Grander Check

Grander Check is a 2008 American computer-animated science fiction action-comedy film produced by Comega Studios for Paramount Pictures. It is the seventh animated feature in the Comega Studios Features canon, as well as Universal's first fully computer-animated film. The film was directed by Brandon Hancock from a screenplay by [Lennon|Thomas Lennon] and a story by Dew and Brandon Hancock, and stars the voices of Nathan Kress, Dan Castellaneta, Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Kastek, Danny McBride, Daniel Tosh, John Oliver, and Verne Troyer. It follows a young computer game designer named Danny Garza, who attempts to publish his own game named Honedy to the internet and suddenly stumbles upon an eponymous online universe deep inside the realms of his computer. While finding a way to return home, Peri joins Harry Garza, the protagonist of the Honedy game, on a risky mission to eliminate Cube Garza, a virus capable of corrupting the entirety of the global system.

Hancock envisioned the story in 2005, which was based on his dream of himself finding a computer that "sucked him into the computer world". He then began developing the film after production had finished on Layers Zero (2006) and wrote the original story with Dew to pitch it to Universal, with Lennon writing the screenplay. Following Lennon's first draft, Immon Osment, Dew G., and Brandon Hancock were brought in to reconstruct the third act and add additional material, while the latter was selected to co-direct. The Universal animation team drew inspiration for Grander Check ' s urban design from major cities including New York City, Seattle, and London. Thomas Newman composed the film's score.

Grander Check premiered at the Fox Village Theater on September 28, 2008, and was released in the United States on October 3, 2008. It received universal acclaim from critics and was a box office success, grossing $687 million worldwide on its $65 million budget, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of 2008. Grander Check won the 2008 Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production for Dan Castellaneta, for his voice performance as Harry Garza, 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 [(franchise)|expanded franchise], with three sequels — Grander Check 2, Grander Check 3 — and a television series.

Plot
Danny is a 17-year-old teenager, he took to the future of Honedy that way a sedentary boy, a new brick a great his greatest opportunity, a giant cube a history of the future of returning the hero a little called Harry, the strange this threat is to start that all things supervene survivors a dangerous situation, Danny wrath saves him against the ghosts all round.

A man who stole mobile is getting a problem is full Honedy and your trip now what should I do? go to the police, or ignore Harry's whole situation. he is a very caring friend and unconcerned with financial questions, but in the realities I wonder if this is correct? Should I do something? in the end I will not do anything I will not get into things that do not concern me.

Voice cast

 * Main article: [of Computeropolis characters|List of Computeropolis characters]


 * Nathan Kress as Danny Garza, a 17-year-old teenager designer. As "Danny" is actually a feminine name, Hancock originally wanted to change his name to "Danny", but he decided to "get it over with". In the UK releases of the film, Danny was renamed as "Danny" to avoid any references to a colloquial term in the United Kingdom for a peripatetic teacher. Danny is also renamed "Danny" in the Japanese dub as well.
 * Dan Castellaneta as Harry Garza, a street-wise scavenger hunter and a character Danny created for his Honedy game.
 * Neil Patrick Harris as Cube Garza, an cube virus who plans to destroy the entire parts and Danny's computer.
 * Michael Kastek as King Randy, a cube villain, the street boy bully's Harry, Robots and Kid's Hero.
 * Danny McBride as Nathan Ned, A 14-year-old boy, Harry goes to school and discovers that his teacher is pregnant.

Additional voices

 * Penny Jackman
 * Dan Castellaneta
 * Neil Patrick Harris
 * Jennifer Darling
 * Debi Derryberry
 * Karey Kirkpatrick
 * Immon Osment
 * Brian Lynch
 * Brandon Hancock
 * Ruairi Robinson
 * Cathy Cavadini
 * Michael Kastek
 * Kath Soucie
 * Danny McBride
 * Daniel Tosh
 * John Oliver
 * Jerry Trennors
 * John Oliver
 * Verne Troyer
 * Dew G.

