Duckman Goes Wild

Duckman Goes Wild is an upcoming 2018 American animated comedy crossover film based on the adult animated sitcom Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man (Commonly known as Duckman) and the Nickelodeon Series The Wild Thornberrys.The film also serves primarily as a sequel to The Wild Thornberrys Movie. It will be produced by Nickelodeon Movies and Klasky Csupo and distributed by Paramount Pictures and is scheduled for release on November 23, 2018. It features the voices of Jason Alexander, Lacey Chabert, Kristen Schaal, Marisa Tomei, and Coolio.

Premise
After discovering that he is a rare species, Duckman enlists the help of Eliza Thornberry to protect him from a ruthless poacher.

Plot
Eric T Duckman (Jason Alexander) is an anthropomorphic duck who’s not always treated well in life. He has a crappy job as a detective, a rather dysfunctional family with a nagging sister-in-law who never cuts him a break, and worst of all, a deceased wife, leaving him a widower.

The only person Duckman can really turn to is his eldest son Ajax (Dweezil Zappa), who is not very smart but is very compassionate and the two have a close bond as father and son. One day while picking up a popular novel for Bernice his sister-in-law (Nancy Travis), Duckman finds a page within the book containing a strange looking hieroglyph that somewhat resembles him. Everyone reading the same novel realize that the hieroglyph is, in fact, Duckman himself and proclaim him as the legendary duck that the novel refers to.

The news and local press show up to interview Duckman as everyone learns that he is a rare species. This new attention earns Duckman fame and fortune. He has turned his house into a mansion, is now on the cover of every magazine, and even seems to have finally earned the respect of his own family, including Bernice, whom he almost never gets along with.

As he is living his new lavish life, however, things go awry when he is suddenly approached by a woman named Bree Blackburn (Marissa Tomei) in his office, who at first acts interested in him romantically, but soon reveals herself to a be a poacher with the ultimate goal of killing him. A startled Duckman manages to escape his office and gets back home safely.

As he is hiding in the closet of his bedroom, he calls his best friend and fellow detective Cornfed on the matter, who is away on vacation in Hawaii. Cornfed (Gregg Berger) acknowledges Duckman’s situation and tells him that the only person who can help him is Eliza Thornberry, a young lady who has a vast knowledge of animals and had even rescued an entire herd of elephants from poachers many years ago. As Duckman leaves to seek out Eliza, he tells his family of his unfortunate situation and bids them farewell.

Meanwhile, Eliza Thornberry (Lacey Chabert), who is now 20 years old, is living peacefully on a college campus outside of Los Angeles. Spring break has begun and Eliza is preparing to leave for San Diego for a little relaxation. She speaks with her mother Marianne (Jodi Carlisle), who urges her uptight daughter to lighten up and have some fun during her vacation. Eliza acknowledges this and hangs up. The next day, Duckman arrives at Eliza’s college to seek her out disguised as a janitor. He sneaks into Eliza’s dorm room only to find that she is not there. As he hears Eliza and some of her friends enter her room, he frantically stuffs himself into Eliza’s luggage to hide. Later on, while on the open road, Duckman reveals himself to Eliza, frightening her. He tries to explain his situation to her, but she is too freaked out and angry to listen. The commotion in the vehicle causes Eliza to be pulled over by a cop, who turns out to be Bree Blackburn in disguise. Bree realizes that Duckman is hiding in Eliza’s backpack and cocks her gun before Duckman causes the car to speed off by hitting its gas pedal.

A wild chase ensues as Bree constantly fires her uzi at Eliza’s car in a desperate attempt to get at Duckman. Thanks to some skilled maneuvering on Eliza’s part, the two manage to lose her. A truly alarmed Eliza tries to kick Duckman out of her car, but Duckman manages to convince her to help him after she acknowledges the fact that he saved her life by making the car speed off. A reluctant Eliza agrees and shifts her plans, driving off to a nearby airport. The two board a small plane to Nairobi, Kenya in Africa where Duckman will be held in a special animal reserve to ensure his safety. Their flight is soon cut short unfortunately by a severe thunderstorm, forcing the two of them and their bumbling pilot to parachute into the ocean, eventually washing ashore on Zanzibar off the coast of Africa.

Eliza is annoyed and angry with the fact that she is stuck on the island on her supposedly peaceful spring break vacation, and blames Duckman for her misfortune. Trying to calm herself down while thinking of what to do next, Eliza remembers that her family is filming their latest documentary in the same area and that she and Duckman aren’t too far from their camp. With that, the two decide to hike there, although the trip is less than pleasant. “What better way to spend spring break than with your family?” Eliza says with a sigh.

After a lengthy hike, the two arrive at the Thornberry camp. There they meet up with Eliza’s older sister Debbie (Danielle Harris), her younger brother Donnie (Flea), and her old chimpanzee friend Darwin (Tom Kane), who are currently shooting a documentary in the jungle. Eliza requests that Debbie escorts her and Duckman to Nairobi, however, Debbie isn’t too thrilled to drop her plans as she and the family are having a hard time getting views and high ratings for their nature show and doesn’t seem to take too kindly to Duckman. Eliza, however, manages to convince Debbie to help by explaining that Duckman is an extremely rare species and that documenting him could not only mean a lot of views and high ratings but even a possible promotion as well.

One night as the group are asleep within the Thornberry’s “Comvee” mobile home, Duckman begins to have a strange dream. In the dream, he is visited by famous rapper Coolio (Playing himself), who tells Duckman that he is his spiritual guide who must lead him to his “True destiny”. Duckman quickly wakes up and tells everybody of his dream. Suddenly, Cornfed shows up and tells Duckman that he traveled from Hawaii to help. He shows everyone many articles and discoveries that he found that link to Duckman’s species, and proposes the idea to visit Ginger Crawly (Kristen Schaal), a famous, albeit rather odd, author and archeologist who may be able to explain more. Eliza disagrees, saying that she only wants to take Duckman to Nairobi for his protection, but is soon overruled by the enthusiasm and excitement of Debbie who is a huge fan of Ginger and her novels.

