Super Monkey Ball (2010 film)

 Super Monkey Ball  is an 2010 CGI animated comedy family film based off of the video game franchise of the same name. Being the third film in the Sega Cinematic Universe, the film was directed and written by Ethan Coen and produced by former 20th Century Studios president, Peter Liguori. The film stars Charlie Adler, Jim Carrey, Avril Lavigne, Tom Kenny, Jack Black, and Jeff Bennett, with Adler playing the lead role of the previously unnamed Monkey. The film focuses on the title character Monkey, who has an disease called Neuro-Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (NIDS) and has to stay in a ball. Monkey and his friends attempt to win "Animal of the Year" award.

Being distributed by Sega and its film divison Sega Movies, Walden Media, and 20th Century Studios, the film was produced in between Shenmue and Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble, released in 2009 and mid 2011, respectively. Peter Liguori produced the film under the second film distributed by 20th Century Studios while Ethan Coen was announced as director and screenwriter, returning as director from Sonic the Hedgehog the Movie. Production began in mid-to-late 2008 and ended in very late 2009. Coen wanted the film to be 84 minutes and wanted it to be a simple plot. In mid 2009, the cast was announced, including Jim Carrey and Jack Black.

Super Monkey Ball was released on and received mixed to positive reviews, with critics praising the animation and characters but criticizing the plot and short runtime, which people thought made the film boring. On a $55 million budget, it made $90 million, making it an success.

Plot
When Monkey (Charlie Adler) is born, he is born with NIDS, Neuro-Immuno Deficiency Syndrome, which kills his immune system. As a result of this, Monkey is permanently placed in a ball, which if its open, he will die due to not having an immune system. Twelve years later, Monkey is twelve years old. He has his friends Jessca (Jessica Chanstain) and Michael (Tom Kenny), who he hangs out with while in his ball. His parents abandoned him, but he lives by himself and is able to take care of himself.

One day, Monkey sees a poster for an audition for Best Animal of the Year. Monkey, Jessca, and Michael try to join the contest, but are denied because it for ages 10+ as they are eight. They pretend to be 11 year old middle schoolers and submit a video to the BAOTY agency website, and they are accepted into the contest and have a week to make their video and get Monkey accepted as the best animal. Jessca and Michael try doing something with Monkey's ball, but it fails. They get an idea from a black hawk named Mlike (Jim Carrey), going to the circus. Jessca, Monkey, and Michael love the idea and with Mlike, head down to the circus to get their video submitted and perform the stunts. Joe (Jeff Bennett), a classmate of Monkey visits his house and asks if he can help them too, however because of how annoying he is, they end up saying no to Joe.

They are allowed into the circus to watch the contestants and get access to tickets with Jessca’s money and sneak in. After two hours of the circus animals performing, they all go home and the circus shuts down, giving them time to perform. The circus owner David (Jack Black) catches them, but allows them to do their stunt. They record their video, which sees Monkey doing several stunts on his ball such as dangling on a tightrope and doing acrobatics. Mliké tries submitting his own video while the others and David watch their video and laugh. They submit into the website as their middle schooler selves, but Michael removed the search history for some specific reason…

They do not remember the account name and the password as they are very long and they try submitting in, but the submitters are all full, showing 100 contestants. Seeing that he signed up too, Mlike allows Monkey and the others to use his account to submit their video, and they all thano him before he flies off into the night. Monkey, Michael, and Jessca submit their video and wait until the next day, and they all go back to their houses and fall asleep, waiting for the next day. Meanwhile, Mlike goes back to David, revealing that he was a part of the circus all along. Mlike and David perform crazy stuff in the circus while they are alone, and David submits his video too, already having signed in before it was full.

The next day, Monkey, Jessca, and Michael all try to head down to the place, but are stopped because they are too young, causing a dent in their plan. They all dress up as a middle aged white guy and sneak into the place where the winners are announced. David gets in third place, Monkey gets second place, and Monkey's classmate from last time Joe ends up getting first place for also doing acrobatics, with fire rings and snowboarding. Monkey ends up getting a silver award, but while disappointed, he accepts his defeat, and congratulates Joe. Monkey ends up hanging the award up in his house, Mlike ends up being Monkey's pet black hawk and David continues running his circus with Monkey, being recognized for his amazing talent.

Cast

 * Charlie Adler as Monkey, a monkey who has to stay in a ball
 * Avril Lavigne as Jessca, Monkey's female poodle friend
 * Tom Kenny as Michael, Monkey's male chicken dim-witted friend.
 * Jim Carrey as Mlike, a black hawk who helps Monkey win the contest.
 * Jack Black as David, the owner of the circus.
 * Jeff Bennett as Joe, Monkey's classmate and annoying student.

Production
Upon the box-office success of Sonic the Hedgehog the Movie, it was announced in 2008 that a Super Monkey Ball movie was in development, with Joel Coen in talks to direct. Joel Coen later left the project, but was replaced by his brother, Ethan Coen and Ethan had written the film to be simple but fun and charming, giving it a runtime of one hour and twenty four minutes. Ethan said: "It's a fun film for both kids and adults and all ages that many will love, it has a great message and everything." It is the third film in the Sega Cinematic Universe, being released before Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble. Avril Lavigne was announced to be part of the movie as well as Jim Carrey and Jack Black voicing major characters too. Charlie Adler was announced to be cast as the title character. Instead of Hans Zimmer or Michael Giacchino, Randy Newman composed the music for Super Monkey Ball.

Marketing
Sega earned $3 million from merchandising Super Monkey Ball, more then they did with Shenmue. This is mainly because of the fact that Super Monkey Ball gears more towards kids then Shenmue does, which allowed for merchandising with toys. McDonald's teamed with Sega and 20th Century Studios to promote toys for the movie, including a rolling Monkey ball which came with a playable play set racer track.

Sega's mascot Sonic the Hedgehog made a cameo in the movie in the form of a movie poster outside of a theater, promoting the release of Sonic's at the time new game, Sonic Colors, which later released in December of that same year. In recent years, Sega has earned $7 billion from marketing.

Box office
Super Monkey Ball grossed $68 million in North America, $30 million in Japan, and $59 million in South America, in total grossing $187 million at the box-office worldwide internationally.

On its first day of release, Super Monkey Ball grossed $8 million internationally.

Reception
Super Monkey Ball received positive reviews. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, Super Monkey Ball has an average approval rating of 64% out of 100% based on 111 critical reviews. Its critical consenus reads: "A delightfully boring but bright, colorful, and entertaining film for kids and adults of all ages." Metacritic ranks the film 61 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Wynn Knight of Chicago Sunday-Times reviewed the movie and gave it 4.1 out of 5 stars, calling it a good film but too short. A critical response of the movie was its runtime. Many people criticized the movie for being too boring, having a runtime of 84 minutes, and criticizing the plot. Famous film critic Roger Ebert gave the film 3.2 stars out of four and said "Enjoyable. Boring, but decent!"