Development
Brandon Hancock came up with the concept for Grander Check in 2006 during the production of Layers Zero, in which Hancock directed. 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. Hancock's original inspiration was from a dream he had of himself finding a Windows 95 computer that "sucked him into the computer world". Hancock 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.

Hancock began work on the film with Dew G. in 2006, shortly after Layers Zero finished production. By early 2000, Hancock had drafted a treatment with Wildshill that bore some resemblance to the final film. Hancock and Dew pitched the story to [Pictures|Universal Studios] through its feature animation division 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. The film was originally developed under the title of Honedy, but was changed in order to distance it from the 1982 video game with the same name. In addition to Honedy, other titles that had also been considered included Robeltropolis, Robelville, Webtopia and Robel City, among others.

In May 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that Hancock was working on a then-untitled project that would eventually become Grander Check, albeit nothing else about the film was known at the time. In June 2001, Universal revealed the film's title to be Grander Check, then planned for a late 2003 release. In addition, it would be animated with computer-animation, rather than traditional hand-drawn animation that had been done with UFA's six prior films. In March 2002, production of the film officially began, and [Silverman|David Silverman], who had quit his job at Pixar, joined in the same year to co-direct the film with Hancock. The film was produced concurrently with Project Zero, another animated film set partially inside a computer, which was released four years before Grander Check. Comega Studios Feature Animation's then-president [Cohen|John Cohen] (who resigned from the studio when the film was in production) 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."

Writing
Ruairi Robinson, who had just finished work on [|Galaxion], was attracted to write the script for Grander Check, and began developing a treatment in April 1999. In its earliest stages, the story was very different from the final film, in which the character of Peri (known at this stage as Dew) was trapped in a computer, where he must stop Gill Bates (a parody of Microsoft founder Bill Gates) from taking over the world and kidnapping a "computer princess" named Viva (who later became [Paula|Painting Paula]), the love interest of Dew. Peri's partner and game character, Harry Garza, had not yet been added. Through various drafts, Dew's occupation went back-and-forth from being a teenager and from working for a video game company, until his final incarnation as a teenage computer designer.

More coming soon!

Casting
During the time, when Universal was looking for a younger actor for the voice role of [Dazz|Percy Anthony "Peri" Dazz], [LaBeouf|Shia LaBeouf] was considered for the character. He screen tested for the role and was interested, but when Brandon Hancock was unable to make contact with him, he took it as a "no". In addition to LaBeouf, [Braff|Zach Braff], who subsequently accepted the role of [Wilson|BJ Wilson] in another Paramount animated film, Universe America, was also considered for the role of Danny. Hancock took the role to [McCartney|Jesse McCartney], who was appearing in the daytime drama All My Children, and he accepted.

For the role of Nicky Kickzoo, [Cage|Nicolas Cage], [Keaton|Michael Keaton], [Campo|Bobby Campo] and [Franco|James Franco] were considered, but [Spade|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 Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Kastek, Danny McBride, Daniel Tosh, John Oliver, and Verne Troyer.

Initially, Hancock wanted [Weaver|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 [Wahlgren|Kari Wahlgren].

Animation
Computeropolis was animated in-house at Universal Feature Animation's headquarters in [City, California|Universal City, California].

More coming soon!

Music

 * Main article: Grander Check/Soundtrack

The film's original score was composed by Thomas Newman (who all had previously worked on the score of 2001's Spy Kids). It also marks the first Universal animated film to be scored by two composers. The soundtrack album was released on September 30, 2008, by Capitol Records.

Release
Coming soon!

Marketing
Upon its release, Burger King had a promotional tie-in with seven toys including Danny Carza, Harry Garza, King Randy, Nathan Ned, and Henry Boys with a paid Kids' Meal order. Ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins also promoted the film for its new Danny & Harry's Loaded Grander Check ice cream that consists of Hershey's chocolate, hot fudge, crushed chocolate cookies, whipped cream and chocolate syrup.

