The King of Heroes

The King of Heroes is a 1999 American animated superhero comedy film produced by Klasky Csupo and Nickelodeon Movies and released by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by Conner Jones and was written by Jones, and Paul Germain, and it starts the voices of Tara Charendoff, Drake Bell, Cree Summer, Rob Paulsen, Josh Server, and Jeremy Irons. The film centers around a young boy named Tyler Thompson (Charendoff), who finds a magic crown that gives him superpowers and uses them to help people, but a mythology teacher named Nathaniel Barnes (Irons) wants to get his hands on it, so he tries to use the crown's powers to stop him.

The film was released into theatres on June 25, 1999 and it received mostly positive reviews from critics and it was praised for its animation, characters and plot, and cast. On it's $30 million budget, it grossed $237.5 million, making it the highest grossed Nickelodeon film at the time until the release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2014. It later spawned a television series, The Alpha Squad, which aired on Nickelodeon from 2000 to 2007, and it spawned two more films, The Alpha Squad: Worldwide Rescue in 2004 and The Alpha Squad: Magic Mayhem in 2007, which served as the series finale to The Alpha Squad.

Plot
Centuries ago, a magic crown known as the Crown of Heroes was created to help people protect their civilizations from their enemies. However, people who have worn the crown in the past let the power go straight to their heads and it resulted in pain and suffering to those around them. As a result, the crown had to be sent adrift and people hoped that whoever found the crown next doesn’t go insane over it.

In a present-day city called Highwell, an 11-year-old boy named Tyler Thompson (Tara Charendoff) was running late for school and was in a hurry to get ready. After he finished getting ready, he managed to arrive on time. While at school, Tyler and his three best friends, Mikey Mason (Drake Bell), Kylie Daniels (Cree Summer), and Sammy Smith (Rob Paulsen), find a book in the library that talks about mythological objects. Mikey and Sammy believe that the mythological objects exist somewhere, but Kylie doesn’t believe in them at all. When they ask Tyler to take a side, he says that he needs proof in order to believe something. They all agree and leave the library, taking the book with them.

Later that night, Tyler and his friends are being watched over by Ollie (Josh Server), Tyler’s 16-year-old brother while their parents are out on a date. Ollie decides to head to the beach and reluctantly takes Tyler and his friends with him.

After Tyler and the others arrive at the beach, the Crown of Heroes washes up on the shore and Mikey notices it. He shows it to others, and he and Sammy think it’s the actual Crown of Heroes like in the mythology book, but Kylie thinks that’s ridiculous. Wanting the argument to end, Tyler puts the crown on and is transformed into a superpowered king, surprising his friends. At first, Tyler freaks out, but he starts to get excited when Mikey and Sammy tell him that the wearer of the crown gets all sorts of incredible superpowers.

Meanwhile, Ollie was about to start a bonfire on the beach with his friends but they realize that they forgot the matches. Tyler overhears this and tries to see if any of his new powers are fire-related and he accidentally shoots a tiny fireball at the firewood, starting the bonfire, and surprising Ollie.

The next day, Tyler, Ollie and the others start to wonder what they should do with the crown. Mikey and Sammy suggest using the crown to learn what other powers the crown has, but Kylie thinks they should get rid of it. They argue a little bit until Ollie suggests that they talk to his mythology teacher about the crown after the school day is over, and they all agree to do so.

After school, Tyler and his friends head to Ollie’s high school and meet the mythology teacher, Nathaniel Barnes (Jeremy Irons) who agrees to help the kids learn more about the Crown of Heroes. They spend the next few days learning what the crown’s powers were and Tyler uses the crown to help innocent people in need, and as the days pass, Barnes starts writing about what the crown can do and the power of the crown starts to go to Tyler’s head.

When Tyler tries to save a school bus from falling over a bridge, he starts to lose control of himself and ends up causing destruction on the bridge., frightening the civilians and making his friends worried. They try to convince Tyler to stop wearing the crown, but he refuses to say that he’s nothing without the crown. Worried about Tyler’s sanity, the others talk to Barnes about what’s happening, and he tells them that Tyler is starting to go mad with power because he’s been wearing the crown too long. He tells that he’ll think of something to stop Tyler and leaves, unknowingly dropping his notebook as he does. Ollie and the others notice the notebook and they realize that Barnes wasn’t really helping them and that he was trying to find out how to use the crown’s powers for his own personal gain. They run off to warn Tyler before it is too late.

