Computeropolis: The Deep Web

Computeropolis: The Deep Web is a 2018 American 3D computer-animated science fiction action-comedy film produced by Universal Animation for Universal Pictures. The 23rd feature in the Universal Animated Features canon, it is the fourth installment in the Computeropolis franchise, following 2010's Computeropolis 3, and was directed by Audel LaRoque from a screenplay by LaRoque, Robert L. Baird, Erica Rivinoja, and Mike Reiss, and a story by LaRoque, Michael Wildshill, and Ash Brannon. Jesse McCartney, David Spade, Sarah Silverman, Jon Lovitz, Jennifer Tilly, David Hyde Pierce, Jodi Benson, Dan Fogler, William Shatner, and Eddie Izzard reprise their roles from the previous installments, with Harland Williams reprising his role from the first two films. New cast members include Dan Middleton, Millie Bobby Brown (in her film debut), Zach King, Felicia Day, Keegan-Michael Key, Elizabeth Banks, Danny Glover, Steve Zahn, Alan Tudyk, and Steve Coogan.

Computeropolis: The Deep Web premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 18, 2018, and was released in RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, and IMAX 3D on May 4, 2018. It received mixed reviews from critics, though some considered the film an improvement over its predecessor. Although it was criticized for referencing the adult-oriented Planet of the Apes in a family film, it was praised for its action sequences, humor, vocal performances, animation, concept, and John Debney and Heitor Pereira's musical score. The film grossed $424 million worldwide on a budget of $200 million, making it the lowest grossing film in the franchise.

A fifth film, titled Computeropolis 5, is scheduled to be released on May 21, 2021.

Plot
A mysterious ship steals an extremely rare golden gem from a secret laboratory via a gemstone-selling website called GemTube and takes it to the Deep Web, a mysterious city located far away from Computeropolis. The Desktop Component League (DCL) tries to send seventeen-year-old Peri Dazz and his partner/best friend Nicky Kickzoo to track down those responsible and retrieve the golden gem, but Peri is about to leave for college, and intends to take his computer with him so he can spend time with his friends. However, Peri reluctantly agrees to go to the Deep Web and take the gem back to GemTube.

Peri and Nicky invite Peri's girlfriend/mate Vinna Binz, Peri's friend Travis and the rest of the DCL members to help and grudgingly accept the help of the DCL's leader and founder, Manager Marc, and his assistant, Commander Cindy, who take them to the Deep Web by their boat. The gang is welcomed by super-intelligent apes in the Deep Web, and is given a tour by Rulio, a bootleg knockoff mixture of Elmo and Mario. While Marc and Cindy guard the boat, Peri and his friends encounter many strange commodities of the Deep Web such as toy and nursery rhyme channels for children and multi-colored flower-like creatures known as "flowies" while searching for the golden gem. However, they are found by many mean-spirited apes formerly loyal to the human-hating bonobo Koba derogatorily called "donkeys," led by a "donkey" gorilla named Red, who forced them to leave the Deep Web and never return. The DCL members choose to stay, but the "donkeys" end up capturing them and take them to their prison.

The gang meets Zola, a young ape-obsessed girl who is willing to escape the prison and has a hatred for "donkeys" who torture her. Peri and the gang manage to rescue Zola and escape the prison. Not wanting to be alone and unprotected, Zola follows the DCL team. During their mission to find the golden gem, the gang encounters a group of intelligent apes that work as construction workers, led by chimpanzee Rutt, who Zola tries to befriend but the ape construction workers need to concentrate on their construction site. Zola instead ends up spending time with Peri while helping him. Nicky and Vinna become suspicious of Zola's motives, but Peri refuses to accept their statement and the rest of the DCL gang leave on their own, leaving Peri and Zola behind. Peri and Zola eventually find the golden gem in an abandoned warehouse, but are caught by Rulio, duel gun-wielding boy Scully, swordswoman Ella, Red and the rest of the "donkeys". Rulio tells them that once he puts the gem on his new machine, he will create a new army of minions, but only if Peri and Zola agree to play in the "Ruliolympics" games against Scully, Ella and the "donkeys", and make a wager with Rulio: he will give the gem back to them if they win, but Rulio will keep the gem and Peri and Zola will go back to prison if they lose.

