Imagimals

Imagimals is a 2017 American 3D computer-animated comedy film produced by Universal Animation Studios. The sixteenth feature film from the studio, it was directed by Geo G. and Charles Zembillas from a screenplay by Darren Lemke, Tom Wheeler and John Hamburg and a story by Geo and Michael Wildshill, and stars the voices of Rob Corddry, John Goodman, Kenan Thompson, Amy Poehler, Anthony Anderson, Laurence Fishburne, Allison Janney, and Elizabeth Banks. The film follows a group of imaginary creatures known as "imagimals" who try to keep their world safe from attacking demons.

Imagimals premiered at the Brussels Animation Film Festival in Belgium on February 19, 2017, and was released in the United States on March 3, 2017 by Universal Pictures. It received mixed reviews from critics, with many of whom praising the colorful cartoony animation, humor and voice acting, while criticizing the predictable story and writing. The film grossed over $1 billion worldwide, becoming the second Universal Animation Studios film to cross $1 billion after 2015's Paradoria, the fifth highest-grossing film of 2017, the thirty-third highest-grossing film of all time, and the eighth highest-grossing animated film of all time. The film received a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the 45th Annie Awards, and was also nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 90th Academy Awards. A sequel is scheduled to be released on February 5, 2021.

Plot
In a Pliocene-like environment populated by abstract creatures known as "imagimals" (a portmanteau of "imaginary animals"), a green baby imagimal named Prack (Rob Corddry) is born to the family of Sally and Frank (Kate McKinnon and Dan Fogler). As he grows up, food and water become increasingly scarce in his home village. While he and his friends set out to find some food, Prack accidentally steps on a ferocious imagimal's tail, and is carried away by the monster to a more heavenly realm called Southland.

In Southland, Prack meets a green-spotted imagimal named Busho (John Goodman), the leader of the Southland imagimals who tries to live in a peaceful, uninterrupted state, his adoptive son Moot (Kenan Thompson), and Busho's hefty assistant Sard (Anthony Anderson). Prack decides to accept his new place in Southland, because its rich atmosphere and vast food and water supply make him feel more welcome than he ever could back in his poverty-striken old home. After Moot shows Prack the nature of the realm, Busho warns the others that Southland is soon to be invaded by an army of brown demons led by one of his former followers, Cazarlos (Laurence Fishburne); the gang prepare to defend Southland against the impending invasion.

Meanwhile, Prack's villagers worry about him, many of whom are convinced he was eaten by the monster. Frank and Sally encounter someone who can help them find their son: an eagle-like creature named the Great Voko (Geo G.), who reveals himself to have witnessed Prack's capture and takes Prack's friends and family along to get him back.

After Prack, Busho, and Moot are eaten and spat out by a large, fat imagimal, they are chased down by a pack of brown demons and escape successfully due to the demons' clumsiness. Lokami (Allison Janney), a bird-like imagimal, arrives and shares a story of Cazarlos' past, in which Busho banished him to the cave he currently lives in for rampaging through Southland after failing to impress the other creatures who mocked him. The next day, turmoil ensues when the Southlanders discover that the waterhole has unexpectedly dried up. As it turns out to Prack and the group, some of Cazarlos' demon henchmen have dammed up the waterfall. Cazarlos and the demons start wreaking havoc across Southland; in the chaos, the group rescues Moot from one of the demons and flees to Busho's wood-built home, which is unfortunately set on fire by the army. After the chaos, Busho places the blame on Prack for their troubles and banishes him from the tribe. A lonely Prack wanders into the wilderness and reconciles with his villagers, before they journey back to Southland (which is now overrun by the demons) and conduct a team to rid the area of the army.

The brown demons are held off by the villagers and Southlanders, while Cazarlos wounds Busho in a final confrontation. This provokes Sard into throwing Cazarlos off a cliff, leaving him to be eaten by one of the large imagimals. Prack and the others rush over to Busho and assume he is dying, but soon slowly recovers. The others help Prack and Busho remove the boulder, restoring the water; the rest of the brown demons flee. Prack's villagers claim their new home in Southland, as they peacefully engage in different activities there.

