Tux (film)

Tux is a 2018 American romantic comedy film produced by Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions Co., Ltd. and Viz Pictures, and released by Touchstone Pictures. It is loosely based on the Japanese manga Tuxedo Gin by Tokohiko Matsuura, and stars former Disney Channel personalities Ross Lynch and Laura Marano, both of Austin & Ally fame. Reno 911! co-creator and star Robert Ben Garant wrote the script, while Brian Levant directed. It was released on October 6, 2023. The film was both an ultimate critical and commercial failure, and is notable for leading to the permanent dissolution of the Touchstone brand by Disney after its brief revival. It earned only $4,501,900 out of its $54 million budget at the box office, and earned a 0% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning that not a single established critic gave it a positive review. It was nominated for six Razzies, including the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture, but lost to the film Vexille, another live-action adaptation of Japanese manga/anime.

Plot
Glen Kirkman (Ross Lynch), a high-school student on the verge of making his mainstream debut as a pop singer, is killed in a car accident on his way to a first date with Megan Smith (Laura Marano), the girl of his dreams. A ghost (Mitchel Musso) tells Glen that due to some past mistakes he has made, he can reunite with Megan, but will have to do so as another animal, after which he will return to his human body. Remembering Megan's love for penguins, Glen decides to be reincarnated as an Adelie Penguin, and he hatches from an egg in a Los Angeles, California aquarium.

When Glen reaches adolescence, he escapes from the aquarium with his penguin friends, only to discover he cannot swim. He washes up in the harbor, where he is discovered by Megan. She takes him home and names him Tux.

The film depicts Glen's life with Megan, where he does his best to protect Megan from any man who tries to go out with her or simply "harm" her. Along the way, the other penguins from the aquarium help him once in a while and he meets fellow reincarnated humans.

Cast
Ross Lynch as Glen Kirkman/Tux

Laura Marano as Megan Smith

Mitchel Musso as the ghost

Vince Vaughn as Glen's father

Maria Canals Barrera as Glen's mother

Robert Downey, Jr. as Megan's father

Demi Moore as Megan's mother

Simon Cowell as himself

Ashley Tisdale as herself

Critical
Although not pre-screened for critics, Tux was universally panned on opening weekend. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that a total of 59 critics who reviewed the film gave it negative reviews, bringing the film's rating to a rare 0%, with a rating average of 0.5 out of 10, the consensus calling it an "obnoxious and misguided romantic comedy that is not only neither romantic nor funny, but has a horrible premise to begin with and is also a soulless reunion vehicle for two of the Disney Channel's past generations of tween starlets". On Metacritic, the film recieved a weighted average score of 4% based on reviews from 13 critics, making it the worst-reviewed wide release of 2018. It was also given the Moldy Tomato award for the worst-reviewed film of 2018 by Rotten Tomatoes.

New York Daily News critic Joe Neumaier stated "This god-awful, laugh-free piece of teenybopper garbage has at least one chuckle-worthy moment with Bridgit Mendler, but the rest will make you want to throw up. You can tell the filmmakers didn't really give a damn about the fact that nothing about this movie is funny, they just wanted to get that paycheck." Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips stated in his review that Tux is so bad, "it makes any of those poorly made Disney Channel kid-coms look like Citizen Kane". New York Post  critic Kyle Smith wrote in his review, "out of all the bad romantic comedies I've seen, Tux definitely takes the cake".

Awards
The film earned six nominations at the 44th Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Ross Lynch), Worst Actress (Laura Marano), Worst Supporting Actor (Michael Musso, Vince Vaughn, and Simon Cowell), Worst Supporting Actress (Demi Moore and Miley Cyrus), Worst Director (Brian Levant), Worst Screenplay (Robert Ben Garant), Worst Screen Couple (Laura Marano and either Ross Lynch in human form or Ross Lynch in Penguin form), and Worst Screen Ensemble. It lost in all categories to Akira, another poorly recieved film based on a Japanese anime or manga. The only exceptions are Worst Actor, where Ross Lynch tied with Taylor Lautner in Akira, and Worst Supporting Actress, where Ashley Tisdale won.

Box office
Tux was a major box-office bomb, earning only $1,050,000 to land at #8 for its opening weekend, opening way behind Warner Bros.' live-action adaptation of the Japanese animated film Akira, which, although also panned by film critics, proved to be more popular among moviegoers by taking the #1 spot. After three weeks of release, the film had earned a total of $4,501,900, after which it was pulled from theaters.

The film's budget was $54 million. As a result, it is one of the biggest financial failures in movie history adjusted for inflation, with a total net loss of $49,498,100, and was also fifth in the ranks of three other flops released by Disney a decade earlier, John Carter, Mars Needs Moms, The Lone Ranger, and Tomorrowland. The films failure also caused led to the announcement that Disney would phase out the Touchstone Pictures brand in order to focus on film releases by its four core brands, Disney Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm.