Smallfoot

Smallfoot is a 2018 American 3D computer-animated musical comedy adventure film produced by the Warner Animation Group. Loosely based on the book Yeti Tracks by Sergio Pablos, the film was co-written and directed by Karey Kirkpatrick, with co-direction by Jason Reisig, and stars the voices of Channing Tatum, James Corden, Zendaya, Common, LeBron James, Gina Rodriguez, Danny DeVito, Yara Shahidi, Ely Henry, and Jimmy Tatro. The plot follows a group of Yeti who come across a human, with each species thinking the other was just a myth. It is the forty-fourth Warner Animation Group film

Smallfoot was theatrically released in the United States on September 28, 2018 by Warner Bros. Pictures. It received positive reviews from critics and has grossed $203 million against an $80 million budget.

Plotedit | edit source
Yetis are real and live high in the mountains above the clouds hidden away from sight. Migo is a Yeti who lives among his people and follows the ancient stones held by the Stonekeeper who leads the village. Migo's father, Dorgle, wakes up every morning to ring the gong with his head so that the "light snail" can pass over the sky and bring them day. While learning how to ring the gong, Migo is distracted by the Stonekeeper's daughter, Meechee, and flies out of the village. He witness a plane crash and finds a "smallfoot", who the Yetis have taken for being just legends. Migo runs to tell the villagers what he saw, but has no proof and is labeled a liar by Stonekeeper who banishes him from the village if he continues to lie. Migo is suddenly visited by Gwangi, Kolka and Flem who bring him to the Smallfoot Evidentiary Society (S.E.S.) which is lead by Meechee as she feels that her father does not listen to her. She convinces Migo to go along with their plan of going below the clouds, despite the stones telling them that there is nothing underneath. After some hesitation, Migo agrees to go, but the rope he is tied to snaps and he falls through the clouds where he discovers land underneath.

At a local bar, Percy Patterson is a wildlife documentary filmmaker who has lost much of his fame. He meets the pilot who saw the Yeti and tries to convince his assistant Brenda to dress up as a Yeti so that they can film their exploits, but she abandons him instead. Migo arrives and scares Percy who tries to fight back, at what is simply Migo trying to communicate with him, and Percy accidentally knocks himself out. Migo takes him away and they stop by a cave to escape the blizzard where Percy films himself as a way to get help. He encounters a sleep deprived mama bear and Migo "saves" Percy by apologizing. While chasing after Percy, Migo gets his toe caught in a bear trap and Percy takes pity on him by bandaging his wound. Migo finally manages to get through to Percy who agrees to go with him and they head back up the mountain where they are reunited with the S.E.S.

The village is shocked, scared and confused by Percy's appearance, but they happily accept him and learn about his culture, much to Stonekeeper's consternation. Dorgle reveals to Migo that while trying to ring the gong that morning, he missed his cue and the sun rose by itself, scaring him as it left him feeling that he had no purpose. Stonekeeper takes Migo aside and reveals the truth to him: Yetis use to live below the clouds, but were scared away by the humans who feared them. To keep them safe, they created the stones that made the laws and rules. The various tasks that the Yetis do everyday actually power a machine beneath the village that creates the "clouds", actually steam. In order to protect the villagers, Migo agrees to keep up the lie by saying that Percy, who is beginning to experience high altitude sickness, is just a rare form of yak, angering the S.E.S. Stonekeeper then takes Percy and locks him away.

Feeling bad for betraying his friends, Dorgle convinces Migo to help Percy, but discovers that Meechee took him away to return him home. Migo, Gwangi and Kolka leave the village to go look for them. After dropping off Percy, Meechee becomes distracted by the lights in the city and begins to cause a disruption while Percy reunites with Brenda and discovers that he has become famous overnight due to his video. Meechee is attacked by the police, but is rescued by Migo and the rest who explains why he lied. They try to make it back to the mountain, but are chased by a helicopter that is taken down by the Stonekeeper using his stones. Percy arrives and using the Yeti costume leads the police away where he is arrested. He then deletes the videos and images of himself and Migo.

Back at the village, Migo and Stonekeeper explain the truth to the Yetis and state that while the humans may be scared and hard to understand, they should still try to communicate with them. They all head back down the mountain towards the village where they are confronted by police, but Percy and Brenda stand up for them. The film ends with the humans slowly welcoming the Yetis and accepting them into their lives.

