Computeropolis

Computeropolis is a 2004 American computer-animated science fiction action-comedy film produced by Gingo Animation for Universal Pictures. The third feature film from Gingo Animation, it was directed by Audel LaRoque and David Silverman from a screenplay by Michael Wildshill and a story by LaRoque and Wildshill, and stars the voices of Jesse McCartney, David Spade, Kelsey Grammer, Dan Fogler, David Hyde Pierce, Jodi Benson, Jon Lovitz, Jennifer Tilly, and William Shatner. The film follows a young computer game designer named Peri Dazz, who attempts to publish his own game named Frenzy to the internet and suddenly stumbles upon an eponymous online universe deep inside the realms of his computer. He joins Nicky Kickzoo, a scavenger hunter and the protagonist of the Frenzy game, on a risky mission to eliminate King Trojan, a virus capable of corrupting the entirety of the global system.

Computeropolis was originally envisioned by Wildshill in 1997 while working on Gingo's first film Paint World. He began developing the film in 1999 and wrote the original screenplay with LaRoque to pitch the story to Universal. Production on the film began in March 2002 and ended in December 2003, with John Debney and Heitor Pereira composing the film's score. Computeropolis was also Gingo's final independently-produced motion picture before its purchase by Universal in September 2004.

Computeropolis held its world premiere on June 27, 2004 at the Fox Village Theater, and was released on July 2, 2004 in the United States. It received universal acclaim from critics, who praised its concept, screenplay, animation, and voice acting, and was a box office success, grossing $687 million worldwide on its $65 million budget, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of 2004. Computeropolis won the 2004 Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production for David Spade, for his voice performance as Nicky Kickzoo, and was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles. The film's success helped spawn an expanded franchise, with three sequels — Computeropolis 2, Computeropolis 3, and Computeropolis: The Deep Web — and a television series.

Plot
Percy Anthony "Peri" Dazz is a 14-year-old computer designer living with his parents Heather and Earl Dazz. One weekend, Peri's parents leave town, leaving him alone in the house. For a while, Peri is bored until he comes up with an idea for his own computer game called Frenzy. Once he finishes, Peri transfers the game file into an "exe." file and opens up GameGenius.com to upload it. However, when he opens up the internet, he discovers a popup ad of a website called "Computeropolis.com" with a download link. When he clicks on the link, the computer has a blinding white flash that begins to suck up random things in the room. Peri tries to escape, but fails and gets sucked in.

Peri discovers an online city deep inside the realms of his computer. However, he is caught by two internet officers named Paul and Frank, who take him to a lab where he is increased by a PC Chip, which allows Peri to use the desktop menu from his point of view. After he is finished getting tested at the lab by using a mouse cursor, Peri meets Nicky Kickzoo, an enterprising scavenger hunter who is the character Peri created for his Frenzy game. Nicky initially despises Peri, who wants to get back home, but ends up taking him along.

The duo arrives at the Desktop Component League (DCL), a organization department company headed by CEO Manager Marc to fund his research; their duties as upholders of the law range from capturing viruses to protecting the city of Computeropolis. There, Marc orders Peri and Nicky to capture King Trojan, a virus capable of corrupting the entirety of the global system. During their mission, Peri and Nicky meet Travis, a fat, video game-obsessed kid who knows Peri from GameGenius.com and joins the heroes to stop Trojan. However, they are captured by Trojan and his oafish and mean-spirited minion Milo, and transports them to Trojan's Lair.

At Trojan's Lair, they see how the viruses are created. Then Peri, Nicky and Travis manage to escape while Trojan's minions chase them. The heroes succeed, but Peri forgets to upload Frenzy to GameGenius.com, as he already has an "exe." file of the game on his computer. Nicky convinces him to visit the GameGenius site, confident that Peri's game will get popular once it is published. When they arrive at the site, a GameGenius user learns that the Frenzy game will not be published due to negligent issues. Peri accuses Nicky of attempting to lie without telling him about the issue. Then the rest of the DCL arrives, with Marc asking Peri and Nicky if they caught Trojan; Trojan is still there and tells them that he is going to wipe out the entire city using viruses.

