Joaquin & Emiliano: The Movie

*Joaquin & Emiliano: The Movie* is a 2018 3D Marcanese-American comedy film, serving as a spinoff to the *Marco* franchise. Produced by Actors 3D Entertainment & Anaya Animation for Columbia Pictures & Universal Pictures, it was directed by Pierre Coffin & Kyle Balda, and produced by Chris Melendari. It stars the voices of Coffin (as Joaquin & Emiliano), Rob Riggle, Jordan Peele, Thomas Middleditch, Debi Derryberry, Rob Paulsen, Steve Buscemi, Conrad Vernon, Kristen Bell, and Geoffrey Rush. *Joaquin & Emiliano: The Movie* went to theaters December 7, 2018 and recieved universal acclaim from critics; it was also a box office hit, becoming the highest-grossing animated film of 2018 and the highest-grossing film in the *Marco* franchise.

## Joaquin & Emiliano: The Movie

### Starring

Pierre CoffinRob Riggle

Thomas Middleditch

Jordan Peele

Debi Derryberry

Rob Paulsen

Steve Buscemi

Conrad Vernon

Geoffrey Rush

Tanya Stewart

## Plot

After the events of *Marco 4,* Esau and the kids arrive at Cancun by the cruise boat; Joaquin & Emiliano stay at home. When their parents decide to head out, Joaquin & Emiliano get ready after seeing a Nintendo Switch on TV. They drive to Freeport for the kids' birthday and sleep afterwards. After hearing someone go out, Joaquin wakes up and realizes his parents are gone. He urgently warns Emiliano, and they go out to find them. On the road nearby, Joaquin and Emiliano (in a wagon) walk fatigued, until they see a truck driver. The driver takes them to the Con Of Doom, only for Joaquin & Emiliano to recognize the driver as Bryan. They run from the convention while being chased by the villains, and come upon Joshua to help them escape. Joshua takes them to Cancun, and they meet their friends at Paramount Hotel. Then after dinner time, Joaquin tells his friends about his missing parents, and they all get on the cruise boat. After seeing that the villains got defeated, Bryan recruits Newton for his dastardly plans of kidnapping the kids' parents as slaves. Unaware of Bryan's plans, Joaquin & Emiliano and the kids keep on searching at Schlitterbahn Galveston and have a good time there. After that, they head back to Freeport and see Joaquin & Emiliano's parents get back from shopping at Michoacan. The other kids' parents come and they celebrate together.

Bryan and Newton assemble a robot army to capture the parents, and the robots go after them. Joaquin & Emiliano see constellations. Joshua notices the robots taking beds with their parents at the window, and forewarns the others. They try to stop them, but the robots went faster and took their parents away on a huge spaceship. The kids seem confused, but Joshua implies that Bryan's up to something. The next day, the kids make a plan and Joshua (with Joaquin & Emiliano) disguise themselves as a chicken to enter Bryan's conference at The Emporium, much to Joaquin's embarrassment. They get inside, only to get scolded by Bryan and the executives and escape via the airport. The trio go back and advise the others that they should grab go-karts from the raceway. The kids do so, and speed up to Bryan's fortress. Bryan and Newton argue with each other, ending their alliance. The kids infiltrate the fortress, and realize their parents about to get hypnotized. They go ahead and rescue them and stop Bryan from pressing his remote control. After the control falls to the lava, the kids set their parents free and get out of the fortress. Joaquin & Emiliano deal with the robots with a disco dance battle, but Bryan stops it after his robots get beaten and threatens Joaquin & Emiliano with more robots. Having no hope, Joaquin & Emiliano get surprised when Marco comes and freezes Bryan. Bryan then gets taken care of his robots as a baby, and Joaquin & Emiliano laugh at him at the movie theater. Marco and his siblings come to their home, give their cousins the gift they wanted, and celebrate Christmas Eve together. At the end of the film, Joaquin & Emiliano discover that they have a young sister to take care of.

## Cast

* Pierre Coffin as Joaquin & Emiliano and the kids.
* Rob Riggle as Bryan Chaggis, former henchman of Edgar who's become an independent villain after his boss got arrested and now wants revenge on Marco's cousins.
* Thomas Middleditch as Joshua, Joaquin & Emiliano's trusted neighbor/friend.
* Jordan Peele as Newton, Bryan's narcissist and nerdy assistant.
* Debi Derryberry as the Twinkies
* Rob Paulsen as Noah, a fat kid who likes playing on his tablet and junk food; he also thinks himself as 'Big Fat Super Baby'.
* Steve Buscemi as Larson, the lead executive at The Emporium.
* Conrad Vernon as Elvis, a former singer who's become the owner of Paramount Hotel.
* Geoffrey Rush as the narrato
* Kristen Bell as Tanya, a hotel assistant whom Emiliano falls in love with.

