Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls

Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls is a 2019 American animated musical feature film based on the toy line of the same name created and developed by Lauren Faust. It is the first theatrical Warner Bros. film to be 2D animated since Looney Tunes: Back in Action. The film focuses on Milky Way as she moves to outer space and befriends Venus, Jupiter, Pluto, and Mars. Most of the entire voice cast from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic voice their character roles. Tara Strong sings the theme song of Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls for the film's end credits and soundtrack album. It is also the first theatrical animated film based on the toy line from Lauren Faust to be produced by Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios. It will be the first Cartoon Network film to tell an origin story since The Powerpuff Girls Movie. The film was released theatrically in movie theaters for the United States and Canada on July 5, 2019, by Warner Bros. Pictures.

The film stars Cathy Cavadini, Tara Strong, Ashleigh Ball, Andrea Libman, Nicole Oliver, Tabitha St. Germain, Christina Ricci and Mark Acheson. The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics and grossed $150 million worldwide against a $31 million budget, making it the first non-Disney animated film to gross over $100 million in the United States since The Rugrats Movie, and also making it the third highest-grossing hand-drawn animated film of 2019.

Plot
The film tells the origin story of the titular characters.

Voice cast

 * Cathy Cavadini as Annie - The main protagonist
 * Tara Strong as Milky Way - The secondary main protagonist who lives in her home called Galaxy.
 * Ashleigh Ball as Pluto and Jupiter
 * Pluto is a rockstar girl with a cold attitude, but a good heart within her.
 * Jupiter is a peace-animal loving gal who wants to make sure the earth is clean. Her accent is inspired by Applejack's.
 * Andrea Libman as Venus and Mars
 * Venus is a peace-loving girl who knows that violence is not the way, and respect is what she and the galaxy girls wants.
 * Mars is the only galaxy girl in the main five group who is an alien and loves to do arts and crafts.
 * Nicole Oliver as Uranus - The assistant to Milky Way who is smart, but travels with Milky Way occasionally.
 * Tabitha St. Germain as Sun - The galaxy girl who rise the sun over the half of the earth and rules over the Galaxy with Moon.
 * Christina Ricci as Moon - The moody girl who rules over the galaxy with Sun by her side.
 * Mark Acheson as Black Hole - The main antagonist

Production
Back in the year 2004, Disney's Home on the Range had became a critical and box-office failure, that the called of hand-drawn animation was close down, bringing computer animation films onward. The team had decided to bring back the traditional films that both kids and adults had miss, as much as they do. Lauren Faust, the creator of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, stated that Cartoon Network Studios' new film Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls will be a 2D animated film, but will be done in Flash animation. Lauren Faust had also stated that this will be her direct debut, as she had left Sony Pictures Animation when working on a project Medusa. Guillermo del Toro, known producer for The Book of Life, agree to produced the film, with John Lasseter being executive producer, and Craig McCracken will be the co-director. They will later on agree to call Alan Menken to compose the score for the film. Alan Menken will later on agree, seeing on how he miss working with The Walt Disney Company since his last score for the animated film was Tangled. The film was made using Toon Boom Animation.

Rating
Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls is Rated PG for Parental Guidance.

Theatrical release
The film was released theatrically in movie theaters for the United States and Canada on July 5, 2019, by Warner Bros. Pictures, on the same year as Cartoon Network's previous film, The Amazing World of Gumball: The Movie 2. The film will be presented in a 1.85:1 format, rather than Warner Animation Group's standard 2.39:1 format on its previous titles. The film's theatrical release will be preceded by Bumblebee's Fun Weekend, a short film based on Cartoon Network's animated television series Transformers: Animated.

Marketing
On September 3, 2018, Warner Bros. announced the film and its release date of July 5, 2019. A month later, the film's title and teaser poster debuted, and it was announced that Cathy Cavadini, who voices Blossom in The Powerpuff Girls Movie, and most of the entire voice cast from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic had joined the cast. The film marks the twentieth time a theatrical Cartoon Network film is produced by Warner Bros. Animation, instead of Warner Animation Group since the group's formation in 2013.

On March 11, 2019, it was announced that actress and producer Christina Ricci was part of the cast, as Moon, respectively.

Home media release
Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls will be released on Digital on September 10, 2019 and Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K-Ultra HD on October 1, 2019, by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. It contains a Transformers: Animated short film Bumblebee's Fun Weekend, the 18-minute featurette, The Making of Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls, featuring interviews with most of the cast and crew, animatics and the audio commentaries.

