Kate & Chris (2007 film)

Kate & Chris is a 2007 American computer-animated buddy comedy film produced by GoAnimate Studios and Scholastic Entertainment, and based on Eric Stern's novels of the same name. It was directed by Steve O'Connell and Kevin Lima and produced by Karey Kirkpatrick and stars an ensemble voice cast consisting of Anne Hathaway, Elijah Wood, Zach Braff, Justin Long, Mike Myers and Kelsey Grammer.

The film was released by 20th Century Fox on June 22, 2007, and was produced to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the first novel. It received generally positive reviews from critics and praised its animation, script, humor, score, visual style, and vocal performances, particularly of Hathaway, Wood, Braff, Long, Myers, and Grammer. The film earned a total of $665.8 million worldwide against a budget of $119 million. A sequel titled Kate & Chris: FusionMania was released on February 23, 2018.

Plot
Kate Anderson and Chris McCallister are two friends and next-door neighbors who often bring joy to their school, Eastview High School, by pranking the cruel teachers, especially the mean-spirited principal Mike Watson, which puts them at odds with him. The duo also create comic books about a crazy kid named Mikey, a character who has superpowers and have crazy adventures. They sell these to their schoolmates through a book company called Kate & Chris Productions, housed in their clubhouse. Kate and Chris's pranks come to an end after they tamper with a robot invention at Science-Con called the SuperRobot 4000 made by the school's local snitch, intellectual Chuck Stevens. This causes Watson to decide to separate Kate and Chris and annihilate their friendship.

To prevent this, Kate hypnotizes Watson with the Hypno Eye she received out of a cereal box; Kate and Chris' first order on their principal to act like a cow and a monkey. Finally, they see that Watson bears a resemblance to Mikey and command to be like him. Kate and Chris soon learn the severity of their acts when Mikey begins causing some problems around the city and take him to their club-house. There they discover that they can turn Mikey back into Watson by splashing water on him and can turn him back by snapping their fingers. Believing that Watson will continue with his plan to separate them, they decide to settle with Mikey but insist that he be dressed up as their principal under the pretense of a secret identity to which Mikey agrees. His sudden personality change even manages to attract the attention and affection of the school's shy lunch lady Jenny.

Just when Kate and Chris believe that their troubles have ended, Eastview High School is visited by an odd, German-accented scientist named Professor Idiotic Stupidhead Dum-Dum, Esq., or as he calls himself Professor D. Mikey hires him to be a new teacher, but Kate and Chris are suspicious of him. As it turns out, Dum-Dum is seeking to get rid of laughter altogether due to the fact that people have made fun of his name for years. He recruits Chuck to help him as his brain is incapable of having fun.

But when Kate and Chris heard their plan, Professor Dum-Dum catches them, sending them to a unknown cave with Chuck's Teleporter 3000, with wild animals chasing them, leading them to a river. The two nearly plummet down a waterfall to their deaths, but Kate fortunately saves Chris.

Soon, Professor Dum-Dum tries to take over the town with a giant version of the SuperRobot 4000, fueled by the school cafeteria's rotten leftovers left out by Jenny – and uses Chuck's brain to turn the children into glum, humorless zombies. Mikey tries to stop the villain, but due to having no actual superpowers, is effortlessly defeated and thrown inside the robot. Kate and Chris are captured and turned into zombies, but are able to break the trance and escape when their laughter damages the SuperRobot 4000's computer. Upon consuming the mutated leftovers, Mikey acquires superpowers and with Kate and Chris' help defeats and shrinks Dum-Dum, though he escapes shortly thereafter.

Knowing that they cannot control Mikey, Kate and Chris destroy the Hypno Eye in an attempt to permanently change him back into Watson. Feeling that Watson would be nicer if he had friends, Kate and Chris set him and lovesick Jenny up on a date, thus making Watson have a change of heart; he returns the books he took away from Kate and Chris, and even admits their books are funny. However, the toxic waste from the SuperRobot 4000 transforms all the toilets into vicious monsters that attack the restaurant at which Mr. Watson and Jenny are dining. Upon snapping his fingers, Mr. Watson once again becomes Mikey, carrying Kate and Chris away to help him fight them, much to Jenny's surprise and admiration.

In a post-credits scene, Kate and Chris realize that the secretary that they put on the phone before by faking a $5 billion contest has been on the phone for the entire movie. The secretary accidentally hangs up and gets angry, while Kate and Chris make a new book based on her reaction.

Cast

 * Anne Hathaway as Kate Anderson, a smart, trustworthy, funny, and clever 17-year old girl
 * Elijah Wood as Chris McCallister,  a sarcastic, wise-cracking, arrogant, and somewhat bossy 16-year-old boy.
 * Justin Long as Chuck Stevens, a intelligent 14-year old boy.
 * Zach Braff as Mikey the Crazy Kid, a 15-year old boy who has superpowers and have crazy adventures.
 * Mike Myers as Mr. Watson, the principal of Eastview High School.
 * Allison Janney as TBA
 * Dan Fogler as TBA
 * Amy Sedaris as TBA
 * Seth Rogen as TBA
 * Kelsey Grammer as Professor Dum-Dum
 * Joan Cusack as Jenny the Lunch Lady
 * Danny Glover as Sam the Police Officer
 * Kevin James as Mr. Warren
 * Additional voices are provided by
 * Rob Paulsen
 * Rodger Bumpass
 * Dan Castellaneta
 * Jack Angel
 * Danny Mann
 * Fred Tatasciore
 * Wendy Hoffman
 * Yuri Lowenthal
 * Tom Kenny
 * John DiMaggio
 * Jason Marsden
 * Zachary Gordon
 * Ariel Winter
 * Bill Farmer
 * Kari Wahlgren
 * Steve O'Connell

Production
Coming soon!