Outraged, Marc accuses Peri and Nicky of lying to him about capturing Trojan. Nicky admits he thought that if Peri spent time with him, he would befriend him. Peri leaves to find his home so his parents will be home in no time by the end of the weekend. Then Clippit, an intelligent user interface for Microsoft Office, appears and Peri asks him which way is his house. Then Clippit takes Peri to a portal which leads him back home.

Back home, Peri happens upon the screen saying that his game Frenzy is successfully published to GameGenius.com. Meanwhile, the DCL offers to reinstate Nicky, but he refuses, instead confessing to Clippit that he cheated, just as he is alerted to Peri's break-in. Realizing what happened, Nicky defies Clippit and enters the same portal. Nicky finds Peri sitting outside of his house and tells him that Trojan is going to destroy Computeropolis by using a capable of viruses. Shocked, the duo rush back to the computer in Peri's room and Peri opens up the Computeropolis file that Peri downloaded before; the heroes then get sucked into the computer and leads them to Computeropolis.

Peri, Nicky, Travis, and the rest of the DCL fight Trojan and his minions (including Milo). Trojan returns for a final confrontation to kill the boy. However, the DCL manages to download an antivirus program for Peri's computer, causing Trojan and his virus minions to disintegrate into digital pixel dust. The citizens of Computeropolis cheer for Peri, Nicky, and the DCL for wiping out Trojan, but Peri realizes that it is the end of the weekend so he had to get back home in time when his parents arrive there. Peri uses the portal that leads him back home. Back home again, his parents Heather and Earl return home and Peri explains to them what happened. They at first did not believe Peri due to his "imagination during his childhood", but Peri is not making this up, and then, they finally believe him. Sometime later, Peri returns to Computeropolis to spend time with Nicky and the rest of the DCL.

Voice cast

 * Jesse McCartney as Percy Anthony "Peri" Dazz, a 14-year-old computer game designer. As "Peri" is actually a feminine name, LaRoque originally wanted to change his name to "Perry", but he decided to "get it over with". In the UK releases of the film, Peri was renamed as "Perry" to avoid any references to a colloquial term in the United Kingdom for a peripatetic teacher. Peri is also renamed "Perry" in the Japanese dub as well.
 * David Spade as Nicky Kickzoo, a street-wise scavenger hunter and a character Peri created for his Frenzygame.
 * Kelsey Grammer as King Trojan, an evil virus who plans to destroy the entire internet and Peri's computer.
 * Dan Fogler as Travis, a clumsy, happy, hyperactive, happy-go-lucky, and overweight user from GameGenius.com who is one of Peri's friends.
 * David Hyde Pierce as Manager Marc, the leader and founding member of the Desktop Component League(DCL).
 * Jodi Benson as Commander Cindy, a DCL member who has a command-line interface laptop that interacts with her.
 * Jon Lovitz as Notepad Ned, a DCL member obsessed with writing on a notepad.
 * Lovitz also voices Paul, one of the two internet officers who try to arrest Peri.
 * Jennifer Tilly as Painting Paula, a DCL member and a talented painter.
 * William Shatner as Frank, one of the two internet officers who try to arrest Peri.
 * Harland Williams as Milo, King Trojan's oafish henchman.
 * Audel LaRoque as Media Player Mike, a blind, purple-haired DCL member who does not speak but only makes music and sound effects. LaRoque provided vocal sounds for the character, though uncredited. The character's appearance sparked confusion among some viewers who thought the character was a female.
 * Kari Wahlgren as Carol, a voice inside Peri's computer via Computeropolis. Initially, LaRoque wanted Sigourney Weaver for the voice of Carol. Weaver was approached about voicing the character. However, in 2002, before production on the animation began, Weaver left the film due to being busy on other projects. Instead, she was replaced by Kari Wahlgren.
 * Michael Wildshill as Clippit, an intelligent user interface for Microsoft Office who annoys Peri and Nicky.
 * Tress MacNeille as Heather Dazz, Peri's mother.
 * Jeff Bennett as Earl Dazz, Peri's father.
 * 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.

