Paint World

Paint World is a 1999 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Universal Feature Animation and released by Universal Pictures. The second feature film from the studio, it was directed by Audel LaRoque from a screenplay by LaRoque, Irene Mecchi and Thomas Lennon and a story by LaRoque and Michael Wildshill, and stars the voices of Haley Joel Osment, Dan Aykroyd, Beverley Mitchell, Dennis Hopper, Frank Welker, Patricia Arquette, Alan Cumming, David Gallagher, Rachel Dratch, Cheri Oteri, and Molly Shannon. Set in a world based on paint and colors, the film centers on a young boy named Deon Splatt (Osment), who uses an oversized paintbrush to defend the world's liveliness against Gerry Disgill (Hopper), a colorblind elder and the owner of the Black & White Headquarters who intends to desaturate the world to satisfy his nostalgic ego.

The film was originally conceived by LaRoque in the 1980s while working on his directorial debut Liche's Wish at Multimedia Animation. With its original draft being completely different from its final version, Paint World initially began development in 1994 at Multimedia during the production of its last feature Ghost Vision, also directed by LaRoque. It was later converted into the new Universal Feature Animation division following Multimedia's merger with Universal's then-parent company MCA in 1996 during the production of Ama and the Mysterious Crystal a year later, with the script being rewritten. The film's original songs were written by LaRoque and lyricist Tim Rice, with a score by John Debney.

Paint World was released on December 25, 1999 to positive reviews from critics, who praised its animation, characters, music, and performances, although some compared it unfavorably to the animated musicals of the Disney Renaissance era. It was a success at the box office, earning over $182 million worldwide on its $48 million budget, making it the fifth highest-grossing animated film of 1999. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song ("What I'll Do for the World" by E.G. Daily), tied with "You'll Be in My Heart" from Disney's Tarzan. A television series based on the film aired from 2001 to 2003.

Plot
In a world made of paint and colors, 11-year-old Deon Splatt is an aspiring and idealistic young painter who lives in the town of Paletton, with his parents Linda and Richard, his aunt Maggie, his older brother Zach and his pet rainbow dog Splash. Deon dreams of adventure and wants more than what the little town can offer. Often seen as an outsider by the townsfolk, Deon paints a small, living creature named Tucker to assist him. One day, Deon discovers a black and white building where he gets threatened and discouraged by its guards that work for Gerry Disgill, a colorblind elder who is one of the few to be disillusioned with the modern multicolored world. Disgill intends to revert the world to its bleak greyscale origin, in order to fulfill his nostalgia for Paletton's "simpler" days.

While studying the various sizes of the buildings after painting a colorized picture of the Black & White Headquarters, Deon meets and immediately falls in love with Gracie GaColor, a female painter who works at an art store, and convinces her to help him colorize the black and white environments. However, after overhearing a conversation from Disgill and his henchmen planning on turning the whole colorful world all black and white, Deon warns his family and everyone else about Disgill making Paletton black and white, but little or no avail. No one believes the story of Disgill as black and white palettes lost their relevancy decades ago when colors were revolutionized, making Deon an outcast in the town, only being accepted by Tucker and Gracie.

Deon and Tucker take Gracie to the beauty of Paletton, and Deon uses his oversized paintbrush by drawing many things such as a flower for Gracie in order to express his feelings for her. They confess their love and Gracie opens up to Deon about her bullied past and how she felt like she had to hide who she truly was: a "loser". Deon encourages Gracie to be herself because she is beautiful just the way she is, and the two almost kiss when Gracie notices she has no time. She leaves Deon, but later gets captured by Disgill's guards who take her to Disgill's Black & White Headquarters. As Gracie tells the truth, Disgill then intends to turn her black and white. However, Deon and Tucker rescue Gracie (who is now fading into black and white caused by Disgill), giving them time to warn the others of Disgill's plan and only a short time for their escape.

