Puppet Pals

Puppet Pals is a 2006 American computer-animated fantasy action-comedy film produced by 20th Century Fox Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film was directed by Steve Martino and Rich Moore and written by Jon Vitti, Mike Reiss, Peter Ackerman, and Brad Bird from a story by Chris Renaud, and stars the voices of Jesse McCartney, Isla Fisher, Sandra Bullock, Zachary Gordon, Seth Rogen, Josh Peck, Anne Hathaway, Robin Williams, William Shatner, Jason Lee, and Sarah Vowell.

Puppet Pals premiered at the Mann Village Theater on June 12, 2006, and was released in the United States on June 23, 2006. It received universal acclaim from critics and was a box office success, grossing $635.6 million worldwide on its $92 million budget, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of 2006. Puppet Pals nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but it lost to Happy Feet. It also received nominations for Best Original Screenplay (for writers Jon Vitti, Mike Reiss, Dan Fogelman, and Joe Stillman) and Best Sound Mixing (Randy Thom, Tom Myers, Gary Rydstrom and Doc Kane).

The film's success helped spawn an expanded franchise, with four sequels—2009's Puppet Pals 2, 2012's Puppet Pals the Third, 2015's Puppet Pals: Collision Course, and 2018's Puppet Pals: Forever After—as well as a television series.

Plot
Nathan Ritter, a 18-year old human boy who loves the solitude of his home, finds his life interrupted when a little boy named Lincoln Loud comes spewing out of the sink and decides to stay in his home. Nathan schemes to get rid of Zack by luring him into a unknown portal, but is Lincoln is not fooled, instead throwing Nathan into the portal in and sending him away into a town called Tinywood.

He later finds a new home in Tinywood but hours later, countless characters and creatures are exiled there by the toon-hating and vertically-challenged Rosie Storm. He brings along another human boy named Jose Maldonaldo, who is the only toon character willing to guide him to a weirdly-named team named the Puppet Pals.

Meanwhile, Rosie tortures a Smiley named Steve for the location of the Puppet Pals. Her guards rush in with something she has been searching for: The Magic Ball. She asks the ball that his son, Rob Storm, wants to become the new king of ToonVille and wants to take over it, but is told that he is not even a king. To be one, he must marry a girl, so Rob resolves to marry Anna Dawson, an street-wise and "tough as nails" 19-year-old girl

Cast

 * Jesse McCartney as Nathan Ritter, an pampered but lonely boy.
 * Isla Fisher as Anna Dawson, an street-wise and "tough as nails" 19-year-old girl
 * Zachary Gordon as Zack Stevens
 * Sandra Bullock as Rosie Storm
 * Josh Peck as Toby Smith
 * Anne Hathaway as Princess Joanna
 * Seth Rogen as Captain Matthew
 * Sarah Vowell as Natalia Jones
 * Zach Braff as Jeremy Moore
 * John Goodman as Mayor Mike
 * Chris Wedge as Slippy the Dog
 * Robin Williams as John, one of Rosie Storm's henchmen.
 * William Shatner as Dave, one of Rosie Storm's henchmen.
 * Jason Lee as Rob Storm, Rosie Storm's son
 * Susanne Blakeslee as an old lady
 * Corey Burton as a police officer
 * Patrick Warburton as Milo, a tourist.
 * Betty White as Wendy, a tourist.
 * Tom Kenny as The Magic Ball
 * Patton Oswalt as Steve Smiley
 * Chris Wedge, David Silverman, Chris Renaud (uncredited), Bob Bergen (uncredited), and Steve O'Connell as the Smileys

Release
The film premiered on June 4, 2006, at the Mann Village Theatre, Westwood in Los Angeles, and was released in the United States on June 23, 2006.

In March 2005, IMAX decided to plan a big-screen 3D version of Puppet Pals. The film would have been re-released during the Christmas season of 2006, or the following summer, after its conventional 2D release. The re-release would have also included new sequences and an alternate ending. Plans for this was dropped due to "creative changes" instituted by Fox and resulted in a loss of $1.12 million, down from IMAX's profit of $4.11 million.

