# Fireheart

Fireheart is a 2022 animated adventure comedy film directed by Theodore Ty and Lauren Zeitoun and written by Zeitoun, Jennica Harper, and Daphne Ballon from a story by Zeitoun, Harper, and Lisa Hunter. It is the second film and final Independent film produced by L'Atelier Animation after Ballerina before Cinesite acquired L'Atelier. It features the voices of Olivia Cooke, Kenneth Branagh, Laurie Holden, Shoshana Sperling, and William Shatner. The plot follows a teenage girl who dreams to become the world's first female firefighter.

## Plot

In Brooklyn, New York in 1930, 6-year-old Georgia Nolan aspires to be a fireman like her father used to be, before he changed his career to a tailor to be able to better take care of her after the death of her mother. After Shawn tells her that women aren't allowed to be firemen, Georgia pretends to give it up and follow in his footsteps as a seamstress, but begins training in secret on the rooftop for the next decade. Along for the ride her faithful Dalmatian sidekick Ember.
Ten years later, in 1940, Mayor Murray asks Shawn to end his retirement to head up a young team of firefighters to combat a serial arsonist, who uses purple gas to hypnotize others and has resulted in the disappearances of other firefighters. Wishing to help, Georgia disguises herself as a man named Joe and joins the team.
While in disguise, "Joe" meets the other firemen: Jinn, a Chinese who loves to drive fast as a cheetah but suffers from narcolepsy, and Ricardo, a Spanish-American who got muscle from helping his father work at the steel mill but his true passion is for chemistry, so he calculates the best and safest way for the team to put the fires out.
The last concert hall standing has policemen surrounding it but an African-American opera diva named Laura Devine keeps breaking in to rehearse her upcoming musical, and when asked to leave, she backtalks Shawn by saying she grew up hearing no all the time in the Jim crow south "no don't eat off the good plates" "no don't kiss the baby" "no you must use the outhouse like the other staff", so she saved every penny to come to New York and when the lead singer "fell" off the stage she hijacked the show and got discovered so she promptly refuses to leave so she can practice where her assistant Pauline promptly fails suspending her with a rope when the crank handle snaps off into her hands and drops her right through the stage floorboards leaving her into a full body cast.
"Joe" talks with Pauline and seeing her down about losing another job unmasks herself and tells Pauline to go after her dreams which was the worst thing to do since it revealed that she was an aspiring chemist who wanted to make special effects but kept getting rejection letters so she planned her revenge.
In what might be their final hours, "Joe" tells her father everything and so does he by saying he couldn't save a couple from a fire 16 years ago. He couldn't break through a wall to get both of them out, so instead they handed their newborn daughter and he promised to always look after her and keep her safe, but if she became a firefighter he couldn't keep his promise. She tells her dad that promise or not she wants to fight fires and she realizes that her father had used "girls can't be firemen" only to protect her not because she was not allowed and together, Shawn and Ember release the hypnotized firemen while Georgia goes to deal with Pauline.
After Pauline gets arrested, Georgia openly joins the station as a true firefighter as the end credits show that the other female firefighters weren’t paid until 1982.

## Cast

* Olivia Cooke as Georgia Nolan
** Maya Misaljevic as Young Georgia Nolan
* William Shatner as Jimmy Murray, the mayor of New York
* Laurie Holden as Pauline
* Kenneth Branagh as Shawn Nolan, Georgia's father
* Ryan Garcia as Ricardo
* Wilex Ly as Jinn
* Mara Junot as Laura Divine
* Scott Humphrey as Captain Neil
* Shoshana Sperling as Ember, Georgia Nolan's Dalmatian.
* Mark Edwards as Pickle Vendor

## Release

The film was released in the United States by Hulu in February 2022 exclusively on the service of the same name, and in Europe by Entertainment One throughout the rest of the year. The same year, the film was released as a Sky Cinema original by Sky on May 27 in the UK.

## Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 60% of four reviews are positive. The film grossed $3.7 million at the box office.