Warriors (2019 film)

Warriors (also known as Warriors: Into the Wild) is a 2020 3D British-American-Chinese animated dark fantasy adventure drama film directed by Alfonso Cuarón (in his animated directorial debut), produced by Cuarón, David Heyman, Peilin Chou and Zhang Wei, and written by Cuarón, Krysty Wilson-Cairns and Dominique Monféry (who also serves as animation director). Based on the novel series of the same name written by Kate Cary, Victoria Holmes, and Cherith Baldry, Warriors tells the story of Rusty, later known as Firepaw, a housecat who joins a tribe of feral cats known as ThunderClan, and encounters numerous challenges along the way to becoming a ThunderClan warrior. The film stars Ewan McGregor as the voice of Firepaw/Fireheart, while also featuring the voices of Andrew Garfield, Ben Whishaw, Cate Blanchett, Lupita Nyong'o, Katherine Langford, Colin McFarlane, René-Jean Page, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Barclay, Idris Elba, Jim Sturgess, Daniel Kaluuya and Johnny Depp in supporting roles.

Although the original authors weren't closely overseeing the movie, as to ensure more creative liberty for Alfonso Cuarón to deliver his vision; Cary, Holmes, and Baldry still provided extended assistance to Cuarón, Wilson-Cairns and Monféry with the characters, lore and allegiances for the development of the screenplay. The story of the film borrows elements from several of the books in the first arc of the series, mainly the first, third, and sixth books. A brief animated sequence was assembled in the United Kingdom as a movie pitch on June 28th, 2018. A coproduction between China, the United Kingdom, and the United States, production took place in all three countries. Visual effects and animation work was completed in China; pre-production, screenplay and visual development took place in the United Kingdom, and voice recording, music scoring and additional visual work was completed in Los Angeles. The film also marked Ennio Morricone's last film score before his death in July 6th, 2020; which got the movie to be dedicated to his memory. Both the film's environments and characters are portrayed via computer generated imagery.

Warriors premiered on August 29th, 2020 in London, and was theatrically released in North America on September 13th, 2020 in RealD 3D, IMAX 3D, Dolby Cinema, and other premium large formats. It recieved largely positive reviews from critics, with overwhelming praise going to Cuarón's successful foray into animation, voice acting, art direction, character animation, visual storytelling, overall worldbuilding and Morricone's music while its screenplay polarised critics over the large amount of characters and efforts to combine several storylines into the film. Fans also had similarly mixed reactions on the film over its creative liberties and divergence from focusing on one single storyline, as well as several characters having their roles and personalities changed. Nonetheless, the film was a surprise commercial success, grossing over $531 million worldwide on a budget of $95 million. The film was nominated for several Academy Awards, including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score and Best Sound Mixing at the 92nd Academy Awards, as well as several nominations at the Golden Globe Awards, Annie Awards, Critics' Choice Awards, British Academy Film Awards and Golden Rooster Awards.

A sequel, Warriors: Fire and Ice, is scheduled to be released on December 24th, 2021, and a third movie is planned for 2024.

Plot
A group of feral cats known  as ThunderClan are battling against their rival, RiverClan, by a river for control over a territory called Sunningrocks, to which both clans have equal claim. Redtail, ThunderClan's deputy, soon realizes ThunderClan is badly outnumbered and orders the battle patrol to retreat. Tigerclaw, a ThunderClan deputy, reluctantly follows the order, angered that Riverclan should be allowed to win territory so quickly. In the ThunderClan camp, Bluestar, leader of ThunderClan, is trying to seek answers from StarClan, troubled by that nights defeat. At that moment, Spottedleaf, the medicine cat of ThunderClan, recieves a prophecy from StarClan, echoing to Bluestar that " Fire alone can save our Clan' ."  Bluestar is confused, for fire is feared by all clans, and ponders what the meaning of this prophecy could possibly be.

A housecat, or kittypet in clan cat terminology, named Rusty has a dream about catching a mouse in the forest, and lets his prey go due to a distracting noise. This dream motivates the young cat to step into the forest against the warnings of his friend Smudge, where he is briefly ambushed by Graypaw, a ThunderClan apprentice. Instead of fleeing, Rusty fights back against Graypaw. Unbeknownst to the two young cats, two warriors from ThunderClan are watching, Lionheart, Graypaw's mentor, and Bluestar. Impressed after having seen Rusty and Graypaw fight, Bluestar offers Rusty a chance to join their Clan of feral cats and train as an apprentice.

