Ben 10 Omniverse: Power Trip

'Official statement from Ben 10 Omniverse: Power Trip creator: Guys please dont copy this idea and claim it as your own. Oh and also if you are gonna hate on this film, notice how this is an idea, its not gonna happen irl, so calm down...'

Ben 10 Omniverse: Power Trip is a 2015 American animated superhero film based on the 2012 TV series Ben 10: Omniverse created by Man of Action. Directed by Henrique Jardim and John McIntyre and written by Benjamin Lane, Chelsea McAlarney, Johnny Vu, André LaMilza, John Martinez, Josh Kim, Sarah Visel, Benjamin P. Carow and Kelly Turnbull, it stars Yuri Lowenthal, Bumper Robinson, Paul Eiding, Dee Bradley Baker, Eric Bauza, Corey Burton, John DiMaggio, David Kaye, Rob Paulsen, Kevin Michael Richardson, Tara Strong, and Roger Craig Smith. In this film, Ben travels around space to stop a new threat that can lead Earth to total destruction.

Ben 10 Omniverse: Power Trip premiered in New York on June 11, 2015, and was released in the United States on July 3. The film received mixed reviews from critics but grossed over $750.6 million worldwide. At the time of release, the film became the 8th highest-grossing film of 2015 and the second highest-grossing Traditional animated film. The film is also Warner Brothers' highest-grossing film of 2015.

Plot
When a modification for Ben's Omnitrix goes haywire, his partner, Rook, look outside saw a giant ship landing next to the Proto-TRUK. The ship’s pilot exits and Ben prepares to go hero. However, the pilot throws a ring in front of Ben, revealing it to be Sonic. Ben and Gwen are excited to see him and reveals that he "came as soon as he heard." Ben initially tries to apologize to him for destroying the hoverboard he gave him, but Sonic says that he's actually come to Earth because he picked up the "SDM:" signal from the Omnitrix. Ben still thinks it’s merely another one of the Omnitrix’s glitches. However, Max concludes that SDM stands for Self Destruct Mode. Sonic says that it’s natural for the Omnitrix to broadcast a signal when it begins its countdown. Ben realizes that the watch is going to destroy itself in a matter of time, and Sonic adds to his fears when he says Ben will be destroyed along with it when it does.

Ben tries to think hard about how the SDM mode was activated in the first place, assuming Sonic can handle it. However, Sonic reveals that he has no idea how to restabilize it, but Azmuth, the rumored creator of the Omnitrix, would be able to. Sonic says that he can find Azmuth's DNA signature on the Omnitrix with the equipment in his ship, and they can use that to find him. After taking a look at the Omnitrix's pattern repetition, he estimates that they have less than four days to deactivate the SDM before the countdown reaches zero, So Sonic and Ben Go to a Meteor.

When Ben reaches the meteor, he suddenly changes direction, and flies into a portal to another galaxy while the meteor continues heading towards Earth. As the Tennyson’s and Phil moan over Bens disappearance and brace for impact, the meteor lands but is actually revealed to be Ben's arch-enemy Vilgax who has escaped from his imprisonment in the Null Void in the Season 2 finale and wants revenge against Earth and Ben Tennyson.

Meanwhile, after exiting the portal, Ben finds himself stranded in space and when he times out, his Omnitrix gives him a spacesuit to help him survive in the depths of space while also being abducted by the Incurseans, who think he is Vilgax. Ben tries to escape using Atomix, but he times out, the Incurseans overpower him and they bring him to the Grand Magistrate to face justice against the entire universe.

While in space, Ben tries to convince everyone in the Galactic Court that he is not Vilgax, but they do not believe him after Tetrax arrives with false evidence claiming that Ben is Vilgax, and he is banished to the Null Void. As Ben tries to find a way out of the Null Void, he soon encounters criminal aliens that are also stuck in the Null Void who try to take Ben's Omnitrix as they heard rumors of the device and Ben told by Vilgax while he was trapped. When the aliens prepare to take the Omnitrix, they are suddenly stopped by Azmuth, a Galvin, and the creator of the Omnitrix. After the aliens leave, Ben tries to fight him, thinking that he works for Vilgax, but Azmuth takes away the Omnitrix from Ben telepathically and accidentally tells him that he knows Vilgax. Ben tries to get Azmuth to tell him everything he knows about Vilgax by continually asking him, Azmuth eventually agrees to do so in order to get Ben to stop talking.

He tells Ben that when he was a young inventor, he didn’t care about the consequences of his decisions or the inventions he made. He secretly created the Omnitrix to changes a person's genetic information and allow the wearer to feel what it's like to be in a different species shoes, and planned on using it as a symbol for peace around the Universe. He later met a young Vilgax who wanted to learn more about his work so Azmuth decided to teach him as an apprentice in the possibilities of science. But Vilgax became power-hungry and wanted to use the Omnitrix’s power to control the universe, so in desperation, Azmuth used the Omnitrix's power to trap half of Vilgax's DNA to save the universe and sent himself in self-imposed exile to the Null Void out of guilt for Vilgax's crimes.

