Timeline-GA/Welcome to Toonville

Teaser poster

***Welcome to Toonville*** is a 2023 live-action/animated science-fiction adventure comedy-drama film written, produced and directed by Ben Jameson and Sam Raimi. Produced by Skydance, Troublemaker Studios, The Strip Productions, Team Blue Studios, and Amblin Entertainment, with distribution handled domestically by Paramount Pictures and internationally by Universal Pictures, it is based on a screenplay by Steven Spielberg, John Whittington, Pat Casey and Josh Miller, and written by Casey and Miller. Based on the *Toonville* animated series created by Ben Jameson and Robert Zemeckis, and the 2010 video game of the same name, it features the performances of Hugh Jackman, Matt Damon and Kate Mulgrew, and features the voices of Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, and Janice Kawaye.
The film follows Will, a man working a minimum wage job, and Tina, a woman who works at Hungry Jack's in Sydney. Everything was going well for the two when suddenly, they are transported to Toonville, a world where every cartoon in existence lives with its rightful property owners. In Toonville, where its 100th anniversary was approaching, they meet SpongeBob SquarePants and Jenny Wakeman, who both work at the Toonville Studio Plant and the Cartoon Saloon Galleria Club respectively, who need his help after the city's inhabitants, including Will and Tina, start experiencing crimes and natural disasters which led to electricity, cel paint animation and viewer shortage.

Production on *Welcome to Toonville* began in 2010. Dwayne Johnson and Jenny Slate were cast, though eventually dropped from the project. In 2013, the project was confirmed dormant by Paramount Pictures due to the project being unable to move forward, and was the result of a tax write-off. However, in 2019, following the success of the *Cool Spot* and *Pac-Man* adaptations, filmmaker Ben Jameson of his production company Team Blue Studios approached Paramount to revive the project, after being dormant for over six years. The project was revived in 2020, with filming set to begin in Vancouver. Filming shifted to Australia and began in November, with additional filming in Melbourne. Digital 2D animation and cel-shading animation was provided by Rough Draft Studios, Mercury Filmworks and Bardel Entertainment. CGI animation was produced by Sony Pictures Imageworks, with visual effects produced by Method Studios.

*Welcome to Toonville* premiered at the Nickelodeon Hotels & Resorts in Los Angeles on November 10, 2023, and was theatrically released on November 23, 2023 in the United States. It was originally going to receive an R rating by the MPA, but was changed to PG-13 upon Robert Rodriguez and David Ellison’s request to tone down the violence and innuendo usage. The film received generally positive reviews from critics. with praise for its portrayal of the cartoon characters, plot, screenplay, music by Michael Giacchino, performances, voice cast, production values, and its designs. It has grossed over $448 million worldwide.

## Reception

### Box office

As of November 21, 2023, *Welcome to Toonville* has grossed $206.5 million in the United States and Canada and $241.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $448.1 million.

In the United States and Canada, *Welcome to Toonville* was released alongside *Trolls Band Together,* *Next Goal Wins*, *The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes*, and *Thanksgiving*, and is projected to gross $100–125 million from 4,300 theaters in its opening weekend. However, after the film made $80.1 million on its first day, including $29.3 million from Thursday night previews, projections were increased to as much as $165 million. It ended up making $169.9 million in its opening weekend, the third best for the month of November behind *Rickey the Wicked: Alaxesis* ($237.2 million) and *Black Panther: Wakanda Forever* ($181.3 million).

Overseas, it was expected to make $150–175 million for a worldwide debut of around $250–300 million. Similar to its domestic performance, the film ended up making $194.3 million overseas for a worldwide debut of $364.2 million.

### Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 386 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.35/10. The website's consensus reads: "*Welcome to Toonville* embraces the live-action blend of animation in this colorful and vibrant adventure for audiences of The Strip's most famous cartoons." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 85 out of 100, based on 67 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported that 96% of audience members gave it a positive score, with 89% saying they would definitely recommend it.