The Pixelators: Level Two

***The Pixelators: Level Two*** is a 2020 American computer-animated science-fiction comedy film produced by 20th Century Fox Animation. The sequel to the 2016 film *The Pixelators*, The film was directed by Mike Bell and Emma Maxwell, with Nicholas Stoller, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Rodney Rothman as writers. It stars the voices of Tom Holland, Anna Kendrick, Kevin Hart, Jason Statham, Ryan Reynolds, Zoe Saldana, and Ellie Kemper who all reprise their roles from the first film, along with new additions including Zach Galifianakis, Daisy Ridley, Tiffany Haddish, James McAvoy, Sterling K. Brown, Trey Parker, and Josh Gad. In the film, Bryce Jones must team up with Lord Hex in order to rescue Bryce's friends from a whole new video game dimension while an advanced and powerful supervillain from an abandoned video game that threatens to destroy the entire video game universe while Alice is taken to a new video game titled Flower Heaven and is crowned princess there.

*The Pixelators: Level Two* had its world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on January 14, 2020, and was released theatrically on February 7, 2020, by 20th Century Fox in RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, and IMAX. The film received positive reviews, with many considering it an improvement over its predecessor and commending its humour, character development, screenplay, soundtrack, animation, and the voice cast, although some criticism was on the film being derivative to the original film as well as the plot. It has grossed $608 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of 2020 and the highest-grossing animated film of the year. It is the final film to be released under the Fox name as the company was renamed 20th Century Studios on January 17, 2020. At the 92nd Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best Sound.

A third film, titled *The Pixelators: Supercharged*, is set for release on May 19, 2023.

## Plot

In 1987, a woman named Lucille is riding in a car, listening to tunes on the car's radio with her boyfriend James, where they go to a now-closed arcade where the two find the same arcade cabinet titled "Pixel City" (which was in the first film). With James opting to play the game, he later finds himself sucked inside. Years later, Bryce Jones, Officer Alice Summers, Carl Stevenson, Peppy Penguin, Nya, and Jay are now renowned as the Pixelators, with Bryce and Alice staying best friends and hanging out after work in Pixel City over the last three years. One day, after saving and protecting the city's valuable game coins from an inter-dimensional monster, a new video game character named Mia Mayhem arrives, where a chase ensues and forces everyone in the city to evacuate. Mia then kidnaps all of Bryce's friends and takes them to a new video game titled Flower Heaven where Alice is the chosen new princess by Flower Kingdom empress Queen Maddie where Alice remains skeptical of Maddie's plans. Bryce, in despair, is visited by Lord Hex, who recently escaped from the Pixel Prison, and convinces him to ally with the Hack Masters. Meanwhile, Dr. Silverclaw, a cybernetic mad scientist whose video game has been abandoned for 25 years after having mechanical problems. With the help of his assistant, Rupert, they find Hex teaming up with Bryce, where Silverclaw gets frustrated after everything he taught him to take over the video game universe years ago. The two later find the rest of Pixelators in Mia's ship, but they are both attacked by Silverclaw's alliance and their fleet of drones. The drones are destroyed by a mysterious figure, and the Pixelators, Hex, and Mia crash-land on a nearby game called The Dunes.

