Puppet Pals

Puppet Pals is a 2006 American 3D computer animated fantasy action comedy film produced by 20 Century Fox Animation and distributed by 20 Century Fox. Film was directed by Steve Martino and Rich Moore in their directorial debuts and written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, Jon Vitti, Mike Reiss, and Peter Ackerman from a story by Chris Renaud, Drew Cohen and Jared Brady, and stars voices of Jesse Mccartney, Anne Hathaway, Josh Peck, Seth Rogen, Sandra Bullock, Matthew Broderick, Cedric Entertainer, Kurt Russell, John Goodman, with Jason Lee, and Sarah Vowell. In film, Nathan Ritter, a young adult, has his life turned upside down when he end up get sent into a city name Tinywood and recruits help of a weird name team and a young princess name Princess Joanna, and while trying to get back home, team is trying to avoid an evil woman who is out for destruction of Tinywood.

Puppet Pals premiere at Mann Village Theater on June 12, 2006, and was released in US on June 30, 2006. It received universal acclaim from critics and was a box office success, grossing $659.2 million worldwide on it $90 million budget, making it 4 highest grossing film of 2006. Puppet Pals was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but it lost to Happy Feet. It also received nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Sound Mixing. Puppet Pals saw a 3D re release in theaters on September 9, 2016 to celebrate 10 anniversary. Film success helped spawn an expanded franchise, with 4 sequels Puppet Pals 2, Puppet Pals 3, and Puppet Pals Forever a holiday special, several short films, a theme park attraction, and 2 TV spin offs.

Plot
A spotted dog name Slippy attempts to find a place to store his bone in a small grass field. Eventually, as he tries to stomp it to ground, he inadvertently causes a large crack to form in ground that extends for miles before setting off a large earthquake that nearly crushes him. He barely escapes but finds himself get step on by a group of townspeople heading to a large and complex town name Tinywood. In an alternate world, a young man name Nathan Ritter, who loves solitude of his own pampered life, finds his own life interrupted when an overweight and lazy man name Jeremy Johnson, who comes from an alternate world and comes spewing out of Nathan bathroom, where he decides to stay and invade Nathan home. Nathan schemes to get rid of Jeremy by luring him into portal of where he came from, but Jeremy is not fooled, instead throwing Nathan into portal and sending him away into alternate world, where he later discovers Tinywood. Later, a talk lizard name Toby along with other people and creatures who are being loaded into trucks for rewards, surrounded by guards. However, Toby attempts to escape, but he is stopped by guards, who they chase after him. Toby then finds Nathan, who he is try to find a new home, where later Toby is soon rescued by Nathan, who fights guards off. Toby joins Nathan, not want to be alone and unprotected. Nathan is later annoy by Toby constant and going talk and wish to live on his own, but Toby nonetheless convinces Nathan to live with him at his temporary new home for 1 night. Later that night, Nathan new home is invaded again by townspeople of Tinywood, who they were exiled by evil and vertically challenged Rosie Storm. Angered by intrusion, he decides to ask Rosie to exile them elsewhere, bring Toby along as he is only 1 willing to guide him to her palace, with help of a mysterious young woman and a weird name team name Puppet Pals. Meanwhile, Rosie torture of a talkative magical creature name Steve Smiley for location of Puppet Pals is interrupted when his son, Rob, and her guards present her with Magic Ball. She asks Ball if she is ready to be rule of Tinywood, but is told that she is not even a ruler, and that her son must marry a princess. Rob Storm resolves to marry Princess Joanna, who is lost and mysterious princess of Tinywood, where she is hiding from Rosie and her henchmen.

