Talisman (2004 animated film)

Talisman is a 2004 animated fantasy action adventure film directed by Garrett Fredrickson, produced by Joseph M. Caracciolo Jr., Hunt Lowry and Shinji Komori and starring the voices of Frankie Muniz, Mandy Moore, Emile Hirsch, Jonathan Winters, Suzanne Pleshette, Giovanni Ribisi, Drew Carey, Bill Bailey, Cedric the Entertainer, Meryl Streep, Eric Bogosian and Mel Brooks. The film follows an orphaned boy named Shannon Piermont (Muniz), who decides to escape the orphanage he lives at and try to start a new life. He meets a mage turned Scarlet macaw named Sperlock (Winters), who gives him a talisman that supposedly can bring good luck. As luck would have it, Shannon meets Kiera Castillo, the daughter of the prestigious Castillo family, and gets a job working as a servant for the family. The Castillos are expecting the arrival of the Pearson's, another prestigious family, for a marriage between Kiera and the Pearson's son Jasper (Hirsh) has been in consideration. Unbeknownst to them, however, a wicked sorceress named Dia (Plashette) has started a conspiracy in order to get the Castillo's fortune, and it's now up to Shannon to figure out the truth and stop her plans before it is too late.

The film originally began development in 1980, with Fredrickson having written the first and second drafts of the script a year later. Due to Garrett getting involved in other projects, he didn't get back to it until 1997, during development on The Angel and the Introvert. Fredrickson and Steven Whitestone heavily revised the movie's script in order to bring up the former's current standards, with his son, Robert Fredrickson, helping as a creative consultant. Hunt Lowry of Gaylord Films and Ridley Scott of Scott Free Productions served as producers for the film, whilst Madhouse, who previously co-animated The Angel and the Introvert with Gainax, did the animation for the film.

The first film produced by LIVE Entertainment after it rebranded from Nightstorm Productions, Talisman was released to theaters in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures on April 23, 2004. During it's theatrical run, it grossed $248.3 million at the box office and received generally positive reviews from critics. The film was nominated an Annie Award for Best Animated Feature but lost to The Incredibles, and was also nominated for Best Original Score at the Golden Globe Awards

Plot
COMING SOON

Cast

 * Frankie Muniz as Shannon Piermont
 * Mandy Moore as Kiera Castillo, a beautiful girl who comes from the rich and dignified Castillo family, but she acts rather humble and sweet towards those she's around, namely towards Shannon, who she comes to see as a brother figure she never had.
 * Emile Hirsch as Jasper Pearson, the son of the Pearson family who is expected to meet Kiera, but is tricked and captured by Dia, with his right hand man Barclay taking his place in a disguise. Shannon helps him escape and Jasper helps him to stop Dia, with the two becoming best friends as the story goes on.
 * Jonathan Winters as Sperlock, a mage who was turned into a Scarlet macaw whomst Shannon meets and is given the talisman by. Sperlock prefers being a macaw than a human and decides to stick by Shannon's side as much as he's able to.
 * Suzanne Pleshette as Dia, a wicked sorceress who plots a conspiracy to get the Castillo's and potentially the Pearson's fortunes all for herself. This was Suzanne Plashette's final acting role prior to her death in 2008.
 * Giovanni Ribisi as Barclay, Jasper's right hand man who ends up becoming a pawn in Dia's scheme, for she disguises him as Jasper and has him take his place in the family.
 * Drew Carey as Rick, Dia's hen-pecked and well-intentioned but incompetent henchman.
 * Bill Bailey as Elmer Sutton, the Castillo's British-accented posh butler.
 * Cedric the Entertainer as Crispin O'Brien, a man that Shannon and Jasper meet who ultimately helps them in the final battle against Dia.
 * Meryl Streep as Mia Castillo, Kiera's mother and the head of the Castillo household.
 * Eric Bogosian as Sebastian Castillo, Kiera's father.
 * Mel Brooks as Dylan Castillo, Sebastian's father and Kiera's grandfather.
 * Catherine O'Hara as Michelle Pearson, Jasper's mother.
 * Alan Tudyk as Roger Pearson, Jasper's father
 * David Ogden Stiers as the orphanage owner
 * Jeff Bennett as Wesley Parkinson
 * Tom Kenny and Charlie Adler as a pair of bullies
 * Melissa Joan Hart as Prudence Bishop, a friend of Kiera's from the school she goes to.
 * Carl Andy (credited as C. Mordecai) as the ball announcer (cameo)
 * Carl Andy, Jr. (credited as Roger Andrews) as an orphanage resident (cameo)
 * Joe Alaskey as Neil Hoffman

Additional voices

 * Philip Proctor
 * Jack Angel
 * Mickie McGowan
 * Kevin Michael Richardson
 * Bob Buccholz
 * Jean Giplin
 * Rodger Bumpass
 * Tony Pope
 * Elea Bartling
 * Edie Mirman
 * Hope Levy
 * Newell Alexander
 * Greg Ellis
 * Amanda Winn Lee
 * Carlos Alazraqui
 * Bob Bergen
 * Danny Mann
 * Crawford Wilson
 * Lia Sargent
 * Jennifer Darling
 * Dee Bradley Baker
 * Scott Menville
 * Melissa Disney
 * Jeff Fischer

Development
Garrett Fredrickson first planned the film all the way back in 1979, after reading numerous fantasy themed novels. After writing The Hollywood Connection in 1980, he decided to try and write the film and pitch it to various film studios. At the time Fredrickson was originally considering making it a live action film rather than an animated film. The first and second drafts of the film were written in 1981, however, after helping Carl Andy to write the English dub of Space Firebird, Fredrickson became more interested in importing an anime film, thus eventually bringing over A Penguin's Memories to the states. Following this, he decided to put more focus on another film he had in mind, Rise of the Mages, which was his first time he made a film for a major film studio. He wouldn't get back to this film until 1997, when The Writer was released.

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Animation
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Music
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Theatrical
Warner Bros. Pictures was initially unsure of when to release the film. Fredrickson wanted a June 2004 release, when Warner would be releasing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. A July release was also considered, but that was changed as the film would have to compete with films such as Anchorman and I, Robot. Ultimately, a compromise was made that the film would be released in the spring of 2004 instead. Talisman was released in the United States on April 23, 2004. It later saw a Japanese theatrical release on August 28, 2004, with the local branch of Warner Bros. handling distribution.

Marketing
Warner Bros. spent $30 million on advertising the film across the United States. On March 26, 2004, Burger King issued seven Talisman toys as part of their Big Kids meals for one month. Several plushes from Nanco intended for claw machines can also be found and purchased in varying sizes (from 6 inches to 11 inches to 17 inches). Characters available: Shannon, Kiera, Jasper, Sperlock, Dia, Barclay, and Rick. Along with the release of the film, a companion Talisman video game was developed by Heavy Iron Studios and published by THQ. It has the same main cast as the film. It was released for the PC, PlayStation 2, GameCube and GBA,

Home media
Warner Home Video released Talisman on VHS and DVD on August 31, 2004. The DVD came in three editions, two single disc full screen and widescreen editions, and a two-disc widescreen edition containing several bonus features such as behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, a music video, two playable games and a demo of the PC version of the video game. It was released on HD-DVD with bonus features in 2006 and on Blu-ray with bonus features on March 13, 2007.

Box office
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Critical response
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 89% based on 263 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads "From it's engaging story, its stellar animation to it's fun and charming characters, Talisman brings many twists on some familiar conventions and results in an entertaining and creative effort from Garrett Fredrickson." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 83 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim", audiences on CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

Accolades
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