The others find Tyler and they tell him that Barnes was lying to tell them and that he wasn’t helping them at all. Realizing this makes Tyler regain his sanity and he apologizes for going nuts. Barnes finds the kids and demands that Tyler gives him the crown. He refuses to give him the crown, and Barnes reveals that he has a magical item of his own called the Staff of the Almighty, a staff with powers similar to Tyler’s crown, and he uses it to kidnap Tyler’s friends, taking them to the beach where Tyler first got the crown, and he follows them.

At the beach, Tyler confronts Barnes and he tells him that Tyler’s friends will be spared if he gives him the crown. Not wanting to see his friends and brother get killed, he agrees to give him the crown and Barnes lets everyone go. Before Barnes can get the crown from Tyler, he gets punched hard by Tyler and he tells his friends that he can’t take down Barnes alone. As a result, he uses the crown’s magic to give friends super powers. This causes Mikey to have superhuman speed, Kylie to have electrical powers, Ollie to have fire-related powers and Sammy to have the power to stretch out to his body.

Tyler and his friends try to use their powers to defeat Barnes while also trying to keep the people on the beach safe from harm’s way. Barnes is shown to be a powerful foe with the Staff of the Almighty, so Tyler plans  to get the staff out of his hand. Fortunately for Tyler, his friends taunt Barnes, distracting him and Tyler snatches the staff from his hands and renders Barnes powerless. Tyler and the others then beat him up, and Barnes admits his defeat.

A little while later, the police arrive and they arrest Barnes. Everyone at the beach applauds and cheers for Tyler and his friends as they’re all hailed as heroes now. Thinking that saving the city will happen often, they all decide to form a superhero team and come up with names for themselves with Mikey being the Blue Comet, Kylie being Electrica, Sammy being the Malleable Kid, Ollie being the Incinerator, and Tyler being the King of Heroes. Together, they form the Alpha Squad and they all head out, seeking their next adventure while saying. “Alpha Squad! Let’s roll!”

Cast

 * Tara Charendoff as Tyler Thompson/The King of Heroes, an 11-year-old boy who discovers a magic crown that gives him all sorts of superpowers.
 * Drake Bell as Mikey Mason/The Blue Comet, one of Tyler's best friends who believes that mythological objects exist. As the Blue Comet. he has the ability to run at superhuman speed.
 * Cree Summer as Kylie Daniels/Electrica, one of Tyler's best friends who didn't believe in mythological objects until Tyler became the King of Heroes. As Electria, she has the power over electricity.
 * Rob Paulsen as Sammy Smith/The Malleable Kid, one of Tyler's best friends who, like Mikey, also believes that mythological objects exist. As the Malleable Kid, he has the power to stretch his body into any shape he wants.
 * Josh Server as Ollie Thompson/The Incinerator, Tyler's 16-year-old brother who often tries to act cool in front of his friends. As the Incinerator, he has the power over fire.
 * Jeremy Irons as Nathaniel Barnes, Ollie's mythology teacher and the main antagonist of the film. He tries to find out what Tyler's crown can do and steal it and use the power for himself.

Additional Voices

 * Jim Cummings
 * Frank Welker
 * Tom Kenny
 * E.G. Daily
 * Kath Soucie
 * Dan Castellaneta
 * Kevin Michael Richardson
 * Billy West

Development
Development on the film started back in 1993. Conner Jones, who had recently finished working on the Disney film Cornerville, decided to work on a new movie about an amateur young superhero. He took inspiration from the Marvel and DC that he used to read during his childhood as well as the 1978 Superman movie and the 1989 Batman movie. Jones originally pitched the idea to Warner Bros. under the Warner Bros. Feature Animation label and decided to direct the project.

In 1997, Warner Bros. ultimately decided to scrap the project, and Jones decided to pitch the project again, but to Paramount Pictures. They accepted the project decided to have it produced under the Nickelodeon Movies label. Jones also decided to continue his plan in directing the film. The film's script was mainly written by Jones with some additional assistance from Rugrats and Recess co-creator Paul Germain.

Animation
Looking for an animation studio to help animate the film after Paramount greenlit it, Jones originally turned to Film Roman, who were working on his animated series, Randy Rabbit, at the time. They turned down the offer as they were too focused on Randy Rabbit, as well as The Simpsons. Jones then to Klasky Csupo, who were in production of The Rugrats Movie at the time, and they agreed to help them. They managed to animate the film while following Jones's art style, and they tried to balance work between the two films.

