The King of Heroes

The King of Heroes is a 1999 American animated superhero comedy film produced by Klasky Csupo and Nickelodeon Movies and released by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by Conner Jones and was written by Jones, and Paul Germain, and it starts the voices of Tara Charendoff, Drake Bell, Cree Summer, Rob Paulsen, Josh Server, and Jeremy Irons. The film centers around a young boy named Tyler Thompson (Charendoff), who finds a magic crown that gives him superpowers and uses them to help people, but a mythology teacher named Nathaniel Barnes (Irons) wants to get his hands on it, so he tries to use the crown's powers to stop him.

The film was released into theatres on June 25, 1999 and it received mostly positive reviews from critics and it was praised for its animation, characters and plot, and cast. On it's $30 million budget, it grossed $237.5 million, making it the highest grossed Nickelodeon film at the time until the release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2014. It later spawned a television series, The Alpha Squad, which aired on Nickelodeon from 2000 to 2007, and it spawned two more films, The Alpha Squad: Worldwide Rescue in 2004 and The Alpha Squad: Magic Mayhem in 2007, which served as the series finale to The Alpha Squad.

Plot
Centuries ago, a magic crown known as the Crown of Heroes was created to help people protect their civilizations from their enemies. However, people who have worn the crown in the past let the power go straight to their heads and it resulted in pain and suffering to those around them. As a result, the crown had to be sent adrift and people hoped that whoever found the crown next doesn’t go insane over it.

In a present-day city called Highwell, an 11-year-old boy named Tyler Thompson (Tara Charendoff) was running late for school and was in a hurry to get ready. After he finished getting ready, he managed to arrive on time. While at school, Tyler and his three best friends, Mikey Mason (Drake Bell), Kylie Daniels (Cree Summer), and Sammy Smith (Rob Paulsen), find a book in the library that talks about mythological objects. Mikey and Sammy believe that the mythological objects exist somewhere, but Kylie doesn’t believe in them at all. When they ask Tyler to take a side, he says that he needs proof in order to believe something. They all agree and leave the library, taking the book with them.

Later that night, Tyler and his friends are being watched over by Ollie (Josh Server), Tyler’s 16-year-old brother while their parents are out on a date. Ollie decides to head to head to the beach and reluctantly takes Tyler and his friends with him.

After Tyler and the others arrive at the beach, the Crown of Heroes washes up on the shore and Mikey notices it. He shows it to others, and he and Sammy think it’s the actual Crown of Heroes like in the mythology book, but Kylie thinks that’s ridiculous. Wanting the argument to end, Tyler puts the crown on and is transformed into a superpowered king, surprising his friends. At first, Tyler freaks out, but he starts to get excited when Mikey and Sammy tell him that the wearer of the crown gets all sorts of incredible superpowers.

Meanwhile, Ollie was about to start a bonfire on the beach with his friends but they realize that they forgot the matches. Tyler overhears this and tries to see if any of his new powers are fire related and he accidentally shoots a tiny fireball at the firewood, starting the bonfire, and surprising Ollie.

The next day, Tyler, Ollie and the others start to wonder what they should do with the crown. Mikey and Sammy suggest using the crown to learn what other powers the crown has, but Kylie thinks they should get rid of it. They argue a little bit until Ollie suggests that they talk to his mythology teacher about the crown after the school day is over, and they all agree to do so.

After school, Tyler and his friends head to Ollie’s high school and meet the mythology teacher, Nathaniel Barnes (Jeremy Irons) who agrees to help the kids learn more about the Crown of Heroes. They spend the next few days learning what the crown’s powers were and Tyler uses the crown to help innocent people in need, and as the days pass, Barnes starts writing about what the crown can do and the power of the crown starts to go to Tyler’s head.

When Tyler tries to save a school bus from falling over a bridge, he starts to lose control of himself and ends up causing destruction on the bridge., frightening the civilians and making his friends worried. They try to convince Tyler to stop wearing the crown, but he refuses saying that he’s nothing without the crown. Worried about Tyler’s sanity, the others talk to Barnes about what’s happening, and he tells them that Tyler is starting to go mad with power because he’s been wearing the crown too long. He tells that he’ll think of something to stop Tyler and leaves, unknowingly dropping his notebook as he does. Ollie and the others notice the notebook and they realize that Barnes wasn’t really helping them and that he was trying to find out how to use the crown’s powers for his own personal gain. They run off to warn Tyler before it is too late.

The others find Tyler and they tell him that Barnes was lying to tell them and that he wasn’t helping them at all. Realizing this makes Tyler regain his sanity and he apologizes for going nuts. Barnes finds the kids and demands that Tyler gives him the crown. He refuses to give him the crown, and Barnes reveals that he has a magical item of his own called the Staff of the Almighty, a staff with powers similar to Tyler’s crown, and he uses it to kidnap Tyler’s friends, taking them to the beach where Tyler first got the crown, and he follows them.

