Esqua

Esqua is a 2020 American computer-animated science fiction fantasy adventure film produced by Illumination. It is directed by Michael Wildshill and co-directed by Colin Stimpson (in the latter's feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by himself, Erica Rivinoja, Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, and stars the voices of Awkwafina, Charlie Sheen, Will Ferrell, Ken Jeong, Amanda Seyfried, Sterling K. Brown, Larenz Tate, Alicia Vikander, Sarah Vowell, Robin Wright, Steve Coogan, and Michelle Pfeiffer. The film follows an unlikely young girl who happens to find a strange aquatic ski cap that not only it can somehow talk, but also can make magic like morphing, so the girl seeks on a journey to prove her worth to her true love with a boy she loves.

Esqua premiered in Los Angeles on March 3, 2020, and was released in a limited amount of theaters on March 20, 2020 by Universal Pictures. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, it was also released on video on demand on the same day. Upon release, the film was critically acclaimed, with praise for its animation, characters, voice acting, writing, humor, musical score, and visuals; some film critics consider Esqua to be the best Illumination film since Despicable Me (2010). It also became successful by topping the digital renting charts, which led to Universal looking forward into doing more simultaneous theatrical and video-on-demand releases. At the 93rd Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Animated Feature, making it the first Illumination film to receive that award since Despicable Me 2 in 2013.

Plot
Aspiring teenager Esqua Chavez lives with her parents Madison and Evan, and her pet bird-like creature, Puffy, in Worcester, Massachusetts. She has high hopes of becoming free-spirited and famous in order to plan her own stuff such as fixing and knitting her old, ripped, worn out ski cap as a planned product, but is hampered by the protectiveness of Madison and Evan, who see Puffy as a menace. Esqua also attempts to express her feelings to her crush Daniel Park at school but the two become distracted at each other when they are supposed to stay focused. One night after school, she wishes upon a star to make her dream come true. However, the "star" from the sky turns out to be a falling aquatic ski cap that is able to speak and also has the ability to make magic like morphing. The ski, named Sky, tells Esqua that he came from another dimension known as Freetopia where he was sent by the mysterious goddess Sonya, and Sky accompanies her so that she can not only achieve her own freedom, but also prove her true love to Daniel.

The next morning at school, Esqua discovers that Sky's powers and abilities can allow her to avoid injury during a confrontation with the school bully Rita. However, the cap's remaining abilities end up making Esqua crash into things in her teacher Ms. Williams' classroom, resulting in her to get sent to Principal Thompson's office and her parents are called. Returning back home, Esqua tries to tell Madison and Evan what Sky did at school, but she realizes she was wearing her old ski cap at the whole time (due to the fact she is unaware of Sky somehow escaping from trouble), leading to her parents not believing her. She then gets into a heated argument with the two, resulting in them grounding her, and Evan in turn tearing up Esqua's poster of future plans and throwing it into the fireplace.

After getting scolded and sent to her room in tears, Sky finds Esqua there and the two alongside Puffy run away from home, while Esqua tries to honor her legacy and become popular with Sky's newfound abilities. During this attempt, Sky then creates a portal which leads to Freetopia so that he can help Esqua venture out to discover the cap's origins. As soon as they arrive there, they are visited by the Freetopian elder Axel, who tells them that they must follow the path to the secret realms of Sonya in order to save the rest of Freetopia from a massive storm known as the Darkness. On the way, Esqua, Puffy and Sky meet up with three Freetopians named Herman, Slack and Didi who offer to lead them to Sonya.

During their adventure, the group encounters a pack of forest monsters and flees them but is rescued by Daniel and Esqua's two classmates and friends Kim and Clara, who somehow found the portal to Freetopia while they were looking for Esqua. They urge her to return home, but she refuses, telling them that she is living a carefree life in Freetopia while finding Sonya. Reluctant, the other teens decide to follow Esqua and the others along on their adventure, while Esqua is also seeking to express her feelings towards Daniel. Later that night, as the group takes a break, Esqua and Daniel discuss their feelings for each other, but Esqua is unable to find a way to propose to Daniel besides Sky due to her being desperately focused on the journey to the secret realms of Sonya.

