Puppet Pals (2006 film)

Puppet Pals is a 2006 American computer-animated comedy film, directed by Steve Martino and produced by David Silverman, it was released in the United States on January 13, 2006. The film was produced by Twentieth Century Fox Animation for 20th Century Fox. The film features the voices of Jesse McCartney, Amy Poehler, Sandra Bullock, Seth Rogen, Josh Peck, Sarah Silverman, Zachary Gordon, Kevin James, Steve Carell, and Sarah Vowell.

Puppet Pals premiered at the Mann Village Theater on January 6, 2006, and was released in the United States on January 13, 2006. It received universal acclaim from critics and was a box office success, grossing $662.2 million worldwide on its $90 million budget, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of 2006. Puppet Pals was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but it lost to Ice Age: The Meltdown and Cars. It also received nominations for Best Original Screenplay (for writers Jon Vitti, Peter Ackerman, Mike Reiss, and Brad Bird) and Best Sound Mixing (Randy Thom, Dennie Thorpe, Jana Vance, Gary Rydstrom and Tom Myers). Puppet Pals saw a 3D re-release in theaters on April 8, 2016 to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The film's success helped spawn an expanded franchise, with four sequels—2009's Puppet Pals 2, 2012's Puppet Pals the Third, 2015's Puppet Pals: Collision Course (which was replaced with Puppet Pals: Forever After), a holiday special, several short films, theme park attractions, and a television spin-off.

Plot
A spotted dog named Slippy attempts to find a place to store his bone in a small grass field. Eventually, as he tries to stomp it to the ground, he inadvertently causes a large crack to form in the ground that extends for miles before setting off a large earthquake that nearly crushes him. He barely escapes but finds himself getting stepped on by a group of townspeople heading to a large and complex town named Tinywood. Meanwhile, in an alternate world, a young man named Nathan Ritter, who loves the solitude of his own pampered life, finds his own life interrupted when an overweight and lazy man named Jeremy Johnson, who comes from an alternate world and comes spewing out of Nathan's bathroom, where he decides to stay and invade Nathan's home. Nathan schemes to get rid of Jeremy by luring him into the portal of where he came from, but Jeremy is not fooled, instead throwing Nathan into the portal and sending him away into the alternate world, where he later discovers Tinywood. Later, a talkative lizard named 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 the guards, whom they chase after him. Toby then finds Nathan, who he is trying to find a new home, where later Toby is soon rescued by Nathan, who fights the guards off. Toby joins Nathan, not wanting to be alone and unprotected. Nathan is later annoyed by Toby's constant and outgoing talk and wishes to live on his own, but Toby nonetheless convinces Nathan to live with him at his temporary new home for one night. Later that night, Nathan's new home is invaded again by the townspeople of Tinywood, whom they were exiled by the evil and vertically-challenged Rosie Storm. Angered by the intrusion, he decides to ask Rosie to exile them elsewhere, bringing Toby along as he is the only one willing to guide him to her palace, with the help of a mysterious young woman and a weird-named team named Puppet Pals. Meanwhile, Rosie's torture of a talkative magical creature named Steve Smiley for the location of the Puppet Pals is interrupted when his son, Rob, and her guards present her with the Magic Ball. She asks the Ball if she is ready to be the ruler 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 the lost and mysterious princess of Tinywood, where she is hiding from Rosie and her henchmen.