Additional voices

 * Jack Angel
 * Bob Bergen
 * Rodger Bumpass
 * Jennifer Darling
 * Debi Derryberry
 * Paul Eiding
 * Bill Farmer
 * Michael Gough
 * Gary Hall
 * Audel LaRoque
 * Sherry Lynn
 * Danny Mann
 * Mona Marshall
 * Mickie McGowan
 * Amy McNeill
 * Brandon Minez
 * Laraine Newman
 * Phil Proctor
 * Jan Rabson
 * David Silverman
 * Tom F. Warner
 * Billy West
 * Michael Wildshill

Development
Michael Wildshill came up with the concept for Computeropolis in 1997 during the production of Paint World. He envisioned a story where the main character gets sucked into a computer that leads them to a metropolitan city made of software and technology. Wildshill's original inspiration was from a dream he had of himself finding a Windows 95 computer that "sucked him into the computer world". Wildshill also took inspiration from the 1982 Disney film Tron, where the protagonist Kevin Flynn gets transported inside the world of a mainframe computer, where he interacts with programs in his attempt to escape.

Wildshill began work on the film with Audel LaRoque in 1999, shortly after Paint World was completed. By early 2000, Wildshill had drafted a treatment with LaRoque that bore some resemblance to the final film. Wildshill and LaRoque pitched the story to Universal Studios with some initial artwork in January that year. He and his story team left with some suggestions in hand and returned to pitch a refined version of the story in March. Although the film was solely directed by LaRoque, Wildshill created the characters and story, which were given to LaRoque. The film was originally developed under the title of Frenzy, but was changed in order to distance it from the 1982 video game with the same name. In addition to Frenzy, other titles that had also been considered included Cybertropolis, Computerville, Webtopia and Cyber City, among others.

In May 2000, following the success of Paint World, Gingo Animation announced that LaRoque was working on a then-untitled project that would eventually become Computeropolis, albeit nothing else about the film was known at the time. In June 2001, Gingo revealed the film's title to be Computeropolis, then planned for a 2003 release. In addition, it would be animated with computer-animation, rather than traditional hand-drawn animation that had been done with Gingo's previous two films Paint World and The Gabriel Garza Movie. In March 2002, production of the film officially began, and David Silverman was brought in to co-direct the film with LaRoque. The film was later completed by December 2003. The film was produced concurrently with Project Zero, another animated film set partially inside a computer, which was released four years before Computeropolis. Gingo Animation's CEO Geo G. defended the film, saying that "any similarities are mere coincidence. We've been open with the TjsWorld2011 people so we don't step on each other's toes."

Casting
During the time, Gingo was looking for a younger actor for the voice role of Percy Anthony "Peri" Dazz. Justin Long was considered for Peri. He screen tested for the role and was interested, but when Audel LaRoque was unable to make contact with him, he took it as a "no". In addition to Long, Zach Braff, who subsequently accepted the role of BJ Wilson in another Gingo film, BJ and Wally, was also considered for the role of Peri, alongside Elijah Wood, who subsequently accepted the role of Roge Garza in yet another Gingo production Gabriel Garza(Wood also subsequently accepted the role of Hiro in Gingo's Big Hero 6 before that movie was cancelled). LaRoque took the role to Jesse McCartney, who was appearing in the daytime drama All My Children, and he accepted.

For the role of Nicky Kickzoo, Nicolas Cage, Michael Keaton, Bobby Campo and James Franco were considered, but David Spade won the role for his natural comedy. In January 2003, it was announced McCartney and Spade were cast, along with other cast members including Kelsey Grammer, Dan Fogler, David Hyde Pierce, Jodi Benson, Jon Lovitz, Jennifer Tilly, and William Shatner.

Animation
Computeropolis was animated in-house at Gingo's headquarters in North Hollywood, California via Gingo Computer Animation Department.

Music
The film's original score was composed by John Debney and Heitor Pereira (who all had previously worked on the score of 2001's Spy Kids), with the former being its first collaboration with Gingo. It also marks the first Gingo film to be scored by two composers. The soundtrack album was released on June 29, 2004 by Varèse Sarabande.

Video Game
A video game based on the film was released on June 29, 2004 on PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PC, and Macintosh, as well as on mobile phones.

Home media
Computeropolis was released on DVD and VHS on December 14, 2004. This release also includes a short film called Print 3D Errors. The film was the best-selling DVD in its initial week of release, selling over 500,000 copies and making over $16.9 million. It was also released on Game Boy Advance Video in October 2005 and on UMD for the Sony PSP. It was later released on Blu-ray in North America on May 3, 2011 and on Blu-ray 3D on February 10, 2015.