Beastz


 * This article is about the original 2006 film. For the franchise, see Beastz (franchise).

Beastz is a 2006 American computer-animated fantasy comedy film produced by Morlus Animation and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The eighth feature film produced by Morlus, Beastz was Morlus's first fully computer animated feature film. The film was directed by Rodney Ousley from a screenplay by Mike Glebus and Harriet Chapman and a story by Ousley and Dianne Shannon, and stars the voices of Hugh Jackman, David Spade, Craig Robinson, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Anna Faris and John Leguizamo. The film follows a trio of beasts by the names of Bernard, Louie and Flint who go and attempt save their village from the Migrens, which are vicious creatures who attempt to hunt them down after a major incident between the species.

Beastz was animated in-house at Morlus's main headquarters in San Francisco, California and envisioned by Ousley in 2000. The film was originally going to be a television series but it was later reconstructed as a feature-length film. Heitor Pereira composed the film's orchestral score.

Beastz was released in the United States on May 12, 2006 and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the film for its animation, storyline, voice acting and humor, and grossed over $285 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing Morlus film at the time until Phoenix surpassed it in 2011.

After this success, Morlus launched a franchise based on the film; a sequel titled Beastz 2 was released on August 3, 2012, along with a television series titled Beastz: The Series premiering later the following year on Cartoon Network, and a spin-off film, Guchii, was released on December 7, 2018. A third film titled Beastz 3 is scheduled to be released on April 5, 2019.

Plot
Coming soon!

Cast

 * Hugh Jackman as Bernard, a strong male beast who is often aloof but also suave and good-hearted.
 * David Spade as Louie, a naive and clumsy male short beast who can be annoying but also supportive to his friends.
 * Craig Robinson as Flint, a lazy and cowardly male beast who has a craving for pomegranates.
 * Hank Azaria as King Darren, a short and arrogant male beast who is the chief of the Beasts village.
 * Zach Galifianakis as Althrope, the ruler of the migrens and the main antagonist of the film.
 * Anna Faris as Abigail, a young female beast, who is Bernard's supportive sister.
 * Bill Hader as Guchii, a small and incompetent migren who is Althrope's minion.

Development
Rodney Ousley, came up with the concept for Beastz, the creator of Zooge Toons and the co-founder of Morlus Animation.

He pitched the film to Morlus Animation with some initial artwork in the beginning of 2003. He and his story team left with some suggestions in hand and returned to pitch a refined version of the story in March.

On April 24, 2004, it was announced that Morlus Animation has started the production for Beastz, albeit nothing else about the film was known at the time.

Writing
The film's script is credited to Mike Glebus and Harriet Chapman from a story by Ousley and Shannon. More coming soon!

Animation
Ousley described the film's animation as "a blend of animated films with cartoon-like styles like Madagascar or Ice Age". Beastz was animated in-house at Morlus Animation's headquarters in San Francisco, California. The movie's animation was made using WaveFront's Maya animation software and rendered with Pixar's Renderman.

Music
The film's original score was composed by Heitor Pereira. The soundtrack album was released on June 6, 2006, by Atlantic Records.

Release
Beastz premiered in theaters on May 12, 2006, in North America. The film was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for "mild language, crude humor and some thematic elements". In the United Kingdom, it received a PG rating by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) for "mild slapstick violence and language". In Australia, the film was rated PG by the Australian Classification Board (ACB).

Trailers

 * The film's teaser trailer was released in September 2005, and was later shown in theaters with other films such as Corpse Bride, Wallace &amp; Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Chicken Little, Metro Cone, Yours, Mine &amp; Ours, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, Hoodwinked! and Nanny McPhee.
 * The first theatrical trailer was released in February 2006, and was later shown before The Pink Panther, Curious George, Eight Below, Doogal, Aquamarine, Robot Siblings, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Akeelah and the Bee and Hoot.
 * There were a couple of television spots for the film; the first one was released in April 2006 and the second one was released in May 2006.

Video game
A video game based on the film was released on May 19, 2006, for PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Gamecube, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable, and Microsoft Windows.

Home media
Beastz was released on DVD and on October 27, 2006. Both releases included a 10-minute short film titled Louie's Night Out, which takes place after the events of the film. It was also released on UMD for the Sony PSP in October 2005. It was later released on Blu-ray in North America on June 3, 2011, and on Blu-ray 3D on May 8, 2015. A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray version was released on September 14, 2018.

Box office
Beastz opened on May 12, 2006, in the United States and Canada. It got to earn $65,315,290 during its opening weekend, placing first in its box office during that weekend. By the end of its theatrical run, Beastz grossed a total of $285,345,210 worldwide, making it the 7th highest-grossing 2006 animated film behind Jimmy & Sam 3000 ($334.1 million), Over the Hedge ($336 million), Happy Feet ($384.3 million), Cars ($462.2 million), BJ and Wally ($486.9 million) and Ice Age: The Meltdown ($660.9 million).

Critical response
Beastz received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 84% based on 159 reviews and an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "With creative animation and witty humor, Beastz is a fun family film that could be considered to be in the same rank as Zooge Toons" On Metacritic, the film has 79% approval rating based on 79 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

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

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

Sequels and spin-offs
A sequel titled Beastz 2 was released on August 3, 2012, which took place 2 years after the events of the first film, with the same voice cast. A spin-off film starring Guchii was released on December 7, 2018. A third film titled Beastz 3 is scheduled to be released on April 5, 2019.