Nathan and Toby head to a dark alley, where they meet Joanna, who turns out to be mysterious woman that Toby was talking about, where she is hiding in her faithful boat, Lucky Ocean. Joanna is initially irritated by Nathan, and she is appalled at his lack of romanticism, but ends up taking him along. Rosie henchmen, John and Dave, suddenly invade boat where 2 capture Nathan, Joanna, and Toby, after finding Joanna deceased father prized diamond, which she stole back from Rosie years ago. Later, 5 later head to Rosie palace, and Rob then challenges Nathan and Toby to fight off Rosie guards, but they ignorantly defeat them. Rosie then plans to have Nathan, Joanna, and Toby melt with boiling lava. 3 escape, but they are attack by Rosie guard dragon, who corners Toby. In desperation, he sweet talks beast, learn that it is female. Dragon falls in love with Toby and carries him to her chambers. However, Nathan rescues Toby, with Joanna taking a unique electrical key that is required to control large dam of Tinywood. After escaping Rosie palace, Nathan discovers that diamond is a fake and breaks it in front of Joanna. Enraged, Joanna tries to attack Nathan, but eventually calms down and explains that she is only angry because her grandfather died trying to obtain it just for her, only to find that it was just a worthless fake. Nathan offers Joanna a real diamond if she takes him back to his own world, to which she agrees, and trio 1 stop to meet rest of Puppet Pals before setting off. Later that night, Nathan explains to Toby his frustration at how society judges him for his attitude Joanna overhears this, with Natalia Miller, young member in team, convincing Joanna to be kind to Nathan. Later, team almost reach portal, only to encounter a forming river of lava. Nathan, Captain Matt, Toby, and Natalia, along with Ryan Woods, make it across safely, but Joanna ends up hang on a cliff, about to fall into lava. Nathan saves her, narrowly missing certain death by fall into lava himself. After that, Nathan and Joanna spend personal time together, and Nathan falls in love with her. After being frustrated by her minions repeated failures, Rosie Storm sends for her son Rob to hunt Puppet Pals down, while it has been revealed that Rosie was originally a Puppet Pal member and she was taught by Matt when she was a teen, but although Rosie was a proficient member of Puppet Pals, Captain Matt now deceased father sensed corruption within her and refused to give her Silver Scroll, making her enraged by severely attack Tinywood and tried to take scroll by force, but Matt stopped her and kick her out of team, resulting in her hatred of Puppet Pals and city of Tinywood. Next day, after spending night, team later evade John and Dave, pursuing them in a small electric boat, with rest of Rosie guards on jet skis. They successfully escaped, but they are later surrounded by Rob Storm and his subordinates, and they intercept Nathan, Toby, and Joanna into a waterfall, while they capture Natalia, Ryan, and Captain Matt. Nathan retrieves key, sinking Lucky Ocean in process, but trio use a grappling hook right into portal to save and send themselves to Nathan old home. Back home, Nathan pays Joanna promised diamond, then shows her around his house. She at 1 believes he has family in home, but notices a picture of Nathan parents, who they died years ago. Joanna tries to persuade Nathan to come with her, but he is too proud to admit that he is lonely, having Joanna depart from him, while Nathan angrily abandons Toby and goes back to his own life.

Talk to Jeremy, Nathan pieces together Rosie plan to open gates of dam, with a huge great water wave forming and wiping out entirety of Tinywood, kill every 1, where Rosie will finally become rule of Tinywood and repopulate city with her newly built robots. Back in Tinywood, Joanna is later captured by John and Dave, where Rob is ready to marry her with a secret plan while Rosie finally uses electric key to unlock security gate of dam. Nathan and Jeremy then arrive in Tinywood, where Nathan tries to confront an angered Toby. Toby then explains that Joanna is about to get married to Rob, where Rosie guards are going to tie her up in front of dam, where she will be kill by giant wave. Toby urges Nathan to express his feelings for Joanna before she is killed, and 2 travel to Rosie palace quickly by riding Rosie now tamed guard dragon, who had escaped her confines and followed Toby. Nathan, Toby, and Captain Matt interrupt wedding before Rob can kiss Joanna, and Nathan tells her that she can marry Rob, where she would be killed if she does. Captain Matt is suddenly knock unconscious, while Rob kidnaps Joanna, where Nathan, Toby, and Captain Matt try to rescue her, and are chased by Rosie guards across city, but leave Natalia and Jeremy behind. Group arrive at dam, where Joanna is currently being tied up, but she is freed by Nathan. Later, Natalia and Jeremy arrive with whole town of Tinywood beside them, where a battle between Puppet Pals, Rosie henchmen and guards, and town of Tinywood. Rob then attacks Nathan, frustrating him with confusing fighting techniques with his own new techniques. However, Rob momentarily bests Nathan, where he explains to him that he just a nobody and a pampered and lonely man, but Nathan refuses to accept that and continues attacking Rob before Nathan and Joanna defeat him together, and they freeze giant wave with Rosie ice gun. Nathan is praised by townspeople of Tinywood and earns respect of Puppet Pals, who fully acknowledge him as a true Puppet Pal master. However, Rosie turns up outraged and orders Nathan and Joanna to be executed, but luckily, Guard Dragon bursts in alongside Toby and devours Rosie alive. Nathan and Joanna profess their love and share a kiss, where they marry in Tinywood and leave on their honeymoon. However, Slippy, trapped in a small box, end up on shores of a tropical island. Slippy then finds a coconut and tries to stomp it into ground, only to accidentally trigger a volcanic eruption.

