Ico (film)

Ico is a 2019 American 3D motion-captured computer-animated fantasy adventure film based on the 2001 video game of the same name. Produced by CreativeStep Animation Studios and Sony Pictures Animation, the film was directed by Guillermo del Toro from a screenplay by Brad Copeland, and features an ensemble cast that includes Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Emma Thompson, Nicole Kidman, Harrison Ford, Andy Serkis, Forest Whitaker, Daniel Kaluuya, Adrien Brody, Orlando Bloom, Ving Rhames, Keri Russell, and Mahershala Ali.

Production of the film was first leaked online after the November 2014 hacks of Sony's computers which revealed studio co-chairman Amy Pascal in talks with Gingo Animation for a feature film. It was eventually confirmed in October 2017 with the film intended on being in motion-capture combined with photo-realistic computer-animation which is being provided by CreativeStep Animation Studios, and principal photography began in late-2017 on a blue screen stage in Atlanta. The "virtual-reality tools" utilized in Real Tag's cinematography were used to a greater degree during the filming of Ico. The film was originally intended to be released under the Gingo Animation brand until Gingo decided to give the film to CreativeStep Animation Studios because the studio found the original Ico game too dark for children.

Ico premiered in the Dolby Theater on November 5, 2019, and was released on November 27, 2019, in the United States by Sony Pictures Releasing under the Columbia Pictures label. The film received generally positive reviews, praising the animation, the visual effects, vocal performances, action sequences and its faithfulness to the video game, but it was criticized for the lack of characterization for certain minor characters. The film has grossed $508 million worldwide.

Plot
Coming soon!

As Ico finally comes back to the village he notices that everyone is under the Queen's spell, when he instantly decides that he should go along and battle her himself. Venex meanwhile, leads her army to defeat her minions and get everyone out of her spell. Ico finally faces the evil Queen after easily going through her castle where she waits evily for him while he states his determination to protect his kingdom from her havoc. More coming soon!