Trailers

 * The film's first teaser trailer was released in August 2007, and was later shown in theaters with other films such as Honeks!, Bratz, Daddy Day Camp, Mr. Bean's Holiday, The Simpsons Movie, Enchanted, Transformers, and Rugrats Go Wild.Another teaser trailer was released in November 2007, and was later released with Bee Movie, Transformers, Fred Claus,Bee Movie, and Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium.The first theatrical trailer was released in January 2008, and was shown with Bolt, Jumper, and Swapped .The second theatrical trailer was released in August 2008, and was later shown before Heroball, Horton Hears a Who!, Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, Kung Fu Panda, and WALL-E. There were a few television spots for the film; the first one was released in May 2004, the second one was released in September 2008, and the third one was released in October 2008.

Video game

 * Main article: Grander Check (video game)

A video game based on the film was released on September 28, 2008 on PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PC, and Macintosh, as well as on mobile phones.

Home media
Grander Check was released on DVD and VHS on March 15, 2002. Both releases included a 5-minute short film titled Koxelz, which takes place after the events of the film. 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. A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray version was released on September 4, 2018.

Box office
Grander Check opened on October 3, 2008, in the United States and Canada. It got to earn $85,729,840 during its opening weekend, placing first in its box office during that weekend and setting new records such as earning the highest-opening weekend for a non-sequel animated feature, and the highest opening for an original non-Disney/Pixar film. The film also earned the highest-grossing domestic debut for Universal Animation (later overtaken by [2|its sequel] in 2007). By the end of its theatrical run, Grander Check grossed a total of $697,164,299 worldwide, making it 2004's highest-grossing Paramount Pictures film and the year’s fourth highest-grossing film. It is also the second highest-grossing 2004 animated film behind Heroball ($919.8 million).

Critical reception
Grander Check received widespread critical acclaim, becoming a cult hit among critics upon release. On the aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 89% based on 169 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Having enough colorful animation, brilliant humor and action-packed scenes to compete with the likes of Pixar, Computeropolis perfectly lives up to be a hit on its own." On Metacritic, it received a score of 91 out of 100, based on 73 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three out of four stars, saying "In its first computer-generated feature, Universal Pictures offers audiences Grander Check the whole family could enjoy the delightful addition to the company's other classics with non-stop humor." Richard Corliss of Time Magazine praised Dan Castellaneta's performance as Harry Garza, stating that "it gets even funnier for his comic relief career that brings the well-known self for his life." Todd McCarthy of Variety liked the concept, also stating "As directed by Brandon Hancock and David Silverman, Grander Check has a very engaging concept for a movie taking place inside your computer."

Some critics have likened Grander Check to science-fiction live-action films such as Tron and The Matrix; Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News described the film as "Toy Story meets Tron". Kyle Smith of the New York Post gave the film three out of four stars, saying that "Grander Check seems to duplicate the usual animation look of [Garza|Gabriel Garza], but was made using computer software and has truly amazing action sequences, charm, wit, and humor with a host of quirky characters such as Danny Garza and Harry Garza." Charles Herold of The New York Times summed up his review stating that "Computeropolis is not only a great kids movie, but it is an enthusiastic movie with perfect moments that live up to its plot as well as other Universal animated hits like [and the Mysterious Crystal|Ama and the Mysterious Crystal] and Layers Zero."

Some critics, however, criticized some unexpected product placements of Microsoft Windows products such as Windows 95/98 and XP. Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail described Computeropolis as a "90-minute feature-length commercial for Microsoft", while Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post wrote that it was little more than an exercise in advertising PC downloads to children. Bill Muller of The Arizona Republic stated, "While not as bad as say, Mac and Me, Paramount's Grander Check sometimes has a overuse of Microsoft products, but tries hard enough to appeal fans who may be puzzled by the movie's visual disconnect." Mark Caro of the Chicago Tribune considered Peri's quote "Bye for now and where do you wanna go today?" as a clever reference to the 90's Microsoft slogan.