Voice cast

 * Rob Corddry as Prack, an adventurous green imagimal who wants to travel the world on his own.
 * E.G. Daily as young Prack
 * John Goodman as Busho, a wise-cracking, green-spotted imagimal with a huge red nose who is the leader of the Southland imagimals and helps Prack on his journey.
 * Kenan Thompson as Moot, a small, blue imagimal from Southland who is Busho's adoptive son.
 * Amy Poehler as Crushie, a happy-go-lucky pink female imagimal who is a good friend of Prack.
 * Anthony Anderson as Sard, a hefty brown imagimal who is Busho's assistant.
 * Laurence Fishburne as Cazarlos, a scarred imagimal and a former member of the Southland imagimals.
 * Kate McKinnon as Sally, Prack's mother.
 * Dan Fogler as Frank, Prack's father.
 * Richard Kind as Stevie, a tiny one-eyed slender imagimal.
 * Allison Janney as Lokami, a bird-like imagimal who guides Prack.
 * Elizabeth Banks as Peggy, a seductive imagimal whom Sard has a major crush on her.
 * Geo G. as the Great Voko, an eagle-like creature who helps Prack's friends and family to look for him.
 * Bill Hader as Nimo and Jimo, twin imagimals who annoy Busho.
 * Amy McNeill as Maddo, a green imagimal.
 * Chris Parnell as Benny, a slug-like imagimal.
 * Greg Cipes as Pete, one of Prack's friends.
 * John DiMaggio as Ernest.
 * DiMaggio also did various other voices, according to the film's closing credits.
 * Fred Tatasciore as Chunny.
 * Maurice LaMarche as Pucky.
 * Roger Craig Smith as Talaous.
 * Tara Strong as Maddie.
 * Michael Wildshill as Sleepy Imagimal.
 * Darren Lemke as Screaming Imagimal.
 * Gary Hall as Wammy, a mouse-like imagimal.
 * Frank Welker and Dee Bradley Baker as creature vocal effects.

Additional voices

 * Matt Adler
 * Steve Alterman
 * Ryan Bartley
 * Laura Bailey
 * Eric Bauza
 * Dave Boat
 * John Bryant
 * David Cowgill
 * Jim Cummings
 * Eddie Deezen
 * Debi Derryberry
 * John DiMaggio
 * Ben Diskin
 * Holly Dorff
 * Eddie Frierson
 * Nika Futterman
 * Jackie Gonneau
 * Barbara Goodson
 * Grey Griffin
 * Nicholas Guest
 * Jennifer Hale
 * Bridget Hoffman
 * William Jennings
 * Craig Kellman
 * Audel LaRoque
 * Wendee Lee
 * David McCharen
 * Scott Menville
 * Max Mittelman
 * Laraine Newman
 * Bryce Papenbrook
 * Paul Pape
 * H. Lee Peterson
 * Michelle Ruff
 * Jill Talley
 * James Arnold Taylor
 * Kirk Thornton
 * Kari Wahlgren
 * Audrey Wasilewski
 * Diamond White
 * Debra Wilson
 * Matthew Wood
 * Lynnanne Zager
 * Charles Zembillas

Production
Geo G. had always wanted to do an animated film about creatures. Imagimals as a concept dates back to 2003 when Geo sketched the creatures during a period in which he tried to break into film. Personal issues had percolated into the story as they weighed on him in life. In 2007, Universal Feature Animation was pitched to develop a movie called Wild Creatures, set in a planet of creatures.

In April 2013, Universal Animation Studios announced that Geo was directing an original animated film titled Imagimals, with John Cohen producing while Darren Lemke is writing the screenplay. This marked Cohen's return to Universal Animation in 16 years after departing the studio. Geo then recalled the film came from a 2010 story pitch by Lemke that has nothing to do with humans, only fantasy creatures. During the development of the film, Geo, Wildshill, Cohen, and Lemke sought broader inspirations from cartoons of the 1970s, like the 1971 animated short Evolution. In September 2015, it was revealed that American Exitus artist Charles Zembillas, who previously designed early concept art for Gingo Interactive games including the Chrysocolla series, had been added as the co-director of the film.