Music
The film's score was composed by John Powell and Mark Mothersbaugh. The soundtrack was released on June 12, 2007 by Varèse Sarabande.

Marketing
Burger King promoted the film with a set of 5 kids' meal toys featuring the characters from the film.

The official teaser was released on June 23, 2006 and was shown in front of films such as Puppet Pals, BJ and Wally, Monster House, The Ant Bully, Barnyard, Everyone's Hero, and Open Season.

The first theatrical trailer was released on November 3, 2006 and was shown in front of films such as Flushed Away, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Happy Feet, Jimmy & Sam 3000, and Night at the Museum.

The second theatrical trailer was released on March 30, 2007 and was shown in front of films such as Meet the Robinsons, Shrek the Third, Surf's Up, and Tony 2: Across the Nation.

TV spots began to air between May and June of 2007.

A video game based on the film has been released for the Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable, PC and Nintendo DS on June 19, 2007.

Release
Kate & Chris was selected for competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival before its commercial release. In the United States, it premiered on June 10, 2007, at the Mann Village Theatre, Westwood in Los Angeles, and 20th Century Fox released the film in the United States on June 22, 2007. The film's theatrical release was accompanied by a Ice Age short film No Time For Nuts.

The film was initially scheduled for release on March 2, 2007, but on August 14, 2006, but was pushed back to June 22, 2007.

A montage of "outtakes" were made and included in the end credits of the film starting on August 8, 2007

In April 2016, GoAnimate Studios announced that the film would be reformatted and re-released in 3D. Kate & Chris was re-released in 3D on September 29, 2017, to celebrate the film's 10th anniversary and the novel's 20th anniversary. Despite the fact GoAnimate Studios is now owned by GoStudios, GoAnimate Studios retained the rights for the film's 3D re-release by itself.

Release dates

 * Australia, Chile, Singapore, Switzerland, and New Zealand: June 21, 2007
 * United States, Canada, Greece, Bulgaria, Austria, Indonesia, Brazil, Norway, and Mexico: June 22, 2007
 * Belgium, Netherlands, and Philippines: June 27, 2007
 * Finland:  June 29, 2007
 * France: July 4, 2007
 * United Kingdom, Ireland, and Italy: July 6, 2007
 * Poland: July 13, 2007
 * Russia, Ukraine, Argentina, and Thailand: July 19, 2007
 * Germany: August 8, 2007
 * Sweden: August 17, 2007
 * Denmark: August 24, 2007
 * South Korea: September 19, 2007
 * Serbia: September 23, 2007
 * Portugal, Croatia, and Peru: September 27, 2007
 * Turkey: September 28, 2007
 * Israel: October 11, 2007
 * China: October 18, 2007
 * Hungary: November 1, 2007
 * Estonia, Lithuania, Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela: November 2, 2007
 * Japan: November 24, 2007

Home media
Main article: Kate & Chris (2007 film)/Home media

Kate & Chris was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on November 20, 2007 and on 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray 3D, and Digital HD on December 12, 2017 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

As of April 2018, the film is available to watch on Netflix.

Critical reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 87% based on 123 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "With a tidy plot, clean animation, and humor that fits its source material snugly, Kate & Chris is entertainment that won't drive a wedge between family members. On Metacritic, it received a score of 56 out of 100, based on 75 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a gave a positive review saying, "Go!Animate's slapstick animated adaptation of the philosophically satiric book series ... is a lot of laughs and boasts a much tighter story than most animated features."

Kyle Smith of the New York Post gave the film three out of four stars, saying that "Kate & Chris is not only a great kids movie, but it is an enthusiastic movie with perfect moments that live up to its plot as well as other Go!Animate hits like Puppet Pals."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying "Kate & Chris is a truly touching and hilarious family adventure with a blast of humor and soundtrack, as well as a comical plot from the folks at Go!Animate Studios."

James Rocchi of MSN Movies gave the film a negative review,  "If it's even not as good as the Kate & Chris books, The film adaptation is a complete disaster to the book series for the fans. I don't even care if the animation is good and the characters have their usual selves from the books, it's just awful that Go!Animate Studios should be shamed of themselves."

Box office
Kate & Chris opened in 4,204 North American theaters on Friday, June 22, 2007, opening alongside Evan Almighty and 1408 (2007). The film grossed $65.7 million on its first day, the biggest opening day for an animated film at the time, for a total of $145.4 million in its first weekend, the best opening weekend ever for an animated film, and the second-highest opening for a 2007 film in the United States and Canada. The film grossed $308.2 in North America and $357.6 in other countries, with a total gross of $665.8 worldwide, making it the third highest-grossing film of 2007. The film sold an estimated 43,367,214 tickets in North America. The film closed on October 4, 2007.