The Actors Movie

*The Actors Movie* is an 2016 3D Marcanese-American computer animated comedy film produced by Actors 3D Entertainment and Actors Studio for Columbia Pictures, based on the videogames of the same name. The 18th feature film from Actors 3D, it was directed by Thurop Van Orman, produced by Clark Spencer, and written by Peter Ackerman & Jennifer Lee. The film features the voices of Jason Sudekis, Josh Gad, Kate McKinnon, Peter Dinklage, Charles Martinet, Erin Matthews, Roger Craig Smith, Bill Hader, Jen Taylor, and Richard Kind. The film was released on May 20, 2016 to positive reviews from critics and grossed $870 million, becoming one of the highest-grossing animated films based on a videogame of all time. A sequel was released in 2019 by Sony.

## The Actors Movie

### Starring

Jason SudekisJosh Gad

Kate McKinnon

Peter Dinklage

Charles Martinet

Erin Matthews

Roger Craig Smith

Bill Hader

Richard Kind

Jen Taylor

## Plot

When Arcade City Fun & Games closes due to lack of gamers, the various videogame characters meet at Mario's arcade cabinet for Princess Peach's 22nd birthday. At home, the Actors were playing a board game and get an invitation to attend Peach's party, so they accept the invitation and head out to Peach's castle. Before the Actors came, a group of soldiers bombed the local water tower. The Actors came and dined with their friends. Judge Brown, realizing that the water tower collapsed, blames Joseph for the incident. Jake and the others try to defend him, but Judge Brown throws the Actors back to 1942, where they believe is the 'final destination'. After spending time at a modest apartment with rejected videogame characters, the Actors notice a fleet of war planes invading their game. Once they realize that Hitler was plotting to destroy the entire game, the Actors desperately attempt to escape by breaking the screen. Joseph sees the cord and goes there along with Jake & Jay. They encounter PacMan at his maze, who helps them escape Puck-Man. The Actors convince PacMan to send them home and they enter a teleporting machine. At Berlin, Hitler makes an announcement about his plan to destroy various videogame worlds and robbing coins for building his new palace. The heroes unexpectedly stumble upon Nintendoland and enjoy the rides with Mario & his friends; then they go meet Sonic at the Casino Night Zone and start a DJ party after they finish playing. Meanwhile, Hitler and the Nazis make another move and raid *Space Invaders*. The arcade's owner comes back and, seeing that the game isn't working properly, shuts it down. The Actors & their friends were still celebrating together, but Joseph ventures alone and sees that Hitler had destroyed a quarter of the arcades and also stole the games' coins. He tells his friends what he saw and urges them to 'be united' against Hitler. Judge Brown forgives Joseph, they all make alliances, and head out to Paris. They attempt to defeat Hitler and his regime, but sadly failed after the city's been destroyed.

To make things work out, Joseph recruited the Mighty Eagle and made a strategy plan. Judge Brown approves Joseph's idea, and they build a boat afterwards. They arrive and prepare the cannon, much to Hitler's mockery. He summons his troops to go seize them, and the heroes launch Luigi. After Luigi succeeds knocking on some soldiers, Joseph gains hope and launches everyone else who was willing to help. The Actors storm to Hitler's palace and encounter a room full of coins. The Actors realize that Hitler stole the coins and Hitler lies about their game being destroyed. Hitler accidentally slips over and causes a coin avalanche. Joseph helps his siblings reach to a nearby door, and stumble upon dynamite. Hitler threatens them again; and as Joseph couldn't handle his temper anymore, Mario & his friends crash onto a pot. The pot lands on the Actors and the palace explodes as Hitler lands wounded. The videogame characters survive, while the Actors were thought to be killed. Jake & Jay survive, but don't see Joseph. Jake sadly searches for him, and was overjoyed to see him again. The videogame characters congratulate Joseph and put a house for him in his honor. The Actors felt glad and stayed with their friends forever.