Cast
A young boy who's seen as a freak due to being born with horns. In this film adaption, Ico is written as an unknown orphan who was abandoned by his own parents after the discovery of his unusual horns. Director Guillermo del Toro describes Ico as, "an outcast who differs himself from the others of his age in the little village while being a little boy in school who has trouble fitting in due to cultural as well as personal differences." Regarding Wolfhard's casting, producer Brad Copeland said, "Ico's personal experiences can be much similar to most of Stranger Things specifically being the closest to the character Eleven and Wolfhard's distinct voice can definitely match what the character would actually sound like." The character was first introduced in the Universal Animation film Computeropolis: The Deep Web in 2018 while being voiced by Noah Schnapp which was originally the intended voice actor for Ico in this film but was replaced by Wolfhard as Schnapp experienced scheduling conflicts which caused him to drop out the film. In addition to voicing the character, Wolfhard also performs the motion-capture as well. To do the motion-capture, Wolfhard received some advice in the process of pre-production from Andy Serkis who would later end up being cast in the film as well. Ico's distinct horns were created and animated through the use of CGI while his face and body were modelled and based on Wolfhard himself. The daughter of The Queen who helps Ico. Her body is weaker than others due to the Queen using some of Yorda's soul to keep herself alive. The model of Yorda was described by character designer Shiyoon Kim as a realistic version of Gwen Stacy from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Brown performs both the motion-capture and the voice of the character. The queen of the castle that uses Yorda's body in order to extend her lifespan. Thompson described the character as "that one person who misses their younger days so much that they try to recreate them along with acting youthful themselves. But she is also that one parent who wants her own child to follow her footsteps in her own success." The character's face was modelled to resemble Thompson herself. A youthful elf who is the caretaker of Ico after she found him in the forest lying down alone. Kidman described her as "that one awkward friend at school who ends up being your best bud and is always by your back through everything." Initially, Kidman described her casting as being absurd and pointless until she later met the director Guillermo del Toro personally who treated her nicely and with manners. The mystical wizard who ends up giving Ico his horns. Describing Oggoth, del Toro said, "He is the Merlin to the Ico who is supposed to be Prince Arthur. He has a real humble mind set and knows danger by sensing it. He is also a father-like figure to the parent-less Ico." Ford described Oggoth as a "grandfather" and "godly-like" person. Ford was cast due to his unique and deep voice which fits the character's personality. The leader of the various shadow creatures that are surrounding the village. Describing Serkis' performance, del Toro said, "He's like a leader of a street gang but more fantasized and magical. That's what it says in the script, which he's kind of doing." On bringing the character to life, Serkis said, "What Guillermo [del Toro] wanted, that I found out little by little as I was doing it, is that he wanted me to explore and just keep pushing the character and keep creating [him] as I was in front of the camera." One of the Queen's personal assistants who is also a slave because of her family's poverty and is also one of Ico's childhood friends that he grew up with. A former thief who now works for the local mental hospital where Ico was trapped in for nearly half of his life. Narco is also Ico's uncle who along with a select few of others, doesn't actually pick or treat Ico different because of his unusual horns. The comical elf of the Eastward Realm. A crooked thief. The alleged thief of the magical realm who is actually a good guy. The evil soul-taker and the king of the shadow realm. A tomboy woman who is the head of the Guardian Knights. The magical stallion who is Ico's go to for transportation to any destination. Unlike the human characters, the character was completely CGI and was designated to be an all black horse.
 * Finn Wolfhard as Ico:
 * Millie Bobby Brown as Yorda:
 * Emma Thompson as Queen Michigore:
 * Nicole Kidman as Margli:
 * Harrison Ford as Oggoth:
 * Andy Serkis as Shihriax:
 * Rihanna as Eva:
 * Forest Whitaker as Narco:
 * Daniel Kaluuya as Whizzaro:
 * Adrien Brody as Emon:
 * Orlando Bloom as Jorgen:
 * Ving Rhames as Lord Triton:
 * Keri Russell as Venex:
 * Mahershala Ali as the voice of Argo:

Noah Schnapp appears as Melvin the Wander, a youthful teenage orphan that is lost in the world who searches to look for himself. Writer Brad Copeland called him "a self-centred dummy who doesn't realize that's lonely and lost but instead explores the dangerous world." Director del Toro, based the character on the Wander character of Shadows of the Colossus and made Melvin more distinct by changing the gender of the character and actually giving him a name. Dylan O'Brien portrays Larz, the more-known son of the Queen, and Yorda's older brother, who is mostly told to be the future prince but also suffers from anxiety. Hailee Steinfeld plays Mono, a young newly wedded woman who is wealthy and bullies Ico. Rather than being described as a much older woman who is cursed and slowly dying as in the videogame, Mono was re-imagined as "a wealthy, selfish young lady" to reflect more realistic effects of being rich but a maiden, by crafting him more into a heartless rich person and also serves as the bully to Ico. In response to the negative backlash of the character, Del Toro responded by saying, "this is only the beginning, the sequels and prequels will explain how she changed from her videogame self." Steinfeld said that the reason for Mono hating Ico is because "she's mad that he is more unique than her with his horns and often causes a riot to chase after him which is the main reason why he is banished." Director Del Toro portrays Willem Ford, a bounty hunter who is trying to kill Ico. For the basis of the character, Glass Ball based the character on a mix of the character Dennis from The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004) along with Tony Stark / Iron Man. Del Toro called this character, "an accident-prone bounty hunter who always lets his bounties get away", and is compared to Ed from Ed, Edd and Eddy.