The next day, they encounter aggressive creature guards and are eventually taken to the realms where they meet Sonya, who reveals that she has been searching for ski cap-like creatures so she can capture and eliminate them. She also reveals that she is responsible for the Darkness which harms the ski creatures a lot. Esqua notes the similarity to Sky and Sonya becomes hostile, thinking they are attempting to capture the creature for themselves—she implies she has killed other inhabitants she suspected of doing the same thing. Esqua and the others try to escape but Sonya's guards arrest them and lock them in one of the cages where they also discover Sonya has captured all of the Freetopians.

With Esqua feeling sad, bad, depressed and guilty over the fact that her actions led to finding Sky in the first place by crying like a baby, Daniel convinces her to buck up and stand up and think of an escape plan. Sky then gives Esqua a boost, and she knocks down a few guards, allowing them to stack them and escape. The others then defeat and fend off the rest of the guards, while Esqua and Sky comfort Sonya. After the duo defeat her in a final duel by using Sky to throw a spell at her, Sonya turns into aquatic water. This in turn washes the Darkness away in Freetopia.

With Sonya and the Darkness gone, the Freetopians praise Esqua for her heroism and Daniel officially accepts her as her boyfriend while Didi becomes the new goddess of Freetopia. Just before Esqua, Daniel, Kim and Clara go back home, they realize that Puffy reunites with his family of bird-like creatures, revealing that Puffy originated from Freetopia. Because of this, Esqua bids a farewell to Puffy. Finally, the teens return back home and Esqua heads back to her house to reunite with her parents. Evan finally realizes what he did was wrong and apologizes to his daughter. Esqua and her parents then set up a new poster of future plans and share with their neighbors as well as Esqua's friends at school including Daniel, Kim and Clara, while Esqua and Sky find a way to contact the Freetopians across the portal.

Voice cast

 * Awkwafina as Esqua Chavez, an idealistic, but mostly accident-prone, teenage girl who always wants to be on her own freedom. Her name is a portmanteau of "esquí" (which means "ski" in Spanish) and "aqua".
 * Capri Oliver as a younger Esqua.
 * Charlie Sheen as Sky, a magical talkative ski cap that came from another dimension known as Freetopia.
 * Will Ferrell as Herman, an inhabitant of Freetopia who helps Esqua.
 * Ken Jeong as Slack, one of the inhabitants of Freetopia who follows with Herman.
 * Amanda Seyfried as Didi, one of the inhabitants of Freetopia who follows with Herman.
 * Sterling K. Brown as Axel, the elder of Freetopia.
 * Larenz Tate as Daniel Park, Esqua's crush.
 * Alicia Vikander as Kim, Esqua's best friend.
 * Sarah Vowell as Clara, one of Esqua's friends.
 * Robin Wright as Madison Chavez, Esqua's mother.
 * Steve Coogan as Evan Chavez, Esqua's father.
 * Michelle Pfeiffer as Sonya, a mysterious woman and the goddess of Freetopia responsible for the origins of Sky.
 * Cynthia Marion as Ms. Williams, the teacher in Esqua's class at Worcester High School. Marion also voices Annie.
 * Michael Beattie as Principal Thompson, the principal of Worcester High School. Beattie also voices Foreman Fred.
 * Tara Strong as Rita, the school bully at Worcester High School. Strong also provides additional voices.
 * Ashley Peldon as Libby.
 * Piotr Michael and Cory Walls as Tibo and Oak, two of Sonya's bodyguards.
 * Andy Nyman as Spear.
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Puffy, Esqua's pet bird-like creature who was revealed to come from Freetopia at the end of the film.

Additional voices

 * Isabella Acres
 * Ashley Bell
 * Brian T. Delaney
 * Bruno Dequier
 * Terri Douglas
 * Jake Eberle
 * John Kassir
 * Kelly Lake
 * Joanna Leeds
 * Scott Menville
 * Max Mittelman
 * Andrew Morgado
 * Heidi Brook Myers
 * Laraine Newman
 * Tara Strong
 * Robert Taylor
 * Tom Walters
 * Michael Wildshill
 * Scott Whyte

Development
In July 2015, Michael Wildshill revealed that he would be directing and writing an original animated film for Illumination, marking his first solo directorial feature film since Universal Animation's Woo La La in 2009 as well as being his first directorial project for Illumination. Wildshill said that, while work on the project has already begun by then, it was still in very early stages of development. He also later explained that the reason for pitching his film to Illumination rather than its sister studio Universal Animation is their films mostly received a mixed critical reception which did not achieve the same level as Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios as well as most Universal Animation films including Paradoria due to "mediocre storylines, unfunny jokes and overused pop culture gags" according to Wildshill and they haven't made a critically acclaimed film since Despicable Me (2010). Wildshill said that this Illumination film would be better and the best one since the first Despicable Me, due to the internet backlash against Illumination.