## Cast

* Jason Sudekis as Joseph & Red
* Josh Gad as Jake & Chuck
* Kate McKinnon as Jay
* Peter Dinklage as Adolf Hitler, Mighty Eagle, and Qbert
* Charles Martinet as Mario, Luigi, and Wario
* Erin Matthews as PacMan
* Roger Craig Smith as Sonic The Hedgehog
* Bill Hader as Fred (a friend of the Actors) and Leonard
* Richard Kind as Tom, Fred's brother
* Jen Taylor as Princess Peach
* Danny McBride as Bomb
* Keegan Michael-Key as Judge Brown
* Samantha Mathis as Daisy
* CJ Navato as Waluigi
* Laura Faye Smith as Rosalina
* John Stocker as the Toads

Additional voices include

## Production

After the success of the *Actors* films produced by Animacon, Actors 3D Entertainment was interested on making another *Actors* film. Originally scheduled for a December 2012 release, the film was postponed to May 2016. Thurop Van Orman (creator of *The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack*) helmed the film, while Clark Spencer handled production. Peter Ackerman and Jennifer Lee did the screenplay, and Joseph Gordon provided the story. The film would have the Actors unite with several videogame icons to defeat Hitler as a tribute to the Allies during World War II. Bidirectional reflectance distribution factors were added to make the animation more realistic. As of 2015, the film was completed.

### Casting

Jason Sudekis (known for voicing Josue from the *Marco* films) went on to voice Joseph. Josh Gad was chosen as Jake, since Van Orman found him 'funny and entertaining'. Kate McKinnon was chosen to voice Jay, Peter Dinklage voiced Adolf Hitler, Keegan Michael-Key voiced Judge Brown, and the rest joined later. Bill Hader enjoyed doing the voice of Marco and decided to voice Fred; Actors 3D regular Richard Kind voiced Fred's brother.

### Marketing

Before the film's release, Actors 3D promoted the film at the Gaming Expo Center in San Angelo, Marco Island and introduced "The World's Largest Actors Game." McDonald's made 7 Happy Meal toys featuring the main characters from the film. ThinkGeek promoted the film by selling Actors merchandise, GameStop offered Actors games for free to promote the film, and United Airlines gave a free tour to Actors Studio on late March-April 2016. Among others are: Kellogg's, Sony, Nintendo, Volkswagen, Dr Pepper, Air Jordan, Amazon, Bic, Walmart, Lego, etc.

* The official movie trailer was released on August 9, 2015 and was shown before *The Peanuts Movie, The Good Dinosaur, Norm of the North, Kung Fu Panda 3, Zootopia, The Jungle Book,* and *Ratchet & Clank.*

## Soundtrack

The Actors Movie Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on May 16, 2016.

## Release

*The Actors Movie* was theatrically released on May 20, 2016 in the United States, Marco Island, and Canada. The film was accompanied with the short film *Joseph & Techno*, which foreshadows the sequel. Another short, *Crazy Jake*, was released to home video. The film arrived on DVD July 22, 2016.

*The Actors Movie* is rated PG by the MPAA for "action and mild rude humor"

## Reception

### Box office

*The Actors Movie* grossed a worldwide total of $870 million over a $160 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing animated film based on a videogame of all time. Along with *The Angry Birds Movie, Nice Guys,* and *Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising,* the film reached to #1 at the box office. It became the highest-grossing Marcanese animated film of 2016 and the seventh highest-grossing Actors 3D film.

### Critical response

*The Actors Movie* gained universal acclaim from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 96% based on 186 reviews, with an average score of 9.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Impressively fun for kids and parents alike, the Actors did it again with joyful 80's gaming nostalgia and homage to the heroes of WWII" According to Rotten Tomatoes, the film is the highest-rated Marcanese film based on a videogame in the site. On Metacritic, the film got a score of 89 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale. It recieved an average 4.5 out of 5 and a 79% "definite recommend" on PostTrak.

Lindsey Bahr of *The Associated Press* gave the film a positive review, "*The Actors Movie* is brilliant. It combines videogames and history like you've never seen before with heart and life" *Variety's* Guy Lodge called the film "a genius piece of digital artwork that's of the Louvre artistic quality" Rafer Guzman of *Newsday* found the film to be "awesome and addictingly entertaining for everyone, even gamers and historians" Peter Travers of *Rolling Stone* gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and commended the film as "heartwarming, yet memorable for the ages" Writing for *The Los Angeles Times,* Kenneth Turan said "the film has enough charm and wit of its own that it makes gaming look like something good" Todd McCarthy of *The Hollywood Reporter* wrote, "As much as I like the previous ones, *The Actors Movie* is a 1-up in animation history" Kevin Stewart from *Movies & More* gave the film 4.5 out of 5 stars, "This movie was as cool as Nintendoland, as engaging as a DJ party, and as great as playing PacMan & the game this film's based on"

## Sequel

In August 2016, Sony announced a sequel to the film. The sequel, titled *Actors 2,* was released to theaters August 2, 2019. Thurop Van Orman and Rich Moore directed the film, with the original crew returning.