The Five Musketeens Movie

Kent Butterworth

Barry Caldwell

Alfred Gimeno

Art Leonardi

Byron Vaughns

Tom Ruegger

Sherri Stoner

Don Davis

Albert Lloyd Olson

Richard Stone

Stephen James Taylor

Mark Watters

The Five Musketeens Movie is a 2003 American direct-to-video animated family musical action comedy film based on original characters of *Krazy KIds* universe from Krazy Kids by Nickelodeon and film adaptions of the last section of the novel *The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later* by Alexandre Dumas, père. As the title suggests, it features Maximus Ortiz, Ian Deheza-Zapata, Bryan Gul, Jose Martinez, and Vextorian Vixon as the five musketeens. This film was directed by Ken Boyer, produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studios and was animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha (now known as TMS Entertainment). It was released to theaters on September 23, 2003 by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon, and was released on VHS and DVD on November 12, 2003. It was re-released to theaters for a limited time on August 12, 2013, coinciding with the film's 10th anniversary.

## Plot

The story begins with Pablo Le Pen, a French-accented boy who loves songs, backstage of a show trying to remind the narrator that he promised to use one of Pablo's songs. The narrator ignores the boy and breaks his promise, but accidentally falls through a trapdoor just as the show is about to begin. Consequently, Pablo is ushered to tell the audience the story at the last minute. Panicking, Pablo quickly picks up The Five Musketeens storybook and begins reading.

Maximus Ortiz, Ian Deheza-Zapata, Bryan Gul, Jose Martinez, and Vextorian Vixon are street urchins, who, while being robbed by masked bandits (played by the Boody Boys) are saved by the Royal Musketeers, Athos, Porthos, Aramis, D'Artagnan, and their hero Harry. Max is gifted by Harry's hat, inspiring them to follow their example and become musketeens, and the scene shows some flashbacks of them as kids, with a young Max playing with young puppies, a young Ian reading some books, a young Bryan playing arcade games, a young Jose being wacky and silly, and a young Vex devouring and eating food; however, in the present day, Max, Ian, Bryan, Jose, and Vex are lowly janitors for the musketeens' headquarters and their dream was still far away. They are also paired with their successors (from Junior Kraze Adventures). Unfortunately, they are very clumsy and constantly cause messes. After an incident disturbs the captain of the musketeens, portrayed by Evil Egad, he scornfully tells the trio that they cannot become musketeers because Ian is a "coward", Jose a "doofus" ,Vex a "weak whirlwind", Bryan a "dork nerd", and Max "just too small", leaving the five downhearted.

Meanwhile, Arianna Franco, princess of France and her lady-in-waiting, Marian Gul, are in a palace discussing Minnie's obsession with finding her "one true love". Marian says that she must marry someone who is of royal blood, and Arianna insists that she cannot marry someone she does not love. Arianna says she will know "the one" when he makes her laugh. Arianna then takes a walk in the palace garden and barely survives an attempt on her life as the Boody Boys attempt to drop a safe on her.

The Boody Boys run to tell their boss, revealed to be Captain Egad, that they were not successful in dropping the safe on Arianna. In response, Egad clobbers them for misunderstanding his orders, saying he wanted them to "keep her safe" until he can take over the kingdom. The Boody are misunderstood and are punished by Egad's lieutenant "Valerie", who all fall into a short pit. Egad is then summoned by Arianna, who demands he produce musketeen bodyguards. Realizing that skilled musketeens will jeopardize his plan to overthrow the princess, Egad quickly goes to the janitor room and tells Max, Ian, Bryan, Jose, and Vex that they passed his test and have what it takes to become musketeers, knowing they will be easy to get rid of. After meeting each other and attacking Marian by mistake, Arianna falls in love with Max and feels safe at the hands of his bravery. Egad gives a chance to the Boody Boys to kidnap Arianna and Marian, so he can become King tomorrow when he is announced at the Opera.

While Arianna and Marian are protected by Max, Ian, Bryan, Jose, and Vex who all go on a journey in a carriage, they are all ambushed by the Beagle Boys who attack and fight Max, Ian, Bryan, Jose, and Vex. Ian and Bryan hide, with Arianna and Marian trying to persuade him to fight back, and Jose and Vex are easily defeated and thrown off the carriage. Max is also defeated and thrown off, leaving only Ian and Bryan, but they are too scared and throw themselves off. The trio are stranded, but Max encourages his friends not to lose hope when Egad made them become musketeens. The trio rush to rescue Arianna and Marian from an abandoned tower. When they are unable to open the door, Jose tries to break it down, but Max, upon seeing a Push sign on the door, opens it as Jose rushes by. He zooms past the Boody Boys and out the tower window where is thrown by a tree, kicked by a cow, and launched back into the tower by a windmill where he falls past the Boody Boys and back down to where Max, Ian, Bryan, and Vex are. The trio quickly catch up to the Beagle Boys just as they thrown Arianna and Marian into a cage. While battling the Boody Boys, Ian and Bryan retreat while Max, Vex, and Jose are cornered but Jose, upon seeing a Jose-shaped hole in the window behind the Beagle Boys, remembers what happened when he tried to break down the tower door and gets the idea to do the same thing again with Max, knocking the Boody Boys into the river and allowing them to save Arianna and Marian. Ian and Bryan both reconciles with the group and declares victory. Afterwards, Max unties Arianna and makes her laugh, and the two mice fall in love and spend time alone with each other as they head home.