While at the Dunes game, they are attacked by a herd of savage birds, barely making an escape in an abandoned dune buggy. After that, the group is later abducted by the Flower Kingdom spaceship where they are transported to the Flower Castle, where the group meets Queen Maddie. Maddie appears like an evil tyrant, but she does her best to persuade the heroes that she is the complete opposite of a villain by appealing to their interests with the help of her assistant Darren Dog. However, the kingdom is invaded by Rupert and Silverclaw's guards, where Maddie gives Bryce, Carl, Peppy, Mia, Hex, and adventurer Jack Stone, their new mission to fight them off. Alice wants to join in but Maddie convinces her to stay in the Flower Castle and relax, making her separate from Bryce and the rest of the group. Following the clues given to them, Bryce and Mia obtain a legendary fruit called the Flower Fruit while Hex gets into a brawl with dozens of strangers. The battle draws the attention of Rupert, who later kills the group with a rocket launcher, but luckily, the group respawns at the kingdom's farm. Meanwhile, Alice is brought to the castle's spa, where she is given a manicure/pedicure. Maddie then dresses up as Alice in her new princess gown and guides her through the rest of the castle. Bryce and the group later join the two for dinner, where Alice refuses to return back to her original game, during which she and Bryce have a falling-out, during which he says she can't be a good princess if she doesn't listen to others. In her bedroom, Alice then finally finds her dream through song, inspiring her to stay to Flower Heaven. The group then arrives at Alice's old game, Cop Stories, where Silverclaw is targeting to steal the game's main Pixel Gem as he needs one more. The team then launches its assault on the convoy by parachute. While they fight Sliverclaw, Rupert frees fellow inmate Beastravager, who agrees to help Silverclaw destroy the video game universe with the Pixel Gems. Big Bill destroys the convoy, allowing himself, Sliverclaw and Rupert to escape. Sliverclaw then steals the game's Pixel Gem, causing the game to shut down, making all the game's citizens homeless. Alice then finds out about Sliverclaw shutting down her old game and finally gathering all the gems, causing both Bryce and Alice to get into an argument when she can't decide whenever she can try to save the video game universe or not. Alice refuses to believe what Bryce said and ends her friendship with him, causing him and the group to turn against Alice. However, Sliverclaw then captures Bryce, and creates an entire illusion to trap him in. He taunts Bryce for not being the game hero he wants to be, but as Bryce tries to fight Sliverclaw, he fails and gets knocked out by him. Later that night, Alice brings Bryce back to the Flower Heaven game where he is healed by Maddie and the two later reconcile. As the group prepares to confront Sliverclaw at his enclosed fortress, the team is later shocked to discover that Darren Dog has sold Hex, Maddie, and Mia out to Sliverclaw and his mercenaries, capturing them to his fortress. Infiltrating the fortress, Nya and Jay establish a plan to destroy the weapon which would make the entire video game universe glitch out, while Peppy and Carl pose as a pair of famous workers Sliverclaw is expecting. Meanwhile, Bryce and Alice rekindle their relationship while finding and freeing Maddie and Mia. The plan nearly succeeds, but the whole team is confronted by Silverclaw and his guards, where later The Hack Masters, the Flower Kingdom and Pixel City citizens are now fighting against Silverclaw's minions in the fortress. Bryce then pursues Silverclaw on his airship, while the others distract his men. Silverclaw then finally uses the weapon, which creates a powerful explosion in which it begins to glitch out of the entire video game universe. Finding himself unable to best Silverclaw, Bryce discovers he is weak with all the Pixel Gems combined, incapacitating him long enough to send him plummeting to his death, as well as causing Silverclaw's minions to disappear into tiny pixels (except Rupert), saving the entire video game universe.

Alice then reunites with Bryce and the Pixelators as Bryce finally confesses his love to Alice, who reciprocates his feelings. The two bid each other a tearful farewell as Maddie arranged for Alice to respawn in Flower Heaven. Bryce partakes in healthy social activities in Pixel City as he tells Alice over video chat as she becomes the protector and princess of the Flower Kingdom, who now regularly still saves Pixel City with the Pixelators. In a mid-credits scene, back in the real world, the heating mechanic that Harper, Bryce's mother, hired finally shows up, only to be drawn to the magical arcade cabinet.

In another mid-credits scene, Bryce and Alice accidentally crash a little girl's Sweet Feeder game on her iPad.

## Cast

* Tom Holland as Bryce Jones, a video game designer
	+ Jason Drucker as a young Bryce Jones
* Anna Kendrick as Alice Summers, an optimistic police officer and later princess of Flower Heaven.
* Jason Statham as Lord Hex / James
* Kevin Hart as Carl Stevenson, Bryce's best friend.
* Ryan Reynolds as Peppy Penguin, a sarcastic, wise-cracking penguin.
* Zach Galifianakis as Dr. Silverclaw
* Daisy Ridley as Mia Mayhem, an naval commander and law enforcer who works for Queen Maddie.
* Tiffany Haddish as Queen Maddie, the queen of Flower Heaven.
* Trey Parker as Rupert, an anthropomorphic rabbit who is Dr. Silverclaw's assistant.
* James McAvoy as Jack Stone, an explorer and Peppy's rival.
* Josh Gad as Darren Dog, Queen Maddie's assistant, who later turns out to be one of Silverclaw's henchmen.
* Sterling K. Brown as General Samson, Lord Hex's co-assistant.
* Travis Willingham as Beastravager, a giant Hulk-like creature who partners with Rupert.
* Ellie Kemper as Amelia, the gatekeeper of Pixel City.
* Zoe Saldana as Nya, a nature warrior princess.
* Roger Craig Smith as Jay, a speedy bird-like creature who is Nya's companion.
* John Cena as Big Bill, a tough fighter.
* Ike Barinholtz as Mr. Duckett, an anthropomorphic duck.
* Kristen Wiig as Harper Jones, Bryce's mother.
* Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill as Ed and Elliot, two multicolored shape-shifting creatures.
* Will Forte as Mr. Marshmallow
* Pete Davidson as Steve
* Jodi Benson as Princess Ariel from *The Little Mermaid* (cameo)
* Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson from *The Simpsons* (cameo)
* Jeff Bergman as Daniel Wyatt from *The Bad Life of Daniel* (cameo)
* Kristen Bell as Alaina Gleen (cameo)
* Chris Diamantopoulos (uncredited) as Mickey Mouse (cameo)