The next day, Rusty is escorted to the ThunderClan camp by Lionheart and another ThunderClan cat, Whitestorm. Most of the cats disagree with a kittypet joining their ranks, especially Longtail, who begins to relentlessly taunt Rusty. Rusty attacks Longtail after being persuaded by Lionheart to prove his loyalty and worth to the clan. Rustys collar snaps off during the fight, which is taken as an omen from StarClan that Rusty belongs in their clan. Bluestar renames him Firepaw, after his flame colored pelt, and officially appoints him as a clan apprentice. Suddenly, another apprentice, Ravenpaw, rushes into camp with the news that Redtail has been killed in a skirmish near Sunningrocks. Tigerclaw soon follows with Redtail's body, claiming Redtail to have been killed by Oakheart,  who Tigerclaw says he has killed in vengeance. Lionheart is made deputy in Redtail's place.

Firepaw is not immediately assigned a mentor of his own and instead trains with Ravenpaw and Graypaw and their mentors, Tigerclaw and Lionheart, respectively. Firepaw soon learns that kittypets are traditionally thought to be weak and useless amongst Clan-born cats. He is steadily able to adjust to his new life despite being seen as an inferior.

In the meantime, Tigerclaw, driven by a lust for wrath and power,  travels with a fellow ThunderClan warrior, Darkstripe, a former member of BloodClan, to make a deal with Scourge, leader  of a cult of alley cats who call themselves BloodClan . Tigerclaw offers Scourge a share of ThunderClan's territory i n return for BloodClan helping him to become leader of all four Clans, to which Scourge obliges.

On his first solo hunting assignment, Firepaw encounters Yellowfang,  a former Shadowclan medicine cat.  He immediately attacks, knowing rogue  cats are not tolerated in enemy territory. After realizing the old cat is starving, however, he hunts a rabbit  for her out of pity and eats the remains himself, breaking the Warrior Code . When a patrol lead by Bluestar arrives, the ThunderClan leader recognizes Yellowfang as ShadowClan's former medicine cat, and the Clan brings Yellowfang into camp as a prisoner. After appointing herself as Firepaw's mentor in order to speed up apprentice training, Bluestar puts Firepaw in charge of nursing Yellowfang back to health as punishment for eating before his Clanmates are fed.

<span style="color:rgb(58,58,58);font-size:14px;">At a Gathering, Brokenstar <span style="color:rgb(58,58,58);font-size:14px;">, the leader of ShadowClan, reports that ShadowClan has recently driven out a cat who has murdered ShadowClan kits <span style="color:rgb(58,58,58);font-size:14px;">. He makes it clear that this rogue should be killed as soon as any cat finds her and urges the Clans to keep a close eye on their kits. He also announces that he has cut a deal with Bloodclan to hand over forest territory to them in exchange for more hunting grounds for themselves. At that moment, Scourge and Bloodclan enter the Gathering and announce that they drove Windclan out of their territory and claimed it for themselves in their conquest to build their empire. Crookedstar, Riverclans leader, also announces that he has allowed Bloodclan hunting rights on the edge of their territory. When a Thunderclan cat, Rosetail, mocks Scourge for his size, Scourge reacts in violence and ruthlessly murders Rosetail as a warning. <span style="color:rgb(58,58,58);font-size:14px;">After the Gathering the ThunderClan cats rush back to camp, suspecting Yellowfang to be the cat Brokenstar warned them of, but Bluestar orders that Yellowfang shall not be harmed since there is no proof Yellowfang is the culprit. They also are put on battle readiness to prepare for a possible offensive by Bloodclan as the cats speculate among themselves who Bloodclan are, where they came from, and who led them to the forest.

<span style="color:rgb(58,58,58);font-size:14px;">Sometime later, Bloodclan launches an attack on Thunderclans camp, secretly assisted by Tigerclaw. Bluestar loses a life, Lionheart is killed in the battle and Tigerclaw is appointed as the new Thunderclan deputy. Spottedleaf, who was trying to guard the nursery, is also found dead after being killed by Bone, a Bloodclan warrior. Tigerclaw noticably is lenient during the battle, idley standing by as the battle rages on. Ravenpaw, Tigerclaws apprentice who had witnessed the earlier events at Sunningrocks, confesses to Firepaw that it was Tigerclaw, not Oakheart, who had killed Redtail, in his ambitions to become deputy and gain as much power as possible over not just Thunderclan, but every clan in the forest. Ravenpaw also reveals that Tigerclaw was the one who had originally cut a deal with Bloodclan and lured them into the forest, using Bloodclan as an asset in his conquest for power. Firepaw, still devastated by the death of Spottedleaf, whom he had developed a close bond with, is shocked upon discovering this news. Meanwhile, Scourge confronts Tigerclaw on the outskirts of Thunderclans territory about the deal that they had made concerning Bloodclan being promised land. Scourge warns Tigerclaw that he is the only cat in charge of Bloodclan and the only cat who makes decisions on their behalf, and that if Tigerclaw does not follow through with his deal the consequences will be deadly.

