Kate & Chris (2007 film)

***Kate & Chris*** is a 2007 American computer-animated science-fiction fantasy comedy film produced by 20th Century Fox Animation and Scholastic Entertainment. Based on Eric Stern's books of the same name, the film was directed by Rob Letterman and Mike Mitchell, written by Letterman, David Reynolds, Dan Fogelman, Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow from a story by Gary Trousdale, Larry Leker, and Stern, and stars an ensemble voice cast consisting of Mandy Moore, Elijah Wood, Jack Black, Will Ferrell, Danny DeVito, Jon Lovitz, Zooey Deschanel, Maya Rudolph, Justin Long, Steve Buscemi, and Michael Clarke Duncan. In the film, when a human-like space creature lands on Earth, two unlikely teenagers who are outcasts at a local school are willing to return him to his natural home while a mad scientist and an alien chief threaten to capture him and use him to take over the world.

The film was released in the United States on September 28, 2007, by 20th Century Fox, and was produced to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the first book. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its animation, humor and its vocal performances, but criticized the predictable story and writing. The film earned a total of $541.4 million worldwide against a budget of $80 million, and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, later gaining a cult following through television syndication and its home video release. The film was re-released in 3D on March 11, 2016. An animated series that continues the events of the film, titled *Kate & Chris Adventures*, premiered on Fox Family on July 5, 2013. A sequel, set to be directed by Kevin Lima, was planned but was cancelled.

## Plot

In outer space, Doctor Menabba, a mad scientist, is arrested and put on trial by the Xenonship Federation for illegal genetic creation, evidenced by his creation "E.D.D.I.E.", a sentient creature that looks very similar to a regular human being with intelligence, speaking abilities, and strength, but also a propensity to wreak havoc. Menabba is imprisoned while the creature is sentenced to be executed. "E.D.D.I.E" manages to escape on an escape pod and activate its hyperdrive, causing its guidance systems to malfunction and randomly set a course for Earth. Eddie crash-lands on a farm in Eastview, Oregon. Queen Neylly dispatches Menabba and Officer Coobot, the queen's expert on Earth, to the planet to have the alien captured discreetly while the galaxy's oversized militant chief, Chief Rogerator actually wants the alien to conquer the world.

In Eastview, a redheaded young girl named Kate Anderson was running late for school and was in a hurry to get ready. After Kate got finished getting ready, she managed to arrive on time. While at school, she meets a blue-haired boy named Chris McCallister, who acts jealous of Kate, for being smart and her passing classes. However, Chris devises a plan to get Kate in trouble by having his best friend Joey Greenwood disguised as her. They tamper with a new invention, the MegaMachine 9000, made by the school's local snitch, intellectual Chuck Stevens, who was able to catch them thanks to another invention which Mr. Watson asked him to make, the Snitch-Cam 1000. Mr. Watson believed in the disguise and was very shocked that Kate participated in the prank, getting Kate sent to Watson's office and getting detention for 3 weeks.

As Kate tries to sneak back to her room without her mother, Mary Anderson, knowing that she got in trouble, Mary suddenly appears from the kitchen door and punishes Kate and sends her to her room. That same night, Mary apologizes to Kate for getting angry at her and tells her about her teenage life to Kate, explaining to her how she raised her to be a neat and smart teenager. The next day, after crash-landing on the farm, Eddie explores around Eastview City, and later finds the Eastview high school and hides in a closet. Chris finds Eddie and devises another plan to get Mr. Watson back by using Eddie's hypnotizing gun. Kate heads to the office of Watson just as the office literally starts to spin when Watson is put in a trance. After that, Chris commands Watson to be a goofy-looking superhero, and Chris soon learns the severity of his doings when Watson begins causing some problems such as punching a mime in the face and wreaking chaos around Eastview. Kate, Eddie, and Chris take Watson away to his house before the cops get to him.

