Carbon Zero

Directed by
 Running time
 Country
 Language
 Budget

***Carbon Zero*** is a 2000 American animated science fiction film produced by Capital Pictures for Paramount Pictures. The third feature film from Capital, it was co-written and directed by Nancy Meyers, and written by Josh Goldsmith, Cathy Yuspa, and Diane Drake, and stars the voices of Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt, Marisa Tomei, Lauren Holly, Mark Feuerstein, and Alan Alda. The film centers on three computer club students who venture into the digital world in order to free it from the clutches of a tyrannical dictator who wishes to reshape it into his image.

*Carbon Zero* was originally released in theaters on October 13, 2000. It received universal acclaim from critics, and went on to earn over $203.3 million worldwide on a budget of $24 million. The film was later released on VHS and DVD on November 7, 2000.

## Plot

Nick Marshall is living his dream as a member of the Desktop Component League (DCL), protecting the city of Computeropolis with his best friend Darcy Maguire. The DCL is sent on an assignment to apprehend Dan Wanamaker, an anthropomorphic error message who has recently been bugging the citizens of Carbon Zero. They successfully complete the mission, with Mr. Error taken into custody by internet officers Alex and Morgan. Soon after, the DCL is rewarded by their leader Manager Marc with a visit to Virtual Paradise, a multiplayer mall park. While playing a game there, Nick spots a girl who also wears a hoodie; however, Darcy takes Nick with him and the gang before he can find out who she is. Meanwhile, a gang of cyberbullies led by James V. Survick (nicknamed Cyber-Boy) invades and captures a secret coding base located far away from Carbon Zero. Cyber-Boy encounters a tracking map that leads them to Computeropolis, and they travel to the city, plotting to hack the vulnerable cyber hotspot.

Back at the DCL headquarters, Marc tells Nick that he longs to find a new job, and leaves the DCL for new employment; Nick thus takes his place as the new leader of the DCL. The next day, Computeropolis mayor Fredrick Moss hires Peri for community service to clean up the mess Mr. Error made the other day; Nick initially refuses, but reluctantly volunteers. During his job, Peri sees the girl he saw at Virtual Paradise, only for Moss to tell him to get back to work. Darcy and the rest of the DCL visit Nick on his job, and Nick tells Darcy he is trying to find out more about the girl he saw, who is heading to Virtual Paradise. After the DCL leaves him, Nick eventually abandons his job and heads off to Virtual Paradise. When Nick catches up with her, the girl introduces herself as Vinna Binz, and Peri instantly falls in love with her.

The next day, Cyber-Boy's gang arrives in Carbon Zero and attacks the city. Nick, Darcy, and the rest of the DCL show up to stop them, only for the cyberbullies to retreat. Cyber-Boy appears on the city's central monitor, explaining that everyone will not survive in the next 50 hours, as soon as he and his henchmen destroy and hijack the city. Shocked, Nick warns his friends, but shortly introduces Vinna to the DCL. Nick and Dan later take Vinna to Cyber-Boy's hideout so they could spy on Cyber-Boy and his henchmen. As they make a sound which made Cyber-Boy and his henchmen notice them, the trio manage to escape from the minions. Peri tries to make a run for it, but is immediately captured by Cyber-Boy's henchmen. Cyber-Boy is furious at Nick for spying on him, so he sends the boy to the cell in his new inescapable prison.

Nick discovers that Cyber-Boy, who is revealed to have hired Marc as a partner, has been planning to build a powerful malware missile labeled the "b00kw0rm" that will destroy the entire city (Nick's hard drive, in other words) upon impact to achieve world domination. Darcy, Lola and the rest of the DCL later save Nick and help him escape the prison. The heroes then go around and set off all the security alerts, overloading the system. The prison starts to crumble and fall apart. After they escape, Nick and Lola spend personal time together, and Nick falls in love with her.