Additionally, Jon Favreau plays Sir Roderick, a clumsy knight who is the proclaimed hero of the village. Larenz Tate and Logan Paul respectively play Washington and Jackson, two descendants of the shadow realm; they are accomplices of Michigore who use their dark magic powers to start terror. Del Toro describes them as "the comic relief for the film and praised Tate and Paul's chemistry." Dennis Haysbert and Selenis Leyva play Ico's long lost real parents who abandoned him after seeing horns grow out of his head. Idris Elba plays as Grah, the original King who was assassinated mysteriously. George Takei and Danny Pudi play an odd-elf gay couple who gets killed after Michigore’s power goes wild. Alexandra Holden voiced a baby elf while Jason O'Mara voices Que, Argo’s younger brother.

Development
A film adaption of Ico originally came about based on the success of the proposed film adaptation of Shadow of the Colossus by Misher Films in conjunction with Sony Pictures and Fumito Ueda. Following the November 2014 hack of Sony's computers, emails between Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal and president Doug Belgrad were released stating that Sony was in talks with Gingo Animation about an animated film based on Ico. The emails also mentioned a possibility where Sony would handle the film's United States distribution while Universal Pictures would handle international distribution.

In October 2017, it was officially announced that Sony would be teaming up with Gingo to make an animated Ico adaptation, with Brad Copeland writing the film's script. Two months later, Guillermo del Toro, called the original Ico game a “masterpiece,” was announced as director. In May 2018, Sony set the film for a December 25, 2019 release, and announced that the film would be produced by Gingo's adult label Glass Ball Productions. The film was initially intended to be produced under the traditional Gingo Animation banner, but Gingo Entertainment president Clive Nakayashiki felt the original game was too dark for children. Nakayashiki and Del Toro disagreed over various elements of it but since Del Toro had final cut privilege, he refused to make alterations. Athena Christaniakis, vice president, felt it was appropriate to produce the film under their Glass Ball Productions banner instead of the Gingo banner.

In late October 2018, Sony Pictures reached a new multi-film agreement with IMAX Corporation to release their films in IMAX, including Ico.

Casting
In June 2018, it was announced that Stranger Things co-stars Finn Wolfhard and Millie Bobby Brown were cast as Ico and Yorda respectively, while Emma Thompson will voice the Queen. Pascal also announced newer characters will be introduced in the film.

Animation
As with The Star, Sony Pictures Animation will have the animation produced by another studio other than Sony Pictures Imageworks, which handles digital production for most of SPA's films. For this film, Ico will be animated by computer animation division CreativeStep Animation Studio and will also be animated in a combination of motion capture along with photo-realistic computer animation. However, it was later announced that Sony Pictures Imageworks will handle the additional animation duties for the film. The film’s budget is estimated to be around $300 million due to the expensive nature of motion-capture combined with the computer animation, making it the biggest for an animated film, CreativeStep Animation Studios, and one of the most expensive films of all time.

Visual effects
Creative Step Studio, who does the animation, also provides the visual effects, which were supervised by Robert Legato, Elliot Newman and Adam Valdez. The film utilizes "virtual-reality tools", per Visual Effects Supervisor Rob Legato. Virtual Production Supervisor Girish Balakrishnan said on his professional website that the filmmakers used motion capture and VR/AR technologies, with the production team combining VR technology with cameras in order to film the remake in a VR-simulated environment. New software had to be developed for the movie and made it possible to create scenes with a shaky-cam look of a handheld camera, to make the film seem as realistic as it can be similar to a modern videogame. Sanford Panitch, Columbia Pictures's President of Production, called the film's visual effects "a new form of filmmaking", and felt that "Historical definitions don't work", stating that "[it] uses some techniques that would traditionally be called animation, and other techniques that would traditionally be called live-action. It is an evolution of the technology used in Beowulf and The Jungle Book".

Rather than animators do everything, the team also used artificial intelligence to allow virtual characters to behave in ways that mimicked real human beings.

Music
In June 2018, Michael Giacchino was announced to compose the film's score. The film features a re-recorded and remastered version of "You Were There" from the original game sung by Skylar Grey which was released on November 22, 2019, 5 days before the film's release.