The next day at school, Kate and Chris need to have Eddie pretend and dress up exactly like Mr. Watson in order to keep up appearances. Eddie's sudden new personality change even manages to attract the attention and affection of the high school's lunch lady, Jenny. is visited by an odd scientist named Dum-Dum, or as he calls himself Professor DD. Eddie (disguised as Watson) hires him to be a new teacher, but Kate and Chris are suspicious of him due to his short-tempered behavior. With Eddie as principal, the school is a more lively place, with a funfair being set up in the schoolyard. However, things get chaotic as Eddie starts feeding the students tons of candy, and Kate and Chris want in on it. This turns out to be a bad idea as they experience a strong sugar rush, leading Eddie to his own devices. He tries to drive a bus through a ring of fire over a ramp, but he rides the bus backwards into a ferris wheel, which comes loose and rolls towards the school, destroying half of it. Eddie then regrets what he did and runs away to the city's biker bar. Kate and Chris later find Eddie, as he compiles a "bucket list" of the things he'd like to do on Earth, but becomes sad when he realizes he might not be able to do them since aliens are hunting him down. Kate encourages Eddie to try to do as much as he can right where they are, and the three take a while to enjoy themselves with all the bar's activities. Unfortunately, a group of rough-looking punks comes looking for trouble and Eddie aggravates their leader, starting a bar fight. The leader of the punks attacks Eddie, but with his alien powers, he speeds up his awareness, saving Kate and Chris. The three flee the bar, outrunning angry patrons and spending the night at Kate's house.

Later that night, Chris, Eddie, Cole, and Joey teach a lesson to Chuck, for getting Chris in trouble as well as Kate, using alien costumes to scare him, eluding the police along the way. After Kate found out about Chris being chased by the police on the news, she gets angry at him and tells him he will never be happy if he spends his life partying and pranking without acting more maturely. Chris apologizes to her, and makes a promise to her. Dum-Dum finds Chuck and uses him as part of his evil plan by scanning his brain and learns that he has the part in the brain about seeing a human-like alien. This becomes crucial to his plan.

The next morning, Neylly relieves Menabba and Coobot of their assignment, where the two find Eddie at Kate's house. A fight ensues, which destroys the house. Dum-Dum then finds Kate and Chris and knows about the alien, but as Kate tries to stand up against Dum-Dum, he sends the two teens to a canyon river by using a teleportation gun. Dum-Dum and Rogerator finally capture Eddie and they both use him for their new conjoined plan. Kate and Chris both end up in the river, ensuing in a heated argument between the two. After the argument, Kate confesses that she loved Chris, and loved his pranks and his party shenanigans, and the two finally reconcile with each other. While the two nearly plummet to their deaths down a waterfall, Kate saves Chris as they embrace and kiss before traveling back to Eastwood. Dum-Dum tries to take over the town with a giant version of the MegaMachine 9000, fueled by the high school cafeteria's leftovers left out by Jenny– and uses Chuck's brain to turn the students into glum zombies, where a few minutes later a whole fleet of alien ships from the Xenonship descends on the city and start what appears to be an invasion. As the aliens rampage through Eastview, vaporizing everything in their path, Kate and Chris find Eddie at the Eastview park, where Eddie reveals his alien identity before Rogerator and Dum-Dum capture Kate and Eddie, where Chris must seek Cole, Menabba, Coobot, Joey, and Eva Clark for help. Chris, Cole, Menabba, Coobot, Joey, and Eva all give chase to Rogerator's spaceship in Menabba's spaceship and rescue Kate and Eddie.

Back on the ground, Eddie finally acquires superpowers and, with Kate and Chris' help, defeats and shrinks Dum-Dum, though he escapes on a moth shortly thereafter. Rogerator seizes control of the Xenonship and tries to destroy the teenagers, only to have Eddie help make the ship collapse off a mountain, causing Rogerator, who is trapped inside the ship, to fall to his death. Later that day, Neylly arrives on Earth and prepares to take Eddie to the newly moved alien jail, but Kate and Chris insist that because he saved the world, he cannot be taken away. Impressed with Eddie's newfound civility and empathy, Neylly goes against the prior decision of the Xenonship Federation and decrees that Eddie will live in exile on Earth. He will be entrusted to the care of Kate and her mother. Also, feeling that Mr. Watson would be nicer if he had friends, Kate and Chris set him and lovesick Jenny up on a date, thus making Watson have a change of heart. However, the toxic waste from the giant MegaMachine 9000 transforms all the appliances and electronics into an army of evil robots that attack the restaurant at which Watson and Jenny are dining. Eddie suddenly appears, carrying Kate and Chris away to help him fight them, much to Jenny's surprise and admiration.