Trying to prove black and white still exists, Deon reveals the black and white Gracie to the Paletton townsfolk, but Gracie accidentally unleashes her black and white infection to everything, thus turning the world into a gloomy, colorless manifestation of the ups and downs of Disgill's supposed glory days. Deon's plan now foiled, and Gracie and rest of the townsfolk blame him for the damages. As Disgill enjoys his past revision, Deon then tries to apologize to Gracie by cheering her up, confessing his love for her, after regaining her colors and realizing that she has fallen in love with Deon, returns his feelings, and they restore all the townsfolk's colors, including Gracie's. This in turn causes Disgill to find that the Paletton townsfolk have taken away his past just before the townsfolk expose him for destroying the town's innovation. Disgill and his henchmen's actions lead them to asylum (which turns out to be gray, to Disgill's mild relief), while everyone is grateful for Deon and his heroism, and Deon and Gracie start their new life together.

Voice cast

 * Haley Joel Osment as Deon Splatt, a kind and creative 11-year-old painter. Deon's supervising animator was William Jennings. E.G. Daily provides Deon's singing voice.
 * Dan Aykroyd as Tucker, a dim-witted humanoid creature created and painted by Deon. Tucker's supervising animator was Jacques Muller.
 * Beverley Mitchell as Gracie GaColor, Deon's love interest. Gracie's supervising animators were Alexander Bates and John Madson.
 * Dennis Hopper as Gerry Disgill, the founder of the Black & White Headquarters who is one of the few to be disillusioned with the modern multicolored world. Dave Madson was the supervising animator for Disgill.
 * Frank Welker as Splash, Deon's pet rainbow dog. Chris Abazzi was the supervising animator for Splash.
 * Patricia Arquette as Linda Splatt, Deon's mother. Linda's supervising animator was Victor Eisenberg.
 * Alan Cumming as Richard Splatt, Deon's father. Richard was animated by Randy Travelers and Bob Cokinn.
 * David Gallagher as Zach Splatt, Deon's older brother. Zach's supervising animator was Mary Savage.
 * Rachel Dratch as Aunt Maggie, Deon's aunt. Jack Reed was the supervising animator for Maggie.
 * Cheri Oteri as Mary, Gracie's mother who owns an art store.
 * Molly Shannon as Maria, a Paletton resident.
 * Audel LaRoque as Chuck, Disgill's servant.
 * Gregg Berger as Steve.
 * Gary Hall as Kenny.
 * Irene Mecchi as Karen.

Additional voices

 * Jack Angel
 * Robert Bergen
 * Mary Kay Bergman
 * Rodger Bumpass
 * Corey Burton
 * Robert Carpenter
 * Philip L. Clarke
 * Jim Cummings
 * Jennifer Darling
 * Debi Derryberry
 * Paul Eiding
 * Bill Farmer
 * Pat Fraley
 * Gary Hall
 * Audel LaRoque
 * Sherry Lynn
 * Danny Mann
 * Cynthia Marion
 * Mickie McGowan
 * Amy McNeill
 * Denise Pickering
 * Patrick Pinney
 * Phil Proctor
 * Brianne Siddall
 * Lillias White
 * Michael Wildshill

Singers

 * Beth Anderson
 * Laurie Anderson
 * Susan Boyd
 * Amick Byram
 * Hamilton Camp
 * Alvin Chea
 * Randy Crenshaw
 * Lorraine Feather
 * Nick Jameson
 * Edie Lehman
 * Andrea Robinson
 * Laurie Shillinger
 * Carmen Twillie
 * B.J. Ward
 * Cindy Wilson

Development
Paint World was originally conceived by Audel LaRoque in the late 1980s following the success of Disney's The Little Mermaid while working on Liche's Wish at Multimedia Animation in North Hollywood. He then came up with the story of the film, which was about a boy who attempts to save his world from losing its colors. During the production of Multimedia's Ghost Vision in 1994, LaRoque began working on the original treatment of Paint World, which was completely different from the final version of the film. In the draft, Deon Splatt was named Splat and was a human child raised by humanoid creatures known as "paintrolls". Later, as a young adult, Splatt finds out that the world is falling apart when it loses colors that were stolen by wicked monsters, so he teams up with his friends to stop the monsters. After their victory, Splat then became the leader of the paintrolls. Splat is the only main character in the original draft who made it to the final version as Deon Splatt. Some of the characters in the draft later became Deon's family and friends in the final film.

Cynthia Marion, then-head of Multimedia Animation, approved of the film's script, and pre-production for Paint World started soon after. The studio then looked for actors to be cast in the film. Scott Weinger, known for his role as the title character in Disney's Aladdin, was also being reportedly considered for the role of Splat. Marion's choices for the other characters included Jim Carrey, Bill Murray, and Kate Winslet.

