Lix

Lix is a 2017 American computer-animated musical comedy film produced by Universal Animation Studios for Universal Pictures. The film was directed by Amy McNeill (in her feature-length directorial debut) from a screenplay by Chris Matheson, Cinco Paul, and Ken Daurio, and a story by Michael Wildshill, Gary Hall, and McNeill. It stars the voices of Gwen Stefani, Jenny Slate, Kristin Chenoweth, Chris Wallace, Christina Ricci, James Corden, Keegan-Michael Key, and Jennifer Coolidge. The film follows a music-loving teenage girl named Lix (Stefani), who lives in a world where music takes form of living creatures and objects. She sets out with her best friend Melody (Slate) on a journey to become a popstar like her idol Ricky Tune (Wallace).

Lix premiered on November 20, 2017 at the 30th AFI Fest, and was released in theaters and RealD 3D on December 8, 2017. It received positive reviews and grossed $838 million worldwide against its $110 million budget, making it the fifth highest-grossing film from Universal Animation, as well as the tenth highest-grossing film of 2017. Lix received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, as well as Golden Globe nominations for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Song ("I Wanna Be a Superstar"). Along with Imagimals, it marked the first time that Universal Animation Studios released two feature films in the same year. It was also the Universal City animation studio's last film produced under the Universal Animation Studios name, before it was renamed simply just Universal Animation in 2018, starting with their following film Computeropolis: The Deep Web.

An animated series, titled Lix & Melody: The New Tunes, premiered on Universal Kids on September 15, 2018.

Plot
Lix is a teenager that lives with her mother Cora in Harmonia, a world where music takes form of living creatures and objects. As a longtime singer and musician, she dreams of becoming a famous popstar just like her idol Ricky Tune and attends the Harmonia High School where her music teacher Miss Treble wants her to participate in a band performance, but during which, the band ends up playing terrible when Lix keeps forgetting her notes, humiliating herself and leading to get dismissed.

To redeem herself as a musician, Lix decides to journey across the country to Musicwood, where Tune's concert for competition will be viewed live on television, and convinces her best friend Melody to come along. On the way, the duo find a group of fellow musicians, led by dancer Viva, who help Lix and Melody in their quest to Musicwood and they travel to various places they have planned beginning with Westville. There, Lix meets up with country singer Haley Cowsbag, whom she offers him to help her take some notes from Cowsbag's performance so she can help her improve her act. However, Lix is inadvertently taken into a country dance with Melody, Viva and the others, which they later take her to a cow stampede, leading them to El Música, the home of Mexican musicians. Lix's attempts to take notes from dancer Roberto Diaz for a performance in El Música become successful, improving herself. As a result, Lix, Melody and the other musicians go to different locations that satisfy both of them.

The group eventually reaches Musicwood, where Lix finds Tune in his crib and convinces him to help her become a popular popstar like him, but ends up threatened and discouraged by Tune to demoralize her. Dejected, Lix decides to give up as a musician and walks away from Melody and the musicians but unexpectedly finds Miss Treble in a bar. Treble reveals to Lix that she was once a famous popstar, named Sandra Treble, and the star of Musicwood, writing successful songs to the whole world. However, her fans and audiences become more interested in other songs from rivals, causing her to lose her passion and later retire as a result. Lix convinces Sandra to help her stage in Tune's concert that will restore her former glory.

Lix, Melody, Sandra and the others make it to Tune's concert, where the audience is surprised to see Sandra there. Melody is initially refused entry into the concert, but a chance meeting with Tune gives Lix a chance to show off her musical and singing skills, astounding the audience and allowing the CEO of Music Corp to let Lix compete. During Tune's performance in the "Talent" category, Sandra is angered to learn that Tune had stolen their planned performance, but rather than waiting for their own performance, they attempt to sneak backstage but end up onstage and challenge Tune to a dance off, watched by Cora and the rest of Lix's friends and family and other people on separate televisions. The challenge is long, fierce, and musical, but Lix and Sandra manage to out-sing Tune's, overtaking him, and winning the competition.

As Lix and Sandra celebrate their victory, everyone else isolates Tune. While being praised for her performance, Lix even forgives the devastated and remorseful Tune, and he befriends her. Sometime later, Lix and the others return back home in Harmonia, thriving Lix's fame and Sandra's returning spectacular success. They then set up a music group led by Lix named "Lix & Co.", Cora and Sandra for a new performance at the Harmonia High School, which happens to be a success for the school. As for Lix, she discovers that Cora has kept CDs of her own songs on a drawer, much to Lix's surprise.

In a mid-credits scene, Mr. Nigs, Lix's neighbor, gets annoyed by Lix & Co.'s new performance, but ends up singing along.