### Additional voices

* Chris Parnell, Christopher Nicholas Smith, and Erin Fitzgerald as Hack Masters, Lord Hex's henchmen.
* Nolan North as The Police Chief
* Kirk Thornton as Blue Blade, one of Silverclaw's henchmen
* Khary Payton as Red Cheetah
* Will Friedle as Nightbomb
* Dana Snyder as Gustavo
* Conrad Vernon as Flower Kingdom Chef
* Steve McCarthy and Catherine Taber as Flower Kingdom Spa Experts
* Kirk Hooper, Jeff Lieberman, Troy Baker, and Kimberly Brooks as Cop Stories Police Officers
* Edward Mendez, Tyler Bryant, Brian Drummond, Robbie Daymond, and Alex Hirsch as Silverclaw Guards
* Noah McIntosh, Christopher Corey Smith, and Keith Silverstein as Flower Kingdom Guards
* Robert Tinkler as Felony Felix
* Jorma Taccone as Doctor Pyro
* Mike Bell as Silverclaw Entry Bot, a panicked Flower Heaven resident, Cop Stories Officer
* Emma Maxwell as Lucille
* Ray Johnston as Heater Mechanic
* Kathryn Graves as Old Lady

### ADR Group

* Steve Alterman
* Kimberly Bailey
* Daniel Booko
* Jen Cain
* William Calvert
* Oscar Camacho
* David Cowgill
* Brian T. Delaney
* Elisa Gabrielli
* Johnny Gidcomb
* Jackie Gonneau
* Jason Griffith
* Bridget Hoffman
* Wendy Hoffmann
* Rif Hutton
* Ashley Lambert
* Lydia Look
* Terence Mathews
* Scott Menville
* David Michie
* Richard Miro
* Capri Oliver
* Jon Olson
* Juan Pacheco
* Constance Parng
* Courtney Peldon
* Ben Pronsky
* Lynwood Robinson
* Michelle Ruff
* Warren Sroka
* Kelly Stables
* Jaquita Ta'le
* Fred Tatasciore
* Matthew Wolf
* Shelby Young
* Ruth Zalduondo

## Production

### Development

In November 2016, director Phil Lord said he and Fox had ideas for a sequel that would bring the characters up to date and explore the future of console gaming. Lord stated that many of the crew and voice cast were open to the sequel, believing that they had "barely scratched the surface" of the video game universe they envisioned. On January 8, 2017, Lord stated that a sequel was still being planned, and he expressed hope that it would be a better film than the first installment. In August 2017, 20th Century Fox announced that the development on the sequel had begun, along with the sequel's title, which was officially announced as *The Pixelators: Level Two,* with Mike Bell announced as the film's director joined by co-director Emma Maxwell who both just finished directing *Alaina Gleen: Imaginary Vacation* and was announced that the sequel would be released on November 1, 2019.

### Casting

In April 2018, Tom Holland, Anna Kendrick, Kevin Hart, Jason Statham, Ryan Reynolds, Zoe Saldana, and Jason Sudeikis were reported as being set to reprise their roles. In October 2018, it was announced that Tiffany Haddish has joined the cast to voice a brand new character in the sequel. The following month, Zach Galifianakis was cast to voice the antagonist in the film, Dr. Sliverclaw. On April 19, 2019, it was announced that Daisy Ridley and James McAvoy joined the cast. In July 2019, Sterling K. Brown and Josh Gad joined the cast. In October 2019, Trey Parker (co-creator of Comedy Central's *South Park*) was cast to voice Rupert, Dr. Silverclaw's assistant.

