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A Boy's Angel is a 2001 animated fantasy romantic drama film directed by Garrett Fredrickson and Rintaro and produced by Neil Shaw, Hiroki Sato and Lee-Kwan Hak The film stars Christina Ricci as an angel who notices a high school student (Sean Astin) at a park appearing rather lonely. Wanting to bring him happiness, she takes on the form of a female student the same age as him and enrolls in the same school as him, unfortunately, an evil fallen angel (Jim Caviezel/Clancy Brown) who wants her all to himself is tracking her down as well.
A joint-production between the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea, the film was animated by Gainax in Japan in conjuction with Madhouse and financed by the United States' Nightstorm Productions, the United Kingdom's Allied Filmmakers, Japan's Dentsu Inc and South Korea's Samsung Entertainment and was released on June 8, 2001 by United Artists. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $100.7 million against a budget of $25 million.
Plot[]
Coming soon!
Cast[]
- Christina Ricci as Lillia, an angel from heaven who comes to Earth to bring happiness to a lonely person.
- Liz Callaway provides Lillia's singing voice
- Sean Astin as Jesse Harlon, a rather lonely high school student who befriends and eventually falls in love with Lillia, unaware that she came to Earth specifically to bring him happiness.
- Jim Caviezel and Clancy Brown as Fynn/Lucifer, the son of Satan who wants Lillia to be his bride, and so, he disguises himself as a fallen angel named Fynn and tries to get closer to her to gain her trust. Caviezel voiced the character in his Fynn disguise while Brown voiced him in his Lucifer form.
- Christian Bale as Peter Thornton, a reverend who works as a priest at a local church and Lillia's caretaker when she arrives on earth.
- Christopher Walken as Richard Doyle, a man who is friends with Jesse's mother who also comes to befriend Lillia as well.
- Daniel Stern as Kelsey Ferguson, Jesse and Lillia's school teacher. He and Richard team up when they both start to become suspicious of Fynn when they see him trying to make his move on Lillia.
- Bronson Pinchot as Marc Atkinson, a student at the school Jesse goes to and the closest thing he has to a friend.
- Anna Faris as Grace Padilla, a student at the school Jesse goes to.
- Joss Ackland as The Mighty One
- Daryl Sabara as Ferris Harlon, Jesse's younger brother.
- Annie Golden as Mrs. Harlon, Jesse's mother.
- Forest Whitaker as Colin Adkins
- Adrian Edmondson as the Principal
- John Mahoney as The Mighty One's Advisor
- Alicia Silverstone as an angel
- Carl Andy (credited as C. Mordecai) as the narrator
Additional voices[]
- Bob Bergen
- Sherry Lynn
- Jack Angel
- Bill Farmer
- Danny Mann
- Rolf Saxon
- Crawford Wilson
- Grey DeLisle
- Corey Burton
- Tony Pope
- Jan Rabson
- John Cygan
- Ray Porter
- Jess Harnell
- Greg Ellis
- Michael Horse
- Maurice LaMarche
- Alex Fernandez
Production[]
Development[]
The film began development based on a pitch by Neil Shaw in 1996; he had attempted to pitch the film to various other distributors before Shaw pitched the film to Ryan McDaniel, who in turn agreed to serve as a producer. Rather than being produced by Working Title Films like McDaniel's films, the film was instead co-produced by Jake Eberts of Allied Filmmakers. The film was originally envisioned as simply a teen romance film, however, after Shaw saw Rise of the Mages and decided to contact Garrett Fredrickson about the project, the film was changed to a more fantasy oriented film when he became the film's director. According to Fredrickson, he felt that having it as "just another teen romance" film would most likely not work as well in the grand scheme of things, and with Shaw's approval, he decided to alter some things to make the film more unique and to give it a more compelling story. Stephen Chbosky and Randall Wallace were hired to write the movie's screenplay, with John Lee Hancock providing some additional work on it.
Story development on the film began in 1998 and the film was officially announced in 1999 as a co-production between Fredrickson, McDaniel, Shaw, Allied Filmmakers, and United Artists. Production began that same year. After seeing his work on the 1996 film adaptation of CLAMP's manga X, Fredrickson decided to bring on renowned anime director Rintaro to help direct the film. This was the first time the director had contributed to a western-produced animated film.
Animation[]
Coming soon!
Voice casting[]
Multiple voice actresses were considered for the part of Lillia before Christina Ricci was cast, with some actors considered even being actors who largely worked in ADR. Ricci was ultimately cast due to United Artists' owner, MGM, wanting to have a recognizable name in the role, and because the producers felt that, of the celebrity names who were considered, she was the most fitting for the role.
For Fynn/Lucifer, the studio was initially looking for people who've done villainous roles, with Tim Curry and Willem DaFoe considered for the part, but they sounded too obvious and Fredrickson wanted the performance to be more believably calm sounding as it would help work in the story. Instead, the role was given to both Jim Caviezel and Clancy Brown, with the former voicing Fynn and the latter voicing Lucifer. During recording, Caviezel and Brown tried to match up their performances when Fynn reveals his true identity in order to create a distinctive "voice transformation" effect, something which was perfected during post-production.
Christopher Walken was initially asked to voice Kelsey Ferguson, but he instead decided to voice Richard Doyle, with Daniel Stern being cast as Ferguson instead and some of Ferguson's lines being given to Doyle.
Carl Andy, a long-time friend of Garrett Fredrickson who frequently cameoed in his films and vice-versa, voiced the narrator in this film. Fredrickson decided to have Andy voice the narrator due to his ability to do an impression of the late Sebastian Cabot, whom Fredrickson thought that sort of voice suited the film perfectly.
Music[]
The official soundtrack for A Boy's Angel was released on May 31, 2001 by Columbia Records. The soundtrack consists of the musical score composed by Hummie Mann as well as several vocal songs included in the film.
Release[]
Box office[]
A Boy's Angel was released on June 8, 2001 and grossed $100.7 million against a budget of $25 million.
Critical response[]
A Boy's Angel has an 86% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 132 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Another achievement from Garrett Fredrickson, A Boy's Angel is a visually stunning and heartwarming animated movie that brings a fresh twist on some familiar romance film conventions." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 80 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A-" on scale of A to F.
Some reviewers noted that in spite of coming out after various other romance films such as She's All That, The Bachelor, Boys and Girls, and Me Myself I, A Boy's Angel was able to stand on it's own. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying: "The originality of the premise coupled with the striking animation and splendid performances qualifies A Boy's Angel as not just another romance film." Elvis Mitchell of the New York Times called the film a "heartwarming refreshment to other romance films at the time."
Home media[]
MGM Home Entertainment released the movie on VHS and a "Special Edition" DVD on November 13, 2001. The DVD release featured several bonus features such as deleted scenes, storyboard to film comparisons, behind the scenes featurettes, two music videos and an audio commentary with Garrett Fredrickson, Neil Shaw, Ryan McDaniel and Sean Astin. It was later released on Blu-ray by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on February 15, 2011.