Voice cast

 * Gwen Stefani as Lix, a 15-year-old teenage singer and musician
 * Lilly Rodgers as young Lix
 * Jenny Slate as Melody, a cheerful music-obsessed nerd whose hair resembles an eighth note
 * Kristin Chenoweth as Miss Treble, Lix's music teacher
 * Chris Wallace as Ricky Tune, a pop singer who is Lix's idol
 * Christina Ricci as Viva, a dancer who is Lix's biggest fan
 * James Corden as Normy, a friend of Lix
 * Keegan-Michael Key as DJ Dan, a disc jockey
 * Jennifer Coolidge as Cora, Lix's mother
 * Joe Whyte as Cim, a talking cymbal
 * Rob Corddry as Drummy, a talking drum
 * Chris Matheson as Mr. Nigs, a neighbor who is often annoyed by Lix's music
 * Cameron Dallas as Jimmy, Melody's ill-tempered brother
 * Phil Morris as Haley Cowsbag, a country singer
 * Gabriel Iglesias as Roberto Diaz, a Mexican dancer
 * Kristin Fairlie as Sophia, a Canadian musician
 * Amy McNeill as Stacy, Melody's younger sister
 * McNeill also voices one of the screaming fans
 * Kellen Goff as Diane, Melody's father
 * John France as Sam, a Elvis wannabe
 * Gary Hall as Rungo, a guy who tries to sing but fails
 * Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lin
 * Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo appears in a voice cameo, amongst additional voices

Additional voices

 * Jim Anderson
 * Keith Anthony
 * Cam Clarke
 * Debi Derryberry
 * Terri Douglas
 * Will Finn
 * Jeff Fischer
 * John France
 * Grant George
 * Jackie Gonneau
 * Gary Hall
 * Bridget Hoffman
 * William Jennings
 * Daniel Kaz
 * Roy Kobayashi
 * Yuri Lowenthal
 * Cynthia Marion
 * Scott Menville
 * Caitlin McKenna
 * Amy McNeill
 * Mark Mothersbaugh
 * Latifa Ouaou
 * Bryce Papenbrook
 * Jack Reed
 * Shannon Stein
 * Tara Strong
 * Pepper Sweeney
 * Shane Sweet
 * Conrad Vernon

Development
Amy McNeill, Michael Wildshill and Gary Hall started working on the film in 2011, when McNeill came up with the idea. In April 2013, Variety reported that McNeill would direct in her directorial debut on an animated musical comedy film based on the original idea by herself. It was once expected to be released in 2016 under the title Musix.

In October 2015, Universal Animation Studios revealed the film's new title to be Lix, which would be produced by Roy Kobayashi, with Chris Matheson, Cinco Paul, and Ken Daurio writing the film's screenplay. In June 2016, it was announced that John France would be added as co-director.

Casting
In December 2015, it was announced that singer and pianist Christina Grimmie was cast as the lead role, which would have been her first animated role and her second motion picture performance following The Matchbreaker. However, on June 10, 2016, Grimmie was murdered while signing autographs following a concert performance in Orlando, Florida, and the new actress was yet to be announced. By September 2016, it was later announced that Gwen Stefani would replace the late Grimmie. The rest of the cast was announced in February 2017.

Music
The film's score was composed by John Debney. Marc Shaiman and Cinco Paul wrote the songs for the film. The score was released on December 1, 2017.

Release
Lix was originally scheduled for release on March 3, 2017, but in April 2015, the film was pushed back to March 2, 2018. In June 2016, Universal pushed back the release date three months earlier to December 20, 2017. In February 2017, the film was moved up by two weeks to December 8, 2017 to avoid competition with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and The Greatest Showman. The first trailer was released on March 1, 2017, and was carried as a trailer before Imagimals, The Boss Baby and Smurfs: The Lost Village. The second trailer was released on June 24, 2017, and was shown before Despicable Me 3, Alaina Gleen: Imaginary Vacation, and The Emoji Movie.

The film was accompanied in theaters by the 7-minute animated short Keena's Magical Journey, featuring the characters from Paradoria.

Home media
Lix was released on Digital HD on March 6, 2018, and on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and Ultra HD Blu-ray on March 20, 2018. In addition to Keena's Magical Journey, all releases include two short films; Hotel Room Music and An Interview with an Idol''. ''

Box office
Lix grossed $359.5 million in the United States and Canada and $478.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $838.1 million, against a production budget of $110 million. Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $266.2 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues, making it the fourth most profitable release of 2017.

In the United States and Canada, Lix was released alongside Just Getting Started and the expansion of The Disaster Artist, and was projected to gross $65–70 million from 4,060 theaters in its opening weekend. On its first day, the film grossed $23.4 million (including $2.1 million made from Thursday night previews). It went on to open to $74.1 million, finishing first at box office. In its second weekend, the film dropped by 46% to $40 million, and fell to No. 2 behind Star Wars: The Last Jedi but beat fellow animated film Ferdinand.

Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 80% based on 235 reviews with an average rating of 6.6/10, with its critical consensus reading, "Bolstered by a trippy art style, a collection of melodious numbers, and a batch of moments that build up fluently, Lix will satisfy both animation followers and musical enthusiasts." On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 70 out of 100 based on 51 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Accolades
The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 90th Academy Awards, the 71st British Academy Film Awards and the 75th Golden Globe Awards, However, the Awards both went to Coco.

Television series
In June 2018, Universal Television Animation announced that there would be an animated series entitled Lix & Melody: The New Tunes, which premiered on Universal Kids on September 15, 2018.

Possible sequel
In March 2018, McNeill was in the talks about the possibility of a Lix sequel. In the same month, in an interview about challenges and ideas for Lix 2, Gwen Stefani revealed that she wishes to reprise her role as Lix in a sequel.

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

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