Regular Show: The Movie

**Regular Show: The Movie** is an animated movie based on *Regular Show*. It had its television world premiere on November 25, 2015, on Cartoon Network. It is the thirty-fifth Warner Animation Group film.

The movie first screened on August 14, 2015, at the Downtown Independent in Los Angeles, where it screened for a week.

## Plotedit | edit source

### Futureedit | edit source

Rigby leads a rebellion squadrent (consisting of Benson, Skips, Hi-Five Ghost, Muscle Man, and Pops) against an evil cyborg named Mr. Ross and his army when he is erasing time. When Rigby and his team reach Ross himself, he reveals himself to be in possession of a weapon, the future version of Mordecai, who is a cyborg himself and has discovered a transgression Rigby did to him in the past and attempts to kill him. When the team gets incapacitated, Benson sacrifices himself in order for Rigby to get to a space ship/time-machine to head to the past to stop the chaos. Just as Rigby is about to travel back in time, Mordecai shows up and shoots Rigby when the latter hit the time travel button.

### Presentedit | edit source

In the present Mordecai and Rigby barely keep themselves from being fired when they run late for work due to getting breakfast burritos from a food truck. When the space ship from the future shows up and crashes into the ground, future Rigby appears and tells the employees that when Mordecai and Rigby were in high school, they created a time machine that backfired and destroyed, but created a "Timenado", a tornado that can travel through space and time, and that they got expelled for blowing up the science lab. Also, the future Rigby reveals that Mordecai shot him, shocking the park residences that Mordecai and Rigby have receded their relationship. Then future Rigby tells his younger self that he'll soon have to tell Mordecai a secret that will help save the universe-even if it will cost him their friendship- before he dies.

Back in the house, Skips asks for further details, and Mordecai reveals they built the time machine because Rigby got into their dream college, College University, but Mordecai didn't. After the unfortunate ploy, Mr. Ross, who was their science teacher at the time, was blamed for the incident and was subsequently arrested. As the guys ponder over what could have caused Mordecai and Rigby's breakup as friends, Benson tries to write the whole thing of as impossible and claims Muscle Man did it as a prank (to which he retaliates by stating he would never do anything to his friends that would cause that level of psychological harm) and Mordecai and Rigby did it to get out of work (to which they state that they have easier ways to slack off), but Muscle Man soon finds future Rigby plasma shotgun and destroys Benson's new car with it. After concluding that they have to head back to the past to set things right, they board future Rigby's time ship and head back to when Mordecai and Rigby were still in high school.

### Pastedit | edit source

The group manage to get to the past (6 years in to be exact) but wind up damaging the engines in the process. Skips, Muscle Man, and High Five Ghost stay behind to fix the ship while Benson and Pops follow Mordecai and Rigby in finding the time machine. They succeed in slipping in but are forced to split up when they confronted by the volleyball team. With no other options, Mordecai and Rigby are forced to get help from their past selves, who have access to the science lab because Mr. Ross, who was feuding with Rigby after his antics cost the volleyball team the championship, was forced by Principal Dean to allow Rigby to do an extra credit assignment in order to pass. The extra credit assignment was the time machine Mr. Ross was creating. He was creating it for two reasons: go back in time and win the volleyball state championship and to "get revenge". After successfully convincing past Rigby to create a model volcano instead, the past selves leave the lab, giving the present pair enough time to destroy the time machine. Pops and Benson arrive late to the carnage, all beaten and bruised after their volleyball jock encounter.

The group, assuming the work was over, head back to spaceship/time machine only to find the repairs stalled due to an encounter with Muscle Man and High Five Ghost's past selves. Complicating matters further is that temporal ruptures begin appearing just as the repairs are finished. Rigby, who had slipped away earlier, alerts them to the fact that past Mordecai and Rigby are heading to the high school to finish a second time machine Mr. Ross planted. The employees race back to the science lab but are quickly incapacitated by Mr. Ross and future Mordecai, allowing past Mordecai and Rigby to botch the time machine and create the Timenado. Mr. Ross then forces Rigby to admit the truth by threatening to kill Mordecai: He never got into College U, but Mordecai did and he faked Mordecai's rejection letter in order to maintain their friendship. As he reads the letter aloud, the park crew winces in shock from how critical the college was to the guys and how Rigby's friendship with Mordecai only lasted all these years because of a lie. Mr. Ross then tries to kill Mordecai in the confusion, but future Mordecai intervenes, taking a heavy wound and forcing Mr. Ross to retreat.