At the games, the flying pig family Benny and Lizzy and their son Brutus help Peri and Zola win the "Ruliolympics" in order to get the gem back. When they won the game and got the gem back, Zola encourages Peri to visit her chimpanzee friend Erik, the leader of a colony of apes known as "The Deep Web Apes" so they can spend time with the two, but Peri feels drawn to help his DCL friends take the gem back to GemTube and go to college while Zola tells him that she cannot go with him, and that she only wanted to stay in the Deep Web. Peri refuses to believe her and continues on alone to retrieve the gem, but unwittingly finds himself in Rulio's castle, where he discovers a crown which actually belonged to Zola, revealing that she was the queen and leader of the Deep Web.

Rulio and his gang return to the castle, and Rulio talks to them, saying that he wants the gem back so he can create a new army of minions to track down the Deep Web, despite losing the game the other day. He also orders the rest of the "donkeys" to capture Zola and bring her to the castle so the machine Rulio is using for the gem will destroy her and the city. Shocked, Peri takes the crown and returns to the rest of the DCL team to show both the gem and the crown to them. He tells them that Zola was the queen of the Deep Web and warns them that the gem will kill Zola and destroy the Deep Web when the gem is slotted on Rulio's machine. As Peri goes alone to give Zola's lost crown back to her while the rest of the group stays with the gem, the DCL are suddenly captured by Rulio and his minions, who also captured Zola as well, and Rulio takes the gem, while Benny, Lizzy and Brutus watch this. They later warn Peri about Rulio capturing all his friends.

Peri teams up with the pigs, Erik and his ape team, and they arrive at the castle's tower to confront Rulio and his minions and rescue Zola and the DCL. A fight issues, as Peri frees his friends and fights with Rulio over the gem. However, as they fight, Peri accidentally lets the gem fall off the tower, landing on the ground which caused the gem to break into pieces. Enraged, Rulio tries to kill Peri for destroying the gem, but Zola knocks Rulio unconscious with a surprise egg and saves Peri. Rulio then gets corrupted and turns into pixel dusts. With Rulio now gone, Zola returns to her place as the queen of the Deep Web and recovers the gem for Peri and the DCL.

After saving the Deep Web, Peri and the gang head back home while Zola and the others say goodbye to them. Peri goes to the real world and finally takes his computer to college, where he reunites with his DCL friends via the portal to Computeropolis.

Voice cast

 * Jesse McCartney as Peri Dazz, a computer-obsessed teenage boy, Nicky's best friend and a member of the DCL
 * David Spade as Nicky Kickzoo, Peri's video game character and partner and a member of the DCL
 * Sarah Silverman as Vinna Binz, a teenage girl, Peri's mate and a member of the DCL
 * Jon Lovitz as Notepad Ned, a member of the DCL and Paula's fiancé
 * Lovitz also voices Paul, an internet officer in Computeropolis
 * Jennifer Tilly as Painting Paula, a member of the DCL and Ned's love interest
 * Dan Fogler as Travis, a clumsy and overweight boy – one of Peri's friends
 * David Hyde Pierce as Manager Marc, the leader and founder of the DCL
 * Jodi Benson as Commander Cindy, a member of the DCL and Marc's administrative assistant and mate
 * Dan "DanTDM" Middleton as Rulio, a bootleg knockoff mixture of Elmo and Mario and the leader of the Bootleg Army and the Deep Web
 * Millie Bobby Brown as Zola, a beautiful mysterious girl who is revealed to be the real leader and queen of the Deep Web
 * Zach King as Scully, a duel gun-wielding boy who is part of Rulio's army
 * Felicia Day as Ella, a member of Rulio's army
 * Keegan-Michael Key as Brutus, a flying pig and the son of Lizzy and Benny
 * Elizabeth Banks as Lizzy, a flying pig and the wife of Benny and the mother of Brutus
 * Danny Glover as Benny, a flying pig and the husband of Lizzy and the father of Brutus
 * Harland Williams as Flicky, a flowy, a species of multi-colored flower-like creatures from a fictional educational YouTube channel targeted towards young children, with bad grammar and broken English
 * Williams also voices a waiter ape
 * Steve Zahn as Red Flowy, one of the flowies
 * Alan Tudyk as Green Flowy, one of the flowies
 * Steve Coogan as Blue Flowy, one of the flowies
 * Ty Olsson as Red, a Western lowland gorilla who is the leader of the "donkeys", now part of Rulio's army
 * Aleks Paunovic as Winter, an albino Western lowland gorilla and a dim-witted member of the "donkeys"
 * Fred Tatasciore as Winter's speaking voice
 * William Shatner as Frank, an internet officer in Computeropolis
 * Eddie Izzard as Fredrick Moss, the mayor of Computeropolis
 * Patrick Stewart as Erik, a common chimpanzee who is the leader and king of the Deep Web Apes
 * Catherine Keener as Lavender, a common chimpanzee who is the queen of the Deep Web Apes and Erik's mate
 * Sam Elliott as Abe, a Western lowland gorilla who is a member of the Deep Web Apes
 * Neil Patrick Harris as Lulu, a common chimpanzee who is an insultant and member of the Deep Web Apes
 * Audel LaRoque as Carniolus, a Bornean orangutan who is an elder of Erik's tribe of apes in the deep web
 * LaRoque also voices various surprise eggs
 * Kari Wahlgren as Carol, the computer voice in Computeropolis
 * Tress MacNeille as Heather Dazz, Peri's mother
 * Jeff Bennett as Earl Dazz, Peri's father
 * Michael Wildshill as Clippit, an intelligent user interface
 * Wildshill also voices various surprise eggs
 * Chris Edgerly as Bill, a lab worker who increased Peri the PC Chip
 * Corey Burton as Sam, a lab worker who is Bill's assistant
 * John DiMaggio as Rutt, a common chimpanzee who is the leader and boss of the Ape Construction Workers. DiMaggio previously voiced Junior Hacker in Computeropolis 2.
 * Maurice LaMarche as Carl, a common chimpanzee who is a member of the Ape Construction Workers
 * Andy Nyman as Pad, a common chimpanzee and a "donkey" ape who is Red's partner
 * Gary Hall as Carl's brother
 * William Jennings as Ape Announcer
 * Amy McNeill as Ape Girl
 * Mike Reiss as Surprise Egg
 * Ash Brannon as Baboon