In a post-credits scene, Kate and Chris realize that the secretary, whom Chris put her on the phone before by faking a challenge of $10 million, has been on the phone for the entire film, so they shut off the call, making the secretary angry.

## Cast

* Mandy Moore as Kate Anderson, a smart, trustworthy, funny, and clever 17-year old girl
* Elijah Wood as Chris McCallister,  a sarcastic, wise-cracking, arrogant, and somewhat bossy 16-year-old boy.
* Jack Black as Eddie, a comical, magical, shape-shifting, wise-cracking human-like space creature who tries to blend in.
* Justin Long as Chuck Stevens, a intelligent 14-year old boy.
* Will Ferrell as Professor Dum-Dum, a mad scientist who wants to capture Eddie and use him for his projects.
* Zooey Deschanel as Eva Clark, Kate's best friend.
* Michael Clarke Duncan as Chief Rogerator
* Danny DeVito as Dr. Menabba
* Jon Lovitz as Officer Coobot
* Steve Buscemi as Mr. Watson, the principal of Eastview High School.
* Maya Rudolph as Mary Anderson, Kate's loving overprotective mother who cares so much about her only daughter.
* Seann William Scott as Joey Greenwood, Chris' best friend.
* Chris Rock as Cole Jefferson, one of Chris' friends.
* Allison Janney as Ms. McRobbs, the secretary at Eastview High School.
* Jeffrey Tambor as Mr. Monty, one of the teachers at Eastview High School
* Joan Cusack as Jenny the Lunch Lady, the lunch lady at Eastview High School who falls in love with Mr. Watson.
* Mike Mitchell as a police officer and a mime
* Dan Castellaneta as Nobel Prize Audience Member
* Mona Marshall as Nobel Prize Moderator
* Jeff Garcia as Timothy, a student who is seen frequently throughout the movie hiding in his own locker
* Dan Fogler as Mr. Warren, the science teacher at Eastview High School who got fired by Mr. Watson.

### Additional voices

* Stephen Apostolina
* Kirk Baily
* Bob Bergen
* David Cowgill
* Eddie Frierson
* Jessica Gee-George
* Johnny Gidcomb
* Jackie Gonneau
* Nicholas Guest
* Jennifer Hale
* Lex Lang
* Caitlin McKenna
* Paul Pape
* Philip Proctor
* Al Rodrigo
* Fred Tatasciore
* Marcelo Tubert
* Kari Wahlgren
* Lynnanne Zager

## Production

Paramount Pictures acquired the rights to produce and distribute a film based on Kate & Chris in 1999. In October 2000, an animated film was announced as a joint venture between Paramount and Scholastic Entertainment. It would be produced by John Cohen and written by Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow, while ??? would executive produce. According to ???, the film was set to be made by ???. In March 2002, Paramount said the film was scheduled for late 2004. In the beginning of 2003, the film's release date was taken over by Paramount's other films, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Rob Letterman and Mike Mitchell were hired in 2003 to direct it. Series creator Eric Stern wrote the story alongside Disney veterans Gary Trousdale and Larry Leker.

In September 2004, it was reported that Columbia Pictures and 20th Century Fox were interested in acquiring the rights after Paramount put the film into turnaround; however, Columbia decided not to proceed with the bidding. In October 2004, Fox announced that it would acquire the rights from Paramount. Most of the production team remained unchanged. In February 2005, it was announced that the movie would be released in summer 2007, produced by 20th Century Fox Animation.

In October 2005, it was announced Mandy Moore and Elijah Wood were cast as the two titular protagonists along with other cast members including Jack Black, Will Ferrell, Danny DeVito, Jon Lovitz, Zooey Deschanel, Maya Rudolph, Justin Long, Seann William Scott, Chris Rock, Steve Buscemi, and Michael Clarke Duncan.

## Music

The film's score was composed by John Powell and Mark Mothersbaugh. The soundtrack was released on September 25, 2007 by Varèse Sarabande.

## Marketing

McFarlane Toys released a line of action figures and plushies based on the film, Nintendo produced a limited edition Kate & Chris-themed Nintendo DS, to coincide with the film's DVD release, and Windows Live Messenger presented their users with the opportunity to download a free animated and static content for use within their conversations.

Burger King promoted the film with a set of 5 kids' meal toys featuring the characters from the film.