After finishing his story, Ben tries to convince Azmuth to give him the Omnitrix back so he can save his planet, but Azmuth still refuses to do so until Ben tells him he is willing to rescue his planet even without the Omnitrix. This speech makes Azmuth slightly interested and agrees to give it back to him as long as he passes one trial first, which Ben accepts.

Meanwhile on Earth, Vilgax continues to terraform the Earth while Kevin tries to beat Vilgax to no avail. In the Null Void, Ben sorrows that he failed the trial, but Azmuth gives Ben more time after seeing him heroically rescue the alien criminal from the portal. With his confidence restored, Ben tries to find a way out but Azmuth already has one for him, he shows Ben a device that opens a portal out, Ben escapes after using Omni-Naut Shock Rock to charge it up bigger. Before Ben leaves, he asks Azmuth why he didn’t escape the Null Void in the first place, Azmuth responds by saying that he believes he deserves to be here for what he has done, but Ben tells him that people can change and he escapes the Null Void.

After successfully escaping, he sees the Incurseans flagship getting sucked into a Null Void portal, so Ben helps get them to safety but passes out after he uses too much of his power. He awakens in the Flagship where the Incurseans tells Ben that they rescued him when they find out he saved their ship, something Vilgax would never do. The Grand Magistrate thank Ben for his heroism and tries to help Ben to get back home using their flagship, but the engines were knocked off when they were trying to escape from the Null Void. But first, they try to find Tetrax who is about to escape. Ben captures him, but lets him go on the basis that Azmuth hired him.

After returning to Earth, Ben finds Vilgax and Kevin fighting and helps Kevin fight off Vilgax with Omni-Kix Four Arms. But Vilgax's many powers make him able to take down Ben and Kevin and destroy Glitch. After incapacitating them, he steals the Omni-Kix Key and places it into the Antitrix. Kevin removes the Antitrix, but Vilgax has already charged himself up to a cosmic entity named Alien V. While Ben and Kevin attempt to defeat the super-powerful Alien V, his super-charged abilities make him too powerful for them and Kevin gets knocked many feet away. Ben starts to lose faith again until Azmuth, who has escaped the Null Void, calls him using the Omnitrix and reminds Ben of what he learned during his trial in the Null Void. With his faith restored, Ben adds a new alien into his arsenal, a giant alien dubbed Way Big. After a tense battle, Ben defeats Vilgax.

Azmuth and the Incurseans arrive as Azmuth takes the Omnitrix away from Ben to use its DNA repair function to restore Vilgax to his normal self and repair the Earth, and then returns it to Ben, asking him to keep it safe for him. The Incurseans take Vilgax into custody.

Later, Sonic drops Ben off on Earth with a new hoverboard and leaves. Afterwards, the Ben and Rook hear a radio bulletin that "zombies" are attacking the mall and the movie ends as Ben prepares to fight them.

Production
Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. Pictures had approached series creator Man of Action for a film based on the show, but he refused for more than a year. Rouleau was concerned, after watching The Iron Giant (1999) and Toy Story (1995) with his son, about the challenge of Ben Tennyson doing something more cinematically-consequential and inspiring without losing what he calls the Ben 10 "cadence". While on a break from Omniverse, "To do a 92-minute movie about Ben wanting to find the lost flavor of Mr. Smoothie's would be a mistake, I think this had to be Ben in a great adventure, having these two naïve characters, Sonic and Ben, on this incredibly dangerous heroic odyssey with all the odds against them."

Casting
The film stars the series' main cast members and it also features Roger Craig Smith as Sonic The Hedgehog

Animation
There were a number of stages involved in the making of the film, beginning with a rough animation process of ideas drawn on Post-it notes. The writers drew, working from rough outlines rather than scripts (which made the humor more visual than verbal). The storyboard artists, including Sherm Cohen, then illustrated ideas conceived by the writers. In the series Tom Yasumi and Andrew Overtoom do the animatics, but Man of Action did the animatics for the film. Yasumi and Overtoom were the film's animation-timing directors, concentrating on the sheets. Ben 10 Omniverse: Power Trip was animated at Rough Draft Studios in South Korea. The animators worked semi-digitally; pencil-drawn poses would be composited into layouts in Photoshop.

Series writer and storyboard artist Erik Wiese left the show for a year to work on Samurai Jack and Danny Phantom, but returned to do storyboards and character layout for the film. He "always wanted to be a feature animator, and the movie felt like I was on the character animation end", describing the experience as "a blast it felt like coming home."

