Deck Of Cards

***Deck of Cards*** is a 2015 Marcanese adult computer-animated mystery drama comedy film directed by Jack Spelberg, produced by Spelberg and Aviv Shecem, and written by Megan Ellison, Seth Rogen, and Evan Goldberg. The film centers on anthropomorphic items found at the pawn shop, in which a poker card named Blackjack sets on a quest to discover the truth about his own existence. However, when the King and Queen have gone missing, he summons his friends to search for them while escaping from a psychotic and malicious bottle of hard liquor bent on killing them.

The film's animation was handled by Hydrogen Studios as their first theatrically released computer-animated film. The film was released in the United States on November 15, 2013 followed by a limited theatrical release on July 1, 2016 and later in the United Kingdom on January 10, 2014. It was rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America following a lawsuit over the film's original R rating, and is notable for being the first computer-animated film to be made only for an adult audience.

The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its humor, voice performances, and screenplay. It grossed $439.4 million against a budget of $139 million, becoming the highest grossing PG-13 animated film of all time until *Mega Knight: Demon Slayer* in 2020.

## Plot

Unbeknownst to humans, a store named American Pawn is filled with anthropomorphic pawn shop items who believe that all customers are gods who would take them to their predestined utopia known as the Great Beyond. Among these items is a poker card named Blackjack, who rejects said tradition in favor of being a member of the largest casino league in Las Vegas. This provokes both of his parents, the King and Queen, to sentence him one year of prison after an undecided court case takes place at the pawn shop.

Afterwards, Blackjack and his brother Red Jack get recruited to participate in war service. They decide to take the shopping cart instead, where Blackjack meets his potential love interest Roulette. On their way out of the pawn shop, a returned bottle of mustard oil tries to warn his fellow items that the Great Beyond is not what it is said to be, but nobody listens except Blackjack. Before committing suicide by falling from a nearby bed, Colonel Mustard tells Blackjack to seek out a bottle of liquor named Rummy. Colonel Mustard's suicide provokes a chaotic war between the Cards themselves, after Blackjack, Roulette and several items to fall down along with him, including an Ace, a Yahtzee dice roller, and a nasty, aggressive pint-sized bottle of vodka named Al Wick who, after his cap gets removed, swears revenge on Blackjack and his friends.

Seeking to verify Colonel Mustard's warning, Blackjack leads Roulette, Ace, and Jack Red to the local library. Unbeknownst to his son's whereabouts, the King and Queen get taken captive by some pawns from the Chess army into the hands of an infamous mobster to Las Vegas. Blackjack meets Rummy and learns that Rummy and his colleagues, the Non-Collectibles, created the white lie of the Great Beyond to assuage the items from being kept to a life of gambling and slavery. One of the Non-Collectibles, the Joker, guides Jack to the Mexican aisle where a bottle of cola, who is secretly working for Al, takes Roulette and the others. A lost secret identity card named Goldfinger helps them escape Al, who slams down the Joker.

Meanwhile, at the shopper’s house, Jack Red and Barry are horrified to see the shopper torture all of the items. Barry spots a nearby open window but he is killed from being stabbed in the head by the shopper, leaving Jack to escape alone.

Blackjack and his friends, with the help of Goldfinger, set off to Chinatown where they meet Princess Mahjong, who reveals to them of her being the lost daughter of the King and Queen. With this in mind, they rescue her and reach off to Las Vegas by plane.

Jack Red encounters a human drug addict who becomes able to communicate with his items, one of them being Soap, a Stephen Hawking-like bar of hard soap, after injecting himself with bath salts. However, the bath salts soon wear off and the addict hands over Jack to the mobster, who takes him to a dark room. Jack, having won the game, beheads the mobster and

## Voice cast

* Jack Black as Blackjack, a poker card who sets out to discover and expose the truth about his existence. In an interview with the directors at CinemaCon, Jack Black stated that his role as Blackjack was meant to be a joke. He also voices the Joker.
* Patrick Stewart as King Jack
* Kristen Wiig as Queen Anne
* Seth Rogen as King Red
* Michael Cera as Jack Red
* David Spade as Ace
* Edward Norton as Poker/Yahtzee
* Paul Rudd as Barry, an antique baseball player figure who is Blackjack's best friend and advisor. Rudd also voices Dean, the pawn shop owner.
* Kevin Spacey as the Wallet Man
* Nick Doyle as Al Wick, a psychotic and foul-mouthed bottle of hard liquor and Blackjack's arch-nemesis who is mistaken for an air freshener and seeks revenge on Blackjack for breaking his cap after preventing him from leaving the pawn shop.
* Bill Hader as Rummy, an old British rum who likes playing cards (pun intended). Hader also voiced a Mexican bottle of cola and a ginger ale who seem to be rivals.
* Danny McBride as Colonel Mustard, a bottle of hand sanitizer who tried to warn Blackjack and the other products about the realities of the Great Beyond before jumping to his death.
* Al Pacino as Cassino, leader of the Casino Gang and infamous card playing mobster.
* Robin Wright as Queen May
* James McAvoy as Rookie
* Will Arnett as James P. Goldfinger, a secret agent card reminiscent of James Bond and a inclusive pun on the card game Goldfish.
* Anne Taylor-Joy as Princess Majhong, the daughter of King Jack and Queen
* Chloe Garcia-Moretz as Roulette
* Meryl Streep as Old Maid
* Andy Serkis as Ratscrew

## Reception

### Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 83%