Marco 3

*Marco 3* is a 2015 3D Marcanese-American computer animated action comedy spy film distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment, Columbia Pictures, and Universal Pictures; and produced by Actors 3D Entertainment & Anaya Animation. The third installment in the *Marco* franchise, *Marco 3* is directed by Chris Melendari & Chris Renaud and produced by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, with screenplay by Ron Greenburg and story by Louis Armand. Bill Hader, Will Smith, and the original voice cast return, along with newcomers Benjamin Bratt, Miranda Cosgrove, Dev Patel, Ken Jeong, Mel Brooks, and several others. In *Marco 3,* Marco becomes an inventor and teams up with his friends once again to defeat a corporation tyrant who wants to take over Houston. The film was released on July 10, 2015 and recieved universal acclaim from critics; whom consider it to be an improvement over its predecessor. *Marco 3* was also a box office hit, becoming the highest-grossing Marcanese animated film of all time, until *Josh Samuel 3* in 2017.

## Marco 3

### Starring

Bill HaderWill Smith

Emma Stone

Pierre Coffin

Mel Gibson

Jason Sudekis

Julia Sawalha

Renee Zellweger

Danny DeVito

Kristen Bell

Benjamin Bratt

Miranda Cosgrove

Mel Brooks

Dev Patel

Keegan Michael-Key

Ken Jeong

Tony Hale

## Plot

At Houston, the police go in pursuit of a unknown villain. Marco tours around downtown Houston, and sees his siblings at Total Plaza. While their parents talk with the mayor, Marco & his close friends go to McDonald's. When the police mistake Marco for the villain, they go after them. The police end up on the rotating door and Marco tells them the truth. Marco makes an announcement to the kids and heads back home with his siblings to convince their parents to head to Surfside Beach. The parents agree, and invite Joaquin's family to come along with them. They arrive to the beach and have a good time. Afterwards, they go to King Palace, a Chinese buffet owned by Marco's uncle. While eating, Marco gets a fortune cookie and reads the paper inside, which greenlit Marco's job as inventor. He creates various inventions: paint sprayer, more Flying Vans, a remote-controlled TV robot, Super Automatic Food Replicator, Super Mega-Sized Snowcone Machine, a Refrimicroven, among others...but they all failed.

One day Marco, with the help of Joaquin & Emiliano, invents the FARB (Flying Atomic Radiation Bomb) as a safer replacement to dynamite. Marco accidentally pressed the 'launch' button and went berserk flying all around the city. Marco & his cousins try to stop it, but ends up exploding Emmanuel's office. John rebukes him and the mob turns against him as well. Trying to recover from his failures, Marco pleads with Emmanuel, but the latter rejects him and sends him away from Riva Corporation. Marco & his family go camp at Oak Thicket Park, where Marco & his siblings see Kevin and the rest; along with Erick, Rachelle, and the others at Lake Fayette. Later, Marco & his friends go to Brian's birthday and celebrate. The next day, they (with Kevin & Marlene) attend church; but the masked villain breaks in and steals church offering hidden in a locker and goes away. The pastor sees that the money was stolen, and Marco & his friends go after the wrongdoer. Marco & his siblings go to Willowbrook Mall; Erick & his team decide to go downtown. When they arrive to Apple, Marco sees the villain and speeds up after him, causing the mall cops to go capture them both. At a clothing store, Marco dresses up as an old lady so that the cops won't get him, going up the escalators. He almost gets the criminal, who's escaped to The Salvation Army. Meanwhile, the little kids enter a disco contest and win a trip to the movie theater; and also gaining profit for selling FARBs to customers as fireworks. Remembering what Pepe & Kevin told him before, Marco recruits his friends and go to CenterPoint Energy Tower, where Erick brought a Astrosuit from NASA for Marco, much to Marco's surprise. When he again sees the masked villain, Marco uses it and sets out to get him but again he failed. Suddenly, he listens to Angel on the phone that Marco's uncle died. Marco begins to feel deep grief and he & his siblings go back home. He gets comforted by Pepe when he sings in front of him & his friends, to his parents' appreciation; and later gains self-confidence, reassures his friends, and they all weld the Megarocket. Marco promises Marlene that he will come back, and the team send off Marco & his cousins to Houston. After the Megarocket gets out of control, Marco & his cousins see that Emmanuel was robbing a bank, and reveals to them that he's the masked villain. Marco's friends arrive, and Emmanuel gets on the helicopter with John. Marco & his friends chase them through the underground tunnel system and then to the interstate highway. Pepe & Kevin track down John, who lands on Buffalo Bayou after the helicopter's explosion; and Marco defeats Emmanuel with his paint sprayer, who also falls down the bayou only to get caught by the police. The police attach Emmanuel to a FARB and send him away. Marco gets a hug from his friends & Marlene and they all start dancing & singing; Riva Corporation goes bankrupt, Joaquin & Emiliano give back the money to the church, and everyone celebrates another party at home. The next morning, Marco & his old friends sadly waved goodbye to their new friends, who were moving out to another area. Kevin & Marlene thank Marco & his siblings for their friendship.