Meanwhile, Nathan and Toby head to a dark alley, where they meet Joanna, who turns out to be the mysterious woman that Toby was talking about, where she is hiding in her faithful boat, the "Lucky Ocean". Joanna is initially irritated by Nathan, and she is appalled at his lack of romanticism, but ends up taking him along. Rosie's henchmen, John and Dave, suddenly invade the boat where the two capture Nathan, Joanna, and Toby, after finding Joanna's deceased father's prized diamond, which she stole back from Rosie years ago. Later, the five later head to Rosie's palace, and Rob then challenges Nathan and Toby to fight off Rosie's guards, but they ignorantly defeat them. Rosie then plans to have Nathan, Joanna, and Toby melt with boiling lava. The three escape, but they are attacked by Rosie's guard dragon, who corners Toby. In desperation, he sweet-talks the beast, learning that it is female. The 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 the large dam of Tinywood. After escaping Rosie's palace, Nathan discovers that the 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 the trio first stop to meet the rest of the 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, the youngest member in the team, convincing Joanna to be kind to Nathan. Later, the team almost reaches the 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 hanging on a cliff, about to fall into the lava. Nathan saves her, narrowly missing certain death by falling into the 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 the 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 teenager, but although Rosie was a proficient member of the Puppet Pals, Captain Matt's now-deceased father sensed corruption within her and refused to give her the Silver Scroll, making her enraged by severely attacking Tinywood and tried to take the scroll by force, but Matt stopped her and kicked her out of the team, resulting in her hatred of the Puppet Pals and the city of Tinywood. The next day, after spending the night, the team later evade John and Dave, pursuing them in a small electric boat, with the rest of Rosie's 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 the key, sinking the Lucky Ocean in the process, but the trio use a grappling hook right into the portal to save and send themselves to Nathan's old home. Back home, Nathan pays Joanna the promised diamond, then shows her around his house. She at first believes he has family in the home, but notices a picture of Nathan's parents, whom 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.

Talking to Jeremy, Nathan pieces together Rosie's plan: to open the gates of the dam, with a huge great water wave forming and wiping out the entirety of Tinywood, killing everyone, where Rosie will finally become the ruler of Tinywood and repopulate the 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 the electric key to unlock the security gate of the 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's guards are going to tie her up in front of the dam, where she will be killed by the giant wave. Toby urges Nathan to express his feelings for Joanna before she is killed, and the two travel to Rosie's palace quickly by riding Rosie's now-tamed guard dragon, who had escaped her confines and followed Toby. Nathan, Toby, and Captain Matt interrupt the wedding before Rob can kiss Joanna, and Nathan tells her that she can't marry Rob, where she would be killed if she does. Captain Matt is suddenly knocked unconscious, while Rob kidnaps Joanna, where Nathan, Toby, and Captain Matt try to rescue her, and are chased by Rosie's guards across the city, but leave Natalia and Jeremy behind. The group arrive at the dam, where Joanna is currently being tied up, but she is freed by Nathan. Later, Natalia and Jeremy arrive with the whole town of Tinywood beside them, where a battle between the Puppet Pals, Rosie's henchmen and guards, and the 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's 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 the giant wave with Rosie's ice gun. Nathan is praised by the townspeople of Tinywood and earns the respect of the 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, the 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. Somewhere else far from Tinywood, Slippy, trapped in a small box, ends up on the shores of a tropical island. Slippy then finds a coconut and tries to stomp it into the ground, only to accidentally trigger a volcanic eruption.

Cast

 * Jesse McCartney as Nathan Ritter, an pampered but lonely 18-year-old boy
 * Isla Fisher as Anna Dawson, an street-wise and "tough as nails" 19-year-old girl
 * Zachary Gordon as Zack Stevens
 * Sandra Bullock as Rosie Storm
 * Josh Peck as Toby Smith
 * Anne Hathaway as Princess Joanna
 * Seth Rogen as Captain Matthew
 * Sarah Vowell as Natalia Jones
 * Zach Braff as Jeremy Moore
 * John Goodman as Mayor Mike
 * Chris Wedge as Slippy the Dog
 * Kevin James as Bob, one of Rosie Storm's henchman.
 * Steve Carell as Mike, one of Rosie Storm's henchman.
 * Robin Williams as John, one of Rosie Storm's henchmen.
 * William Shatner as Dave, one of Rosie Storm's henchmen.
 * Jason Lee as Rob Storm, Rosie Storm's son
 * Susanne Blakeslee as an old lady
 * Corey Burton as a police officer
 * Patrick Warburton as Milo, a tourist.
 * Betty White as Wendy, a tourist.
 * Tom Kenny as The Magic Ball
 * Patton Oswalt as Steve Smiley
 * Chris Wedge, David Silverman, Chris Renaud (uncredited), Bob Bergen (uncredited), and Steve O'Connell as the Smileys

