Vampirina (2021 film)

Vampirina is a 2021 American adventure comedy fantasy computer-animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for distribution by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed and co-produced by Tim Burton, marking his third animated film and first CGI-animated film with Burton, Chris Nee, John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich as executive producers and written by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky. It is based on the children's show of the same name and the children's book Vampirina Ballerina by Anne Marie Pace. The film marks Pixar's first collaboration with a famous filmmaker. The music for the film was composed by Burton's frequent collaborator, Danny Elfman marking his third collaboration with Pixar. In addition to the show's regular cast reprising their roles, the film features the voices of Seth MacFarlane, Trey Parker, John Ratzenberger and Charlie Day, as new characters.

Plot
In Black Dolphin Prison, Russia 1996, 2 extremely dangerous criminal brothers, Larry and Max Proxton (Charlie Day and John Ratzenberger), escape in a truck which crashes near the edge of a ravine. The warden arrives, stating he is impressed by the Proxtons' achievement and giving them two choices; stay in the truck or surrender. The Proxtons refused to surrender and he kicks the truck into the ravine, apparently killing them. Larry and Max, however, have managed to get out of the truck. When the coast is clear, they climb back up and walk away. While walking to Moscow, they encounter a living pickle. The pickle pulled out a knife and threatened to kill them, but Max eats it. They find out that monsters do exist, pointing out their ancestors' message about killing a little vampire girl to accomplish their dream of world domination, was not a joke.

25 years later, on Vee's (Isabella Crovetti) birthday, Gregoria (Wanda Sykes) gives her a pair of cruise tickets with the intention of going with her. She invites Demi instead, disappointing Gregoria. Before they left, Larry and Max (who are presumed dead), with their robotic assistant, Proxtron (Trey Parker) who live next door to Poppy, pay the Hauntleys a visit. While Larry and Max were talking with Boris and Oxanna about Vee's cruise trip, Proxtron unnoticeably takes a tiny portion of her blood and puts a nanotracker on her neck. When the Proxtons got back, they analysed Vee's DNA. The data shows her DNA is Nox Eternis ("Eternal Night" in Latin), revealing Vee's true identity. Larry and Max are surprised what they have been searching for for a long time, is one house away. Larry and Max concoct a plan to embarrass Vee upon her return. Poppy points out that they have never followed through with any of their plans to hurt Vee. Larry, disappointed in himself, resolves to prove Poppy wrong.

Meanwhile, on the cruise, Demi proves to be a frequent source of humiliation for Vee, defecating on the poop deck and telling inappropriate stories at a dinner with the ship's captain. Furious, Vee walks onto the deck to get away from him, but is confronted by Larry, who has traveled to the ship via speedboat soley. He shoots her repeatedly with a tranquilizer gun filled with garlic oil, sending her overboard. Six days later, a cop informs Boris and Oxanna that he has called off the search for Vee since he and his police squad cannot find her.

A year passes. Poppy has begun dating, some dates being a Stickman and a skeleton, but everyone has talked Bridget into posing as Vee from time to time so that her death doesn't emotionally scar Nanpire. Larry indirectly reveals to Poppy that he killed Vee. Disturbed and enraged, Poppy vows to avenge Vee’s death.

Meanwhile, a sea serpent named Rick (Seth MacFarlane), finds Vee's body and brings her back to life by sucking out the garlic. Vee wakes up and cannot remember who she is. After turning into a bat, Rick soon tells her she is a vampire. Lost and confused, she takes shelter in an old wooden cabin in the woods.

Meanwhile, Larry realizes that keeping the evidence of his crime as souvenirs is too risky; thus, he disposes of his gun and drawings depicting Vee being killed. Poppy intends to sneak into the Proxtons' house in an attempt to expose Larry and Max as the villains they are. As she dwells into the basement, Poppy discovers Larry and Max's secret lab and are the most extremely dangerous criminals in the world. She tries to get out the house to warn everyone about the Proxtons' evil nature, but gets captured.

Vee takes a blow to the head from Rick and regains her memory. Rick decides to help her get back to Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, when Poppy wakes up in the Proxtons' lab, Larry and Max reveal they found out Vee is a vampire. After walking for two days, Vee finally makes it home and says goodbye to Rick. She points out to everyone that Larry tried to kill her. Everyone is in disbelief that Larry would try to murder Vee, but she insists that he is evil, and explains what happened.

As Vee explains her miraculous return, Larry and Max escape. They tie up everyone when they return home, and he kills Edna when she visits. Larry takes Poppy with him and forces her to drive him to the CIA, where he gains access to a supercomputer and takes control of the global power grid. The CIA submits to his demands, and Larry becomes "President of the World".

Upon his rise to power, Larry releases every last criminal gang, convict, and terrorist upon the world and makes them as his army, unleashes a massive army of Proxtrons and implements harsh, cruel and unusual laws and policies, creating concentration camps housing prisoners for unfair crimes. Vee, unable to stand idly by as Larry terrorizes the world, decides to assassinate him. After taking weapons from Larry's own weapons vault, she engages him in a destructive battle in the Oval office. Vee eventually gains the upper hand and prepares to kill Larry, but cannot bring herself to drink his blood. Larry takes the opportunity to disarm her, but, before he can kill Vee, he is shot and killed by Demi. They mourn over Larry's corpse.

It is then revealed that what has happened was actually a computer simulation that Larry created to see what would happen if he killed Vee. Max comes into the room with postcards from Vee on the cruise, which is going well for them and finds Larry coming out of the device. Larry explains what he was doing, then claims that he is not yet ready to kill Vee or take over the world, until the right time, causing Max to ask Larry if it didn't really happen like a dream sequence, but Larry argues that a computer simulation is totally different. Max then wonders if a hypothetical external viewer of the simulation would feel cheated by what was ultimately a giant sign that says "Y'all so stupid" to them, to which Larry replies "Well, hopefully, they would've enjoyed the ride." Max is unconvinced, and tells Larry that hypothetical viewers would be angered by the simulation, while Larry counters by saying that at least the simulation didn't end like The Sopranos, where it just cut to black mid-sentence. As Larry is saying this, the scene cuts to black mid-sentence.

Cast
Isabella Crovetti as Vampirina "Vee" Hauntley

Jordan Alexa Davis as Poppy Peepleson

Mitchell Whitfield as Demi

Ian James Corlett as Chef Remy Bones

Wanda Sykes as Gregoria

Lauren Graham as Oxana Hauntley

James Van Der Beek as Boris Hauntley

Cree Summer as Edna Peepleson

Benji Risley as Edgar Peepleson

ViviAnn Yee as Bridget

Seth MacFarlane as Rick, a sea serpent who brings Vee back to life and helps her regain her memories.

Trey Parker as Proxtron, the Proxtons' robotic assistant. Parker also provided additional voices.

Charlie Day as Larry Proxton, Max's younger brother and an extremely dangerous criminal mastermind who was presumed dead and murdered Vee. He is the main antagonist

John Ratzenberger as Max Proxton, Larry's older muscular brother and an extremely dangerous criminal who was presumed dead and murdered Vee. He is the secondary main antagonist.

Production
In 2019, after the release of Tim Burton's film, Dumbo, Burton announced that a film adaptation of Disney Junior's animated television series, Vampirina and Anne Marie Pace's book, Vampirina Ballerina, is in development and will be released in Halloween 2021.

Music
Burton's frequent collaborator Danny Elfman composed film's score.

Critical Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 98%. The site's consensus reads "Boasting with beautiful animation, stellar voice work, laugh-a-minute gags and a surprisingly thoughtful story, Vampirina is a fun and spooky treat for the whole family."