Additional Voices

* Joaquin Alvarez
* Gabrielle Alvarez
* Norma Ellis
* Saul Mone Elis
* Amelie Anya
* Robert Pawn
* Gregory Allen
* Samuel Montrond
* Geri Russo

## Production

Columbia Pictures, Universal Studios, and Actors 3D Entertainment first announced in July 2015 that Joaquin & Emiliano from *Marco* would get their own spin-off film, planned for a 2018 release. Pierre Coffin (who voices the titular characters) and Kyle Balda were asked to direct the film, while Jon Reese was hired for the screenplay. Production began on September 2017 for a release date on December 7, 2018.

### Casting

In March 2018, Ron Riggle returned to voice Bryan. Jordan Peele, Thomas Middleditch, Debi Derryberry, Rob Paulsen, Steve Buscemi, Conrad Vernon, and Kristen Bell went to voice the new characters. Geoffrey Rush was chosen to voice the narrator.

### Marketing

Actors 3D Entertainment hosted the "Joaquin & Emiliano Party" event prior to the film's release on November 2018. McDonald's released *Joaquin & Emiliano-*related Happy Meal toys on November 29, 2018. Pantone announced two new colors: 'Joaquin Red & Emiliano Blue'. Comcast's Xfinity released several commercials featuring Joaquin & Emiliano and their friends. Many companies promoted the film, among them Sony, Nintendo, M&Ms, Apple, Ford, Southwest Airlines, Carnival, Coca-Cola, and Reliant Energy.

* The official movie trailer was released on July 21, 2018 and was shown before *Teen Titans Go! To The Movies, Christopher Robin, Smallfoot, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, The Grinch,* and *Ralph Breaks The Internet.*

## Soundtrack

The official soundtrack for the film was released on December 3, 2018 by Back Lot Music. The film's music is composed by Heitor Periera.

## Release

*Joaquin & Emiliano: The Movie* premiered on December 3, 2018 at the Universal Cinemark theater in Orlando, Florida. The film was released to theaters December 7, 2018 and came to home video March 6, 2019.

*Joaquin & Emiliano: The Movie* is rated PG by the MPAA for "mild action, mild rude humor, and peril"

## Reception

### Box office

*Joaquin & Emiliano: The Movie* grossed a worldwide total of $2.58 million (outgrossing *Marco 4's* $2.24 billion) over a $300 million budget. The film was released alongside *Ben Is Back* and *Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse* the following week. Finishing #1 at the box office, *Joaquin & Emiliano: The Movie* became the highest-grossing animated film of 2018, the highest-grossing film of the *Marco* franchise, the highest-grossing Actors 3D film, and the highest-grossing animated film of all time.

### Critical response

*Joaquin & Emiliano: The Movie* recieved universal acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 96%, based on 365 reviews, with an average rating of 9.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The world's most comedic duo get their own movie; with their goofy but fun humor on a simple, yet entertaining story" On Metacritic, the film has a score of 88 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim" Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers it surveyed gave it a 93% positive score and an 86% "definite recommend" as well as a 4.5 star rating.

Johnny Oleksinski of *The New York Post* gave the film a 3.5 rating out of 4, calling it "the best comedy of the year." Christy Lemiere of RogerEbert.com praised the film's humor and themes, "Joaquin & Emiliano make me laugh a whole lot more, and the film's messages about parents and teamwork are too sweet." Peter Bradshaw of *The Guardian* said that "*Joaquin & Emiliano: The Movie* shows humorous moments and emotion combined together for a heartwarming tale" Todd McCarthy of *The Hollywood Reporter* wrote, "What spiced this up was the comedy. It's so amusing to see the kids do more mischief again" Guy Lodge of *Variety* summarized his review with: "Packed up with ingenious comedy and more action scenes, this spin-off of the 2005 smash-hit is another pleasure" Justin Chang of the *Los Angeles Times* said that "*Joaquin & Emiliano: The Movie* is very funny (and also heart-touching) for all ages" Peter Hartalub of the *San Francisco Chronicle* gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, "Kids will laugh out loud. Parents might chuckle a lot, too." Peter Travers of *Rolling Stone* gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, "The long awaited spin-off to *Marco* has the charm and wit of those zany, amusing kids that make this film look like the *Citizen Kane* of 2018 animated films." Luis Cone from *The Gulfton Post* gave the film 4.5 out of 5 stars, "The film stays true to its titular characters. With lots of hysteria, comedy gold, and the importance of parents, this movie is worth hugging your Emiliano plush toy."

## Accolades

Awards
 46th Annie Awards
 Golden Globe Awards
 Kids' Choice Awards
 People's Choice Awards
Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie

## Sequel

In March 2019, Actors 3D originally announced a sequel, titled *Joaquin & Emiliano: The Rise of Marco,* for a July 3, 2021 release, but was delayed to summer 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift of *Marco 5* to February 2021 to avoid two *Marco* films at the same year. However, when the film was completed by January 2021, Sony decided to merge *Joaquin & Emiliano: The Rise Of Marco* to a June 2021 release.