Paradoria (franchise)

Paradoria is an American media franchise created by Universal Animation Studios. The franchise began with the 2015 animated feature film Paradoria, which was directed by Steve Samono and Gary Hall with co-direction by Universal Animation's chief executive officer Michael Wildshill from a screenplay by Samono, John Hamburg and Laurie Craig, and produced by Amy McNeill and Daniel Ross. The original idea for the film was conceived by Samono in 2008.

Since the film's release in March 2015, it quickly expanded into a massive franchise, which includes various Universal Studios theme park attractions, merchandise, video games, books, a ice show, a Broadway stage musical, four short animated films, a sequel, a television series based on the film on Gingo that aired in 2016, and a television special aired on NBC in November of that year. The franchise has been highly acclaimed with the original 2015 film being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

History
Paradoria was originally released in 2015. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and took in $1 billion globally.

The film's title "Paradoria" comes from a genus of tachinid flies in the family Tachinidae. However, co-producer Daniel Ross suggested that the name is actually a portmanteau of word "paradise" and the prominent historical Genoese family Doria. Ironically, the filmmakers found it funny that the word for the paradoria genus of tachinid flies was never in the public domain, so it was "thankfully safe" for the animators to name the film Paradoria without "causing any confusion with flies", as the film has no connection to true flies within insects.

On April 18, 2015, it was officially announced that a full-length sequel was in development at Universal Studios. The success of the movie helped Universal spawn a media franchise to compete with Disney's Frozen franchise. TheStreet.com described the Paradoria franchise as "the Frozen of Universal Studios". By 2015, Universal began work on a television series and on a musical adaptation, with the first starting in June 2016.

In March 2017, Universal announced a franchise extension called Paradoria Magic, which was also meant to compete with Disney's Frozen Northern Lights brand extension.

Paradoria (2015)
Paradoria was released on March 6, 2015, and follows a young boy named Jamo, who aspires to see the outside world with a princess named Keena, but their home is attacked by ferocious human-eating monsters, who pursue them to a far away land; the two now must find a way back home and stop the monsters from destroying Paradoria, while they eventually fall in love and spend time together during their adventure.

Paradoria 2: Enchanted Realm (2019)
In January 2016, Universal Animation Studios announced that Paradoria 2 would be released on March 1, 2019, which was then pushed multiple times until being eventually pushed back to March 22, 2019. Steve Samono returned to direct the sequel. Taking place four years after the events of the first film, Jamo and Keena, now young adults, are expected to get married. However, they encounter a mysterious conqueror who intends to overthrow the Paradorian kingdom by placing a spell that poisons King Clint, allowing the Conqueror to take over his place as the king of Paradoria. Now, the two must find a way to stop the Conqueror, and find a mysterious palace known as the Enchanted Realm to get a potion to heal Clint before they could marry together.

Paradoria 3 (TBA)
In January 2019, in an interview with CNN, Samono hinted that a third film would be possible, saying, "we would like to show more stories featuring these unique and special characters. But you may have to wait a bit for it to happen as we are far from finished with these characters."

Cast
 List indicator(s)
 * A dark grey cell indicates the character was not in the film, or that the character's presence in the film has not yet been announced.
 * A indicates an appearance by an actor portraying a younger version of a character.

Chronology
Chronological order of the Paradoria franchise history:
 * 1) Paradoria (2015)
 * 2) Camp Jamo (2015)
 * 3) Noodles (2015)
 * 4) Getting Annoyed (2015)
 * 5) Paradoria Holiday (2016)
 * 6) Tales in Paradoria (2016–present)
 * 7) Keena's Magical Journey: A Paradoria Short (2017)
 * 8) Paradoria 2: Enchanted Realm (2019)

Video games
A video game based on the first film, titled Paradoria: Jamo & Keena's Adventure, was released on March 3, 2015 for Xbox 360, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, and published by Activision. Additionally, Electronic Arts, in partnership with Universal Partnerships & Licensing, released a match-three game titled Paradoria: Magic Blast for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone platforms. Six mini-games can be played on the film's website. Paradoria was also co-branded with another Universal property – Despicable Me: Minion Rush, which became Paradoria-themed for a period of time for two months from February to March of 2015.

Jamo and Keena were released as figurines in the Paradoria toy box pack for the toy-based video game Universal Studios Legendary Heroes on September 28, 2018, and both figures were released separately on January 8, 2019. A Lego video game based on the first two films was announced on January 28, 2019 and was released on March 19, 2019, three days before the film's release, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

Television
A traditionally-animated television series based on the film, titled Tales in Paradoria, debuted on March 12, 2016 on the Gingo Channel. While Finn Wolfhard and Patrick Stewart reprise their roles in the series, AnnaSophia Robb, Bryan Cranston, Jenny Slate and Maya Rudolph were replaced by Tara Strong, Fred Tatasciore, Grey Griffin, and Kari Wahlgren, respectively.

A half-hour Christmas special based on the film, titled Paradoria Holiday, premiered on NBC on November 15, 2016. Directed by Chris Abazzi and written by Gary Hall and Erica Rivinoja, all of the main cast from the film (most notably Finn Wolfhard and AnnaSophia Robb respectively) reprised their roles in the special, with an exception of Bryan Cranston, who was replaced by Fred Tatasciore, who also voices Noalus in the Tales in Paradoria TV series. It is now available on Netflix and on DVD by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

Short films
There were three mini-movies that were attached in the DVD and Blu-ray versions of the first film. They were: Camp Jamo, Noodles, and Getting Annoyed.

Camp Jamo (2015)
Jamo and Keena take a school of children out on a camping trip from home.

Noodles (2015)
Keena tries to eat noodles alone, only to be found by several neets who want to eat it.

Getting Annoyed (2015)
A neet moves in with Jamo, only to be bothered by it. Jamo tries to get rid of it, but his plans backfire.

Keena's Magical Journey: A Paradoria Short (2017)
Keena's Magical Journey: A Paradoria Short is a short film that was released theatrically with Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me 3 on June 30, 2017. It follows Keena and some of the neets as they go on an adventure to find the mysterious treasure.

Paradoria Live! – The Musical
Coming soon!

Paradoria on Ice
Coming soon!

Merchandise
Coming soon!

Theme park attractions
In August 2015, it was rumored that Universal Parks & Resorts may be adding an attraction themed to Paradoria to Universal theme parks. On September 16, 2018, Universal Studios Hollywood announced that they will be opening the Paradoria attraction in 2020. Due to not having enough space in the Upper Lot, the attraction will most likely be in the Lower Lot. In January 2019, Universal Parks & Resorts stated that the construction of the Paradoria attraction will begin in May of this year.

In addition, it was also announced in March 2019 that Universal will be adding its Paradoria themed land at Universal Beijing Resort, joining with other 8 themed zones that is scheduled to open in spring 2021.

Books and comics
Coming soon!

Paradoria Magic
In March 2017, Universal announced a franchise extension called Paradoria Magic, which was meant to compete with Disney's Frozen Northern Lights brand extension. This brand extension including animated shorts and book series.

More coming soon!