Levi Lu (2017 Film)

Levi Lu is a 2017 live-action animated comedy film written and directed by Gore Verbinsky. It was developed from a story by Verbinsky and Hamish McColl, which was based on the stories of the character Levi Lu created by Maria Walts. Produced by Matthew Stillman, Levi Lu stars Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as the voice of the titular character, with Kevin Doyle, Carey Mulligan, Julie Walters, Emily Watson, Hugh Laurie, Anthony Hopkins, and Keira Knightley in live-action roles. 
The film tells the story of Levi Lu, an anthropomorphic raccoon who migrates from his lovely town in the Netherlands to the streets of London, where he is adopted by the Davidson family. Knightley plays a museum executive who is actually ruthless spy for a secret company who attempts to capture him for her exhibit. 
Levi Lu was released in the United Kingdom on 16 October 2017 in the UK and November 25 is the US to critical acclaim for Ainsworth's vocal performance, humor, screenplay, visual effects and appeal to children and adults. It grossed $268 million worldwide on a €38.5 (~$55) million budget. It received two nominations at the BAFTAs: Best British Film and Best Adapted Screenplay. A sequel, Levi Lu 2, was released in 2020, with Verbinsky and much of the cast returning. 
== Synopsis ==
A young raccoon named Levi (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) lives with his two sisters and his grandmother in the mysterious anthropomorphic side of the Netherlands decides to travel to the UK to find information on his great ancestor Emily St, Lu and meets the Davidson family who take him in for now to find clues but a ruthless british Museum executive (Keira Knightley) who also used to be retired washed up comedian has her eyes on Levi to capture the rare species of raccoon.
== Plot ==
The film starts of in the rare side of the Netherlands with Levi Lu (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth picking a bunch fruits and stuff to go to the village in his home town in the Netherlands and finds him gives his delivery crate of fruits to this salesman his gives him a apple on the house until he realizes he's late for something at the town orphanage and leaves with a thank you. Levi runs in a hurry to the orphanage that he works at and meets up with Isabelle and Paula at the entrance and Isabelle get furious at Levi for being late "again" and Paula calms down Isabelle with her Jam collection that's she's been saving up for a special occasion, and starts talking about a bit too much until the school orphanage teacher Mrs. Mary. Dutch (Emily Mortimer) who calls them for a meeting in her office and talks about her decision about what she should do about the three of them on their jobs and habit's and say's that they can't be late and starting trouble up in the orphanage with the other kids. 
The kids start going home to their Grandma Matilda (Brenda Blethyn) who is happy to her grandchildren back home and has lunches and snacks at the table with marmalade and jam sandwiches at the table that Paula rushes to so fast and Isabelle coming out saving some out at Paula, Levi question's Matilda about london and says that she had been to England before when she was younger mentioning about the citizens being huge, the trees being bright green, the night's being quiet and looks forward to seeing it again and tells Levi that their was an old ancestor of was the first raccoon in their history to go London and made a contract that had been around the UK since the 1800's and she made proclamation that if they any raccoon of their kind came to England they would receive a warm welcome to any person they come around. Levi, Isabelle and Paula go to a old library above the town and meet the librarian, artist, and inventor Sebastian Leonardo (Liam Cunningham) who welcome the three into his library to find an old antique of his that he needs to sale to save his library and Levi ends up finding it and gets happily delighted to finally find his artifact to save his Library. 
Sebastian brings the kids to help out with and invention that he's working that Isabelle ends working with him and when Levi starts wanting to help Paula comes and pulls Levi to play with her and goes into the Library and to find a old workshop in the Library attic and find find a huge flying machine that they accidently turn on and fly and zoom across the town in the Netherlands and when they both land and crash and everyone starts being overly amazed on the both of them flying across the village and Sebastian starts being overly happy and proud that his flying machine working and starts being happily proud of him until someone warns everyone what happen at the dock that's shocking.
== Cast ==
* Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Levi Lu
* Samara Lee as Isabelle Lu (Izzy)
* Scarlett Fernandez as Paula Lu
* Brenda Blethyn as Grandma Matilda Lu
* Kevin Doyle as Mr. Edward Davidson 
* Carey Mulligan as Mrs. Sally Davidson
* Jocelyn Macnab as Milly Davidson
* Joel Dawson as Jack Davidson 
* Indica Watson as Amelia Davidson
* Julie Walters as Ms. Mary Collins (St. James Hotel manager)
* Keira Knightley as Constance St. Davis (British spy executive)
* Hugh Laurie as Mr. Warren (Next door neighbor)
* Emily Watson as Mrs. Carter (Newspaper women) 
* Bella Ramsey as Chloe Goodman (young museum director/granddaughter)
* Anthony Hopkins as Mr. Goodman (Museum Giftshop manager/Antiques Dealer) 
* Alisha Weir as Stella (the umbrella girl)
* Beau Gadsdon as Emily St. Lu (Levi's great Ancestor) 
* Elizabeth Reaser as Janet Lu (Levi’s Mother)
* Emily Mortimer as Mrs. Mary Dutch (Orphanage school principle)
* Liam Cunningham as Sebastian Leonardo (Netherlands Librarian)
* Violet Hicks as Molly Brown (post credits scene)
* John James Cronin as Ben Brown (post credits scene)
== Production ==
The film was first announced around in 2009 to 2010, with Matthew Stillman producing and Hamish McColl from the Paddington films writing the screenplay. Further developments were not made until September 2016, Paddington is the most expensive film produced by the production company Entertainment One. Principal photography and production began on 13 September 2016. In November 2016, after principal photography had wrapped, the film was originally gonna be directed by Andrew Adamson but voluntarily dropped out of the film, after the studio decided his skills for the Levi Lu world was not suitable for the film. The job was rehired the following month, with Gore Verbinsky announced to direct the film in January of that year.
Filming locations for Levi Lu were mostly in West London. The Train Station scenes were filmed inside the London Railroad Station especially Paddington station, although the exterior establishing shot used the front entrance of nearby Marylebone Station in Marylebone. Exterior shots of the Davidson family home in Windsor Gardens were shot in Kensington Olympia District (London, England). Scenes in Mr. Goodman's shop were filmed inside an antique shop on Portobello Road, and the skateboard chase sequence was filmed in Portobello Road Market and Maida Vale.
=== Filming Locations for Levi Lu ===
File:Levi Lu filming location Davidson's House (1).jpg|Kensington Olympia District (London, England)
File:Levi Lu filming location Underground Station (2).jpg|London Underground Train Station (England)
File:Levi Lu filming location National History Museum (3).jpg|The Natural History Museum, London
File:Bank of England, London.jpg|The Bank of London, England
== Soundtrack ==