The Hero of Color City

**The Hero of Color City** is a 2014 computer-animated film. It follows the story of Yellow, a timid crayon, helping to save her city from a monster.

## Plot

The film opens with six-year-old Ben coloring with his crayons. His mom makes him go to bed before he can finish his drawing of a king and “some sort of flying thing”. Once Ben is asleep, his crayons begin to come to life, including Yellow, who had gotten lost under his bed. The crayons go through a portal in the crayon box to Color City, but Yellow is left behind, and accidentally brings the two drawings to life. The flying thing introduces himself as Gnat, and his companion as King Scrawl (who cannot speak, because Ben never drew him a mouth), and asks her to color them in, but she is afraid of them, particularly Scrawl, and runs away to Color City.

Scrawl and Gnat follow her, and try to kidnap her, but are fought off by Brown, and flee towards the Waterfall. Professor Heliotrope realizes that, if they were to block the flow of the Waterfall, the crayons would be deprived of their color, so a team is assembled (Blue, Green, Red, Black, and White) to stop him. As they are preparing to leave for the Waterfall by boat, Yellow gets on to give them some supplies, and she gets stuck when they cast off. Meanwhile, Scrawl begins to block the dam in order to lure the crayons, and the crayons’ colors start to fade.

As they go to the Waterfall, the boat crashes, and the team must go through a desert. They hear voices telling them to leave, but Yellow is suspicious and sends White (who will be less visible in the white desert) to investigate. He finds that a group of unfinished drawings (Ricky the Dragon, Duck, Cow, Bumblebee, Horse, Astronaut, and Race Car) are hiding in the desert from the Great Waste, a monster that eats unfinished drawings. The drawings lead the crayons out of the desert, and in return, the crayons color them in.

Once at the Waterfall, the team sends Yellow as bait for Scrawl. However, while she is waiting, she is attacked by the Great Waste. Scrawl fends it off, prompting Yellow to wonder whether he really is a monster. She draws him a mouth, and he thanks her, and apologizes for damming the Waterfall. But when she returns to the team to explain the situation, they spring the trap. Scrawl and Gnat believe Yellow had tricked them, while the crayons think Yellow has betrayed them, but Yellow is able to convince the team that Scrawl isn’t a monster.

With the help of the drawings from the desert, and the Great Waste, the dam is destroyed, and the group returns to Color City as heroes. When Ben wakes up, everyone returns to his room, where he finds King Scrawl and Gnat colored in, with Gnat now on Scrawl’s shoulder. He hangs them on his wall, alongside the drawings from the desert. Yellow sees the two on the wall, and all three wink at each other.

## Cast

* Christina Ricci as Yellow
	+ Tara Strong as Yellow's singing voice
* Wayne Brady as Blue
* Rosie Perez as Red
* Jess Harnell as Green
* David Kaye as Black/King Scrawl
* Jeremy Guskin as Professor Heliotrope/White/Grey/Orange
* Craig Ferguson as Gnat
* Tom Lowell as Brown
* Zoë Bright as Madame Pink/Opera Singer
* Owen Wilson as Ricky the Dragon
* Jessica Capshaw as Duck
* Josh Gladstone as Cow
* Sean Astin as Bumblebee
* Laura Lane as Horse
* Frank Gladstone as Refried Bean/Astronaut
* Sophia Eraklis as Purple
* E.G. Daily as Ben/Ben’s Mom/Tutti-Frutti/Neon Lime
* Robin Howard as Tangerine/Periwinkle/Aquamarine
* John D. Eraklis as Navy Blue

## Trivia

* When Ben first draws King Scrawl and Gnat, they are on the same sheet of paper, but not otherwise connected, although Ben says that they’re pals. At the end of the film, Gnat is on King Scrawl’s shoulder.
* While in Ben’s Room as a normal trash can, the Great Waste’s eyes glow red and it makes a roaring noise whenever it is opened. However, this is not present in the world of Color City.
* When a crayon enters the portal to the Color Realm, which already glows, the light at the place where they entered will briefly glow in the color of that crayon. It is not shown whether this happens for drawings.
* The film’s director, Frank Gladstone, voiced Refried Bean and Astronaut. One of its producers, John D. Eraklis, voiced Navy Blue.
* Fans have been complaining and saying that the movie is a terrible rip-off of the 1995 Pixar film Toy Story but it’s actually not a rip-off.