Aster and the Accidental Magic (film)

"Things will go horribly right with some magic."

- Poster tagline

Aster and the Accidental Magic (also known as Aubépine in the French release) is a 2021 2D-animated fantasy adventure comedy film based on the book Aster and the Accidental Magic by Thom Pico and Karensac. The film was directed by Paul King in his first fully-animated film, with a screenplay from Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, and Chris Terrio and a story by Thom Pico and Karensac, and was produced by New Line Cinema, Walden Media, with international distribution by Warner Bros. Pictures and StudioCanal in Europe.

The film released on May 28, 2021 to positive reviews from critics, who praised the script, animation, additional scenes, and faithfulness to the book, as well as its humor, where compared to the original book, is much more hilarious and comical, but gave out some criticism to its minor similarities to other animated adventure films and its plot being separated in two parts. It grossed $280.7 million worldwide on a $51 million budget, making it the 2nd highest-grossing animated film of 2021, as well as the 16th highest-grossing traditionally-animated film to date. A sequel based on the book's sequel, Aster and the Mixed-Up Magic, is in development.

Synopsis
"Quietness, birds, and nature are the things that 10-year-old Aster expects when her family moves to the middle of nowhere. All there is in her new home is just her (status: super-bored), her mom and dad (status: busy with science), her brother (status: has other plans), and also some... magic? Maybe the middle of nowhere could be a little bit more interesting to Aster than she thought it would be."

-Warner Bros. Pictures

Plot
The film starts off with a prologue of some of Aster (Haley Tju)'s early life with her narrating it to the audience. It then shows that she moves outside of the city she lives in, and into the woods where no one else lives in.

The film is separated in two parts, like the book.

Part 1: The Scoundrel Genie
One day, Aster's brother Reed (Jack Dylan Grazer) leaves the house to catch a train out with his dad, Lewis (Ed Helms), driving him to the station, leaving her and her mom, Rose (Ellie Kemper), in the house. A news report shows that there will be a bird migration headed their way at a later date, but Rose is currently working on a machine that could potentially drive the migration out of their path. At a market in a village nearby a few hours later, Lewis is back from the station, and explains to Aster what the things she may encounter are more than just fossils. As soon as Aster leaves them, Rose and Lewis keep to themselves that they've moved to the woods permanently, but will keep it secret until the time is right. At night, Aster spots an old lady (Meryl Streep) with a herd of dogs walking near the house.

The next day, Aster is told to go outside, which she does so. There, she meets the old lady from last night, who gives one of her dogs, named Buzz (Charlyne Yi), as her companion. The next day again, they meet with a tricker spirit (Alan Tudyk) who is a wish genie, offering 3 wishes to Aster. Her first wish is to be able to speak to Buzz, which is granted, giving Buzz the ability to speak, but the cost is that Aster only speaks to everyone, including her parents, via barking.

Rose calls Aster to have an explanation about the move, but Aster yells out in anger, and her parents cannot understand what they're saying. She leaves angrily, looking for the Trickster Rapscallion to use her second wish: wishing her parents hadn't moved to the wilderness. The wish is granted, but realizing how much furiousness she made, Aster breaks down in tears, wishing she hadn't done such a thing. She and Buzz agree to head back to the house, only to see that it is now inhabited by monsters Francis and Linda, who invite them for dinner.

The bird migration mentioned before is about to begin, and Aster and Buzz leave the house to stop it from happening. The birds approach the valley, and then attack Aster. In a miracle, Granny appears to fight off the birds as well. However, due to the extreme nature of the birds, she is then impaled by one, causing Aster to do it herself. She then remembers her third and final wish, which is to erase all of the reality she's in. The Trickster Rapscallion thinks it's very risky, but he decides to do it anyway. Buzz is then told to make his wish too, as he is able to talk. The wish is done, and everything is back to normal. Aster spots her parents, as they and Buzz overlook a cliff showing the migration. Later, Buzz makes his second wish to the Trickster Rapscallion to talk again, which he grants.

Part 2: The Angry Fox
Months after the incident, Aster is enrolled into the local village school, where she is offered an invite to a hangout by Capucine (Ariel Winter), but she declines the offer.

TBA.

