Bob Adams: Final Fate (JPN: ボブ・アダムス：最終的な運命, literally Bob Adams: Final Destiny) is a 2006 animated film and a stand alone spinoff to A Penguin's Memories. Like with the original film, Garrett Fredrickson was a director for the movie, alongside Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence director Mamoru Oshii, while Mitsuhisa Ishikawa of Production I.G. along with Jerry Beck and Chris Jenkins produced the film. Marshall Efron, who voiced Bob Adams in the English dub of the original film, reprised his role for this movie, as did Lou Diamond Philips, while Hamilton Camp and Ruby Marlowe voice new characters. The animation for the movie was provided by Production I.G. and Polygon Pictures while Spyglass Entertainment, Red Wagon Entertainment, and Fredrickson's own LIVE Entertainment co-financed the movie, and it was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures. It was the first animated film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer since All Dogs Go to Heaven 2.
Bob Adams: Final Fate was released to theaters on May 10th, 2006 in Japan and June 14th, 2006 in the United States, where it grossed $64.3 Million on a $30 million budget, and it received favorable reviews in the United States.
Plot
COMING SOON
Voices
- Marshall Efron as Bob Adams
- Hamilton Camp
- Ruby Marlowe
- Lou Diamond Philips as Jack. Philips was one of a few actors who reprised his role from the first film for this one.
- Pat Hingle as The Librarian. Hingle voiced The Librarian in place of Burl Ives due to Ives' passing in 1993.
- Don Ameche as Mike (archival footage)
- Debbie Reynolds as Jill (archival footage)
- Sarah Michelle Gellar
- Frank Welker
- Kirk Thornton
- Emma Thompson
- Rupert Farley
- Wallace Shawn
- Donal Logue
- Julia Roberts
- Clancy Brown
Production
Fredrickson during the 1990s was interested in exploring a little more into Bob Adams' character, and was also interested in creating a story regarding his fate and also possibly even a redemption story. In the original film, Mike, due to his war flashbacks, defeated Bob Adams in a fight after he tried to keep Jill singing for money, and after Jill stopped Mike from beating him up, it ended up with Bob Adams being knocked out cold and he was never seen afterwards. In 2002, Fredrickson began developing ideas for the film, and after searching for what happened to the company that made the original Penguin's Memories, he learned that the company that did the original animation for the film, KK C&D Asia, ceased operations and most of their animators moved to Production I.G., and Fredrickson managed to get them on board with the animation for the film. Due to the company being larger than KK C&D Asia was, the animation for the film was given a major upgrade from the original, but it still carried the same style as the original film.
For the voices, Fredrickson managed to get in contact with some of the original voices for the film, including Marshall Efron, Bob Adams' English VA, Lou Diamond Philips also chose to reprise his role as Jack, and various other characters were voiced by newer actors, although Clancy Brown and Frank Welker, who had a few roles in A Penguin's Memories, did also provide some of the character voices for more minor characters, while Don Ameche and Debbie Reynolds, who voiced Mike and Jill in the first movie, appeared through archival footage at the beginning of the movie.
Distribution
Unlike the first film, where it was fairly difficult to find distribution for the movie, it was easier for Fredrickson to get funding from MGM for distribution due to their United Artists label previously distributing A Penguin's Memories in the United States, however, the film was also co-distributed by Columbia Pictures, similar to a few other films MGM released that year like The Pink Panther and Casino Royale. The reason for this was because Sony briefly bought MGM with a consortium of other parties.
Release
Bob Adams: Final Fate premiered at the Annecy International Film Festival like the original film did, and was later released to theaters on May 10th, 2006 in Japan, and on June 14th, 2006 in the United States. Like with the original movie, the film was rated PG-13 by the MPAA, however, by 2006, the MPAA rating system became more strict, thus making more sense why it was given a PG-13 rating.
Box Office
Bob Adams: Final Fate grossed $64.3 million on it's budget of $30 million. It was far more successful than the original in terms of box office mainly because MGM & Sony had more time to do proper promotion for the movie.
Critical Response
Bob Adams: Final Fate received favorable reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 71% based on 181 reviews, the site's critical consensus reads "Bob Adams: Final Fate might not offer the strongest of storytelling, but offers a good collection of voice talent and visuals that might even attract the more disconcerted viewer". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 67 indicating "favorable reviews".
Roger Ebert gave the movie 3 stars stating that "It is weird that the film chose to focus more on Mr. Adams rather than the leads of the original, but even with that and a somewhat weak story, like it's predecessor it does have heart and a great collection of acting talent."
Home Media
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released Bob Adams: Final Fate on DVD/Blu-Ray on October 17th, 2006 while in Japan, the Japanese DVD was released by Pony Canyon, this R2 DVD carries both the Japanese dub and the English dub, similar with the US DVD, which contains the English version with a subtitled version of the Japanese dub. Sony's DVD contained a making of documentary on the film, an audio commentary, the film's trailers and TV spots, and deleted scenes, this is one of few Sony/MGM collaborations Sony retains rights to.