Cast

 * Jesse Mccartney as Nathan Ritter, a pampered but lonely man.
 * Zachary Gordon as young Nathan Ritter
 * Anne Hathaway as Princess Joanna, a beautiful young woman who is the princess of Tinywood.
 * Josh Peck as Toby, a magical and geeky lizard like creature.
 * Seth Rogen as Jeremy Johnson, an overweight and lazy guy from Tinywood and is an acquaintance of Princess Joanna and Puppet Pals.
 * Sandra Bullock as Rosie Storm, a red hair girl wanting entire population of Tinywood to be kill off so he can make room for his hundreds of built robots.
 * Matthew Broderick as Captain Matt, leader of Puppet Pals.
 * Sarah Vowell as Natalia Miller, a cheerful and kind teenage girl who is young member of Puppet Pals.
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Ryan Woods, a tough and strong man who is 1 of members of Puppet Pals.
 * Jason Lee as Rob Storm, Rosie Storm son
 * Chris Wedge as Slippy Dog
 * Cedric Entertainer as John, 1 of Rosie Storm henchmen. He is sympathetic, and is also ignorant and gullible.
 * Kurt Russell as Dave, 1 of Rosie Storm henchmen. He is quicker witted and most aggressive of 2.
 * John Goodman as Mayor Adam, mayor of Tinywood.
 * Patrick Warburton as Milo, a tourist.
 * Betty White as Wendy, a tourist.
 * Patton Oswalt as Steve Smiley, a magical talking yellow round creature who looks similar to a yellow smiling face.
 * Susanne Blakeslee as old lady
 * Corey Burton as Brian, a police officer
 * Tom Kenny as Magic Ball
 * David Silverman, Chris Renaud, Dee Bradley Baker, and Steve O Connell, as Smileys

Additional voices

 * Tom Amundsen
 * Kirk Baily
 * Ranjani Brow
 * John Carnochan
 * Mitch Carter
 * David Cowgill
 * Holly Dorff
 * Elisa Gabrielli
 * Johnny Gidcomb
 * Jackie Gonneau
 * Nicholas Guest
 * Wendy Hoffmann
 * Emily Johnson
 * Anne Lockhart
 * Scott Menville
 * Gregory Perler
 * Hans Tester
 * Thalia Ward
 * Debi Mae West

Development
Chris Renaud came up with concept for Puppet Pals in 1999 during production of 2002 Ice Age. At beginning of production, Renaud began work on film with Steve Martino in 2000, short after release of Titan AE By late 2000, Jon Vitti and Mike Reiss had drafted a treatment with Martino that bore some resemblance to final film. Renaud pitched story to 20 Century Fox Animation with some initial artwork in 2001. He and his story team left with some suggestions in hand and returned to pitch a refined version of the story in March. Although film was solely directed by Steve Martino, Disney, Universal, and Pixar artists came into project and created characters and story, which were given to film director Steve Martino.

Film was originally developed under work title of Tinywood, but it was changed. In March 2002, following the success of Ice Age, it was announced that Steve Martino was work on a then untitled project that would become Puppet Pals. In 2002, Fox revealed the film title to be Puppet Pals, then planned for a holiday 2005 release. In addition, it would be animated with 3D computer animation, rather than 2D traditional hand drawn animation that had been done with Fox previous films, similar to Ice Age.

In 2003, production of film officially began, and Simpsons animation director and producer David Silverman was brought in to produce film. Thalia Ward and Chris Wedge worked as creative consultants on film. Additionally, Chris Renaud served as an uncredited co director of film. Film was later completed by late May 2006.

Casting
Coming soon!

Animation
Coming soon!

Music
Main article: Puppet Pals Soundtrack

Film original score was composed by Michael Giacchino and John Powell. Soundtrack album was released on June 27, 2006 by Varese Sarabande.

Release
Film was originally scheduled for release on November 18, 2005, but on December 9, 2004, it release date was pushed back to June 30, 2006. Release date change was also day before Universal Pictures changed release date of Me And Mobo to December 16, 2005 to July 7, 2006.

Puppet Pals premiere on June 12, 2006, at Mann Village Theatre, Westwood in Los Angeles, and was released in US on June 30, 2006. Film was rated PG by Motion Picture Association of America MPAA for mild language, crude humor, some action and peril.