In October 2015, it was announced that Rob Corddry, John Goodman and Kenan Thompson had joined the cast of the film, and in early May 2016, it was announced that Amy Poehler, Anthony Anderson, Laurence Fishburne, Kate McKinnon, Dan Fogler, Allison Janney and Elizabeth Banks had also joined.

Music
In August 2016, it had been confirmed that Mark Mothersbaugh would be composing the score for the film. The soundtrack was released on March 3, 2017 by Back Lot Music.

Release
Imagimals was originally scheduled to be released on July 8, 2016, but was later pushed back to March 3, 2017, with The Secret Life of Pets taking its place. The film premiered at the Brussels Animation Film Festival in Belgium on February 19, 2017, and was screened at VidCon. The film received a wide release in the United States and United Kingdom on March 3, 2017 and in Australia on April 20, 2017. It was also released in IMAX theaters in the EMEA region.

Imagimals was the first Universal Animation Studios film to be released in Dolby Vision. In December 2016, Universal and Dolby Laboratories announced that they would show the film in Dolby Cinema along with other upcoming Universal Animation Studios films.

The film was shown alongside Zip, a short film directed by Audel LaRoque based on the Computeropolis films.

Marketing
The first trailer was released online at Universal Animation Studios' YouTube page on July 7, 2016. The official theatrical trailer for the film was released on September 21, 2016. The second theatrical trailer was released on January 11, 2017. The final trailer aired during Super Bowl LI on February 5, 2017. Jazwares made a press release on July 17, 2016 that they were going to sign a contract with Universal to produce toys and action figures to promote Imagimals.

A mobile game titled Imagimals Blast was released on February 21, 2017 for iOS and Android. It is a free-to-play match-three puzzle video game featured with the characters of the film. Universal partnered with McDonald's to release six Happy Meal toy versions of the film's characters upon its release. AMC Theatres also partnered with Universal to play the movie in Mandarin at seven theatres and in Spanish at 14 locations in the U.S and Canada meaning there will be a mix of subtitled and dubbed formats of Imagimals. A tie-in comic titled Imagimals: Where Creatures Were Born was released on February 16, 2017, collecting two prelude issues. Other companies also joined with Universal to promote the film, including General Mills, Funko, Xfinity, as well as Universal's parent company NBCUniversal/Comcast.

Home media
Imagimals was released on Digital HD on May 23, 2017, and on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on June 6, 2017. In addition to Zip, the releases also include a short film titled Busho's Guide to Cool Things.

Box office
Imagimals grossed $429.9 million in the U.S. and Canada and $588.6 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $1.018 billion, against a budget of $101 million.

More coming soon!

North America
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Outside North America
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Critical response
Imagimals received mostly mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 46%, based on 194 reviews, with a rating average of 4.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The voice acting is top-notch, the animation is crisp, and the slapstick adds to its family-friendly appeal. Other than that, Imagimals leaves little else to the imagination." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 44 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" 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.

Sequel
On April 5, 2017, Universal announced a sequel slated for March 5, 2021, with Corddry, Goodman, and Thompson reprising their roles. The following month, the release date was pushed back to May 21, 2021. Along with the release date change, it was announced that John Cohen will return to produce the sequel, as well as Darren Lemke returning to write the script. Geo G. will also return to direct the sequel, despite having stepped down as director in order to work more on other projects. On October 21, 2018, Universal announced that the film would be released sometime in 2020 instead, with Computeropolis: Webcation taking its May 21, 2021 slot.

In July 2019, Universal revealed that the film will be released on November 20, 2020, with Ash Brannon announced as the co-director. Additionally, it was also announced that most of the cast from the first film will reprise their roles in the sequel, joined by James Corden, Melissa McCarthy, Bruce Dern, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Dakota Fanning, Jeremy Ray Taylor, and Brooklynn Prince. By October 2019, it was pushed back to October 9, 2020. On November 17, 2019, it was pushed back once more, this time to November 6, 2020. By March 8, 2020, the release date was moved back to September 25, 2020. On March 19, Universal announced that the film would be pushed back on July 31, 2020, taking over the slot for Illumination's Minions: The Rise of Gru, which was pulled from its release date due to the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic's impact on the film industry. On April 1, it was moved back to February 5, 2021 as a result of Universal's updated animation slate due to the pandemic.

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

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