Castedit | edit source

 * Channing Tatum as Migo, Dorgle's son and a yeti scientist determined to prove the existence of the Smallfoot.
 * James Corden as Percy Patterson, a former TV personality trying to get back in the spotlight.
 * Zendaya as Meechee, a yeti who believes in the Smallfoot and leader of the Smallfoot Evidentiary Society (S.E.S.), despite being the Stonekeeper's daughter, Thorp's sister and Migo's love interest later girlfriend.
 * Common as Stonekeeper, Thorp and Meechee's father and the condescending yeti chief.
 * LeBron James as Gwangi, a big yeti, and is a part of the S.E.S.
 * Gina Rodriguez as Kolka, a yeti, and part of the S.E.S.
 * Danny DeVito as Dorgle, a yeti who's Migo's father.
 * Yara Shahidi as Brenda, Percy's assistant who doesn't believe in yetis.
 * Ely Henry as Flem, a small yeti, part of the S.E.S.
 * Jimmy Tatro as Thorp, a jerkish yeti who's the Stonekeeper's son, and Meechee's brother.
 * Patricia Heaton as Mama Bear
 * Emma Bunton voiced Mama Bear in the film's U.K. prints.
 * Sarah Baker as Soozie's mother
 * Justin Roiland as Garry, a yeti who is nervous about everything.
 * Jack Quaid as Pilot

Production[edit]
The legend of the Yeti and an original idea by Sergio Pablos inspired the story. Writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa conceived of Smallfoot, interested in a story about Yeti or Bigfoot; they drew inspiration from an original idea by Sergio Pablos.

The concept for Smallfoot was in development before director Karey Kirkpatrick joined the project in July 2016; he viewed an animatic in which Percy was a "ski bum type" with no motivation on his personality in the first drafts of the script and repetitive gag lines, and so they added more elements in his later revisions by giving arc and depth to his character. Kirkpatrick also said Meechee was undeveloped, and she was made head of the S.E.S. in rewrites. Observing Brexit and a rise in nationalism, Kirkpatrick also drew inspiration:

On May 11, 2017, it was announced that the film was in-production with Channing Tatum, Zendaya, and Gina Rodriguez providing the lead voice roles. Ely Henry was originally hired as a scratch vocal for the film four years before its release, however was later invited to join the cast and subsequently voiced Fleem in the final product. The film was animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks, who had also provided animation for the Warner Animation Group's Storks, and utilized Autodesk Maya for the animation process. Ryan O'Loughlin, a DreamWorks Animation veteran, was originally the film's director, but was replaced by Kirkpatrick.

Music[edit]
The score for the film was composed by Heitor Pereira. The songs were written by Karey Kirkpatrick and his brother Wayne Kirkpatrick. The film originally had no songs until six months into production when the suggestion of making the film a musical came from Toby Emmerich, who was recently elected as chairman of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group at the time, partially because the Kirkpatrick brothers had previously written the music and lyrics for the Tony-winning Broadway musical Something Rotten!.

The songs include "Perfection" by Channing Tatum, "Wonderful Life" by Zendaya, "Percy's Pressure" by James Corden (music from the song "Under Pressure", additional lyrics by Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick), "Wonderful Questions" by Tatum & Zendaya, "Let It Lie" by Common, "Moment of Truth" by CYN, and "Finally Free" by Niall Horan (written by Horan, Ian Franzino, Andrew Hass, John Ryan and Julian Bunetta).

The soundtrack peaked at number 8 on the Billboard 200. The song "Finally Free" peaked a couple of Billboard charts including number 39 on Mexico Ingles Airplay chart and number 2 on Bandsintown X Billboard Top Livestream Artists chart.

Release[edit]
The film was released on September 28, 2018.

Marketing[edit]
In late summer 2018, American pizza chain Chuck E. Cheese's announced that they will be the official partner of the film. Marketing materials for the film, in particular a series of posters in Los Angeles advertising the cast of the film with phrases such as "Zendaya is Meechee", turned into a minor Internet meme (in a short song by Gabriel Gundacker).

Home media[edit]
Smallfoot was released on Digital on iTunes, Movies Anywhere, Microsoft Store, Vudu, and Amazon Prime on December 4, 2018, and on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-Ray 3D, 4K Ultra and Digital Copy on December 11, 2018. The releases also included a short film, titled Super Soozie.

Box office[edit]
Smallfoot grossed $83.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $130.9 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $214.1 million.

In the United States and Canada, Smallfoot was released alongside Night School, Little Women and Hell Fest, and was projected to gross $25–30 million from 4,131 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $6.5 million on its first day, including $850,000 from Thursday night previews, more than the Warner Animation Group's previous September release Storks ($435,000 in 2016). It went on to debut to $23 million, finishing second at the box office behind Night School. It made $14.3 million in its second weekend and $9.1 million in its third, dropping 37% each time and finishing third and fifth, respectively.

Critical response[edit]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 75% based on 126 reviews, with an average rating of 6.30/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Smallfoot offers a colorful distraction that should keep younger viewers entertained - and a story whose message might even resonate with older audiences." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Triviaedit | edit source

 * Smallfoot is the second animated feature from the studio to be animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks. Storks was the first.
 * The first WAG film to be released one week before Columbus Day.
 * The first WAG film to have Warner Bros. Pictures logo with "A WarnerMedia Company" after AT&T acquired TimeWarner in June 2018.
 * The eighth Warner Animation Group musical film, after Cats Don't Dance, Quest for Camelot, The King and I, The Polar Express, Corpse Bride, Happy Feet and Happy Feet Two.
 * Smallfoot is the second animated feature to have taken much inspiration from a Walt Disney Animation Studios film based on an Anderson fairytale, with the first being The Spongebob Squarepants Movie.