The group travels to a marketplace in Tanzania the next day to visit Ginger who is residing in a tent. Ginger examines Duckman and presents her findings to Eliza and Cornfed. She confirms that Duckman is not only a rare species but is also tied to an ancient African legend which could lead to a great, ultimate power. The marketplace is soon attacked by Bree and her henchman. A hot pursuit leads to Duckman, Eliza, Cornfed, and Darwin falling out of the Comvee and into a river where they are swept downstream while Debbie, Donnie, and Ginger manage to escape elsewhere. After the four of them survive, Eliza and Duckman get into another heated argument which leads to Eliza saying that she wishes she never met him. That night while camping out, Duckman apologizes to Eliza for getting her and everyone else mixed up in his plight. While the two share a heartfelt conversation, Eliza reveals that the reason for her bitterness was because of the death of her father Nigel Thornberry who died shortly before she left for college. Duckman sympathizes with her, saying that he had lost his wife Beatrice as well, to a tragic accident.

The next day while the group is trekking through the jungle, Duckman has another vision of the same hieroglyph that he discovered earlier and with Coolio telling him to “Follow the path of destiny, for you are the key”. After explaining his dream, Cornfed pulls out a scroll containing an image of the hieroglyph and deduces that the symbol is actually a map showing a path that leads to an unknown destination. The group follows the map and after a rather dangerous trip, come across an ancient ruin. Duckman stands right in the middle of the ruins and ends up opening a path that leads underground.

Soon Bree and her cronies ambush the group and request that Duckman comes quietly in exchange for his family, who have decided to come and aid him thanks to Ajax convincing them to earlier. Finding no other choice, Duckman decides to give himself up to Bree while the others are captured. Bree forces Duckman along with Ajax to lead her deep into the temple. They soon find what appears to be an ancient underground kingdom, and within it, a hidden civilization of ducks, all of whom resemble Duckman. Their leader (James Earl Jones) welcomes Duckman as the savior who was prophesized to come to them and reign over them as their all-powerful ruler. Duckman is taken to a pedestal in the middle of the kingdom where he is used as a key to activate an ancient relic, a golden stone feather. The elder duck tells him that anyone who touches the feather will gain its powers.

Meanwhile Eliza, Cornfed, Darwin, and Duckman's family manage to escape thanks to some help from Eliza’s family, who had arrived to rescue them. After quickly subduing their captors, they head down into the city where they find that Duckman had unlocked the relic. Realizing that she has now been outnumbered, Bree grabs the feather gaining its powers, and transforming into a giant stone creature to kill all of the ducks and make them all her trophies. Trying to save his son, Duckman confronts Bree but is quickly outmatched. With some encouragement from Eliza, she, Cornfed, Darwin, Ginger, their families, and the inhabitants of the kingdom, rise up together to defeat Bree. In the ensuing conflict, the Relic is accidentally smashed, opening a violent spinning vortex that threatens the kingdom. Both Duckman and Bree fall into it as a result of their struggle and it seems that the two had perished.

Duckman wakes up to find that he had entered the afterlife, realizing that he had died. While there he meets Eliza’s deceased father Nigel Thornberry (Tim Curry), who congratulates Duckman for his bravery and worthiness to find his destiny and is granted a reward of his choosing. Duckman is resurrected and reveals that he let Nigel possess his body so that Nigel could see his children one last time. After a tearful goodbye to his daughters and son, Nigel returns to the afterlife. Eliza deeply thanks Duckman for helping her find closure.

Bree is later resurrected as well but finds that she had been turned into a weird looking bird creature. She viciously goes to attack Duckman out of rage but is soon captured and caged by the civilians. With the Relic restored, Duckman is given one last opportunity to become the duck’s new ruler, but graciously turns down the offer and decides to stay with his family and friends. As a result, the kingdom is sealed off from the surface world forever.

The film ends with the Duckman and Thornberry families, along with Cornfed and Ginger, spending spring break together in San Diego.

Cast

 * Jason Alexander as Eric T. Duckman
 * Lacey Chabert as Eliza Thornberry
 * Kristen Schaal as Ginger Crawly
 * Marisa Tomei as Bree Blackburn
 * Coolio as Himself


 * Nancy Travis as Bernice
 * Dweezil Zappa as Ajax
 * E.G. Daily as Charles and Mambo
 * Gregg Berger as Cornfed
 * Pat Musick as Fluffy and Uranus


 * Danielle Harris as Debbie Thornberry
 * Michael Peter "Flea" Balzary as Donnie Thornberry
 * Tom Kane as Darwin
 * Tim Curry as Nigel Thornberry
 * Jodi Carlisle as Marianne Thornberry


 * James Earl Jones as Duck Chief
 * Zolani Mahola as Duck Shaman
 * Alex Boye as Duck Chanter
 * Dijimon Hounsou as Duck Hunter
 * Phil LaMarr as Duck Villager

Production
The film is being produced by Nickelodeon Movies and Klasky Csupo, and will be the company's first major film since Rugrats Go Wild in 2003.

Soundtrack
An original soundtrack for the film will be released August of 2018 by Jive Records and Nick Records. Singer-Songwriter Bruno Mars wrote and produced an original song "Savage" featuring Alex Boye. The soundtrack will also feature new songs by Boye.

Trivia

 * This will be the second crossover film to feature The Wild Thornberrys, the first being Rugrats Go Wild in 2003.