In early 1996, while developing the project, Multimedia, Inc. was merged with Universal Studios' parent company MCA Inc., and LaRoque was allowed to transfer to the new Universal Feature Animation studio headed by Michael Wildshill in Universal City to direct Paint World. The staff brought The Lion King writer Irene Mecchi to help rewrite their 1994 script with additional input from Thomas Lennon and David Silverman.

Casting
Haley Joel Osment was hired to voice the title character in late 1996.

Animation
Coming soon!

Music
The film's original soundtrack was released by Geffen Records on November 30, 1999. The songs for the film were composed by LaRoque and lyricist Tim Rice, while the score was composed by John Debney.

The score for the film, composed by Debney, was released through Varèse Sarabande on December 21, 1999.

This is a list of musical numbers for the film:

Release
Paint World was originally slated for July 1999, but was pushed to December 1999 to give the production team more time to finish the film, with Gingo's Hatty in the Big City: The Movie taking over its original slot.

Marketing
The film was accompanied by a promotional campaign by Burger King.

Home media
Paint World was released on VHS and DVD on May 16, 2000. The DVD release included an audio commentary by Audel LaRoque and Michael Wildshill, a 28-minute making-of documentary, a gallery of concept art, storyboards, test footage, deleted scenes, and DVD-ROM features.

On June 8, 2004, a 2-disc "Special Edition" was released featuring the same special features from the original 2000 DVD as well as new ones including a sneak preview of the 2004 Universal animated film Computeropolis and a THX optimizer. The film was released for the first time on Blu-ray on May 25, 2010.

The film was later released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on May 8, 2018.

Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 79% approval rating with an average rating of 8/10 based on 167 reviews. The site's critical consensus states: "Paint World offers exactly what its title promises: a vibrant palette of family-friendly fun, elevated by high-spirited voice talents, rich animation, and plenty of catchy musical numbers." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 61 out of 100 based on 37 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three out of four stars and called it "a captivating animated musical whose artistic merit is on par with Disney's Aladdin and The Lion King." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "amazingly creative and outstanding with the heart and charm of other animated hits." Steven Rea of the Philadelphia Inquirer gave the film three out of four stars and said, "Having the familiar standards and charm of Ama and the Mysterious Crystal, as well as an interesting concept, Paint World is a coming-of-age for Universal Feature Animation." USA Today ' s Susan Wloszczyna said that Paint World "often entertains the family-friendly audience and keeps them joyful."

However, some critics disliked the film's similarities with the animated films of the Disney Renaissance. Mark Caro of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two and a half stars out of four and compared the film to The Little Mermaid, saying that it "feels like one of those shameless Disney rip-offs that have a story that sounds familiar to us." Andrew Sarris of the New York Observer criticized the film's characterization, and noted that the relationship between Deon and Gracie was akin to "Aladdin and Jasmine all over again." On the more negative side, Christy Lemire of Associated Press called Paint World "a poor man's Aladdin."

Box office
The film was released on December 25, 1999, and grossed $16,865,041 on its opening weekend, debuting at number one at the box office. By the end of its theatrical run, it had earned a worldwide gross of $182,184,659, becoming the third highest-grossing non-Disney animated film of 1999, behind The King of Heroes and Darkness Awakening as well as the fifth highest-grossing animated film of the year, behind The King of Heroes, Darkness Awakening, Tarzan, and Toy Story 2.

Video games
Paint World has spawned four video games:
 * Paint World was released in 1999 and in 2000 by Universal Interactive Studios for PlayStation, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, and Dreamcast.
 * Paint World: Activity Center, an educational game, was released in 1999 for Windows and Mac.
 * Paint World: Disgill Strikes Back was released in 2002 by Traveller's Tales for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube.
 * Paint World: Deon's Huge Journey was released in 2003 by Universal Interactive for the Game Boy Advance.

Television series
Paint World is a short-lived American animated television series created by Universal Television Animation in 2000, based on Universal's animated feature film of the same name. The series aired on USA Kids from March 17, 2001 to November 1, 2003, and continues the story of the 1999 film.

Other appearances
Coming soon!

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

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