In January 2016, the film was officially confirmed under the working title Aquatic, along with its plot and first release date of 2018. Erica Rivinoja, Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio were announced as co-writers. According to Wildshill, Illumination's CEO Chris Meledandri was "entirely proud" of the film's concept when Wildshill pitched it to him. Wildshill also said that it would "co-exist" with the Universal Animation films including Ama and the Mysterious Crystal and Woo La La. In July 2018, Colin Stimpson was announced as co-director of the film. In April 2019, the title of the film was changed from Aquatic to Esqua.

Casting
In April 2019, Awkwafina, Charlie Sheen, Will Ferrell, Amanda Seyfried, Larenz Tate, Alicia Vikander, Robin Wright, and Steve Coogan were announced as starring in the film. On November 25, 2019, Michelle Pfeiffer was cast as Sonya, the goddess of Freetopia. In January 2020, Sterling K. Brown, Ken Jeong and Sarah Vowell were announced in the cast.

Music
On November 10, 2019, it was announced that John Debney, who previously scored multiple Universal Animation films, would compose the film's score. Also, it was announced that rapper Lil Nas X made a song for the film on January 9, 2020 and was released the next day which was titled “F9mily”.

Animation and design
To be added

Release
Esqua was originally scheduled for theatrical release on July 13, 2018 by Universal Pictures, but in August 2016, the film was pushed back to July 3, 2019. In January 2017, the film was taken off the release schedule, and the new release date was yet to be announced. In April 2019, the release date was pushed to February 28, 2020. By August 2019, it was moved back once again, this time to March 20, 2020 when the February 28, 2020 date was assigned to The Invisible Man.  A Universal Animation short film titled Virtual Vinna, starring Vinna Binz of Computeropolis, appeared before the feature film. The film was supposed to be released in China on March 27, 2020, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese release was pushed back to September 2, 2020. Universal premiered the film at Los Angeles on March 3, 2020.

On March 17, Universal announced that the film would be released simultaneously in theaters and for digital rental on March 20 in the United States and Canada due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Other films distributed by the studio, such as The Invisible Man, The Hunt and Trolls World Tour were also released digitally before the end of the usual 90-day theatrical run.

As the pandemic receded, the film was released in three Santikos Theatres locations in San Antonio, Texas on May 1, 2020. In Russia the film was made available in IMAX cinemas. In Austria and the Netherlands, it was released in both 4DX and Dolby Cinema.

Marketing
Test footage was screened on April 4, 2019 at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. On June 3, 2019, three stills from the film were revealed. The next day, the film's teaser poster was released, and the teaser trailer debuted on June 5, 2019, which was shown with The Secret Life of Pets 2. The second trailer (and official trailer) of the film was released on October 9, 2019 with The Addams Family. The third and final trailer was released on January 1, 2020.

Video games
Wildshill mentioned in April 2019 that the film would be accompanied by a tie-in video game inspired by Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. The game, titled Esqua: A Journey in Paradise, was released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows on March 17, 2020.

To coincide with the film's release, Esqua appears as a DLC playable character in the fighting game Fighting Royale 3.

Home media
Esqua was released digitally on May 26, 2020, followed by its home media release on DVD, Blu-ray, and Ultra HD Blu-ray on June 9 by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. In addition to Virtual Vinna, the releases also include two new mini-movies titled Puffy and the Egg and Minion Vacation.

Box office
To be added

VOD sales
To be added

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 130 reviews, with an average rating of 9.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "With beautiful and colorful animation and talented screenwriting, Esqua is brilliantly an entertaining family flick that should satisfy younger audiences in a way." The film is Illumination's highest-rated film on the Rotten Tomatoes website. At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, and PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Accolades
To be added

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

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