Egad is furious that the Boody Boys failed in their task and realizes that the three protagonists are more of a threat than he originally anticipated. He then plans to get rid of them one by one. While on night duty, Jose is lured away from the palace by Valerie, who uses a shadow puppet of Max with her hands, which makes Jose follow the shadow (after hearing about peanut butter). The shadow then vanishes, in which Jose is cornered, subdued and kidnapped by Valerie. The Boody Boys appear before Ian and Bryan and attack them, scaring them into hiding, before Egad traps him and puts Ian and Bryan in a guillotine. Ian and Bryan discover a picture of Egad dressed as a king and laughing at a caged Arianna along with five gravestones with theirs, Max, Jose, and Vex's names on them and finds out about Egad's plan to become King and trap Arianna somewhere, where she will be hidden, and that the trio will be killed and not able to rescue Minnie. At that moment, Ian and Bryan escapes at the last second, causing Egad to lose his peg leg after he dives under the guillotine's blade to try to prevent his escape.

Issac and Bryshon find out that Ian and Bryan are missing and bump into Max to warn him. Ian and Bryan return to the castle and tells Max the whole story, but fearfully says they ought to quit being musketeers, claiming "it's every man for himself". Max tries to convince Ian and Bryan by saying that they were able to stop Egad from kidnapping Arianna, but Ian and Bryan reveal that he had been hiding when they fought the Boody Boys before. Max tries to reassure Ian and Bryan that he will be by his side, and that Ian and Bryan coming to warn him took courage. However, Ian, Issac, Bryan, and Bryshon apologize before running off in fear, leaving Max and Maxwell behind. Max is then captured by Egad, with Maxwell being unable able to save Max. Egad chains him up in a dungeon in Mont Saint-Michel that will flood when the tide comes in.

Jose, meanwhile, is chained by Valerie and about to be thrown off a bridge into a river to drown, but Jose falls in love with Valerie and wins her heart with his "numbskull charm". Valerie turns from her evil ambitions and reveals Egad's true intentions to Jose, and that Max is in danger. However, the bridge suddenly crumbles and sends both Jose and Valerie into the river below. Ian and Bryan, who are rowing across the river to escape France, breaks their fall. The tide arrives, where Max is about to drown. Jose fails to convince Vex to help him save Max, but thanks to a song from Pablo ridiculing Vex's cowardice, an infuriated Vex decides to join Ian and Bryan. The duo are just barely able to save Max before he drowns. After reconciling with each other, they set off to rescue Arianna and Marian.

Minnie and Daisy are captured in a theater and locked in a chest by the Boody Boys, in which one of them impersonates Minnie, announcing to the public that the throne is now being handed over to "King Pete the Magnificent". Egad is happy to become the King and the Opera begins. Maxwell, Issac, Bryshon, Jason and Vernie all invent a tracker to know where Arianna and Marian are. Max, Ian, Bryan, Jose, and Vex arrive and battle Egad and the Boody Boys onstage, first defeating the Boody Boys by making them collapse downstage along with Ian, Bryan, Jose and Vex.

Egad then challenges Max into a final sword fight, but after Max disarms Egad, he is punched by Egad and easily beaten. However, Ian, Bryan, Jose, and Vex (having survived the fall) return and help Max defeat Egad by knocking him out. The trio save Arianna and Marian right in front of the audience, although it is unknown what happens to Egad and the Boody Boys. Valerie arrives, reuniting with Jose as Max and Arianna finally declare their love for one another, as the others do the same: Bryan and Marian, Ian and Sofia, Vex and Veronica. At the end, Arianna dubs Max, Ian, Bryan, Jose, and Vex royal musketeens. Pablo announces that this was the day where the five heroes finally made their dream come true. Max, Ian, Bryan, Jose, and Vex and the rest of the musketeens of France sing the final song "All For One and One For All" at the end of the film.

## Production

An adaptation of the last section of the novel *The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later* by Alexandre Duma, with Maximus Ortiz, Ian Deheza-Zapata, Bryan Gul, Jose Martinez, and Vextorian Vixon as the Musketeens; was planned during the 1980s at Paramount Animation Studios. In 1983, storyboard artists Steve Hulett and Pete Young developed the project with Maximus Ortiz, Ian Deheza-Zapata, Bryan Gul, Jose Martinez, Vextorian Vixon, and Erik Martinez as the Musketeens, but it fell into development hell. In 2001–2002, in honor of Max's 25th anniversary, it was announced that a featurette entitled *The Search of Maximus Ortiz* was in development. The project was about Max who gets kidnapped by unknown forces, forcing Arianna Franco to enlist Basil of Baker Street to investigate his disappearance, and later encounters one character from other animated characters such as Jasmine Clay, Sebastian Mengoni, Antonio Hill, and Michael Gonzales. However, the project suffered script problems with the multiple cameos being thought to be too gimmicky.  After the cancellation of the latter project it was announced that a feature film based on *The Fifth Musketeer* with Maximus Ortiz, Ian Deheza-Zapata, Bryan Gul, Jose Martinez, and Vextorian Vixon in the lead roles was in development, meaning that Hulett's and Young's project had been revived. However, the film didn't include Erik Martinez like in the early development.