Rol enjoyed the process of making the film: "The TV schedule is tight, and you don't always have a lot of time to work on your drawings." He appreciated the film's hand-drawn animation: "There's a lot of talk about 2-D being dead, and I hope people don't think that. Even Brad Bird and Stephen Hillenburg are a proponent of 2-D. He would agree with me that it's all about what you're trying to say. There are many ways to tell a story, and what's unique about animation is that there are many styles with which to tell a story." The clay animation scenes were shot by Mark Caballero, Seamus Walsh and Chris Finnegan at Screen Novelties in Los Angeles.

Marketing
WB's parent company, Time Warner, and its partners spent $593 million in advertisements and promotion, across all media and platforms. Universal spent a total of $26.1 million on television advertisements for the film. Warner Bros. described the promotional campaign as the "largest and most comprehensive" in its history.

Toy line
A toy line manufactured by Hasbro was originally shown off at Toy Fairs around the world. A possible unintentional leak of official images of the line was released on the website of department store Target. Figures that were revealed at Toy Fairs such as Decimus Prime, 18-year-old Ben Tennyson, Sonic The Hedgehog, and Ben's sidekick Rook were listed on the website. The vehicle play set, "Vindication", has won an award for Best Action Figures/Accessories at the 2015 London Toy Fair. The Ultimate Omnitrix Uses Clear Green Figurines instead of the Hologram Display Wheel in the movie.

Video games
A video game of the same name is developed by Heavy Iron Studios for the Wii U, Wii, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and by 1st Playable Productions for the Nintendo 3DS and published by Sega. The action beat 'em up features 16 playable characters on the 3DS and 17 playable characters on the other systems. It also features a two-player co-op play. The game follows Ben and Sonic in a battle to defeat a fierce villain, named Malbedax, who has evil plans of destroying the world.

Burger King promotion
Burger King released a limited series of toys with the purchase of any kids' meal to tie in with the film between June and July 2015. Burger King took "extra security precautions" in response to the 2004 SpongeBob incident, when Plumbers from Ben 10 guarded the delivery of the toys to a Burger King in South Dennis, MA as part of a promotion.

Theatrical
Ben 10 Omniverse: Power Trip had its world premiere at the AMC Empire 25 in New York on June 11, 2015, and went into general release theatrically on July 3.

Home media
Ben 10 Omniverse: Power Trip was released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 15. Upon its first week of release on home media in the U.S., the film topped the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert chart, which tracks overall disc sales, as well as the dedicated Blu-ray sales chart with 74% of unit sales coming from Blu-ray.

Box office
Ben 10 Omniverse: Power Trip grossed $90.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $559.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $750.6 million. In the United States and Canada, Ben 10 Omniverse: Power Trip was released the same week as Terminator Genisys from 4,301 theaters in its opening weekend, with initial projections had the film open around $100–$110 million. The film made $6.2 million from its Thursday night showings from 2,985 theaters and $46.2 million in its opening day (including Thursday previews). Through its opening weekend, it earned a total of $115.7 million. In its second weekend, the film fell to second earning $49.3 million (down 57%).

In other territories, Ben 10 Omniverse: Power Trip went into general release in 44 countries in the months of June and July, and was released in a total of 66 countries. It earned an estimated $12.5 million in its opening weekend from four countries. It added $37.6 million in its second weekend from 10 countries. The film's top markets outside the United States and Canada were the United Kingdom ($73.1 million), China ($63.47 million), and Germany ($63.46 million).

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, Ben 10 Omniverse: Power Trip scored an approval rating of 81% based on 103 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's critical consensus reads; "Ben 10 Omniverse: Power Trip won't win over many viewers who aren't fans of the show, but for the converted, it's a great ride to the end." On Metacritic, the film received a score of 80 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". According to CinemaScore, audiences gave the film a grade of "A" on an A+-to-F scale.

Andrew Barker of Variety praised the film for "never even feigning a lick of seriousness"; he felt the film is too long and the CGI is inferior to the entire movie. Barker said the film would prove "popular among the franchise's key grade-schooler and head-shop-owner demographics". Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter said the film's two animation styles failed "to create a cohesive whole in spite of all the inspired non sequiturs ... the CG stuff never satisfyingly jibes with the traditional nautical nonsense down below", and that although the film was inferior to the show, it would likely be a box office success. Barbara VanDenburgh of The Arizona Republic gave the film four-and-a-half stars out of five, saying, "The plot is straightforward, predictable and slight, no more intricate a plot than a 21-minute TV episode would have. It's the freewheeling madness of its execution that makes the movie such a trip – as in road trip."

Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News gave Ben 10 Omniverse: Power Trip' four stars out of five, saying; "The spirit of the series remains true: cheerfully random jokes, blink-and-you'll-miss-them references and, above all, a Action Pack streak that's out of this world". Colin Covert of the Star Tribune gave the film three stars out of five, saying it "weaves a silly – and often funny – spell. It's a scrappy little B-movie that zips along rather entertainingly." Jen Chaney of The Washington Post gave the film three stars out of four, saying; "There's something about this project that, despite checking all of the requisite plot and sensibility boxes, doesn't convey as an organic work of Ben 10-ishness".