Critical
Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 94% approval rating based on the 109 reviews, and its average rating is 7.48/10. The critical consensus reads, "Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls will show the audience what girl power is when it comes to friendship, much like My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic." Metacritic, assigns the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". CinemaScore gives the film an "A" on its A+ to F scale.

Box office
Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls has grossed $54 million in the United States and Canada, and $96 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $150 million, against a production budget of $31 million.

In the United States and Canada, Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls was released alongside Phil (2019), and was initially projected to gross around $40 million from 4,235 theaters in its opening weekend, with a chance to go as high as $100 million. Therefore, Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls has grossed over $150 million worldwide, making it the first non-Disney animated film to gross over $100 million in the United States since The Rugrats Movie, and also making it the third highest-grossing hand-drawn animated film of 2019.

Trivia

 * This is the first ever feature film of the toy line from Lauren Faust.
 * This is the first animated Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls movie to hit theaters.
 * The movie will be Rated PG.
 * This was one of the successful films of 2019.
 * This is Cartoon Network's fifth theatrical film of all time, after "The Powerpuff Girls Movie" released 16 years prior,   Star Wars: The Clone Wars  released 10 years prior,  The Lego Ninjago Movie" released a year before and   Teen Titans GO! To The Movies '' released 8 months prior.
 * Although, Teen Titans Go! and Ninjago are only aired by CN, and they’re made by Warner Bros.
 * This is the next theatrical 2D animated movie in 20 years after Quest for Camelot (1998), 19 years after The Iron Giant (1999) and 17 years after Osmosis Jones (2001).
 * Although, Osmosis Jones is a live-action/animated movie, and it was released by Warner Bros. Pictures under their Warner Bros. Family Entertainment label.
 * This marks as Warner Bros.' next 2D animated theatrical film. Warner Bros. had its original feature animation division, which produced 2D animated films.
 * Before the movie, a short film called "Bumblebee's Fun Weekend" based on Cartoon Network's animated television series Transformers: Animated was played.
 * This is Warner Animation Group's next film to be produced at 1.85:1 and Warner Bros.' fourth animated film to be produced at 1.85:1 after The Ant Bully (2006), Teen Titans GO! To The Movies (2018), Rise of the Powerpuff Girls (2018) and Steven Universe: The Movie (2019).
 * This is the second theatrically released traditionally animated film based on the toy line from Lauren Faust since    My Little Pony: The Movie   released a year before.
 * This is Warner Animation Group's twenty-first traditionally animated film.
 * This is Alan Menken's first Cartoon Network Movies theatrical score, and his first animated film score since Disney's Tangled.
 * This is Warner Bros.' first animated film to be scored by Alan Menken.
 * This is the nineteenth theatrically released traditionally animated Warner Bros. film since  Clifford's Really Big Movie  released 14 years prior.
 * This is the fifteenth theatrical Warner Bros. film to rely solely on Flash animation instead of traditional hand-drawn animation, or CGI animation.
 * The film will be animated by Toon Boom Animation.
 * This is the 2nd collaboration between Cathy Cavadini and Tara Strong. Their first was "The Powerpuff Girls Movie" released 16 years prior.
 * This is the 2nd collaboration between Tara Strong, Ashleigh Ball, Andrea Libman, Nicole Oliver, Tabitha St. Germain and Mark Acheson. Their first was Lauren Faust 's animated television series  My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic , which premiered on October 10, 2010, on The Hub cable channel (which was renamed as Discovery Family in late 2014).
 * This is the first theatrically released traditionally animated Warner Bros. film to be executive produced by John Lasseter.
 * The film also marks Cartoon Network Studios' first co-production with Oddbot Animation.
 * This is the sixth theatrically released animated Warner Bros. film in a musical format since  Quest for Camelot  released 20 years prior,  Teen Titans GO! To The Movies  released 8 months prior,  Smallfoot  released 6 months prior and  The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part  and  Steven Universe: The Movie   both released back in February.
 * The is the fifth theatrical Cartoon Network film to be a fully 2D animated film after "The Powerpuff Girls Movie" released 16 years prior,   Regular Show: The Movie   released 3 years prior, "Tiny Toon Adventures: The Motion Picture" released 2 years prior and "BEN 10: The Movie" released back in April, but it will be done in Flash animation.