The film ends with Emmanuel being stuck in Antarctica with a group of penguins embracing him. He says: "Oh no! Why? Why I do I have to be *lonely* with these...birds?!" ending the movie with a laugh track from Joaquin & Emiliano.

## Cast

* Bill Hader as Marco
* Will Smith as Pepe
* Emma Stone as Isabela
* Pierre Coffin as Joaquin & Emiliano, the little kids, Brian, and the 'new kids', including Andre.
* Mel Gibson as Kevin
* Jason Sudekis as Josue
* Julia Sawalha as Melissa
* Renee Zellweger as Marlene
* Danny DeVito as Derek
* Kristen Bell as Fabi
* Benjamin Bratt as Emmanuel, the greedy, corrupt kid CEO of Riva Corporation and also the twist villain of the film.
* Dev Patel as Erick, an inventor and former executive of Riva who becomes friends with Marco & the others. He has the same personalities/interests as Marco.
* Miranda Cosgrove as Rachelle, a young girl who's friends with Isabela.
* Mel Brooks as Uncle Chapulin, the owner of King Palace and Marco's uncle who always gives candy.
* Ken Jeong as Mr. Chang, a waiter at King Palace who gives fortune cookies to everyone
* Keegan Michael-Key as John, Emmanuel's older brother/henchman.
* Tony Hale as Mr. Mime
* Leonard Martin as Jason
* Adrien Brody as Angel, another friend of Marco.
* Demi Riva as Ximena, Emmanuel & John's good-natured sister.

Additional Voices

* Glori Amanda
* Edward Augustus-John
* Roswell Elene
* Elbis Maria Velasco
* Joaquin Alvarez
* Gabrielle Alvarez
* Lillian Hermide
* Javer Hermide
* Joseph Ramon-Martino
* Clementine Mare
* David Dunn

## Popular culture references/cameos

Like its predecessor, *Marco 3* also borrowed from pop culture, but with cameos from other Actors 3D films. Cameos include: Josh Samuel, Alex Tadashi & Abby Sanchez from *Lego,* and Ducky from *Beast Flock. Marco 3* also parodied other science-fiction and spy related movies.

## Production

In 2014, Phil Lord & Christopher Miller confirmed that *Marco 3* was in the works and that Universal Pictures would also be in charge of distribution. Rob Greenburg was hired to do the screenplay, while Louis Armand did the story. The film would have Marco become an inventor and use those inventions to track down another supervillain. As of 2015, the film was already done.

### Animation

The animation was handled by Anaya Animation using 3DRender. Some of the biggest challenges for the animation team was to make special effects (like the film's stunt & chase scenes) and visual effects (such as making Downtown Houston carefully with details and textures).

### Casting

The original voice cast returned for the third film (except for Williams, who died in 2014 and Mel Gibson replaced him as Kevin). Ken Jeong was originally to voice Emmanuel but took the role as Mr. Chang, and Benjamin Bratt voiced Emmanuel instead. Miranda Cosgrove joined in as Rachelle, Mel Brooks as Uncle Chapulin, Dev Patel as Erick, and Keegan Michael-Key as John. Adrien Brody, Leonard Martin, and Demi Riva came later.

### Marketing

A month before the film's release, a blimp of Emiliano called the "Emi-blimp" toured around Marco Island from May 30, 2015 to June 29, 2015, offering candy bags from the sky and a free ride on the blimp. McDonald's included 8 Happy Meal toys for the film. NBC aired commercials of *Marco 3* on its paid programming. Other companies sponsored the film: GMC, Sony, Reebok, Kraft-Heinz, Best Buy, Hasbro, H-E-B, Southwest Airlines, Bank Of America, Nintendo, LG, Coca-Cola, NASA, Apple, Reliant Energy, and Hyatt.

