Kate & Chris (film)

Kate & Chris is a 2007 American computer-animated buddy fantasy action-adventure comedy film produced by Fox Animation Studios and Scholastic Entertainment, and based on Eric Stern's novels of the same name. The second animated feature in the Fox Animated Features canon, The film follows two teenagers, Kate and Chris, who hypnotizes their principal Mr. Watson into their own creation Mikey the Crazy Kid. It was directed by Rob Letterman and Bibo Bergeron and produced by John Cohen and Chris Jenkins and stars an ensemble voice cast consisting of Anne Hathaway, Elijah Wood, Jack Black, Justin Long, Steve Buscemi, and Steve Carell.

The film was released by 20th Century Fox on September 14, 2007, and was produced to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the first novel. It received generally positive reviews from critics and praised its animation, script, humor, score, visual style, and vocal performances, particularly of Hathaway, Wood, Black, Long, Buscemi, and Carell. The film earned a total of $495.8 million worldwide against a budget of $90 million. A sequel titled Kate & Chris: Back in Action was released on March 2, 2018.

Plot
Kate Anderson and Chris McCallister are two friends and next-door neighbors who often bring joy to their school, Eastview High School, by pranking the cruel teachers, especially the mean-spirited principal Mike Watson, which puts them at odds with him. The duo also create comic books about a crazy kid named Mikey, a character who has superpowers and have crazy adventures. They sell these to their schoolmates through a book company called Kate & Chris Productions, housed in their clubhouse. Kate and Chris's pranks come to an end after they tamper with a robot invention at Science-Con called the SuperRobot 4000 made by the school's local snitch, intellectual Chuck Stevens. This causes Watson to decide to separate Kate and Chris and annihilate their friendship.

To prevent this, Kate hypnotizes Watson with the Hypno Eye she received out of a cereal box; Kate and Chris' first order on their principal to act like a cow and a monkey. Finally, they see that Watson bears a resemblance to Mikey and command to be like him. Kate and Chris soon learn the severity of their acts when Mikey begins causing some problems around the city and take him to their club-house. There they discover that they can turn Mikey back into Watson by splashing water on him and can turn him back by snapping their fingers. Believing that Watson will continue with his plan to separate them, they decide to settle with Mikey but insist that he be dressed up as their principal under the pretense of a secret identity to which Mikey agrees. His sudden personality change even manages to attract the attention and affection of the school's shy lunch lady Jenny.

Just when Kate and Chris believe that their troubles have ended, Eastview High School is visited by an odd, German-accented scientist named Professor Idiotic Stupidhead Dum-Dum, Esq., or as he calls himself Professor D. Mikey hires him to be a new teacher, but Kate and Chris are suspicious of him. As it turns out, Dum-Dum is seeking to get rid of laughter altogether due to the fact that people have made fun of his name for years. He recruits Chuck to help him as his brain is incapable of having fun.

But when Kate and Chris heard their plan, Professor Dum-Dum catches them, sending them to a unknown cave with Chuck's Teleporter 3000, with wild animals chasing them, leading them to a river. The two nearly plummet down a waterfall to their deaths, but Kate fortunately saves Chris.

Soon, Professor Dum-Dum tries to take over the town with a giant version of the SuperRobot 4000, fueled by the school cafeteria's rotten leftovers left out by Jenny – and uses Chuck's brain to turn the children into glum, humorless zombies. Mikey tries to stop the villain, but due to having no actual superpowers, is effortlessly defeated and thrown inside the robot. Kate and Chris are captured and turned into zombies, but are able to break the trance and escape when their laughter damages the SuperRobot 4000's computer. Upon consuming the mutated leftovers, Mikey acquires superpowers and with Kate and Chris' help defeats and shrinks Dum-Dum, though he escapes shortly thereafter.

Knowing that they cannot control Mikey, Kate and Chris destroy the Hypno Eye in an attempt to permanently change him back into Watson. Feeling that Watson would be nicer if he had friends, Kate and Chris set him and lovesick Jenny up on a date, thus making Watson have a change of heart; he returns the books he took away from Kate and Chris, and even admits their books are funny. However, the toxic waste from the SuperRobot 4000 transforms all the toilets into vicious monsters that attack the restaurant at which Mr. Watson and Jenny are dining. Upon snapping his fingers, Mr. Watson once again becomes Mikey, carrying Kate and Chris away to help him fight them, much to Jenny's surprise and admiration.

In a post-credits scene, Kate and Chris realize that the secretary that they put on the phone before by faking a $5 billion contest has been on the phone for the entire movie. The secretary accidentally hangs up and gets angry, while Kate and Chris make a new book based on her reaction.