<span style="color:rgb(58,58,58);font-size:14px;">Soon after, Frostfurs litter of kits vanish, and Yellowfang is discovered to be missing as well. Tigerclaw immediately blames Yellowfang for the disappearance of the kits, in addition to asserting that Ravenpaw assisted Yellowfang in stealing the kits, as Ravenpaw is the only cat in the clan who knows about Tigerclaws murder of Redtail and deal with Bloodclan. Ravenpaw begins to become distrusted by most other members of the clan, ostracized and harassed by his own clanmates. Firepaw and Graypaw realize their friend is in great dager as long as he remains in the clan with Tigerclaw, and so they furtively sneak Ravenpaw out of the camp to live with Barley, a friendly loner who lives in a barn outside Windclan territory. Barley, a former Bloodclan member himself, tells Firepaw about Scourges history and how powerful he is, and that if he is not stopped soon, Bloodclan could obliterate all 4 clans. When Ravenpaws absence is noticed, Firepaw and Graypaw tell Tigerclaw that he was found murdered on Shadowclan territory.

<span style="color:rgb(58,58,58);font-size:14px;">Firepaw is determined to prove Yellowfang innocent, and so he goes with Graypaw to find and rescue the missing kits. When they find her, Yellowfang tells the apprentices she left camp as soon as she discovered the kits were missing and smelled the scent of Bone in the nursery. Yellowfang reveals that Scourge has been inducting kits into Bloodclan and mercilessly training them early so Bloodclan could grow and become the most feared clan in all of the forest, taking over the entire forest for themselves. It is also revealled that Brokenstar has been closely cooperating with Scourge behind the scenes, with Brokenstar supplying him with Shadowclan kits in exchange for prey. The three cats then spy Scourge and Bloodclan slink by into Shadowclan camp, where Brokenstar has been housing them for several moods.

<span style="color:rgb(58,58,58);font-size:14px;">Thunderclan, as well as a group of Shadowclan warriors who are against Bloodclan, launch an attack against Brokenstar and Bloodclan. Brokenstar and his followers are driven out, but not before he makes an attempt to blame Scourge for the death of the Shadowclan kits that he had, in fact, killed and blamed Yellowfang for their death. Outraged at Brokenstars sudden betrayal, Scourge orders his cult to attack Thunderclan and not stop until every single warrior is killed. In the thunderous midst of the battle, Tigerclaw corners Bluestar in an attempt to kill her, but Firepaw arrives just in time to save his leader. The two cats battle and just as Tigerclaw begins to overpower Firepaw, Scourge ambushes Tigerclaw, angered at him for lying to him and the rest of Bloodclan and using them as puppets. Scourge is about to kill Tigerclaw, but Bluestar comes between the two cats. Scourge and Bloodclan retreat into the forest, but the small leader promises all of Thunderclan that their quarrel isnt over, it has merely begun.

<span style="color:rgb(58,58,58);font-size:14px;">Thunderclan, with the rescued kits in tow, retreats from Shadowclan territory and back to their camp. Bluestar, still shaken by the battle and unable to believe Tigerclaws mutiny, announces his betrayal to the clan. In that moment, Firepaw reveals that it was Tigerclaw, not Oakheart, who had killed Redtail and that Tigerclaw had been conspiring with Bloodclan for moons and using them in his plot to overthrow Thunderclans leadership and become the leader of all 4 clans. Tigerclaw is exiled, and he swears revenge on Thunderclan.

<span style="color:rgb(58,58,58);font-size:14px;">Bluestar promotes Firepaw and Graypaw to warriors and they recieve their warrior names  <span style="color:rgb(58,58,58);font-size:14px;">- Fireheart and Graystripe. <span style="color:rgb(58,58,58);font-size:14px;"> Bluestar also asks Yellowfang to be Thunderclans new medicine cat, and she accepts, realizing that Shadowclan is not the clan she once knew. Fireheart and Graystripe begin their warrior vigil, guarding the camp until dawn comes. However, as Fireheart stands guard, he realizes that this is not the end of his fight with Tigerclaw, but is ready for the challenge. The movie ends with a pair of amber eyes (presumably Tigerclaw) glaring at Fireheart through the shadows.

<span style="color:rgb(58,58,58);font-size:14px;">An after the credits scene shows Scourge and Bloodclan lurking in the shadows of the forest, revealling that Bloodclan is still alive.

