Kate & Chris (film)

Kate & Chris is a 2007 American computer-animated buddy musical fantasy comedy-drama film produced by Fox Animation Studios and Scholastic Entertainment, and based on Eric Stern's books of the same name. The second animated feature in the Fox Animated Features canon, and was directed by Rob Letterman and Mike Mitchell and produced by Chris Jenkins and stars an ensemble voice cast consisting of Mandy Moore, Elijah Wood, Jack Black, Zooey Deschanel, Justin Long, Steve Buscemi, and Will Ferrell

The film was released by 20th Century Fox on April 6, 2007, and was produced to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the first book. It received mixed reviews from critics and but praised its humor and its vocal performances, particularly of Moore, Wood, Black, Long, Buscemi, and Ferrell. The film earned a total of $492.2 million worldwide against a budget of $70 million. A sequel titled Kate & Chris: Back in Action was released on March 2, 2018.

Plot
Coming soon!

Cast

 * Mandy Moore 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 TBA
 * Steve Buscemi as Mr. Watson, the principal of Eastview High School.
 * Allison Janney as TBA
 * Zooey Deschanel as Eva Clark, a friend of Kate
 * Jeffrey Tambor as TBA
 * Zach Braff as TBA
 * Tom Kenny as TBA
 * Will Ferrell as Professor Dum-Dum
 * Joan Cusack as Jenny the Lunch Lady
 * Jim Ward (uncredited) as a police officer
 * Jeff Bennett (uncredited) as TBA
 * Dan Fogler as Mr. Warren
 * Additional voices are provided by
 * S. Scott Bullock
 * Rodger Bumpass
 * Dan Castellaneta
 * Susanne Blakeslee
 * Bob Bergen
 * Jill Talley
 * Mike Bell
 * John Cygan
 * Laura Marano
 * Madison Davenport
 * Debi Derryberry
 * Laraine Newman
 * Ariel Winter
 * Bill Farmer
 * Tara Strong
 * Zachary Gordon
 * Chris Renaud

Production
Coming soon!

Music
The film's score was composed by John Powell and Mark Mothersbaugh. The soundtrack was released on April 13, 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 7 kids' meal toys featuring the characters from the film.  TV spots began to air between March and April 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 April 3, 2007.

Release
In the United States, it premiered on April 1, 2007, at the Mann Village Theatre, Westwood in Los Angeles, and 20th Century Fox released the film in the United States on April 6, 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 April 27, 2007, but on October 15, 2006, but was pushed back to April 6, 2007.

A montage of "outtakes" were made and included in the end credits of the film starting on May 4, 2007.

Home media
Kate & Chris was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on August 24, 2007, and it includes a sneak preview of the 2008 Fox animated film Wild Forest, a gallery of concept art and posters, a 16-minute making-of documentary, DVD-ROM features, a 5.1 isolated sound effects track, trailers and TV spots, and deleted scenes.

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

Critical reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 59% based on 146 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Kate & Chris is cute and funny enough, but the colorful humor of the book gets lost with the zany Hollywood production values". On Metacritic, it received a score of 48 out of 100, based on 77 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."

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 insult to the book series for the fans. I don't even care if the CGI 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 3,875 North American theaters on Friday, April 6, 2007, opening on an Easter weekend alongside Are We Done Yet?, Grindhouse, and Fox's own Firehouse Dog. The film grossed $22.6 million on its first day, the biggest opening day for an animated film at the time, with $56.5 million in its first weekend, the best opening weekend ever for an book-based 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 April 20, 2007, and topped the country's box office for the next two weekends.