Mike, Lu & Og: Journey Back to Manhattan

Theatrical release poster

***Mike, Lu & Og: Journey Back to Manhattan*** (released internationally in some markets as ***Mike, Lu & Og's 1st Movie***) is a 2005 American animated musical adventure comedy film based on the Cartoon Network television series *Mike, Lu & Og*. Produced by Cartoon Network Studios and Kinofilm and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is the fourth feature film from Cartoon Network, as well as Kinofilm's first and only theatrical film. The film was directed by series creators Mikhail Shindel and Mikhail Aldashin, and Norton Virgien. It features the series' regular television cast of Nika Futterman, Nancy Cartwright, Dee Bradley Baker, Alison Larkin, Brian George, Corey Burton, Martin Rayner, S. Scott Bullock, and Kath Soucie with Chris Wedge, Josh Hutcherson (his voice acting debut), Val Kilmer, Melanie Chartoff, Zach Tyler Eisen, and Djimon Hounsou (his animated film debut) portraying new characters. With the series ended in 2001, the film serves as the series finale of *Mike, Lu & Og* and serves as their final send off.

Warner Bros. theatrically released the film in the United States on January 28, 2005 and internationally on February 3, 2005. The film grossed $106 million worldwide and was a moderate box-office success, but it received generally mixed-to-negative reviews from critics, mainly due to the stale humor, Lu's arrogant mean-spirited nature dialed up to eleven, signs of animal abuse with Lu treating Lancelot like dirt, slow pacing, and inconsistent story. However, the voice acting, music score, ending and animation was praised, and the soundtrack single "Be Good to Me" became the modest chart single of Ashley Tisdale's career.

## Plot

After being tired of living in Albonquetine, Mike finally decides to go back to her hometown, Manhattan. With the help of her friends, Lu and Og, she'll might need all the help she can get.

## Cast

* Nika Futterman as Mike Mazinsky
* Nancy Cartwright as Princess Lulu Belisimo
* Dee Bradley Baker as Og
* Chris Wedge as Lancelot
* Josh Hutcherson as Dylan
* Kath Soucie as Margery
* S. Scott Bullock as Wendell and Baggis
* Jim Cummings (replacing Dee Bradley Baker) as Goat
* Kari Wahlgren (replacing Kath Soucie) as Pig
* Val Kilmer as Rick Mazinsky
* Melanie Chartoff as Sarah Mazinsky
* Zach Tyler Eisen as Harry Mazinsky
* Djimon Hounsou as Omondi
* Martin Rayner as Alfred, Spiney, and Mate
* Corey Burton as Old Queeks and Bos'n
* Alison Larkin as Hermoine
* Brian George as Captain and Haggis
* Eric Bana as the Coast Guard
* Sting as Billy Powers

## Production

### Development

Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. Pictures had approached series creators Mikhail Shindel, Mikhail Aldashin and Charles Swenson for a film based on the show, and accepted the offer in 2002. They assembled a team from the show's writing staff, including Michael Ryan, and Lance Khazei, as well as *Rugrats* show-writers Kate Boutilier and Mark Risley. It was once expected to be released in 2004 under the title *The Mike, Lu & Og Movie*.

In November 2003, Warner Bros. Pictures and Cartoon Network revealed the film's new title to be *Mike, Lu & Og: Journey Back to Manhattan*, which would be produced by Igor Gelashvili and Artem Vasilyev. In March 2004, it was announced that Swenson would be added as a story writer.

### Casting

The series' regular voice actors: Nika Futterman, Nancy Cartwright and Dee Bradley Baker, as well as semi-regular performers Alison Larkin, Brian George, Corey Burton, Martin Rayner, S. Scott Bullock, and Kath Soucie, reprised their roles. By February 2004, it was later announced that Chris Wedge, Josh Hutcherson, Val Kilmer, Melanie Chartoff, Zach Tyler Eisen, and Djimon Hounsou would play new characters, respectively, and Sting would appear as fictional singer Billy Powers.

### Animation

There were a number of stages involved in the making of the film, beginning with a rough animation process of ideas drawn on Post-it notes. The writers drew, working from rough outlines rather than scripts. The storyboard artists, including Alexander Guriev, then illustrated ideas conceived by the writers. In the series David Breffitt and Darryn Smith do the animatics, but *Rugrats* animator Jesse Gutierrez did the animatics for the film. Joanna Romersa and Robert Alvarez were the film's animation-timing directors, concentrating on the sheets. *Mike, Lu & Og: Journey Back to Manhattan* was animated at Nic Entertainment in South Korea. The animators used DigiCel FlipBook, the traditional animation software that can take character models and composite them into 2D. It also helps the designers and artists to give the animation a right layout. The animators worked semi-digitally; pencil-drawn poses would be composited into layouts in Photoshop.

Series writer and storyboard artist Slava Ushakov left the show for a year to work on *The Wild Thornberrys Movie*, but returned to do storyboards and character layout for the film. He "always wanted to be a feature animator, and the movie felt like I was on the character animation end", describing the experience as "a blast it felt like coming home."