Additional voices

 * Chris Abazzi
 * Carlos Alazraqui - Rubber
 * Dee Bradley Baker - Toby
 * Ryan Bartley
 * Michael Bell
 * Bob Bergen
 * Gregg Berger
 * Steve Blum
 * Dave Boat
 * Clancy Brown - Muzo
 * Phillip Calvi
 * Cam Clarke
 * Jason Connery
 * David Cowgill
 * Jim Cummings - Norm
 * Brian T. Delaney - Jared
 * Debi Derryberry
 * Holly Dorff
 * Terri Douglas
 * Newton Fanning
 * Jackie Gonneau
 * Barbara Goodson
 * Grey Griffin
 * Jess Harnell - Media Player Mike
 * Jason Harris - Ape Worker
 * Richard Horvitz
 * Karen Huie
 * Daniel Kaz
 * Lex Lang
 * Mona Marshall
 * Scott Menville
 * Adam Stephenson Miller
 * Edie Mirman
 * Cody Moore
 * Laraine Newman
 * Paul Pape
 * Bryce Papenbrook
 * Mary Parent
 * Courtney Peldon
 * Ryan Potter - Hiro Hamada
 * Megan Richie
 * Neil Ross
 * Roger Craig Smith
 * Karen Stimson
 * Tara Strong - Vivian James
 * Fred Tatasciore - Unnamed Donkey Ape
 * Kirk Thornton
 * Audrey Wasilewski
 * Joe Whyte
 * Dave Wittenberg
 * Matthew Wood
 * ViviAnn Yee
 * Shelby Young
 * Ruth Zalduondo

Popular culture cameos and references
In addition to Hiro Hamada and the Planet of the Apes characters, the film also features cameo appearances of the rest of the Vocaloids including: Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin and Len, Megurine Luka, Kaito, and Meiko. Ico (voiced by Noah Schnapp) and Yorda from Ico, characters from Yaku Tsuu: Noroi no Game, Adventurer from Ruins, Northern Boy from Treo Fiskur, Bibu from Pink Sword of the Bibu, the Paint Boy from Paint, Tiny Spaceman from Apollo 31, Jenkins and Lou from Jinxy Jenkins & Lucky Lou, the Homeless Girl from Can I Stay?, Rubi from The Hands, and popular YouTube personalities PewDiePie and Markiplier make cameo appearances in the film as well. Because of this, Universal (via NBCUniversal/Comcast) acquired these character licenses from all of their respectful owners (including the Hiro Hamada character license from Disney), a first for the series.

Development
In 2008, Universal Animation CEO Michael Wildshill stated there was likely to be a fourth installment in the franchise. However, in March 2010, Computeropolis 3 director Mike Moon said, "It's too early to tell. There hasn't been a lot of discussion about that." In June 2010, Audel LaRoque, the director of the first two films, spoke of the possibility of the fourth film, noting, "Everyone's waiting for more, but we don't have any ideas yet. If we do, then we can make a Computeropolis 4. There isn't anything to say." Jesse McCartney and David Spade were signed on tentatively to provide the voices of Peri and Nicky; McCartney stated the following year that he believed Universal was working on a sequel. Rumors arose that Computeropolis 4 was in production and slated for release in 2015, but Universal denied these rumors in June 2012, stating "nothing is official."