Marketing
For the Sony Pictures panel at Comic-Con Experience 2018, Del Toro and Wolfhard appeared in a video from the film's set to promote it.

Sony released teaser poster for the film on February 14, 2019 along with a teaser trailer on the same day. The trailer received mixed to positive reviews and acclaim for the animation with most calling it "more realistic than any modern video game released" as well as praise towards the characterization of the title character. However, criticism was made from The Queen's lack of dialogue and short appearance in the trailer. Sony chairman Tom Rothman later acknowledged this, explaining that the intention had been to "heighten anticipation" for the film.

Rothman presented new footage of the film at CinemaCon 2019, and acknowledged that it revealed the film's version of Ico by saying, "See, we didn't forget to put The Queen in the movie!" Di Placido was more positive of this trailer, praising the appearance of and visuals for the characters, but was concerned about the voice acting of Ico noting that it's perfect but doesn't fit for a person of his age.

The second trailer which included the Queen song "Bohemian Rhapsody", debuted on June 12, 2019 and was attached to screenings for Men in Black: International. This trailer received universal acclaim praising the animation which most critics called "beautiful and unreal" and the selection of music which fit moments of the trailer was praised as well.

The final trailer was released on September 4, 2019, and was attached to screenings of It: Chapter Two.

Video game
On July 19, 2019, Geo G. announced that a video game tie-in based on the film will be released for the PlayStation 4 a day before the film's release date. It is intended to be an HD remaster/remake of the original 2001 PlayStation 2 game with additional gameplay added and redone voices.

Release
Ico was released in the United States on November 27, 2019, by Columbia Pictures in RealD 3D, Digital 3D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX, and IMAX 3D. It was previously scheduled for release on December 25, 2019, and later on November 22, 2019, but was pushed back a week of November 29 to avoid competition with Frozen 2 before being moved forward to its current date. The film was shown in IMAX theatres as part of the multi-film deal with Sony Pictures.

Reception
In late December 2018, the film was named as the most anticipated 2019 film by IMDb, the most anticipated animated film of all time and the second-most anticipated blockbuster of 2019 according to the ticketing service Fandango, and the most anticipated animated film by Atom Tickets.

Critical reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 93% with an average score of 9.8/10, based on 102 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "Ico is able to not only recapture the heart and innocence of the videogame, but it enhances it into an adventerous and enjoyable flick." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrakreported filmgoers gave it an 87% positive score and a 72% "definite recommend".

Box office
As of December 3, 2019, Ico has grossed $194.5 million in the United States and Canada and $313.8 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $508.3 million. With a production budget of $300 million, the film will need to gross $750 million to break-even.

In the United States and Canada, Ico was released alongside Knives Out and Queen & Slim, and was projected to gross anywhere from $110–150 million from 4,600 theatres which are the widest November opening of all time, in its 5-day opening weekend. It is playing in 3,500 3D theatres, 500 IMAX theatres, 900 premium large format screens, and 415 D-Box/4D enhanced theatres. The film made $39.5 million on its opening day (including $10.3 million from Tuesday night previews), the biggest for a pre-Thanksgiving film, and another $29.3 million on its second day leading increasing five-day projections to $155–165 million. It went on to make $180.3 million in its 5-day opening (including $111.4 million in the traditional 3-day weekend), both the highest of all time for a film released during the Thanksgiving weekend, and the first one to gross over $100 million during its 3-day weekend.

The film opened in China on November 22, 2019, and made $39.1 million on its opening day, the biggest of all time for an animated film. It went on to make $119.2 million, the biggest non-Disney opening of the year and the biggest animated opening of all time in China.

Future
In November 2018, Guillermo del Toro stated that he intends to make sequels to the film and as well as starting a franchise for Ico with adaptions of other Team Ico games such as Shadows of the Colossus and The Last Guardian as long as the film is successful enough which all depends on the audience. Del Toro also stated, "if it flops or doesn't perform to expectations, there will be no more films and this franchise will be cancelled."

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

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