Development
Rich Moore came up with the concept for Puppet Pals in 1997 during the production of 2003's Jose Maldonaldo. In the beginning of production, Rich Moore began work on the film with Steve Martino in 2000, shortly after the release of Titan A.E. By late 2000, Silverman had drafted a treatment with Martino that bore some resemblance to the final film. Silverman and Martino pitched the story to Twentieth Century Fox Animation with some initial artwork in January 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 the film was solely directed by Steve Martino, Disney, Universal Animation, and Pixar artists came into the project and created the characters and story, which were given to Steve Martino. The film was originally developed under the title of Toons, but it was changed. In March 2002, following the success of Ice Age, announced that Steve Martino and David Silverman was working on a then-untitled project that would become Puppet Pals. In November 2002, Fox revealed the film's title to be Puppet Pals, then planned for a 2005 release. In addition, it would be animated with computer-animation, rather than traditional hand-drawn animation that had been done with Fox's previous films. Alaina Gleen creator Thalia Ward didn't like the name of the film, saying that it would be dumb and fearing that it would bomb at the box office. In March 2003, production of the film officially began, and David Silverman was brought in to produce the film. Kevin Lima, Thalia Ward, and Chris Wedge worked as creative consultants on the film. The film was later completed by November 2005.

Casting
Coming soon!

Animation
Coming soon!

Music
Main article: Puppet Pals (2006 film)/Soundtrack

The film's original score was composed by Michael Giacchino and John Powell. The soundtrack album was released on January 10, 2006 by Varèse Sarabande.

Changes

In 2020, Joseph Goes Pictures announced that it will be owning past/future T.J Entertainment films, following Puppet Pals films. During an announcement of the Andrewtopia/JosephMedia merge.

Critical response
Puppet Pals received widespread critical acclaim, becoming a cult hit among critics upon release. On the aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 169 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Even if it's not an animation classic, Puppet Pals is clever and fun, and the jokes cater to family members of all ages." On Metacritic, it received a score of 76 out of 100, based on 73 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Box office
Puppet Pals opened in 3,993 North American theaters on its opening weekend, grossing $39.8 million on its first day (Friday, January 13, 2006), which was the biggest Friday opening day in January. During its opening weekend, Puppet Pals earned $87.5 million from 3,993 theaters, which at the time set new records such as the highest opening for a Fox-animated film (later overtaken by Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs). This film opened at #1 at the box office on its opening weekend behind ''Hoodwinked! (2006) and Glory Road (2006)''. It fell 58.2% in its second weekend, grossing $49.4 million and finishing second behind newcomer Superman Returns. The film closed on May 4, 2006 after 24 weeks of release, grossing $280.2 million in the United States and Canada, along with $355.4 million overseas for a worldwide total of $635.6 million. The film sold an estimated 48,430,650 tickets in North America.

The film was released in the United Kingdom three months later on two weeks later on January 27, 2006, and topped the country's box office for the next three weekends, before being dethroned by The Devil Wears Prada.

3D re-release
Puppet Pals 3D was opened in 3,148 theaters on April 8, 2016, and made $25.2 million in its opening weekend, finishing in first place at the box office. The film closed on July 7, 2016, with a worldwide gross of $342.8 million. Unlike other countries, the U.K. and Argentina received the film in 3-D. Puppet Pals 3D was released on July 22, 2016 in the U.K., and May 19, 2016, in Argentina.

Release
The film premiered on January 6, 2006, at the Mann Village Theatre, Westwood in Los Angeles, and was released in the United States on January 13, 2006.

In March 2005, IMAX decided to plan a big-screen 3D version of Puppet Pals. The film would have been re-released during the Christmas season of 2006, or the following summer, after its conventional 2D release. The re-release would have also included new sequences and an alternate ending. Plans for this was dropped due to "creative changes" instituted by Fox and resulted in a loss of $1.12 million, down from IMAX's profit of $4.11 million.

However, on March 16, 2016, Fox and IMAX announced that Puppet Pals would be re-released on April 8, 2016 in IMAX 3D for a limited time, to honor the 10th anniversary of the franchise.