Computeropolis 4 was officially announced by NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke on July 2, 2013. LaRoque was scheduled to direct and write after writing a film treatment with Wildshill, with extra input from Ash Brannon. LaRoque explained that Universal decided to produce the sequel because of their "pure passion" for the series, and that the film would feature internet meme and infamous bootleg references.

In November 2015, LaRoque revealed via Twitter that he had begun writing the screenplay for the fourth film. In April 2016 at the CinemaCon, LaRoque said that the film would focus on Peri and his friends going to the deep web, also known as the "bootleg world." In June 2016, the film's official title was announced as Computeropolis: Deep of the Web. The following month, it was confirmed that Mary Parent was brought in to produce the film. By November 2016, the film was retitled as Computeropolis: The Deep Web, in order to grammatically correct the film's title.

Casting
According to a report by Deadline published in August 2013, David Spade was in negotiations to reprise his role of Nicky Kickzoo. In September 2013, it was confirmed by the press that Jesse McCartney would reprise the role of Peri in the fourth film. Universal announced in January 2016 that McCartney and Spade would reprise their roles as Peri and Nicky, respectively. In April 2016, it was announced that Dan Middleton, an English YouTube personality and professional gamer known as DanTDM, had joined the cast to voice a new character in the fourth film, while Sarah Silverman and Dan Fogler would return to voice Vinna Binz and Travis, respectively.

In February 2017, Universal announced that Millie Bobby Brown, Elizabeth Banks, Danny Glover and Keegan-Michael Key were cast as new characters in the film, with the former marking her both feature film and animation debut. In July 2017, new details were announced; it was confirmed that Middleton's character's name was revealed to be Rulio, a bootleg knockoff mixture of Elmo and Mario, and that Adam Stephenson Miller was added as co-producer. It was also announced that, under license from The Walt Disney Company, Hiro Hamada from the 2014 Disney animated film Big Hero 6 would appear with his respective actor Ryan Potter, along with the apes from the Planet of the Apes reboot films and the rest of the Vocaloids. In addition, Universal also announced that some new original apes would be made for the film. However, this film did not feature the appearances of the main ape characters in the Planet of the Apes reboot films (mainly Caesar, Maurice, Rocket, Luca, Bad Ape, etc.) but a completely different tribe of apes separated from Caesar's ape colony.

In November 2017, Steve Zahn, Alan Tudyk and Steve Coogan joined the voice cast as flowies. Patrick Stewart, Catherine Keener, Sam Elliott and Neil Patrick Harris had also been announced in the cast in January 2018, as well as Michael Wildshill reprising his role as Clippit while director Audel LaRoque would voice Carniolus.

Animation
All of the characters in this film are created in CGI key-frame animation, while all of the ape characters from the Planet of the Apes are created with a mixture of motion-capture and CGI key-frame animation in this film, as they were performed in motion-capture technology and animated in CGI in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes. Due to the different animation styles and production cutbacks, the film's budget was raised to $200 million, making it the most expensive Universal animated film.

Music
In August 2016, it was confirmed that John Debney and Heitor Pereira would return to compose the score. On June 2, 2017, Debney and Pereira confirmed that they had started working with the film's score.

Release
The Deep Web premiered on April 18, 2018 at the Tribeca Film Festival, and was released in the United States on May 4, 2018 by Universal Pictures in 3D, Dolby Cinema, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D. It was originally scheduled for release on March 2, 2018, but in June 2016, Universal advanced the release date to April 13, 2018. The main reason cited by The Hollywood Reporter was to avoid competition with another 2018 animated film that takes place on the internet, Ralph Breaks the Internet. The release was then shifted to July 27, 2018, but then was moved once again two months earlier to May 23, 2018 to avoid competition with Teen Titans Go! To the Movies. By March 2018, it was moved up three weeks earlier to May 4, taking over the slot previously held by Avengers: Infinity War.

The film's theatrical release was preceded by Neon, an original Universal animated short written and directed by John France.

Marketing
An early promotional teaser trailer was released on March 3, 2017, and was shown before Gabriel Garza 3, The Boss Baby, Smurfs: The Lost Village, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. An official teaser was released on June 2, 2017, and was shown before Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Cars 3, Despicable Me 3, The Wiggles, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and The Emoji Movie. Another teaser was released on September 22, 2017, and was shown before The Lego Ninjago Movie, My Little Pony: The Movie, Thor: Ragnarok, The Star, and Coco.