Casting
Tara Charendoff initially auditioned to voice the role of Mikey Mason, Tyler's best friend in late 1997, but Jones was so impressed by her voice acting skills that he gave her the role of Tyler Thompson, and he gave the role of Mikey to Drake Bell. Jones turned to voice actors Rob Paulsen and Cree Summer to voice Sammy Smith and Kylie Daniels respectively. Jones originally asked Seth Green to voice the role of Ollie Thompson at the time, and he agreed to do it. However, Seth Green later stepped down from the role due to creative differences and the role of Ollie was given to All That actor Josh Server.

Looking for an actor to voice Nathaniel Barnes, Jones turned to English actor Jeremy Irons, who is known for his villainous roles as Simon Gruber in Die Hard with a Vengeance, as well as Scar from The Lion King. Irons accepted the role, and agreed to voice Barnes.

Release
The King of Heroes was released theatrically by Paramount Pictures on June 25, 1999.

Marketing
The film made partnerships with Burger King, Mattel, Kellogg's, Nickelodeon, Mott's and UPN for promoting the movie.

Trailers

 * The teaser trailer for the film was released on June 19, 1998 and it was included in films such as Mulan, The Parent Trap, and Dr. Dolittle.
 * The first theatrical trailer was released on November 20, 1998 and it was included in films such as The Rugrats Movie, A Bug's Life, Jack Frost, and The Prince of Egypt.
 * The second theatrical trailer was released on March 19, 1999 and it was included in films such as The King and I and Doug's First Movie.
 * TV spots for the film were shown between April and June of 1999.

Home Media
The film was released on VHS, DVD, and Laserdisc on November 25th, 1999 The DVD included the film's theatrical trailer as well as a teaser trailer for The Alpha Squad. This teaser trailer was also included on the VHS and Laserdisc releases of the film. It was re-released on DVD and Blu-ray as the "Heroic Decade Edition" on July 14, 2009 in honor of the film's 10th anniversary. The Heroic Decade Edition Blu-ray and DVD included extended versions of some scenes, as well as new scenes that weren't included in the film's original theatrical release. It also included a commentary that's done by the film's main characters. The cast from the film reprised their roles for the commentary. It also deleted scenes, as well as the film's teaser and theatrical trailers. It was re-released again on DVD and Blu-ray on May 21, 2019 as part of a "Heroic Trilogy" with The Alpha Squad: Worldwide Rescue and The Alpha Squad: Magic Mayhem as a way to celebrate the film's 20th anniversary.

On January 17, 2020, the film became available to stream on Netflix, along with its theatrical sequels.

Box Office
The King of Heroes grossed $124.3 million in the United States and Canada and it grossed $113.2 million internationally. This made the worldwide total $237.5 million, making it the fourth highest-grossing animated film of 1999 (behind Toy Story 2, Tarzan and Darkness Awakening) and the highest-grossing Nickelodeon film until the release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2014.

Critical Response.
The film held a rating of 84% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 62 reviewers with an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's critical consensus read "Having humorous jokes and mild action, as well as great animation, The King of Heroes lives up to be a heroic hit." On Metacritic, it received a score of 78 out of 100, based on 52 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on its A+ to F scale.

Video Game
A video game based on the film was released on June 11, 1999 for the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and Game Boy Color. The PlayStation and Nintendo 64 versions received positive to mixed reviews from critics while the Game Boy Color version received mixed reviews.

Television series
A television series based on the film, entitled The Alpha Squad, ran on Nickelodeon from April 15, 2000 from May 5, 2007, and it was produced by Blue Dolphin Productions (later Spirit Animal Studios) and Klasky Csupo. The show takes place one year after the events of the film and the film's cast reprised their roles for the series.

Sequels
Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies released two theatrical sequels that followed the continuity of The Alpha Squad. The first one was The Alpha Squad: Worldwide Rescue, which was released into theatres on May 28, 2004. In the film, The Alpha Squad travel around to stop a villain from stealing all of the world's artifacts.

Another sequel, entitled The Alpha Squad: Magic Mayhem, which was released into theatres on July 6, 2007 and served as the series finale to The Alpha Squad. In the film, all of the Alpha Squad's past enemies band together and use a magic staff to take over Highwell. The Alpha Squad must band together to save Highwell and defeat their enemies once and for all.

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

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