However, on August 17, 2016, Fox and IMAX announced that Puppet Pals would be re-released on September 23, 2016 in IMAX 3D for a limited time, to honor the 10th anniversary of the franchise.

The theatrical release was accompanied by Fox Animation's 2004 Academy Award-nominated short film The Mushies!

A montage of "outtakes" were made and included in the end credits of the film starting on July 28, 2006, which was done because Fox hoped it would encourage people to view the film a second time.

The film was originally scheduled for release on November 18, 2005, but on December 9, 2004, its release date was pushed back to June 23, 2006 when Metro Cone was pushed back from July 15, 2005 to November 18, 2005. The release date change was also the day before Gingo Animation changed the release date of BJ and Wally to December 2005 to July 2006.

Release dates

 * United States: June 4, 2006 (Mann Village Theatre)
 * South Africa, Poland, Romania, Spain and Bulgaria: June 16, 2006
 * United States, India,, Mexico, and Canada: June 23, 2006
 * Lithuania, Philippines, and Finland: June 30, 2006
 * Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, and France: July 5, 2006
 * United Kingdom, Ireland, and Italy: July 7, 2006
 * Kazakhsan, Argentina, Malaysia, and Russia: July 13, 2006
 * Panama, Estonia, and Brazil: July 21, 2006
 * Serbia, Singapore, and Greece: July 27, 2006
 * Germany: August 10, 2006
 * Sweden: August 18, 2006
 * Ukraine, Hong Kong, and South Korea: August 24, 2006
 * Iceland and Denmark: August 25, 2006
 * Australia and New Zealand: September 21, 2006
 * Japan: September 23, 2006
 * Portugal: September 28, 2006
 * Switzerland, Cyprus, and Turkey: September 29, 2006
 * Republic of Macedonia: October 6, 2006
 * Israel: October 12, 2006
 * China: October 19, 2006
 * Hungary: November 2, 2006

Marketing
Burger King promoted the film with a set of 8 kids' meal toys featuring the characters from the film.

Baskin-Robbins promoted the film for its new Puppet Pal EXTREME Sundae that consists of crushed Hershey's chocolate, hot fudge, crushed chocolate cookies, whipped cream, squiggly gummy worms and chocolate syrup.

The film was backed by a large marketing campaign, with toys, books, games, clothes, and many other items becoming available throughout 2006

Trailers

 * The first teaser teaser was released on May 16, 2005 and was shown in theaters in front of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Madagascar, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, Howl's Moving Castle, Wondercolts, History Island, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Bewitched, M.I.S.S.I.O.N., Fantastic Four, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, How Frogs Go to London, Spies of Teens, Bad News Bears, Thomas and the Magic Railroad 2: A New Adventure Begins, Sky High, The Proud Family Movie, Valiant, Kenny's Drive, Woody Woodpecker, Nuclear Force, Just Like Heaven, Corpse Bride, Little Manhattan and The Greatest Game Ever Played


 * The second teaser trailer was released on October 5, 2005 and was shown in theaters in front of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story, Chicken Little, Zathura: A Space Adventure, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Metro Cone, MYCUN: The Movie, Yours, Mine and Ours, Jose Maldonado: World Tour, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Bash the Friendly Buffalo, The Family Stone, Marcus Troy and the Kingdom of Crown, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, Grandma's Boy, Hoodwinked, Big Momma's House 2 and Nanny McPhee.
 * The first theatrical trailer was released on February 7, 2006 and was shown in theaters in front of Curious George, Mistaken Identity, Eight Below, Doogal, Aquamarine, The Shaggy Dog, Robot Siblings, Ice Age: The Meltdown, The Wild, Midgets, Stick It, RV, Akleah and the Bee and Hoot.
 * The second theatrical trailer was released on May 11, 2006 and was shown in theaters in front of Beastz, Just My Luck, Goal! The Dream Begins, Over the Hedge, X-Men: The Last Stand, Coach Phanet, Cars, Garfield 2: A Tail of Two Kitties, Nacho Libre, The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift, Only Human and The Lake House
 * TV spots aired between March and July of 2006.