Cast

 * Anne Hathaway as Kate Anderson, a smart, trustworthy, funny, and clever 17-year old girl
 * Elijah Wood as Chris McCallister,  a sarcastic, wise-cracking, arrogant, and somewhat bossy 16-year-old boy.
 * Justin Long as Chuck Stevens, a intelligent 14-year old boy.
 * Jack Black as Mikey the Crazy Kid, a 15-year old boy who has superpowers and have crazy adventures.
 * Steve Buscemi as Mr. Watson, the principal of Eastview High School.
 * Allison Janney as TBA
 * Dan Fogler as TBA
 * Amy Sedaris as TBA
 * Seth Rogen as TBA
 * Steve Carell as Professor Dum-Dum
 * Joan Cusack as Jenny the Lunch Lady
 * Danny Glover as Sam the Police Officer
 * Kevin James as Mr. Warren
 * Additional voices are provided by
 * Rob Paulsen
 * Rodger Bumpass
 * Dan Castellaneta
 * Jack Angel
 * Danny Mann
 * Fred Tatasciore
 * Wendy Hoffman
 * Yuri Lowenthal
 * Tom Kenny
 * John DiMaggio
 * Jason Marsden
 * Zachary Gordon
 * Ariel Winter
 * Bill Farmer
 * Kari Wahlgren
 * Steve O'Connell

Production
Coming soon!

Music
The film's score was composed by John Powell and Mark Mothersbaugh. The soundtrack was released on September 7, 2007 by Varèse Sarabande.

Marketing
McFarlane Toys released a line of action figures and plushies based on the film, Nintendo produced a limited edition Kate & Chris-themed Nintendo DS, to coincide with the film's DVD release, and Windows Live Messenger presented their users with the opportunity to download a free animated and static content for use within their conversations.

Burger King promoted the film with a set of 5 kids' meal toys featuring the characters from the film.

The official teaser was released on June 23, 2006 and was shown in front of films such as Puppet Pals, BJ and Wally, Monster House, The Ant Bully, Barnyard, Everyone's Hero, and Open Season.

The first theatrical trailer was released on November 3, 2006 and was shown in front of films such as Flushed Away, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Happy Feet, Jimmy & Sam 3000, Night at the Museum, Meet the Robinsons, Shrek the Third, and Surf's Up. 

The second theatrical trailer was released on June 29, 2007 and was shown in front of films such as Ratatouille, Transformers, Computeropolis 2, The Simpsons Movie, Underdog, Daddy Day Camp, and Mr. Bean's Holiday.

TV spots began to air between August and September of 2007.

A video game based on the film has been released for the Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, PC and Nintendo DS on September 4, 2007.

Release
In the United States, it premiered on September 9, 2007, at the Mann Village Theatre, Westwood in Los Angeles, and 20th Century Fox released the film in the United States on September 14, 2007. The film's theatrical release was accompanied by a Ice Age short film No Time For Nuts.

The film was initially scheduled for release on June 22, 2007, but on October 15, 2006, but was pushed back to September 14, 2007.

A montage of "outtakes" were made and included in the end credits of the film starting on October 19, 2007.

Home media
Kate & Chris was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on February 8, 2008, and it includes a sneak preview of the 2008 Fox animated film Wild Forest, a gallery of concept art and posters, a 14-minute making-of documentary, DVD-ROM features, a 5.1 isolated sound effects track, trailers and TV spots, deleted scenes, and a THX optimizer on the DVD. It also included a 6-minute short film titled Kate & Chris Save Xmas, which takes place after the film.

It was later re-released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray 3D, and Digital HD on December 12, 2017 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

As of September 16, 2018, the film is available to watch on Netflix.

Critical reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 82% based on 128 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "With a tidy plot, clean animation, and crazy humor that fits its source material snugly, Kate & Chris is entertainment that won't drive a wedge between family members. On Metacritic, it received a score of 72 out of 100, based on 75 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a gave a positive review saying, "Fox Animation's slapstick animated adaptation of the philosophically satiric book series... is a lot of laughs and boasts a much tighter story than most animated features."

Kyle Smith of the New York Post gave the film three out of four stars, saying that "Kate & Chris is not only a great kids movie, but it is an enthusiastic movie with perfect moments that live up to its plot as well as other Fox Animation hits like Puppet Pals and Ice Age."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying "Kate & Chris is a truly touching and hilarious family adventure with a blast of humor and soundtrack, as well as a comical plot from the folks at Twentieth Century Fox Animation."

James Rocchi of MSN Movies gave the film a negative review,  "If it's even not as good as the Kate & Chris books, The film adaptation is a complete disaster to the book series for the fans. I don't even care if the animation is good and the characters have their usual selves from the books, it's just awful that Fox Animation should be shamed of themselves, while Richard Corliss of Time Magazine also gave a negative review and called it "insidious nonsense from Hollywood", and accused Hollywood of "trying to indoctrinate children".

Box office
Kate & Chris opened in 3,906 North American theaters on Friday, September 14, 2007, opening alongside The Brave One, Mr. Woodcock, and Dragon Wars. The film grossed $27.7 million on its first day, the biggest opening day for an animated film at the time, with $67.2 million in its first weekend, the best opening weekend ever for an animated film at that time, and it went on to be at No. 1 at the box office for the next two weekends. At the time, its opening weekend was the third-highest of all time in these regions.

The film was released in the United Kingdom on November 2, 2007, and topped the country's box office for the next two weekends, before being dethroned by American Gangster.