The first theatrical trailer of The Deep Web was released on December 6, 2017, and was shown during screenings of films such as Lix, Ferdinand, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. A second theatrical trailer aired during Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018, and was shown before Peter Rabbit, Early Man, A Wrinkle in Time, Sherlock Gnomes, and Rampage. Licensing partners include Jazwares, Funko and McDonald's, who have produced toys based on the film. Universal launched a website for the Deep Web that ultimately included miscellaneous information about the location, as well as a video featuring apes of the Deep Web. The film also has its own VR game, being Universal Animation's first VR development.

Home media
Computeropolis: The Deep Web was released on digital and Movies Anywhere on August 28, 2018 and on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on September 4, 2018 by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. In addition to the short Neon, the releases also include two new animated short films: Zola's Makeover and Monkey Business. The 3D Blu-ray of this film will be released in select international markets (including the UK).

Before the home media announcement by Universal, the original potential home media releases were August 7, 2018 for digital and August 14, 2018 for DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray by some websites, but Universal stated that the original home media releases are way too competitive for its home media releases due to Avengers: Infinity War coming out on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Blu-ray the same day as the potential DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray releases.

Box office
Computeropolis: The Deep Web grossed $132.2 million in the United States and Canada and $1.001 billion in other territories for a worldwide total of $1.133 billion. Based on the film's production budget of $200 million, with about $350 million more spent on global marketing costs, the film needed to gross at least $850 million in order to break-even.

On July 8, 2018, the film surpassed Computeropolis 2 ' s international lifeline gross of $591.3 million to become the highest grossing Computeropolis in international box office and later surpassed Paradoria to be the highest grossing Universal Animation film overseas. On July 30, 2018, it surpassed Frozen ' s international lifetime overseas gross of $873.4 million to become the highest-grossing animated film overseas and passed the $1 billion mark after a strong box office boost in China. This became the third Universal Animation film (after Paradoria and Imagimals), fifth non-Disney-animated film and Universal animated film (after Paradoria, Minions, Imagimals, and Despicable Me 3), fifth film of 2018 (after Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and Incredibles 2) and the eleventh animated film (after Toy Story 3, Frozen, Paradoria, Minions, Zootopia, Finding Dory, Imagimals, Despicable Me 3, and Incredibles 2) to pass the mark. It is the second highest-grossing animated film of 2018, behind Incredibles 2. The Hollywood Reporter highlighted that Computeropolis 2 had the advantage of being released in a non-crowded date, while Computeropolis: The Deep Web was overshadowed by bigger films by the likes of Disney. Forbes pointed out that had the film had a less crowded release date, it would have matched or topped the $1.159 billion of Minions. Despite the weak US totals, Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $100.2 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film. On September 12, the film surpassed Paradoria ($1.126 billion) to become the highest-grossing Universal Animation film worldwide. For the poor domestic performance, a representative at Universal Animation revealed that they didn't expect high standards for the film in North America instead going for the film to be a overseas hit, but still called the film a failure in North America.

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 23% based on 350 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Deep Web may not be as deep, but even if it doesn't fully recapture the inventiveness of the original Computeropolis saga, it still pokes a wide range of fun at the bizarre entities -- both perky and disturbing -- of the signature world wide web." Another review aggregator Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 31 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale, down from the third film's "C–", while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an 85% overall positive score (average 4 out of 5 stars) and a 31% "definite "unfavorable".

Owen Gleiberman of Variety gave the film a positive review, saying "It's very impressive for Universal to resurrect the franchise from the ultimate virus." Conversely, Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a negative review, criticizing the Planet of the Apes references in the film and said "It's not only the story having a problem, but the Planet of the Apes references are also a main problem. Not even the Internet jokes can save this."

Sequel
On the possibility of a potential sequel, in April 2018, Audel LaRoque, director of the film, stated that a fifth installment is already being considered. In June, LaRoque stated that he planned to include references to several of Universal Pictures' properties, including their own films, Illumination films, and DreamWorks Animation properties in the fifth film, when he and the crew saw the second trailer for Ralph Breaks the Internet. However, it was reported that there were "no immediate plans" for LaRoque to direct a Computeropolis sequel, or any other Universal animated films, with LaRoque instead being relegated to an executive producer position. This comes after a reshuffling of film production staff at Universal due to the film's poor performance in North America.

On October 21, 2018, Universal announced that Computeropolis 5 will be released on May 21, 2021, with McCartney, Spade and Silverman reprising their previous roles, as Peri, Nicky and Vinna, respectively.

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