The teaser trailer was released on June 30, 2006, and was later attached to theatrical screenings of *Puppet Pals*; and it was later shown with *Flushed Away*, *Happy Feet*, *Night at the Museum*, and *The Princess and the Pied Piper*. The second trailer was released on March 30, 2007, and was attached to *Meet the Robinsons*, *Firehouse Dog*, *Shrek the Third*, and *Ratatouille*.

The film's final trailer was released on July 13, 2007 and was attached to screenings of *The Alpha Squad: Magic Mayhem*, *The Simpsons Movie*, *Upside Mystery*, and *Mr. Bean's Holiday.*

TV spots began to air between August and September of 2007.

A video game based on the film has been released for the Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, PC, and Nintendo DS and was developed by Heavy Iron Studios and published by THQ on September 25, 2007.

## Release

*Kate & Chris* was originally scheduled to be released sometime in late 2004 by Paramount Pictures, but in February 2005, shortly after taking over the rights, 20th Century Fox rescheduled it to June 15, 2007. In May 2006, the release date was delayed to September 28, 2007 to avoid competition with other films releasing in summer 2007, with Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer taking its June slot.

Kate & Chris had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2007, and was released widely on September 28. The film was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for "sci-fi action and peril, rude humor and brief mild language".

### Home media

*Kate & Chris* was released on DVD andParamount Picturesebruary 5, 2008, and it includes a sneak preview of the 2008 Fox animated film *Wild Forest*, a gallery of concept art and posters, a 14-minute making-of documentary, DVD-ROM features, a 5.1 isolated sound effects track, trailers and TV spots, deleted scenes, and a THX optimizer on the DVD. It also included a 6-minute short film titled *Kate & Chris Save Xmas*, which takes place after the film. Kate & Chris was released to DVD the same day that Blue Sky's *The Heroes*went on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

It was later re-released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray 3D, and Digital HD on December 12, 2017 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

As of September 16, 2018, the film is available to watch on Netflix.

## Reception

### Critical Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 83% based on 128 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "With a tidy plot, clean animation, and crazy humor that fits its source material snugly, *Kate & Chris* is entertainment that won't drive a wedge between family members. On Metacritic, it received a score of 72 out of 100, based on 75 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale.

Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a gave a positive review saying, "Fox Animation's slapstick animated adaptation of the philosophically satiric book series... is a lot of laughs and boasts a much tighter story than most animated features."

Kyle Smith of the New York Post gave the film three out of four stars, saying that "*Kate & Chris* is not only a great kids movie, but it is an enthusiastic movie with perfect moments that live up to its plot as well as other Fox Animation hits like Puppet Pals and Ice Age."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying "*Kate & Chris* is a truly touching and hilarious family adventure with a blast of humor and soundtrack, as well as a comical plot from the folks at Twentieth Century Fox Animation."

James Rocchi of MSN Movies gave the film a negative review,  "If it's even not as good as the *Kate & Chris* books, The film adaptation is a complete disaster to the book series for the fans. I don't even care if the animation is good and the characters have their usual selves from the books, it's just awful that Fox Animation should be shamed of themselves, while Richard Corliss of *Time Magazine* also gave a negative review and called it "insidious nonsense from Hollywood", and accused Hollywood of "trying to indoctrinate children".

### Box Office

*Kate & Chri*s opened in 3,914 North American theaters on Friday, September 14, 2007, opening alongside *The Brave One*, *Mr. Woodcock*, and *Dragon Wars*. The film grossed $65.7 million on its first day, the biggest opening day for an animated film at the time, with $121.6 million in its first weekend, the best opening weekend ever for an animated film, and the fifth-highest opening for a 2007 film in the United States and Canada, and it went on to be at No. 1 at the box office for the next two weekends. At the time, its opening weekend was the third-highest of all time in these regions.

Kate & Chris grossed $308.2 million in the United States, and $357.6 million overseas, bringing its cumulative total to $665.8 million. The film was the fourth-highest-grossing film worldwide of 2007, and the third-highest-grossing film in the United States and Canada that year. In addition, it was the third-highest-grossing animated film of 2007 (behind *Shrek the Third*). The film sold an estimated 43,367,214 tickets in North America, with the film later closing on January 17, 2008.

The film was released in the United Kingdom on November 2, 2007, and topped the country's box office for the next two weekends, before being dethroned by *American Gangster*.