Voice Cast

 * Ewan McGregor as Firepaw/Fireheart, a flame colored tabby tom with green eyes. He is a former kittypet who joins Thunderclan and strives to prove himself as a loyal warrior of Thunderclan.
 * Ben Whishaw as Rusty (young Fireheart)
 * Andrew Garfield as Graypaw/Graystripe, a gray British Shorthair tom with a dark gray stripe along his back, and yellow eyes. He is Firepaw's first and best friend in Thunderclan.
 * Cate Blanchett as Bluestar, a wise Russian Blue shecat with piercing blue eyes and a silver tinged muzzle. She is the leader of Thunderclan and Firepaws mentor.
 * Colin McFarlane as Tigerclaw, a fearsome, scarred dark brown tabby tom with amber eyes. He is a senior warrior of Thunderclan who plots to overthrow Thunderclans leadership and rule the forest all for his own.
 * Lupita Nyong'o as Yellowfang, a dark gray Persian she cat with bright orange eyes and a scarred face. She is an exile from Shadowclan who is taken in as a refugeee by Thunderclan.
 * Emily Barclay as Spottedleaf, a beautiful Ragdoll calico shecat with dark amber eyes. She is the medicine cat of Thunderclan and foretold the prophecy, Fire alone can save our clan.
 * Idris Elba as Lionheart, a magneficent golden Maine Coon tom and a senior warrior of Thunderclan. He is Graypaw's mentor and is briefly the deputy of Thunderclan.
 * Jim Sturgess as Ravenpaw, a sleek black tom with a white dash on his chest and amber eyes. He is Tigerclaws apprentice and one of Firepaws first friends. He is the first cat to discover Tigerclaws treachery.
 * Daniel Kaluuya as Whitestorm, a large white tom with yellow eyes. He is a gallant warrior of Thunderclan, but also very calm, reserved, and thoughtful. He helps Firepaw adjust to life in Thunderclan.
 * Johnny Depp as Scourge, a very small black tom with icy blue eyes, a single white paw, and a scar over his left eye. He wears a purple collar reinforced with the teeth of cats he has killed, and his claws have been reinforced with the teeth of dogs. Scourge is the leader of Bloodclan, a group of alley cats which is organized more like a cult than a clan, and is a ruthless and brutal leader.
 * Andy Serkis as Bone, a large eared black and white tom with green eyes and a multicolored collar that, like Scourge's, is reinforced with the teeth of dead cats. He is Scourge's right hand man, performing his dirty work.
 * Ryan Kwanten as Longtail, a cream tabby tom with black stripes. He is the first to challenge Firepaw due to his kittypet origins, and has a fight with him that results in half of his ear being torn off.
 * Geoffrey Rush as Darkstripe, a gray and black tabby tom and Tigerclaw's main right hand. He is an extremely rude, nasty, and unpleasant warrior who used to be a member of Bloodclan.
 * Katheline Langford as Sandpaw, a pale ginger tabby shecat with green eyes. She feels bitterly towards Firepaw, but gradually warms up to him.
 * Chance Perdomo as Dustpaw, a dark brown tabby tom with amber eyes. He has a strongly negative opinion of Firepaw and is continually rude to him.
 * Hugh Jackman as Redtail, a tortoiseshell tom with a ginger tail. He was the noble deputy of Thunderclan and a very well respected senior warrior until he was killed by Tigerclaw.
 * Tim Curry as Brokenstar, a huge dark brown Persian tabby tom with torn ears, a bent tail, and a scarred face. He is a dictator over Shadowclan who is known for his cruel ways, and plots with Scourge to take over the forest.
 * Alfred Enoch as Barley, a black and white tom who lives in a barn outside of Windclan territory. He is very hospitable and allows any cats in need of shelter to rest in his barn.
 * Joel Edgerton as Oakheart, a tawny colored tom with green eyes. He is the deputy of Riverclan who is killed by a rockfall after Redtails death.
 * Daniel Radcliffe as Smudge, a friendly, small, plump black and white tom who is Firepaw's best friend throughout his kithood. He is very comfortable with his life and regards the forest as a dangerous place full of violent barbarians.
 * Cynthia Erivo as Rosetail, a grey tabby she cat with yellow eyes and a distinctive rose colored tail. She is killed by Scourge as a warning to Thunderclan.
 * René-Jean Page as Crookedstar, a huge light brown tabby tom with green eyes and a disfigured jaw, who is the leader of Riverclan.
 * Additional voices and cameos for the film were provided by Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje, Timothy Spall, Sharlto Copley, Rory Kinnear, Aaron Pierre, Rachel House, Jay Foreman, Matt Lucas, Taika Waititi, Edgar Wright and Victoria Holmes.

Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Warriors holds an approval rating of 94% based on 300 critics' reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "As stunning as it is to both look and listen, Warriors finds writer-director Alfonso Cuarón succesfully landing his foot on the world of animation with a delightfully clever fantasy story, even if it's character's names are a bit hard to remember at times". Metacritic, which uses weighted average, assigned the movie with a score of 75 out of 100, based on 97 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".