Going Francisco

Going Francisco is a 2001 American animated science-fiction comedy film produced by Gingo Movies and Imagine Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. The feature-length directorial debut of Arlo-Avocha Vernon, the film's screenplay was written by Tim Hill, J. David Stem, David N. Weiss, and Karey Kirkpatrick from a story by Vernon. It stars the voices of Spencer Klein, Ashley Peldon, Missi Pyle, George Clooney, and Willem Dafoe. The animation of the film uses hand-drawn 2D traditional animation with computer-generated imagery (CGI). It was also the first fully animated film produced by Imagine Entertainment.

The story centers on the Crosby family, who live next door to a neighbor known as "The Champ". He teleports them into a strange computer-generated version of San Francisco, where they meet a mysterious, clear-white, bald man who offers to help the family get home in time for their family reunion. However, when they realize he is actually a character controlled by their neighbor in a multiplayer video game, they must escape him and rush through the virtual city to find their way back to the real world themselves.

Going Francisco was released in the United States on June 29, 2001. It grossed $218.9 million against a $54 million budget and received mixed reviews from critics, with particular criticism directed at the film's sitcom-like production values and story. However, with its home media release, the film has since attained a cult following, particularly among those who grew up with the film.

Plot
The Crosby family — husband Anson, wife Rhea, and siblings Dan and Sara — live in Jefferson, Missouri, next door to a video gamer labeled by his bumper sticker as "The Champ", who has garnered suspicion among his neighbors for projecting bright blue glows from his window in the middle of the night. One night, the Crosby family prepares for a road trip to an extended family reunion in San Francisco, California. Dan and Sara are less than enthused, as they previously intended to partake in special activities with their friends; Dan wanted to help his group compete against a rivaling basketball team at his school gym, and Sara wanted to escape her after-school evenings with her brother by attending a slumber party. The light from the house next-door glows progressively brighter, and just as the family begins taking off for the reunion, an electrical surge emerges from the house through the neighborhood's power lines and zaps the Crosbies, taking their van with it.

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Cast
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 * Spencer Klein as Dan Crosby, Sara's younger brother; a 12-year old basketball geek
 * Ashley Peldon as Sara Crosby, Dan's older sister; a 15-year old high school sophomore and a typical neat-freak teenage girl
 * Missi Pyle as Rhea Crosby, the mother of the siblings
 * George Clooney as Anson Crosby, the father of the siblings
 * Willem Dafoe as The Champ, the Crosbys' next-door neighbor and an aspiring top-ranking player of Road Rage: California.

Additional voices

 * Jack Angel
 * Bob Bergen
 * Jeff Bennett
 * Debi Derryberry
 * Bill Farmer
 * Lynn Hobson
 * Roger L. Jackson
 * Jason Marsden
 * Mickie McGowan
 * Pat Pinney
 * Phil Proctor
 * Arlo-Avocha Vernon

Production
Following the success of his Gingo animated series Funky Fu! Pop Star Fighter ahead of its premiere in February 1997, Arlo-Avocha Vernon was approached by Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment and Michael Wildshill (who was working on Ama and the Mysterious Crystal at the time) to develop a new film at Universal Pictures' Feature Animation division. Vernon then pitched several ideas for the studio, in which among them (the one that was ultimately green-lit) was a concept of "a family road trip inside a virtual world" he originally had as a proposed TV series for a few years prior to Funky Fu!. Vernon wrote a treatment and pitched it to Wildshill, who was "definitely blown away" of the concept.

On March 13, 1999, it was announced that Vernon was directing the film, now entitled Going Francisco, with a set release date of 2001, with Tim Hill, J. David Stem, David N. Weiss and Karey Kirkpatrick hired to write the script while Wildshill, Grazer, Brandon Minez and Joe Medjuck would produce it. The film was initially set to be produced under the Universal Feature Animation label, but later decided that it would be instead released under the Gingo Movies brand following the modest success of Hatty in the Big City: The Movie, a feature film based on the Gingo series Hatty. However, Universal Animation was still involved in the project, but only working for the story development and animation services this time.

Although the work was a Gingo production, Going Francisco was jointly produced by Gingo Animation, Universal Feature Animation, and Universal Digital Images. Pre-production was done at the main Feature Animation studio in Universal City, California, starting as early as mid-1999. Additional clean-up/animation was done by Yowza! Animation in Canada.

Soundtrack

 * 1) "Invincible" - Michael Jackson
 * 2) "Getaway" - Earth, Wind &amp; Fire
 * 3) "It's Gonna Be Me" - NSYNC
 * 4) "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) " - Scott McKenzie
 * 5) "Maximum Consumption" - The Kinks
 * 6) "In the Hood" - Kool &amp; the Gang
 * 7) "Don't Mess with the Radio" - Nivea
 * 8) "You Rock My World" - Michael Jackson
 * 9) "Hyperreal Orbit" - The Shamen
 * 10) "Michael" - Roy Davis Jr.
 * 11) "Clock Is Mine" - Lyre Le Temps
 * 12) "San Francisco (You've Got Me)" - Village People

Score

 * 1) Main Title / Road Rage Theme
 * 2) Evening Plans
 * 3) They Call Him the Champ
 * 4) Electrical Convenience
 * 5) Urban Lunatics
 * 6) The Kidnapping
 * 7) Chinatown
 * 8) Mr. Suit Ruins It
 * 9) The Secret of the Suit
 * 10) Can You Police Help Us?
 * 11) Lots of Cars Comin'
 * 12) Knocked Out
 * 13) Reprogramming
 * 14) You Can't Escape!
 * 15) Calling Back to Reality
 * 16) Friends and Family Revolt
 * 17) What Do You Think?

Release
Going Francisco was released in theaters on June 29, 2001, by Universal Pictures. The film was accompanied by the short animated film Construction Royale featuring Woody Woodpecker in his first theatrical short in nearly 30 years.

Marketing
The first trailer was released theatrically in late 2000 with Mistress Masham's Repose. A second trailer consisting of new animation debuted in March 2001.

A video game based on the film was developed by Argonaut Games and published by Konami alongside Universal Interactive Studios for the PlayStation console which was released on June 26, 2001. THQ released another video game for the Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color.

Home media
Going Francisco was released on VHS and DVD on December 18, 2001, by Universal Studios Home Video. It was re-released on DVD on May 24, 2011, and re-released again on DVD on July 17, 2018. The film has yet to be released on Blu-ray.

Box office
The film earned $82.8 million in North American theaters and another $136.1 million from other countries. The worldwide gross was $218.9 million against a budget of $54 million.

Critical reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Going Francisco has an approval rating of 57% collected from 78 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The script plays it too much like a Saturday morning cartoon stretched to feature-length, and not often a funny one to begin with. Still, give it points for supplying cool visuals." Metacritic gives the film a score of 51 out of 100 from 41 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

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

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