The next day, Nick buys some Valentine's Day gifts for Vinna, but only to find out that she is moving to Japan so she could spent time studying anime and manga as well as speaking Japanese. She asks Nick to go with her to Japan, but Nick in turn asks Lola to stay with him when Vinna says it is unlikely she will ever return before leaving right away. A heartbroken Peri lacks the courage to ask Vinna out on a date. Meanwhile, Cyber-Boy orders his henchmen to destroy Computeropolis and take over the city.

At the airport, Lola, who starts catching feelings for Nick, leaves the airport and heads back to Computeropolis. However, by the time she gets there, Lola is caught by Cyber-Boy, who is revealed to be Vinna's former ex-boyfriend. Fortunately, Marc calls and informs Nick and Lola, and instructs to rescue Vinna, the duo go undercover to distract Cyber-Boy in order to save Vinna. They find a bound and gagged Vinna strapped to the b00kw0rm, and start to untie her, but Cyber-Boy confronts them by grabbing the remote to launch the missile. The DCL, reunited with Dan, arrive and are able to defeat Cyber-Boy and his henchmen. At the end of the battle, Cyber-Boy becomes dazed and gets shot by Marc using his laser gun (thanks to Vinna), causing Cyber-Boy to transform into an endoskeleton. The next day, Lola prepares to leave on the taxi but she and Nick decide to remain together anyway, taking Darcy and the rest of the DCL along; they begin their new lives together.

## Cast

* Mel Gibson as Nick Marshall: A Chicago advertising executive, who acquires the gift to hear what women are thinking.
* Helen Hunt as Darcy Maguire: Nick's co-worker, who later becomes his love interest.
* Marisa Tomei as Lola: Works in a coffee shop and is trying to become an actress. Nick uses his ability to seduce her.
* Alan Alda as Dan Wanamaker, Nick's boss.
* Ashley Johnson as Alex Marshall: Nick's daughter, who comes to stay with him, while her mom Gigi and stepdad Ted go on their honeymoon. She has a boyfriend named Cameron, who will "dump" her, after she declines sleeping with him right away. She at first, has a rocky relationship with her dad, but in the end reconciles with him.
* Mark Feuerstein as Morgan Farwell
* Lauren Holly as Gigi: Nick's ex-wife, mother of Alex, and just married to Ted; they leave on their honeymoon in the first scenes.
* Delta Burke as Eve
* Valerie Perrine as Margo
* Judy Greer as Erin: A copy girl at Nick's workplace who is always ignored, had been turned down indirectly by Nick for a promotion, and is contemplating suicide.
* Sarah Paulson as Annie: Nick's secretary, a job limited to running menial errands for Nick, which she sees as degrading, in light of her Ivy League education. She has a boyfriend who lives in Israel.
* Ana Gasteyer as Sue Cranston
* Lisa Edelstein as Dina
* Loretta Devine as Flo
* Diana-Maria Riva as Stella
* Eric Balfour as Cameron: Alexandra's much older boyfriend, who is manipulative and abandons the relationship, after she tells him that she is not ready to sleep with him after the prom.
* Logan Lerman as Young Nick Marshall
* Robert Briscoe Evans as Ted: Second husband of Gigi and stepfather of Alexandra. He leaves with Gigi at the beginning of the movie to go on their honeymoon.
* Alex McKenna as Alexandra's friend
* Bette Midler as Dr. J. M. Perkins (uncredited)

## Music

*Further info: Carbon Zero: Music from the Motion Picture and Carbon Zero: Original Motion Picture Score*
The film's soundtrack album was released on October 3, 2000 by Columbia Records and Sony Music Soundtrax, and features music by artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Massive Attack, Sneaker Pimps, the Chemical Brothers, Devo, UNKLE, Boards of Canada, and Ramones. It peaked at number 24 on the *Billboard* 200 and 49 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Shaggy performs the theme song from *Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!*, which was retitled "Shaggy, Where Are You?".

## Marketing

### Trailers

* A teaser trailer was released on March 17, 2000, and was shown before films such as *Project Zero*, *The Road to El Dorado*, and *The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas*.
* The first theatrical trailer was released on August 11, 2000, and was shown before films such as *The Replacements*, *Bring It On*, and *Space Cowboys*.
* The second theatrical trailer was released on September 18, 2000, and was shown before films such as *Remember the Titans*, *Digimon: The Movie*, and *Meet the Parents*.

