Spirit Mask (2016 film)

*This article is for the upcoming 2016 film. You may be looking for Super Boy, the TV series of the same name*

**Spirit Mask** is live-action/animated American superhero adventure-comedy film based on the animated television series *Spirit Mask*. The film is directed by David F. Markham (*Astro Boy*, *Unnatural Disaster*). It was released on June 10th 2016.

Most the film is live-action except in occasional scenes when animation takes over, such as in Stanley's thoughts and doodles.

## Plot

The film opens in a dark, windy night at Maple Valley. A girl is seen walking down a narrow alleyway. Hearing a noise, she suddenly stops and looks. She spots a large spider crawling all over a tree. A web shoots from her hand, traps the spider and allegedly kills it. The girl smiles menacingly, randomly turns into a black widow spider, and crawls away.

theme

The next morning Spencer is seen sitting on a swing by himself on the school playground, watching some kids play. He looks gloomy and bored, and jumps up startled when Zoe approaches him, thinking it was a teacher. Asked why he looks so paranoid, Spencer replies now what did he reply i forgot uff

Ok whatever I'll write what I remember. While Spencer and Zoe are talking, a loud alarm goes off, people start running in and out of the school building panicked, and the principal calls them inside. Spencer and Zoe both go to see what's the commotion, and run into Max and Anne, who tell them a student was brutally attacked just now. A student (later revealed to be Corey Gilheimer) is discovered lying unconscious on the floor of the school auditorium covered in blood, while a frantic drama teacher is panicked and says she doesn't know how it happened. Upon looking closely, Spencer discovers large scratch marks on his arms, until the police tells him to "move it, kid, we're working here".

Zoe drags him, Max and Anne backstage of the auditorium which is full of props, and wants to help in the investigation. Spencer however is reluctant and thinks the police would probably catch whoever did this, and there wasn't any need for them to get mixed up. Zoe looks at him hard, and realizes he's hiding something.

## Cast

* **Fyodor Dakota Zayden**as **Spencer Jackson**
	+ **Cedric McDares** voices the animated version
* **Tanner Stevenson** as **Stanley Jackson**
	+ **Matthew DeCosta** voices the animated version
* **Alzora** as **Canvas**
	+ **Avery Menders** voices the animated version
* **Chloë Grace Moretz** as **Zoe Matchen**
	+ **Harper Wilson** voices the animated version
* **Isaiah Verenazden** as **Max Ashmore**
	+ **Jonathan Taylor** voices the animated version
* **Angela-Kathryn Larson** as **Anne Keating**
	+ **Jennifer McAndrews** voices the animated version
* **Marcia Cress** as **Black Widow**, the main villain of the film
	+ Also voices the animated version
* **Jim Cummings** as **Ferdinand**, a supposedly "freaky old guy" who appears to be senile.
	+ Also voices the animated version
* **Harley Seville** as **Connor**, the school bully
	+ **Magdalen Corciva** voices the animated version
* **Indigo F. Archer** as **Emory Hoffman**, one of Ferdinand's twin daughters
	+ Also voices the animated version
* **Canyon I. Archer** as **Taylor Hoffman**, one of Ferdinand's twin daughters and the younger twin
	+ Also voices the animated version
* **Danielynn DeWaters** as **Cathy**, Black Widow's sister

## Production

### Development

An animated Super Boy movie was set to be released at the end of 2014 but was cancelled due to Cedric McDares working on *Camp Lakebottom* in Ohio, and because the chosen scriptwriter and story writer (Mike Wahlenberg and Daisy Mementson) apparently had "writer's block" and couldn't come up with any good ideas for a movie, let alone write the script. Sarah McKingsley (WHO IS BTW AN IF OF MINE) later tweeted that she was "taking matters into her own hands, as far as a Super Boy film was concerned" and she set to work with Sean Astin and wrote an entirely new script from scratch and were just about to take it to the studio when they got a call from producer Alexandra Myers who added a new twist: the film was to be live-action.

### Filming

Most of the film was filmed at Vancouver, Canada. Filming lasted for three weeks.

### Casting

The first character to be cast was Zoe Matchen (Chloe Grace Moretz). The casting director Anna Faris did not have to look far, in fact she didn't have to look at all as a certain person immediately suggested Moretz. Soon afterwards, Isaiah Verenazden was cast as Max since he nailed his audition and left no doubt he could bring the character to life.

Hudson Grayling was originally set to play Stanley Jackson, but the director turned him down saying he was "a little too old, had too light-coloured hair and didn't look the part". The role was given to Tanner Stevenson later on.

Angela-Kathryn Larson made her film-acting debut when she was picked to play Anne, and Alzora was chosen among 33 other cats at the audition for Canvas.

Ironically enough the very last main character to be cast was the titular character, Spencer (Fyodor Dakota Zayden).

## Release

The film was released at the Dolby Digital theatre and the Brackenheimer Theatre at Los Angeles, on June 10th 2016. It was released worldwide on June 15th 2016.

## Reception

*Spirit Mask* opened to mostly positive reviews. On *Rotten Tomatoes* it holds a 91% approval rating, while Metacritic gave the film a score of 8.6/10. The acting of the cast was also heartily praised by critics.