Shindel, Aldashin and Swenson enjoyed the process of making the film: "The TV schedule is tight, and you don't always have a lot of time to work on your drawings." They appreciated the film's hand-drawn animation: "We think the movie's drawings are much superior than the TV show", although CGI animation was flourishing at the time of the film's release. "There's a lot of talk about 2-D being dead, and We hope people don't think that. Even Ellen Woodbury is a proponent of 2-D. She would agree with us that it's all about what you're trying to say. There are many ways to tell a story, and what's unique about animation is that there are many styles with which to tell a story."

## Music

*Main article: Mike, Lu & Og: Journey Back to Manhattan: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture*
The single from the film's soundtrack "Be Good to Me" is performed by Ashley Tisdale. The song became Tisdale's modest charting song in the US at number 80, becoming her only Pop 100 song in the nation. It spent two weeks on the *Billboard* Hot 100, and peaked during its following week on the chart. Other tracks included a cover of The Police's "Message in a Bottle" (by Less Than Jake), "We're Getting What's Coming to Us" (by The Goo Goo Dolls), "I Never Back Down" (by Sting), "Another Life" (by Third Eye Blind), "Island in the Sun" (by Linkin Park), "La Fête au Village" (by Amadou & Mariam) and "Feel the Breeze" (by Kylie Minogue). The film version of the theme song was performed by the Red Elvises.

There was also an original scoring soundtrack featuring most of James Newton Howard's scores from the film.

## Release

*Mike, Lu & Og: Journey Back to Manhattan* was released on January 28, 2005, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was originally set for November 12, 2004, but was pushed back to December 24, 2004, then January 7, 2005 to avoid competition with *The Aviator*, and later January 28, 2005.

*Mike, Lu & Og: Journey Back to Manhattan* was preceded by *A Day Without Magic*, a five-minute short film based on Judd Winick's forthcoming *The Life and Times of Juniper Lee* television series.

### Marketing

The first trailer was released theatrically in early 2004 with *Home on the Range*. A second trailer debuted during the 2004 Summer Kick-Off Awards. They showed segments on Cartoon Network called "Playground Players" where kids would play Mike, Lu, and Og and act out scenes from the film. There was a contest held for the lucky winners to be Mike, Lu & Og for a day and go to the film's premiere. The song Another Life by Third Eye Blind was used to help promote the movie.

### Video game

A video game based on the film was released on December 17, 2004 on PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X.

### Home media

*Mike, Lu & Og: Journey Back to Manhattan* was released on VHS and DVD on May 10, 2005.

## Reception

### Box office

*Mike, Lu & Og: Journey Back to Manhattan* has grossed $55.3 million in the United States and Canada and $40.1 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $106 million.

### Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 29% based on 118 reviews and an average rating of 4.45/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Although it has stayed faithful to the source material of the show and has breath-taking animation, *Mike, Lu & Og: Journey Back to Manhattan* is an hour and a half of boring, worthless, obnoxious, padded-out garbage."

## Trivia

* This is the fourth Cartoon Network theatrical film.
* The first Warner Bros. animated film to be released in January.
* The seventh Warner Bros. animated film of 2000s to be produced in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, after *Pokémon The Movie 2000*, *Pokémon 3: The Movie*, *The Powerpuff Girls Movie,* *Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, Clifford's Really Big Movie*, *Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light* and *The Ed, Edd n Eddy Movie*.
* This is the sixth Warner Bros. animated film of 2000s to be rated PG by the MPAA, after *Osmosis Jones*, *The Powerpuff Girls Movie*, *Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi*, *Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light*, *The Ed, Edd n Eddy Movie*.
* The eighth Warner Bros. animated film to be rated PG by the MPAA, after *Twice Upon a Time*, *Batman: Mask of the Phantasm*, *Space Jam, The Iron Giant, Osmosis Jones, The Powerpuff Girls Movie, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light* and *The Ed, Edd n Eddy Movie*.
* The film was released on VHS and DVD on May 10, 2005, by Warner Home Video.
* In theaters, a *The Life and Times of Juniper Lee* short entitled *A Day Without Magic* was shown prior to the film.
* This is the third Cartoon Network theatrical film to have a box office success.
* This is the first and last time where Lu has given Lancelot to Mike, because she regrets treating Lancelot like dirt.
* This movie reveals that Lu has been exploiting Og, and her pet turtle, Lancelot, for decades, even before Mike gets dumped to Albonquetine.
* Some of the sounds Lancelot makes are reused Scrat sound effects.
* The seventh Warner Bros. animated musical film, after *Gay Purr-ee*, *Rover Dangerfield*, *Thumbelina*, *A Troll in Central Park*, *Quest for Camelot*, *The King and I* and *Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi*.
* The film made $106 million dollars at the box office on a $23 million dollar budget.

## 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.

## Credits

*Main article: Mike, Lu & Og: Journey Back to Manhattan/Credits*