### Music

On February 16, 2019, Henry Jackman was revealed to be returning for the sequel's score. The film features an original song called "My Peaceful Place", performed by Anna Kendrick and Tiffany Haddish, written by Marc Shaiman and the film's writer Nicholas Stoller, and composed by Alan Menken

## Release

### Theatrical

*The Pixelators: Level Two* had its world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on January 14, 2020, and was released theatrically on February 7, 2020, by 20th Century Fox. It was previously set for November 1, 2019. It was released in Australia and New Zealand on February 20, 2020. The film was released in the United Kingdom on January 24, 2020, as shown on its international trailer. It was supposed to be released in China on March 27, 2020, but because of the COVID-19 (2019-20) spread, the China release was cancelled. However, the China release was later rescheduled for August 28, 2020. The film is rated PG by the MPA for “frenetic sequences of animated action, brief mild language, some thematic elements, and rude humour.” The film's North American theatrical release was preceded by *Lemonade Love*, a Fox Animation short film.

The film was also released in THX Ultimate Cinema on February 14, 2020, making it the first animated film to receive a THX Ultimate Cinema release.

On February 17, 2020, it was announced that a companion documentary series based on how the film was made later launched on the Disney+ streaming service on February 12, 2021.

### Marketing

* The first official trailer was released online on June 12, 2019, and was attached to screenings of *Toy Story 4*.
* On November 3, 2019, Fox released 13 character posters for the film, along with promotional film stills, as well a second trailer, which was released online a couple of days later and was attached to screenings of *Paradoria 2*.
* The third and final trailer was released on December 14, 2019, and was attached to screenings of *Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker*.
* An exclusive 4-minute IMAX preview was released on January 16, 2020, and was attached to IMAX screenings of *Dolittle*.

Fox partnered with more than 100 licensing and promotional partners to market the film including Sprint Corporation, which gives customers free movie tickets when they buy a free smartphone and switch, Chiquita bananas, Fandango, Gamefly, McDonald's, Discover credit cards, and Ziploc. In January 2020, Disney Channel aired promos on its channel to promote the film's release, making it the first Fox film to be promoted on a channel owned by Disney.

A Lego video game based on both films was announced at E3 2019 and was released on February 4, 2020, three days before the film's release, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

### Home media

On March 15, 2020, Fox and Disney announced that the film would be available on Digital and Movies Anywhere on March 27 and 4K Blu-ray, DVD, and Blu-ray on May 5 as a result of the 2019–20 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as the film was originally going to be released on home media on May 26, 2020.

Additionally, the film was later released on HBO Max on October 17, 2020, which happens to be the same day the film premiered on the original HBO channel.

## Reception

### Box office

As of August 30, 2020, *The Pixelators: Level Two* has grossed $244.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $363.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $608 million against a production budget of $175 million.

In the United States and Canada, *The Pixelators: Level Two* was released alongside *Birds of Prey* and was projected to gross $55–70 million in its opening weekend from 4,392 theatres, playing in 2,400 3D theatres, 360 IMAX theatres, 750 premium large format screens, and 220 D-Box/4D enhanced theatres. However, after making $38.2 million (including $10.2 million in its Thursday night previews), projections were increased to $90 million. It went on to gross $96.8 million in its opening weekend, breaking *The Lego Movie*'s record of $69 million for the biggest animated opening of all time in February. In its second weekend, the film fell 65% to $33.8 million, finishing second, behind newcomer *Sonic the Hedgehog*. It dropped to third and stayed there in its third, fourth, and fifth weekend grossing $21.4 million, $13.3 million, and $10.8 million respectively.

In China, where cinemas reopened, the film grossed $16.6 million in its opening weekend, finishing second place behind *The Eight Hundred*.

### Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a "Certified Fresh" rating of 83% based on 277 reviews, and an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "With crisp animation and humorous twists, *The Pixelators: Level Two* offers an undemanding yet delightfully entertaining update on the original film with enough replay value." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 69 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, higher than the first film’s B+, and PostTrak reported it received an average 4 out of 5 stars, with 83% of people saying they would recommend it.

## Transcripts

### Main

To see the main transcript of the film, click here.

### Trailers

To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here.

## See also

* *The Pixelators (franchise)*

**Upcoming:** *The Pixelators: Supercharged* (2023)