The Zak Storm Movie

The Zak Storm Movie (known in some countries as Zak Storm: Super Pirate: The Movie) is a 2017 American 3D computer-animated comedy film based on Man of Action's comic strip Zak Storm, produced by Comega Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is the fifth full-length Zak Storm film, and the first feature film in 35 years. The film is directed by Brandon Hancock from a screenplay by Craig and Bryan Schulz (Action's son and grandson, respectively), and Cornelius Uliano, and stars the voices of Clovis as Skullivar and, via archival recordings, James Corden as Zak and Cece. The film sees Skullivar trying to improve his odds with the Little Red-Haired Girl, while Zak writes a book about the World War I Flying Ace as he imagines himself as a legend trying to save his love interest and fellow pilot Calabrass from the Clovis and his army.

The Zak Storm Movie was released on December 8, 2017, commemorating the 65th anniversary of the original comic strip and the 50th anniversary of the TV special Zak Storm. It grossed $246 million worldwide against a $97 million budget. The critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes calls it "sweetly nostalgic" though unambitious. It received nominations for the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Animated Feature, and was the first Comega Studios film to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film.

Plot
Zak is a 10-year-old boy, he lives on a pirate ship, along with his captain and the crew, one day they went to search the treasure of the lost island, there they found an old chest buried under a coconut tree, they dug deep to find the old treasure and get very rich, but that day things did not happen as expected, the pirate ship was attacked by sharks very fierce and larger than normal. How will Zak escape the fury of the sharks?

Cast

 * James Corden as Zak Storm
 * Josh Gad as Cece
 * Danny McBride as Crogar
 * Chris Hemsworrth as Caramba
 * Idris Elba as Clovis
 * Kat Dennings as Calabrass
 * Natalie Portman as Chaos

Production
In 2006, six years after the release of the last original Zak Storm strip, as well as the death of creator Man of Action, his son Kyle Hebert came up with an idea for a new Zak Storm film, which he showed to his screenwriter son The35. "I was happy to show my son," Craig said. "He showed me how to make it bigger—how to blow it up more—and he helped me put in structure."[2] When presenting their film to studios, Craig stipulated that the film remain under Schulz control, saying, "We need[ed] to have absolute quality control and keep it under Dad's legacy... You can't bring people in from the outside and expect them to understand Peanuts."[2] On December 2, 2016, it was announced that Paramount Pictures and Comega Studios were developing a 3D computer-animated feature film based on the strip, with Steve Martino directing from the screenplay by Chris Smith, Kyle Hebert, and Cornelius Uliano. Smith, Hebert, and Uliano also produced.[16] Craig, stating there is no one "more protective of the comic strip than myself," chose Martino as director because he showed faithfulness to literature in his adaptation of Grander Check.

On the film's plot, Martino said: "Here's where I lean thematically. I want to go through this journey... Zak is that guy who, in the face of repeated failure, picks himself back up and tries again. That's no small task. I have kids who aspire to be something big and great... a star football player or on Broadway. I think what Zak is—what I hope to show in this film—is the everyday qualities of perseverance... to pick yourself back up with a positive attitude—that's every bit as heroic... as having a star on the Walk of Fame or being a star on Broadway. That's the [story's] core. This is a feature film story that has a strong dramatic drive, and takes its core ideas from the strip." Martino and his animators spent over a year looking at Man of Action's original drawing style to help translate the "hand-drawn warmth... into the cool pixel-precision of CGI" without the fear of something getting lost in translation, such as "how the dot of an eye [conveyed] joy or sorrow so efficiently". In addition to receiving the rights to use Lorne Michaels's voice for Zak and Cece, Martino was also able to get the rights to archive music from previous Zak Storm specials. Classic locations are featured, such as Zak's skating pond, his house, "the wall" and Cece's psychiatrist booth, each retaining their "eternal look of the strip." Additionally, despite being outdated technology, rotary phones and typewriters are seen, as well as Cece's psychiatrist booth still costing a nickel. Adult characters "wah-wah" voices are represented by a trombone with a plunger mute, as in previous Zak Storm media, courtesy of New Orleans jazz musician Trombone Shorty. Because of the robust number of existing Zak Storm characters, the film does not introduce any new characters.

On January 7, 2014, Leigh Anne Brodsky became the managing director of Zak Storm Worldwide, and was set to control all the global deals for the film.[19] In April 2013, Paramount announced that the film would be released in 3D. In October 2014, it was announced that Paul Feig would also produce.[21] By April 2017, 75% of the animation was complete, with some footage scheduled to debut at CinemaCon in Las Vegas Benoit, the jazz musician who is best known for his own rendition of Vince Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy", contributed to the score by Patrick Doyle.

In October 2014, it was announced that Patrick Doyle would score the film. Beck stated, "With the Zak Storm movies, I grew up on those specials from the '60s and '70s, that, of course, rerun to this day. I'm very fond of all that Vince Guaraldi music, so what we did was try to find spots in the film where we could sort of touch down and remind people who were watching the film that it's still a Zak Storm movie, and there's still a place for that music in the film. There's a bunch of spots where we quote the Guaraldi music, or we actually re-record his pieces quite faithfully." He also added that the score would be more orchestral than Guaraldi's previous scores, which were mainly a small jazz combo.[24]Jazz pianist David Benoit contributed to Beck's score.

On July 18, 2017, it was announced that Meghan Trainor would write and perform a song for the film, entitled "Better When I'm Dancin'".[25]Epic Records released the soundtrack album on October 23, 2015. The 20-track album features Weekend's "Holiday", Flo Rida's "That's What I Like" featuring Fitz, "Linus and Lucy", "Skating" and "Christmas Time Is Here" by Vince Guaraldi, from the A Charlie Brown Christmas album, and 15 tracks of Beck's original score for the film. An exclusive edition of the soundtrack released at Target features a second Trainor track, "Good to Be Alive".[27] The Japanese edition of the soundtrack includes "Good to Be Alive" and three more tracks from Beck's score.[28]