Voice cast

 * Haley Tju as Aster, the titular main protagonist
 * Charlyne Yi as Buzz, Aster's dog
 * Frank Welker as the vocal effects of Buzz
 * Meryl Streep as Granny, Aster's old shepherdess
 * Alan Tudyk as The Trickster Rapscallion, a tricker spirit
 * Jordan Peele as The King of Autumn, a fox
 * Ed Helms as Lewis, Aster's father
 * Ellie Kemper as Rose, Aster's mother
 * JB Blanc as Francis, a monster in a different reality
 * Olivia Colman as Linda, a monster in the same reality as Francis
 * Jack Dylan Grazer as Reed, Aster's brother
 * TBA as Fiona, Aster's friend
 * TBA as Marvin, Aster's second friend
 * Ariel Winter as Capucine, a girl that Aster meets in class
 * Vince Vaughn as Hull, the first chestnut knight; mute most of the time
 * Rachel House as Leaf, the second chestnut knight
 * Marion Cotillard as Burr, the third chestnut knight
 * Kate Micucci as the King of Winter, a mountain
 * Carlos Alazraqui, Troy Baker, Ava Acres, Tara Strong, Matthew Mercer, Bryce Papenbrook, Tom Kenny, Steve Blum, Debra Wilson, Sarah Chalke, Adam Katz, Michael and Cary Huang, Kenzie Bryant, Satomi Hinatsu, Niall Burns, Kevin Michael Richardson, Scott Menville, Thom Pico, André Nemec, Karensac, Becky Sloan, Alastair Duncan, Seth Green, Cindy Robinson, John DiMaggio, Eric Bauza, Luke Pearson, Greg Cipes, Grey Griffin, Kath Soucie, Jeff Bergman, Jeff Bennett, Elsie Lovelock and Brad Garrett as the additional voices

Development
The idea of the film came months after the original French release of Aster and the Accidental Magic in April 2018, where an executive of StudioCanal approached both Thom Pico and Karensac for an animated feature film based on the book, to which they accepted. The film was announced in December 2018, with Gabe Frost serving as a producer through his company New Eden Pictures, with Walden Media financing. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were confirmed to write the film's script, though they would later leave due to creative differences.

In January 2019, it was announced that New Line Cinema had won the US co-production rights to the film against Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures. The same day, it was confirmed that the film would be adapting not one, but two stories of the book series. Paul King was also announced as director, and he already directed films with StudioCanal, but this film marked his first fully-animated film. Jared Stern contributed as uncredited story writer, alongside Adam Sztykiel and Simon Farnaby.

Casting
Haley Tju was the first to join the cast as the voice of Aster in February 2019. Sally Hawkins, Amanda Seyfried, Keke Palmer, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Kai Zen were originally considered for her voice role in the film. It was later confirmed in March 2019 that Charlyne Yi, Jack Dylan Grazer and Meryl Streep were added in undisclosed roles. Meanwhile, Rob Delaney, JB Blanc, Charlie Day, Kate Micucci, and Jordan Peele joined the cast in April 2019. Ellie Kemper and Ariel Winter had both auditioned for the voice roles in undisclosed characters in May 2019. Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Marsai Martin joined the cast in the same month, though Martin would later leave the project due to scheduling conflicts. Vince Vaughn, Rachel House, and Marion Cotillard revealed that they would each voice the Chestnut Knights in June 2019. The same month, it was announced that Delaney was no longer attached to the project, and that Ed Helms would take his place.

Animation
Animation began in September 2019 at Rough Draft Studios, with its sister studio Rough Draft Korea and Mercury Filmworks providing additional animation. The film's animation was completed in March 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic caused the shutdown of many animation companies in the US.

Music
Mark Mothersbaugh was announced to compose the film's score in February 2020. However, in April 2020, Mothersbaugh revealed that he left the project due to scheduling conflicts, and was replaced by Carter Burwell with Dario Marianelli to compose the score. The score album was released in May 2021 by WaterTower Music. Twenty One Pilots performed an original song for the film titled, "New Heights"; the song reached number 51 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Other songs featured in the film include: "High Hopes" by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic!_at_the_Disco Panic! at the Disco], "My Hometown" by Uncle Kracker, and "Good Feeling" by Flo Rida.

Marketing & release
Aster and the Accidental Magic premiered in Paris, France on May 11, 2021 before being released on May 28 in the United States in both theatres and HBO Max by Warner Bros., and then on June 1, 2021 in the rest of France by StudioCanal. It was originally scheduled to release on June 12, 2020, but was removed from the film schedule in November 2019 for unknown reasons. In June 2020, the film was given a release date of May 7, 2021, before moving up a week to April 30, 2021 a week later. The film was then removed from the film schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before being given a final release date of May 28, 2021.