Film theatrical release was accompanied by Fox Animation 2004 Academy Award nominated short film Mushies.

In 2005, IMAX decided to plan a big screen 3D version of Puppet Pals. Film would have been re released during Christmas season of 2006, or follow summer, after it conventional 2D release. Re release would have also included new sequences and an alternate end. Plans for this was drop due to creative changes instituted by Fox and resulted in a loss of $1.12 million, down from IMAX profit of $4.11 million. However, in 2016, Fox and IMAX announced that film would be reissued and digitally re mastered for IMAX 3D theaters during film conventional 3D re release on September 2, 2016.

Montage of outtakes were made and included in end credits of film starting on August 4, 2006, which was done because Fox hoped it would encourage people to view film 2 time.

Marketing
Film teaser trailer was released on May 18, 2005 and was attached into Star Wars 3 Revenge Of Sith a day later. Teaser depicts the film 1 2 minutes, where Slippy tries to store his bone in ground, but inadvertently sets off a large earthquake.

Another teaser trailer was released on November 4, 2005 and was attached into Chicken Little (2005) and Cheaper By Dozen 2. 1 full trailer was released on February 8, 2006 and was shown with Curious George (2006) 2 days later.

Final trailer on Fox on April 23, 2006 after during a new episode of Simpsons, and was later released theatrically in front of Beastz, Over Hedge, and X Men 3 Last Stand.

Film was backed by a large marketing campaign, with toys, books, games, clothes, and many other items becoming available throughout 2006.

Burger King promoted film with a set of 8 kids meal toys featuring characters from film.

Video game
A Video Game based on film was released on June 27, 2006 on Play Station 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Game Cube, Game Boy Advance, Play Station Portable, Nintendo DS, PC, and Macintosh. It was also released on November 19, 2006, for Wii.

Home media
Puppet Pals was 1 released on a 2 disc collector edition DVD set on December 29, 2006 by 20 Century Fox Home Entertainment. DVD set included sneak previews of Fox animated features Kate And Chris (2007) and Simpsons Movie, deleted scenes, playable games, THX optimizer, theatrical trailers and TV spots, gallery of concept art, 21 minutes long documentary of how film was made, and 2 new short films, Puppet Pals Crazy Dance Party and Slippy Missing Adventure, which were made specifically for this home video release, and Mushies, a short film that premiered alongside feature film in it original theatrical release. It was highest selling DVD of 2006, with 18.12 million copies sold. Since videos were traditionally released on Tuesdays, Fox responded that it simply shift release to a Friday to make it more of an event and predicted that it and other studios would do so more frequently with important films. Fox re released film on DVD and for 1 time on Blu ray in North America on October 12, 2010. It was later released on Blu ray 3D, 4K Ultra HD Blu ray and Digital HD on November 22, 2016, to honor 10 anniversary of original movie.

Critical response
Puppet Pals received widespread critical acclaim, becoming a cult hit among critics upon release. On the aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, film has an Certified Fresh rating of 100% based on 198 reviews, with an average rating of 8.3 10. Site critical consensus reads, even if it not an animated classic, Puppet Pals is clever and funny cater to family members of all ages. On Metacritic, it received a score of 100 out of 100, based on 73 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews.

Box office
Puppet Pals open in 3,922 North American theaters on it open week, grossing $31,292,306 on it 1 day Friday, June 30, 2006, which was biggest Friday open day in June at that time. During it open week, Puppet Pals earn $70,230,484 million from it North American theaters, which at time set new records such as highest open for a Fox animated film later overtaken by Simpsons Movie. Film open at 1 at box office on it open week beating Fox own Devil Wears Prada and Warner Bros Superman Returns. Film closed on December 14, 2006 after 24 weeks of release, grossing $280,714,564 million in US and UK, along with $279,056,987 million overseas for a worldwide total of $559,771,551 million. Film sold an estimated 48,430,650 tickets in North America.

Film was released in UK 3 months later on September 22, 2006, and top country box office for next 2 week, before being dethroned by Devil Wears Prada.

3D re release
Puppet Pals 3D was open in 2,979 theaters on September 2, 2016, and made $18.2 million in it open week, finish in 2 at box office. Film close on October 20, 2016, with a worldwide gross of $83.6 million. Like other countries, UK and Argentina received film in 3D. Puppet Pals 3D was released on September 23, 2016 in UK, and October 6, 2016, in Argentina.

Cultural impact
Coming soon!

Expanded franchise
Coming soon!

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

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