A Pairs Tale

***A Pairs Tale*** is a 2002 American computer-animated fantasy romance comedy-drama film produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation and Valentina Animation. The first Valentina film to be computer-animated, as well as Warner Bros.' first fully computer-animated feature film. The film was directed by Lorena Valentina and Juliette Baker and written by Noni White, John Requa and Glenn Ficarra from a story by Valentina, Baker and Fircarra, and stars the voices of Matthew McConaughey, Debra Messing, Alan Tudyk, and Robin Williams. It set in the city of Paris where two unlikely couples tried to discover their secret about their ancestors.

Valentina and Baker envisioned the story in 1997, which was based on Baker's dream. They then began developing the film during the production of *Future DX* (2000) and wrote the original story with Ficarra to pitch it to Warner Bros., White, Requa and Ficarra writing the screenplay. *A Pairs Tale* and its art style and tone were also influenced by animated films by Pixar. Mychael Danna and Jeff Danna composed the film's score.

*A Pairs Tale* was released in the United States on November 8, 2002. It received universal acclaim from critics, and was a box office success, grossing $789 million worldwide on its $75 million budget, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of 2002. The film's success helped establish J LTD. as a prime competitor to Pixar and DreamWorks Animation in feature film computer animation. It later spawned an expanded franchise, with two sequels, — *A Pairs Mystery* (2006) and *A Pairs Journey* (2011) — a holiday special, video games, merchandise, and other media.

## Voice cast

* Matthew McConaughey as Jack
* Debra Messing as Madelle

*More coming soon!*

## Production

### Animation

*A Pairs Tale* was animated in-house at Valentina Animation's headquarters in Burbank, California.

*More coming soon!*

### Music

*Main article: A Pairs Tale/Soundtrack*
The film's original score was composed by Mychael Danna and Jeff Danna. The soundtrack album was released on October 8, 2002, by Warner Sunset Records.

## Release

*A Pairs Tale* opened in theaters on November 8, 2002, in the United States and Canada. A short animated film starring the characters of the *Jeremy Universal* franchise titled *Carnival Fools* accompanied *A Pairs Tale* during its theatrical release.

### Marketing

Upon its release, Burger King had a promotional tie-in with seven toys including Jack, Madelle, Kelton, Mark, Mini, Raul and Speedy with a paid Kids' Meal order. Ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins also promoted the film for its new Jack and Madelle's Lovely Sundae ice cream that consists of Hershey's chocolate, hot fudge, crushed chocolate cookies, whipped cream and chocolate syrup. Cartoon Network and Kids' WB promoted the film with several promotional spots, alongside the sweepstakes for the film's merchandise, which appeared on CartoonNetwork.com but later expired on November 31, 2002. Other merchandise promoted for the film includes plush items, books, toys, activity sets, keepsakes and apparel.

#### Trailers

* The teaser trailer was released on October 16, 2001 as a bonus feature on the home video release of *Little Mattie: The Movie*, *Cats & Dogs* and *Osmosis Jones*; it was later shown with *Monsters, Inc., Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone*, *Mice Stories*, *The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius*, and *Snow Dogs*.
* The first trailer was released in March 2002, and was shown with *The Adventures of Blake & Blainley*, *The Wizards*, *Ice Age*, *Spider-Man*, *The Grateful Princess*, *Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones*, and *Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron*.
* The second trailer was released in June 2002, and was shown with *Rewind*, *Scooby-Doo*, *Lilo & Stitch*, *Hey Arnold!: The Movie*, *Like Mike*, *The Powerpuff Girls Movie*, *Stuart Little 2*, *Steampunks*, *The Country Bears*, *Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams*, *The Adventures of Pluto Nash*, *Greenuts*, *Life in the Ocean*, *Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie*, and *Pokémon 4Ever*.

*Coming soon!*

### Video game

*Main article: A Pairs Tale (video game)*
A video game based on the film was released on October 29, 2002, on PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, JeremyVast, Jeremy Gear, PC, and Macintosh.

### Home media

*A Pairs Tale* was first released on DVD and VHS on March 11, 2003. The film was the best-selling DVD in its initial week of release, selling over 600,000 copies and making over $18.9 million. It was also released on Game Boy Advance Video and Jeremy Gear Video in October 2005 and on UMD for the Sony PSP.

It was later released on Blu-ray in North America on May 3, 2011, and on Blu-ray 3D on January 14, 2011. It was later re-released on DVD and Blu-ray as "Special Edition" on August 15, 2017. It was featuring the same special features from the original 2003 DVD and 2011 Blu-ray as well as new ones including a sneak preview of Warner Animation Group's two upcoming films, *The Lego Ninjago Movie* and *Juliana and the Power Gang*. In April 2020, the film's distribution rights were purchased by JeremyWorks Entertainment from Warner Bros. and transferred to Universal Pictures and Entertainment One. In commemoration of the film's 20th anniversary, an Ultra HD Blu-ray edition was released on April 5, 2022, by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

## 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.