voices of Jim Carrey, Isla Fisher, Dakota Fanning, William Shatner, Tim Curry, Wayne Knight, and Brad Garrett. It follows a gentle monster named Mobo who befriends a teenage human named Lina Miller; the two struggle to develop a close friendship without being caught by the humans.

The film was released by Universal Pictures on July 7, 2006 in the United States. It was met with mixed reviews from critics, who praised its animation, visuals, humor, score, and performances but criticized its plot and screenplay as being derivative. Despite the mixed reviews, the film was a box office success, grossing $486 million worldwide against a $74 million budget.

Plot
A lonely, harmless monster named Mobo lives in a cave in the woods and has been struggling to befriend the animals who are terrified of him after his family was killed by hunters. Meanwhile, in the small town of Lakehill, a teenage girl named Lina Miller lives with her father Harry and younger sister Paige. One day, Harry, a hunter, takes Lina to hunt in the woods so he can teach his daughter how to become a hunter like him, in which Lina lacks interest in. When she becomes separated from the group, Lina encounters Mobo in the woods.

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Voice Cast

 * Jim Carrey as Mobo, a gentle monster who refuses to harm all the humans and animals.
 * Isla Fisher as Lina Miller, an eccentric and kind 16-year-old human girl who is the eldest daughter of Harry.
 * Dakota Fanning as Paige Miller, Lina's 8-year-old sister and Harry's younger daughter.
 * William Shatner as Harry Miller, a hunter who is Lina and Paige's father.
 * Tim Curry as Mayor Hugo Pinnez, the wealthy, greedy, and selfish mayor of Lakehill who plans on hunting Mobo and other monsters and converting them into clothing and furniture.
 * Wayne Knight as Tony, Mayor Pinnez's henchman.
 * Brad Garrett as Mr. Mint, the Millers' neighbor.
 * Steve Samono as Sommi, a dim-witted critter who often follows Mobo.
 * Chris Kattan as Gil, a lazy guy who doesn't care much about anything.
 * David Eigenberg as Fluff
 * Nick Swardson as Terry
 * Pat Fraley as Tourist #1
 * Vanessa Marshall as Tourist #2
 * Mako Iwamatsu as Chef
 * Gary Hall as Tako
 * Cynthia Marion as Auctioneer
 * Frank Welker as Additional Animal Vocal Effects (uncredited)

Additional Voices

 * Carlos Alazraqui
 * Jack Angel
 * Bob Bergen
 * Susan Blu
 * Rodger Bumpass
 * Jane Carr
 * John Cygan
 * Jennifer Darling
 * Paul Eiding
 * Bill Farmer
 * Jessie Flower
 * Aaron Fors
 * Zachary Gordon
 * Jess Harnell
 * Sherry Lynn
 * Danny Mann
 * Mickie McGowan
 * Alec Medlock
 * Laraine Newman
 * Phil Proctor
 * Jan Rabson
 * Daryl Sabara
 * Evan Sabara
 * Steve Samono
 * Mindy Sterling
 * Jim Ward
 * Ariel Winter

Development
The concept of what became Me & Mobo originated from animator Cynthia Marion after the release of her feature-length directorial debut The Three Princes and Their Beasts in 1993. After Multimedia Animation was merged into Universal Feature Animation in 1996, Marion then started directing the film's development. In August 1998, Universal announced the film as The Monster and the Teenager, as a traditionally animated feature scheduled for a 2002 release, which Marion described as a "Beauty and the Beast-like" film that revolved around an entirely different concept. Marion said of the original plot, "It was a dramatic and touching version and we had a couple of great writers. But we then realized that the story wasn't fitting right, so we went into a witty and goofy direction with it."

In December 2000, The Monster and the Teenager was pushed back to a spring 2004 release in order to give Marion "more time to work on the story." By July 2001, the film was retitled Mobo and it was announced that the film would be instead a computer animated feature film due to the success of the hand-drawn/CGI animated hybrid film Going Francisco. It was also announced that Universal animator and story artist Gary Hall would be co-directing the film alongside Marion, while screenwriter Peter Baynham was hired by Universal to write the screenplay for the film. On August 29, 2002, Variety reported that Marion and Hall had stepped down as directors due to other commitments, and were replaced by Steve Samono, creator of the Gingo animated series Hatty. Marion stayed on as an executive producer and character designer, while Hall retained as story supervisor. After the film's release, Marion revealed that she had "stepped back" from the role of director because of a heart attack in 2002. In September 2002, the film's title was changed once again, this time as Me & Mobo. By May 2003, production had officially begun.

Casting
On September 9, 2003, it was reported that Jim Carrey, Isla Fisher, William Shatner and Tim Curry had been cast as the film's characters. Before Carrey was cast, Matthew Broderick was initially offered the role of Mobo, but Samono hired Carrey because of his performance in The Mask (1994) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000).

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Animation
Me & Mobo was animated in-house at Universal Feature Animation's headquarters in Universal City, California.

Music
The film's score was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh. The soundtrack was released on July 4, 2006, by Varèse Sarabande.

Release
The film was originally scheduled for release on December 16, 2005, but on December 10, 2004, its release date was pushed back to July 7, 2006, due to Universal's satisfaction with the successful July 2004 release of Computeropolis and desire to exploit fully the merchandising potential of a summer film. The release date change was also three days after Disney/Pixar changed the release date of Cars, from November 2005 to June 2006, two days after DreamWorks Animation changed the release date of Shrek the Third, from November 2006 to May 2007, and the day after 20th Century Fox Animation changed the release date of Puppet Pals from December 2005 to June 2006.

Marketing
An exclusive sneak peek of the film was released on December 7, 2004 with the 2004 VHS and DVD releases of Computeropolis.

The film's teaser trailer was released on May 27, 2005 and was attached into theatrical screenings of Madagascar, The Perfect Man, and Onion Mastori: The Movie. The first full trailer was released on October 7, 2005 and was attached into Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Chicken Little, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Hoodwinked!. The final trailer debuted on February 10, 2006 and was shown with Curious George, Ice Age: The Meltdown, The Wild, Over the Hedge, and Cars. TV spots began to air between June 5 to July 18, 2006.

Upon its release, Wendy's promoted the film with a set of 5 kids' meal toys featuring the characters from the film.

Home Media
Me & Mobo was released on DVD, HD DVD, UMD Video, and VHS (which is a very rare one) on December 5, 2006. Both releases were accompanied by an all-new short animated film titled Just Sommi. The Blu-ray version was released on July 22, 2008. It was also released on Blu-Ray 3D on January 22, 2013 and 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray on May 15, 2018.

Box Office
Me & Mobo grossed $150 million in the United States and Canada and $336.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $486.9 million, against a $74 million budget on it's opening day behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006).

Critical Reception
Me & Mobo has a 41% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 5.2/10 based on 146 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "With a story that borrows clumsily from other flicks, this cuddly creature has its good moments, but little to stand out among the other family film colony." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 49 based on 33 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Video Game
A video game based on the film was released on July 4, 2006 for PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X. For Wii, it was released on November 19, 2006, together with the console's launch.

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

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