* The official trailer was released on December 19, 2014 and was shown before *Annie, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, Paddington, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, Cinderella, Home,* and *Inside Out.*

## Soundtrack

The soundtrack for *Marco 3* was released on June 25, 2015 by Universal Music Group.

## Release

*Marco 3* was released on June 24, 2015 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The film was released theatrically July 10, 2015. *Marco 3* was released to home video August 29, 2015.

*Marco 3* is rated PG by the MPAA for "action, mild rude humor, and thematic elements."

## Reception

### Box Office

*Marco 3* grossed $569 million on the United States & Marco Island, and grossed $650 million on other countries for a worldwide total of $2.19 billion over a $250 million budget. Along with *Minions,* the film finished #1 at the box office. It became the highest-grossing animated film of 2015, as well as the highest-grossing animated film of all time until *Josh Samuel 3* in 2017.

### Critical response

*Marco 3* was universally acclaimed by critics: who praised its animation, new characters, humor, plot, soundtrack, voice acting, action scenes, and its emotional depth; some consider it as an improvement over its predecessor. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a "Certified Fresh" score of 98% based on 145 reviews with an average rating of 9.5/10. The website's consensus reads, "As good as the original is, this 'threequel' is yet another inventive comedy that's a surprising hit for all ages." Another website, Metacritic, gave the film a score of 94 out of 100 based on 83 critics, indicating "universal acclaim." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a average grade of "A+", just like the original film. Many fans and audiences consider this one to be the best film in the franchise.

Richard Roeper of *The Chicago Sun-Times* found it "as creative as 2006's *Lego* and as surprisingly moving as the original film" Peter Bradshaw from *The Guardian* commended the action, humor, and emotional depth, "Of course the action scenes were amazing and the humor's very good, but I got delighted at seeing Marco & his friends once again show humanity in this film" Francisca Ortega from the *Houston Chronicle* gave the film 5 stars, "Gorgeously animated, action-packed with new characters and a huge heart, *Marco 3* is the most imaginative comedy of the year" Michael Phillips of the *Chicago Tribune* gave the film 4 stars, "Hader & the gang do it again, but this time with Benjamin Bratt and Mel Brooks. It's the best animated film I've ever seen in years" Peter Travers of *Rolling Stone* also gave the film 4 stars, "This is a must-see for everyone of us. It's got excellent action scenes, very funny humor, new likable characters, and sweet (and sometimes, heartbreaking) emotional moments" A.O Scott of *The New York Times* gave the film 4.5 out of 5 stars, "Very fantastic and clever enough to satisfy even the older ones, it's worth the watch" Ian Friday of *The Gulfton Post* gave the film a positive review, "As much as I like the first, this one does something great out of the original--and multiplies it by three" Kim Newman of *Empire* gave the film 4 stars, "It's no wonder how Actors 3D (like Pixar) puts so much love & care in their animated films, but as for *Marco 3,* it is." *TIME's* Mary Pols called the film "an art of innovation that extends beyond the diversity of itself" Michael O' Sullivan of *The Washington Post* gave the film 3 and a half out of 4 stars, "Sure, it's not literally an out-of-this-world adventure to space, but it's more of a impressive phenomenon in the world of animation (and even cinema as a whole)" *San Francisco Chronicle's* Mick LaSalle gave the film 4 stars, "It's the best animated movie of 2015. Well, maybe not as much as *Inside Out,* but it was a very wonderful movie" Connor Davis of *Movies & More* gave the film 5 stars, "The *Marco* franchise got even better with *Marco 3,* an energetically marvelous sensation with entertaining new characters and beyond-awesome action scenes" Robert P. Strider of *Empire News* gave the film a positive review, "Unlike Lionsgate's recent animated cinematic abomination, *Marco 3* is near-perfect to being one of the best movies of our time" Peter Deburge of *Variety* was effusive, calling it Actors 3D's "greatest idea" and "a very well done animated feature that's...a stunning combination of spies and inventors, in a way it's handled like you've never seen before in live-action films"