Promotional partners
Warner Bros. Pictures spent over $70 million for promotional advertising, with some partners including Pepsi, Lay's, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_Inc. Visa], The Home Depot, HSBC, Yoplait, and Walmart. Roblox went to collaborate with Warner Bros. Pictures in the online game Zombie Attack to feature a gun skin to use in the crates to win, while KFC went to distribute special meals based on the characters from the film.

Home media
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment released the film on digital on July 6, 2021, and then on DVD, Blu-Ray and 4K UHD on August 10, 2021. A special edition titled the "Out-of-Town Edition" was released on the same day, containing both the DVD and Blu-Ray discs, as well as a promo code for the digital format on Movies Anywhere. The Blu-Ray disc contains behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes, bloopers, audio commentary, an alternate ending, and two short films titled Aster's Wet Trouble and The Story of the Chestnut Knights.

For streaming platform releases outside of HBO Max, Netflix released the film on their platform in late-November 2021, while Amazon Prime Video released it on their platform in January 2022. The film made its official network television premiere on Cartoon Network during the Sunday-evening block ACME Night on February 13, 2022. In January 2022, it was announced that it would also release video-on-demand on Hulu on February 24, 2022. HBO and its sister broadcasting channel HBO Family were attached to release it on their channels starting March 7, 2022, while Philippines-based A2Z was attached to broadcast it through A2Z Zinema in the programming block weekday "Zinema sa Umaga", on March 18, 2022.

Video Game
As a promotional tie-in, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced a video game developed by Avalanche Software based on the film to be released on June 18, three weeks after the film's US theatrical release.

Box office
In the United States and Canada, it released alongside Cruella and A Quiet Place Part II, where the film grossed $20 million on its opening weekend, and continued to gross up to $135 million. In other territories, it grossed $145 million.

Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 72% based on 255 reviews, with an average score of 6.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Being an average 2D-animated film, Aster and the Accidental Magic however makes a new difference to other adventure films besides itself." On Metacritic, it weighed an average Metascore of 65 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews", while audiences on CinemaScore gave it a "B+" on an "A+ to F" scale. PostTrak surveyed that 88% of the audience gave the film a positive review, with 67% saying they recommend it.

Peter Travers of ABC News gave the film a 3 out of 5 stars, commenting: "This Aster character is a complete clone of one of the most excellent adventurers of them all, but it was good for her to have a movie of her own, because it is still, at least, entertaining." The Independent gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, saying: "Aster and the Accidental Magic is a one of a kind for a girl who's that young. The animation gives off one of the best feelings of wilderness nostalgia."

Sequel
Main article: Aster and the Mixed-Up Magic (film)

New Line Cinema had gained the film rights to the Aster book series and had already begun developing a script to the sequel based on Aster and the Mixed-Up Magic prior to distribution of this film. King, who directed the first film, being a sequel of the film was possible, said that "I am glad that the Aster sequel is being a discussion of the news report, when I hope this sequel is going to be announced to be in development."

Logo Variants

 * 1) Warner Bros. Pictures - The screen opens in a blue background with drawn rocks, trees and grass, and then the Warner Bros. Pictures logo with the WarnerMedia byline appears as being drawn, as well as calm music playing in the background.
 * 2) New Line Cinema - The Warner Bros. Pictures logo is erased for the New Line Cinema logo with the WarnerMedia byline to be drawn.
 * 3) StudioCanal (French and UK release only)- The New Line Cinema logo is then erased and the StudioCanal logo is drawn, with the Canal+ byline.
 * 4) Walden Media - The StudioCanal logo is erased and the Walden Media logo is drawn in. When the logos finish playing, the blue background turns black and we then pan down from a starry night sky from space to a sky of red.

Taglines

 * "Things will go horribly right with some magic." - Teaser poster, Main poster
 * "From the same guys that gave you The Lego Movie." - Main poster
 * "Just an ordinary girl in the woods. What could go wrong?" - Aster's poster
 * "Not an unusual thing you'd see everyday." - Buzz's poster
 * "Be careful on what you wish for." - The Trickster Rapscallion's poster
 * "Do not judge her from her appearance. She is more than what you know." - Granny's poster
 * "Warning: Small warriors ahead." - The Chestnut Knights' poster
 * "Fall just got recalled." - The King of Autumn's poster

Differences from the book
To keep the film faithful to the book, screenwriters Lord and Miller kept most of the dialogue in the book in the film, with some lines being altered. However, the film has some differences to the book, the most notable being original scenes, with most of them being in part 2, such as one where Aster decides to go with Capucine and her friends by the river. Other original scenes include the aftermath of the bird migration and a flashback opening. Additionally, Aster is the same height in part 1, like in part 2.