Planets (2015 film)

Plot
The planets must battle Nat Peterson and his cute gone savage purple (formerly beige) guinea pig, Gigi.

Development
On May 9, 2005, 10 years before this film, Jacknjellify Films announced its animated film about planet, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were brought to direct the film, with Wayne Rice adapting the screenplay. In 2006, it was reported that the film had been helmed by a new director and story writer, Joel Coward. Coward said later that year that it would also have the Sun, the Moon, and the 5 dwarf planets.

Story and script
After a year working on the script, Coward was fired for story issues and replaced with new writers, who after a year were also fired. Coward was then re-hired in 2006. He completely redid the script, this time with the creative input of their crew. The two were almost fired again after Michel Huang, then co-head of Jacknjellify, criticized the film for lack of story. Although the film succeeded on the comedic front in the animatic stage, Huang cited the lack of an anchoring relationship in the film as a failure in the story telling. Unable to create new characters and environments to suit the new story demands, he elevated the character of Sun to be the protagonists’ father, thereby creating the relationship Huang had requested. The man’s experience on Planets taught them two valuable lessons: the power of creative collaboration and the importance of emotion in a story.

Casting
On September 18, 2008, Variety announced that Thomas Middleditch (Mercury), Lady Gaga (Venus), Cristela Alonzo (Earth), Rob Rackstraw (Mars), Jack Black (Jupiter), Tanya Haden (Saturn), Bill Hader (Uranus), and Kirk Thornton (Neptune) had signed on to voice the 8 lead characters, with a few other people also in the voice cast.

Animation
Planets is the third film after Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs that was made using the animation rendering software Arnold.

Reception
The film was a success at the box office, It is one of the highest grossing animated films of all time. So Jacknjellify decided to make a franchise with a TV show, and a video game. They then announced a sequel titled, Planets 2 which got released in 2017. They then announced two more films, one is titled Planets 3 (2019), and the other one is titled Planets 4: Transformadness (2021). They then announced a prequel spinoff film to the main series, which is currently in the works.

Music
See page: Planets/Soundtrack

In Theaters

 * October 23rd, 2015 (USA)
 * November 24th, 2015 (Canada)
 * July 31st, 2016 (Worldwide)

Home Media

 * October 9th, 2016 (Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital HD) (USA and Canada)
 * October 23rd, 2020 (Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital HD) (UK, Worldwide) (5th Year Anniversary Edition)
 * December 18th, 2020 (Netflix) (USA and Canada)
 * February 25th, 2021 (Netflix) (Worldwide)