A montage of "outtakes" were made and included in the end credits of the film starting on February 10, 2006, which was done because Fox hoped it would encourage people to view the film a second time.

Puppet Pals was originally scheduled for release on November 11, 2005, but on December 9, 2004, its release date was pushed back to January 13, 2006. The release date change was also the day before Universal Animation changed the release date of BJ and Wally to December 2005 to July 2006.

Release dates

 * United States: January 6, 2006 (Mann Village Theatre)
 * United States, Canada, and Mexico: January 13, 2006
 * Philippines, and Finland: January 27, 2006
 * Netherlands, and France: February 2, 2006
 * Greece: February 2, 2006
 * Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine: February 16, 2006
 * Brazil: February 24, 2006
 * United Kingdom, Ireland, and Italy: March 3, 2006
 * Germany: March 9, 2006
 * Sweden: March 10, 2006
 * Denmark: March 24, 2006
 * Japan: April 1, 2006
 * Australia, Iceland, and New Zealand: April 6, 2006
 * Portugal: April 13, 2006
 * Turkey: April 14, 2006
 * Israel: May 11, 2006
 * China: May 19, 2006
 * Hungary: June 8, 2006

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

Baskin-Robbins promoted the film for its new Puppet Pal EXTREME Sundae that consists of crushed Hershey's chocolate, hot fudge, crushed chocolate cookies, whipped cream, squiggly gummy worms and chocolate syrup.

The film was backed by a large marketing campaign, with toys, books, games, clothes, and many other items becoming available throughout 2005
 * The film's first teaser trailer was released on February 10, 2005, and was later shown in theaters with other films such as Pooh's Heffalump Movie, Because of Winn Dixie, The Pacifier, Robots, Ice Princess, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Kim Possible: The Movie, TJ's World: The Movie and Madagascar.
 * Another teaser trailer was released on June 16, 2005, and was later released with Wondercolts, Summer Belongs Movie, History Island, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Fantastic Four, M.I.S.S.I.O.N., Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Thomas & The Magic Railroad 2: A New Adventure Begins, Bad News Bears and Sky High.
 * The first theatrical trailer was released on August 18, 2005, and was shown with Valiant, The Proud Family Movie, Corpse Bride, The Greatest Game Ever Played, and Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
 * The second and final theatrical trailer was released on November 3, 2005 and was later shown before Chicken Little, Zathura: A Space Adventure, Metro Cone, MYCUN: The Movie, Yours, Mine, & Ours, Jose Maldonaldo: World Tour, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Marcus Troy and the Kingdom of the Crown!.
 * TV spots began to air between October 7, 2005 and January 27, 2006.

Video game
A video game based on the film was released on January 10, 2006 on PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PC, and Macintosh.

Home media
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment first released Puppet Pals on DVD on June 9, 2006. This release includes a special THX edition with DTS sound, Two short films: Slippy's Missing Adventure and the Puppet Pals Crazy Dance Party. a look at Kate & Chris (2007), playable games, a demo of Puppet Pals (video game) on PC and many more.

Puppet Pals was released to DVD the same day that Disney and Pixar's Cars hit theaters. Since videos were traditionally released on Tuesdays, Disney's executives did not receive this well, saying that the move "seemed like an underhanded attempt to siphon off some of their film's steam". Fox responded that it "simply shifted the 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." Disney and Pixar's Cars earned that weekend $60,119,509, while Puppet Pals' video release made more than $150 million, and eventually became the biggest selling DVD of all time with over 6.5 million sales.

It was also released on Blu-ray + DVD combo pack on June 8, 2010.

It was released again on Blu-ray 3D, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, DVD, and Blu-ray on July 12, 2016 to honor the 10th anniversary of the franchise. (Digital HD version was released on July 5, 2016)

As of January 14, 2011, the film is available to watch on Netflix.

As of November 12, 2019, the film was available to watch on Disney+.

Television series
Shortly after the release of the film, Fox had plans to make Puppet Pals into a franchise. Among the various media created was a video game and an animated series. The show debuted on FOX & Disney Channel on April 18, 2006 and ended on December 21, 2018.