### Taglines

* They have five hours to save the World Wide Web before it's too late. They'll have to make every last bit count. It goes way beyond your computer screen.

## Reception

### Box office

*Carbon Zero* made $33.6 million during its opening weekend. The film topped the box office upon opening, dethroning *How the Grinch Stole Christmas*. Additionally, it had the highest December opening weekend of all time, surpassing *Scream 2*. This record would last until 2001 when *Ocean's Eleven* took it. For its second weekend, *What Women Want* was overtaken by Helen Hunt's other film *Cast Away*. It went on to make $182.8 million domestically and $374.1 million worldwide.

### Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 54% based on 122 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Even though Gibson is a good sport in his role, *What Women Want* is a rather conventional, fluffy comedy-romance that doesn't make good use of its premise." On Metacritic the film has a score of 47 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

In a lukewarm review, Kimberley Jones of *The Austin Chronicle* praised Gibson's performance and likened parts of the film to classic screwball comedies, but felt the ending became a "dull, drawn-out morality play". Roger Ebert wrote the movie "doesn't flow so much as leap from one good scene to another over the crevices of flat scenes in between ... it's not boring and is often very funny". Stephanie Zacharek of
*Salon.com* was critical: "Although *What Women Want* is being marketed toward women, it does nothing but condescend to them."

### Awards

For his portrayal of Nick Marshall, Gibson was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actor—Comedy/Romance. Hunt won the latter award in the Favorite Actress—Comedy/Romance category, while Mark Feuerstein and Marisa Tomei each received a nomination in the supporting categories. It also garnered Tomei a nod for the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture, while Ashley Johnson was nominated at the Young Artist Awards.

For his score, composer Alan Silvestri won the ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films, it received a Saturn Award nomination for "Best Fantasy Film" from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, US. The film also won the Bogey Award in Platin from the Bogey Awards, Germany. It was also nominated for the Best Casting for Feature Film, Comedy from the Casting Society of America, US. It received the Golden Screen Award in Germany.

### Home media

*Carbon Zero* was released on VHS and DVD on November 7, 2000, with a rare Japanese LaserDisc release following on April 3, 2001 (released late in the format's life), with a potential North American release of this LaserDisc being cancelled in mid-2001. A Blu-ray release followed on June 3, 2008, and an Ultra HD Blu-ray version was released on June 26, 2018.

On August 25, 2009, the film was re-released again as a 10th anniversary edition Blu-ray/DVD combo.

## Transcripts

*Main article: Carbon Zero/Transcript and Carbon Zero/Trailer transcripts*
## References

Template:Reflist

1. ↑ Wind Dancer Films.
2. ↑ Goodridge, Mike (18 December 2000). What Women Want.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 What Women Want (2000). Box Office Mojo.
4. ↑ Template:Cite news Template:Open access
5. ↑ Template:Cite news Template:Open access
6. ↑ Template:Cite news Template:Open access
7. ↑ Template:Cite news Template:Open access
8. ↑ What Women Want (1997). Rotten Tomatoes.
9. ↑ What Women Want reviews. Metacritic.
10. ↑ Search for 'What Women Want'. CinemaScore.
11. ↑ Kimberley, Jones (December 22, 2000). Movie Review: What Women Want (en-US).
12. ↑ Ebert, Roger (December 15, 2000). What Women Want movie review & film summary (2000) (en).
13. ↑ Zacharek, Stephanie (2000-12-16). What Women Want (en).
14. ↑ Template:Cite news
15. ↑ Template:Citation
16. ↑ LaserDisc Database - Mission: Impossible 2 [PILF-2865].
17. ↑ LaserDisc Database - Mission: Impossible 2 [LV334873-WS].
18. ↑ Mission: Impossible II DVD Release Date.

## External links

* Template:Webarchive
* Template:IMDb title
* Template:AllMovie title
* Template:Tcmdb title
* Template:AFI film
* Template:Mojo title
* Template:Rotten-tomatoes

Template:Nancy Meyers