Orque (film)

Orque is a 2001 American animated comedy adventure film produced by Paramount Feature Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film follows Orque as he discovers that a human named Akula is threatening their population, so he decides to kill him in order to teach him a lesson and protect his sea friends, only to find that he may not be just a regular man, but something far worse than he'd imagine, even for ocean standards.

The film was released in the United States on July 20, 2001. It received mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised its animation, score and voice cast, but criticized its story. It made $100 million worldwide on its $53 million budget, making it a box office disappointment. The film would later go on to gain a cult following for its story, animation, and voice acting.

Plot
In the oceans of the human world lies a civilization deep beneath the sea, where Orque, a young orca calf, is swimming peacefully with his parents. They teach him all about the sea life and how to be a better swimmer. One day, however, while they are swimming around in the ocean, a shark starts to slowly head towards the civilization, and the parents get Orque to a safe place where the shark can't find him. While Orque is safe, his parents are sadly killed by the shark, as their son is left to cry for the loss of his parents.

Years later, Orque, now older, is joyfully playing around with his friends, Milly and Finny, when he nearly gets himself caught by a man who appears to want him for something, but manages to get away from him in time, and they head back to the palace, which is considered to be his home. There, he is scolded by his guardian, Damien, for even thinking about going near the surface of the ocean, but Orque promises he wouldn't go towards any boat, even if it looks safe. Sometime later, the guardian shows him how to defend himself for when he is needed by the sea civilization, as Orque eventually gets the hang of it. Just then, a huge net swings down from the ocean, causing Orque, his friends, Damien, and most of the other inhabitants quickly get to safety, leaving the poor sea creatures who couldn't get there in time to be captured by the man himself. As Orque takes a peek at the poor sea creatures, he realizes that Akula, the human, is endangering their civilization, so he devises a plan with Milly, Curly, Finny, and his other orca friends to kill him, as him and the other orcas are considered 'killer whales'.

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Voice cast

 * as Orque
 * as Akula
 * as Milly
 * as Damien
 * Robin Williams as Curly
 * as Finny

Additional voices
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Development
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Writing
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Animation
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Casting
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Release
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Marketing
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Home media
Orque was released on VHS and DVD on November 27, 2001. The DVD release contains both fullscreen and widescreen formats on one disc, an audio commentary by the filmmakers, behind-the-scenes footage, and supplements detailing the film's development. The DVD was reprinted in April 2018. There are currently no plans to give the film a Blu-Ray release.

Box office
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Critical reception
Orque received mostly positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 68% based on 54 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The website's consensus reads, TBD. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 52 out of 100 points, based on 59 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

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Accolades
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Television series
A spin-off animated series, simply titled Orque, ran from February 16, 2002 to 2004 on Nickelodeon. Produced and developed by Paramount Television Animation, alongside Nickelodeon Animation Studio, the series is set right after the ending of the film.

Video games
A video game based on the film was developed by Heavy Iron Studios, AWE Games and Software Creations and released by THQ for the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Microsoft Windows, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. The game's storyline was similar to the film's, with a few changes. The game received decent reviews, but later received a cult following for its gameplay, controls, and graphics.

Another video game based on the film, this time named Orque: Journey to Atlantis, was developed by Radical Entertainment, Artificial Mind & Movement and Vicarious Visions and released by THQ, like last time, for the Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. The game's storyline is set in the same timeline as the film, but with a new original story. The game received positive reviews, citing it as being "better than the first, but a bit more harder in difficulty than last time."

Main
To see the main transcript of the film, click here.

Trailers
To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here.