Pac-Man (2022)

"Pac-Man" is a 2022 American CGI animated film based on the popular arcade game by Bandai Namco. The film is distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, and produced by Sony Pictures Animation, Columbia Pictures, and Bandai Namco Studios.

Production
The film was announced in 2017 by Universal Studios, and was originally supposed to be a live-action/CGI film set in a video game world, and the film would be slated for a 2021 release. But as of June 2019, Sony Pictures acquired the rights to the film and they, along with Bandai Namco, decided to make it into a fully CGI animated film under their Sony Pictures Animation studio, and is now slated for a fall 2022 release. This caused many people who worked on the Universal film to be fired and re-casted for the animated film. Bandai Namco said that production began on October of 2020 and ended production in August of 2021.

Casting
Sony has confirmed that Travis Knight (director of Bumblebee and Kubo and the Two Strings) will be directing the film, and Toru Iwatani (the creator of Pac-Man) will be both producer and executive producer for the upcoming film. Jesse Eisenberg will provide the voice for Pac-Man himself, while Chris Evans will voice the main villain of the movie, King Blinky. Also Elizabeth Banks will lend her voice as Ms. Pac-Man (Pac-Man's lovely wife) and Dee Bradly Baker has been cast as the ghost minions of King Blinky.

Plot
The story will take place in Pac City (but everything is not Pac themed like in the spin off, Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures) Pac-Man is a retired ghost hunter who eats the ghosts instead of capturing them. Pac-Man has lived a wonderful life with his wife Ms. Pac-Man, that is until King Blinky has sent down his ghost army to take over the world. With enough courage, (and a few power pellets) Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man must fight for their city and take down King Blinky and his army.

Theatrical
The film has been released theatrically on September 16th, 2022. It was originally supposed to come out in July 22, but due to some minor production issues and the COVID-19 pandemic, it was pushed back to September.

Home media
In April 2021, Sony signed deals with Netflix and The Walt Disney Company for the streaming rights to their 2022 to 2026 film slate, including Pac-Man, following the films' theatrical and home media windows.

Critically
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 68%, with an average rating of 7.5/10, based on 73 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "It's not as fun as the arcade game that inspired it, but if you enjoy the source material or the recent streak of video game adaptations, Pac-Man is right up your alley."

Trivia

 * This will be Sony Pictures Animation's second video game adaptation (the first one being The Angry Birds Movie 2)
 * This is the third film that Travis Knight has directed, and the second animated film he directed as well.
 * This is the fifth animated video game movie. (With the upcoming Super Mario Bros. film by Illumination being the sixth)