Kate & Chris (2007 film)

***Kate & Chris*** is a 2007 American computer-animated buddy musical fantasy comedy-drama film produced by Fox Feature Animation and Scholastic Entertainment, and based on Eric Stern's books of the same name. The film was directed by Rob Letterman and Mike Mitchell and produced by Chris Jenkins and stars an ensemble voice cast consisting of Mandy Moore, Elijah Wood, Jack Black, Zooey Deschanel, Maya Rudolph, Justin Long, Steve Buscemi, and Will Ferrell

The film was released by 20th Century Fox on September 28, 2007, and was produced to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the first book. It received mixed reviews from critics and but praised its humor and its vocal performances, particularly of Moore, Wood, Black, Rudolph, Buscemi, Lovitz, and Ferrell. The film earned a total of $512.2 million worldwide against a budget of $70 million. A sequel titled *Kate & Chris: Back in Action* was released on April 6, 2018.

## 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, wise-cracking human-like space creature who tries to blend in into Earth.
* Justin Long as Chuck Stevens, a intelligent 14-year old boy.
* Will Ferrell as Professor Dum-Dum
* 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.
* Allison Janney as TBA
* Richard Kind as TBA
* Jon Lovitz as TBA
* Michael Clarke Duncan as TBA
* Zach Braff as TBA
* Zooey Deschanel as Eva Clark, a friend of Kate
* Jeffrey Tambor as Mr. Monty
* Joan Cusack as Jenny the Lunch Lady
* Jim Ward (*uncredited*) as a police officer
* Jeff Bennett (*uncredited*) as TBA
* Dan Fogler as Mr. Warren
* Additional voices are provided by
	+ S. Scott Bullock
	+ Rodger Bumpass
	+ Dan Castellaneta
	+ Susanne Blakeslee
	+ Bob Bergen
	+ Jill Talley
	+ Mike Bell
	+ John Cygan
	+ Laura Marano
	+ Madison Davenport
	+ Debi Derryberry
	+ Laraine Newman
	+ Ariel Winter
	+ Bill Farmer
	+ Tara Strong
	+ Zachary Gordon
	+ Chris Renaud

## 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 7 kids' meal toys featuring the characters from the film.

* The official teaser was released on March 31, 2006, and was shown before *Ice Age: The Meltdown*, *The Wild, Over the Hedge*, *X-Men: The Last Stand,* *Cars, Puppet Pals, Logan and Luke, Monster House, The Ant Bully,* and *Barnyard.*
* The first theatrical trailer was released on September 29, 2006, and was shown before *Open Season, Flicka, Flushed Away, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Happy Feet, and Charlotte's Web*.
* The second theatrical trailer was released on December 22, 2006, and was shown before *Night at the Museum, Bridge to Terabithia, TMNT, Meet the Robinsons, and Firehouse Dog*.
* TV spots began to air between March and early April 2007.

A video game based on the film has been released for the Wii, GameCube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, PC and Nintendo DS on September 25, 2007.

## Release

In the United States, *Kate & Chris* premiered on September 8, 2007, in Westwood, Los Angeles, and was released on September 28, 2007. The film's theatrical release was accompanied by a Ice Age short film No Time For Nuts. *Kate & Chris* was digitally re-mastered into the IMAX format (IMAX DMR) and was released on the same day in IMAX theaters around the world and conventional 35mm screens. The film was initially scheduled for release on May 4, 2007, but in September 2006, but was pushed back to September 28, 2007.

A montage of "outtakes" were made and included in the end credits of the film starting on October 26, 2007.

### Home media

*Kate & Chris* was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on January 22, 2008, and it includes a sneak preview of the 2008 Fox animated film *Wild Forest*, a gallery of concept art and posters, a 16-minute making-of documentary, DVD-ROM features, a 5.1 isolated sound effects track, trailers and TV spots, and deleted scenes.

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

## Reception

### Critical reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 59% based on 146 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "*Kate & Chris* is cute and funny enough, but the colorful humor of the book gets lost with the zany Hollywood production values". On Metacritic, it received a score of 48 out of 100, based on 77 critics, indicating "mixed or average 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."

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 insult to the book series for the fans. I don't even care if the CGI 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".

## Notes

1. ↑ On March 20, 2019, the film's distribution rights were purchased by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.