At the beach, Tyler confronts Barnes and he tells him that Tyler’s friends will be spared if he gives him the crown. Not wanting to see his friends and brother get killed, he agrees to give him the crown and Barnes lets everyone go. Before Barnes can get the crown from Tyler, he gets punched hard by Tyler and he tells his friends that he can’t take down Barnes alone. As a result, he uses the crown’s magic to give friends super powers. This causes Mikey to have superhuman speed, Kylie to have electrical powers, Ollie to have fire-related powers and Sammy to have the power to stretch out to his body.

Tyler and his friends try to use their powers to defeat Barnes while also trying to keep the people on the beach safe from harm’s way. Barnes is shown to be a powerful foe with the Staff of the Almighty, so Tyler plans  to get the staff out of his hand. Fortunately for Tyler, his friends taunt Barnes, distracting him and Tyler snatches the staff from his hands and renders Barnes powerless. Tyler and the others then beat him up, and Barnes admits his defeat.

A little while later, the police arrive and they arrest Barnes. Everyone at the beach applauds and cheers for Tyler and his friends as they’re all hailed as heroes now. Thinking that saving the city will happen often, they all decide to form a superhero team and come up with names for themselves with Mikey being the Blue Comet, Kylie being Electrica, Sammy being the Malleable Kid, Ollie being the Incinerator, and Tyler being the King of Heroes. Together, they form the Alpha Squad and they all head out, seeking their next adventure while saying. “Alpha Squad! Let’s roll!”

Cast

 * Tara Charendoff as Tyler Thompson/The King of Heroes, an 11 year old boy who discovers a magic crown that gives him all sorts of superpowers.
 * Drake Bell as Mikey Mason/The Blue Comet, one of Tyler's best friends who believes that mythological objects exist. As the Blue Comet. he has the ability to run at superhuman speed.
 * Cree Summer as Kylie Daniels/Electrica, one of Tyler's best friends who didn't believe in mythological objects until Tyler became the King of Heroes. As Electria, she has the power over electricity.
 * Rob Paulsen as Sammy Smith/The Malleable Kid, one of Tyler's best friends who, like Mikey, also believes that mythological objects exist. As the Malleable Kid, he has the power stretch his body into any shape he wants.
 * Josh Server as Ollie Thompson/The Incinerator, Tyler's 16 year old brother who often tries to act cool in front of his friends. As the Incinerator, he has the power over fire.
 * Jeremy Irons as Nathaniel Barnes, Ollie's mythology teacher and the main antagonist of the film. He tries to find out what Tyler's crown can do and steal it and use the power for himself.

Additional Voices

 * Jim Cummings
 * Frank Welker
 * Tom Kenny
 * E.G. Daily
 * Kath Soucie
 * Dan Castellaneta
 * Kevin Michael Richardson
 * Billy West

Development
Development on the film started back in 1997. Conner Jones pitched the idea to Paramount Pictures after watching various superhero movies, such as the 1989 Batman film and the Superman movie from 1978. They accepted the idea and decided that it should be released under the Nickelodeon Movies label.

More coming soon

Writing
More coming soon

Animation
The animation for the film was done by Klasky Csupo.

More coming soon

Casting
More coming soon

Release
The King of Heroes was released theatrically by Paramount Pictures on June 25, 1999.

Marketing
The film made partnerships with McDonald's, Mattel, Kellogg's and CBS for promoting the movie

Trailers

 * The teaser trailer for the film was released on June 19, 1998 and it was included in films such as Mulan, The Parent Trap, and Dr. Dolittle.
 * The first theatrical trailer was released on November 20, 1998 and it was included in films such as The Rugrats Movie, A Bug's Life, and Jack Frost.
 * The second theatrical trailer was released on March 19, 1999 and it was included in films such as The King and I and Doug's First Movie.
 * TV spots for the film were shown between April and June of 1999.

Home Media
The film was released on VHS, DVD, and Laserdisc on November 25th, 1999. It was re-released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 14, 2009 to coincide with the film's 10th anniversary. It was re-released again on DVD and Blu-ray on May 21, 2019 as part of a 3-movie bundle with The Alpha Squad: Worldwide Rescue and The Alpha Squad: Magic Mayhem as way to celebrate the film's 20th anniversary.

On January 17, 2020, the film was added to Netflix.

Box Office
The King of Heroes grossed $237.5 million worldwide, making it the fourth highest-grossing animated film of 1999 (behind Toy Story 2, Tarzan and Darkness Awakening) and the highest grossing Nickelodeon film until the release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2014.

Critical Response.
The film held a rating of 84% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 62 reviewers, and CinemaScore gave the film an "B+" on its A+ to F scale.

Video Game
A video game based on the film was released on June 11, 1999 for the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and Game Boy Color. The PlayStation and Nintendo 64 versions received positive to mixed reviews from critics while the Game Boy Color version received mixed reviews.

Television series
A television series based on the film, entitled The Alpha Squad, ran on Nickelodeon from April 15, 2000 from May 5, 2007, and it was produced by Blue Dolphin Productions (later Spirit Animal Studios) and Klasky Csupo.

Sequels
Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies released two theatrical sequels that followed the continuity of The Alpha Squad. The first one was The Alpha Squad: Worldwide Rescue, which was released into theatres on May 28, 2004 and the other one was The Alpha Squad: Magic Mayhem, which was released into theatres on July 6, 2007 and served as the series finale to The Alpha Squad.

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

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