Furious over the duplicity, Mordecai ends his friendship with Rigby by lashing out at him and hurting his feelings by calling himself an idiot for not seeing that he was holding him back, not to mention how he lied to him this whole time for his own selfish reasons. Crushed by his words and angry at himself, a heartbroken Rigby runs off with the spaceship/time machine, while Benson, Pops, Muscle Man, Skips and HFG unsuccessfully chase after him. Before dying, future Mordecai gives his present version his ship (which is also a time machine) and tells him to patch things up, saying what Rigby did was no excuse to side with Ross. As the group tries to rebound, a distress call from future Gene the Vending Machine prompts them to help out. Meanwhile, after a failed suicide attempt to drive into the sun, Rigby encounters Father Time at a gas station, who is falling apart due to the Timenado and is convinced to apologize to Mordecai. Rigby heads to the future and races back to the Timenado but gets intercepted along with Mordecai by Mr. Ross at the crystal core. With Techmo's help, the duo manages to decapitate Ross and repair their friendship. Rigby willingly readies to sacrifice himself to destroy the Timenado by throwing plutonium in its core, but Mordecai refuses to let his best friend die and they work together, finally destroying the Timenado. They later convince past Rigby to apologize to past Mr. Ross before he's arrested (which was what he wanted from the start), thus ending the issues between them and altering the future.

Back in the present, Mordecai and Rigby agree that, despite how cool their future selves turned out, they won't let their friendship degrade to them trying to kill each other, thus erasing their future selves from the timeline. The next day, as Benson catches them away from the park, the pair race back in future Rigby's spaceship/time machine with Rigby saying they'll "never be late again".

## Castedit | edit source

* J.G. Quintel as Mordecai and High Five Ghost
* William Salyers as Rigby
* Mark Hamill as Skips
* Sam Marin as Benson, Pops, and Muscle Man
* Jason Mantzoukas as Mr. Ross
* David Koechner as Principal Dean
* Minty Lewis as Eileen
* Roger Craig Smith as Francis Jablonski, Frank Smith, Fast Food Guy
* Ali Hillis as Ship Computer, Rigby's Mom
* Kurtwood Smith as Gene
* Eddie Pepitone as Sherm
* Paul F. Tompkins as Gino
* Fred Tatasciore as Father Time, Security Guard, Timenado Mechanic, Willy, Reporter
* Steve Blum as Techmo, Brit, Commander, TV Game
* Janie Haddad as Margaret

## Productionedit | edit source

The movie was confirmed in the Cartoon Network *2015 Upfront* in February. It's a feature-length film and was released during November 2015. The film had a budget of $6 million and the box office is $44 million, making it a box office hit before one year of Sausage Party directed by Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan.

The 68-minute animated feature became available for digital download on September 1 on electronic sell-through platforms (iTunes, Google Play Movies & TV, Amazon Instant Video, Xbox Video, PlayStation Video, VUDU, and others). The DVD was released by Warner Home Video on October 13, but bonus content is available in both the digital download version and DVD.

## Releaseedit | edit source

### Theatrical releaseedit | edit source

The movie first screened at the LA Downtown Independent on August 14, 2015, and continued to screen until August 20, 2015. The movie also screened at select Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas across the United States and it had a select showtime at the SVA Theatre of New York and at the Cinema Montrereal CANADA during October 2015.

### Television premiereedit | edit source

*Regular Show: The Movie* premiered on November 25, 2015, in the United States on Cartoon Network and premiered on Cartoon Network in the United Kingdom and New Zealand on November 28, 2015. The film premiered in Asia (including the Philippines) on November 30, 2015. The film premiered in Central and Latin America on December 7, 2015. The movie premiered on Cartoon Network in Canada on November 25, 2015.

### Home media releaseedit | edit source

The film was released to digital on platforms such as iTunes and Google Play Movies & TV on September 1, 2015. The movie was later released to DVD by Warner Home Video on October 13, 2015. The movie has grossed $85,395 in domestic DVD sales.

## Receptionedit | edit source

### Critical responseedit | edit source

*Regular Show: The Movie* received positive reviews from both critics and audiences alike. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an average rating of 4.1/5. It also earned a 7.5/10 on IMDb.

### Ratingsedit | edit source

The movie was watched by 2.17 million viewers and received a 0.5 rating in adults 18-49.

## Triviaedit | edit source

* This is the first movie based on a Cartoon Network series since "Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show" in 2009, and the first one to be released theatrically since "The Powerpuff Girls Movie" back in 2002, but was only shown on a limited number of theatres.
* According to J.G. Quintel, they started production on the movie when they finished writing Season Five and finished it when they began writing Season Eight.
* The original cast reprised their roles in the movie.
* A trailer was first shown at Comic-Con on July 10, 2015.
* On June 11, 2015, J.G. Quintel announced via Twitter that the film had been completed.
* Quintel has also confirmed that the movie is canon and is set in the middle of season six and season seven.
* The animation of the movie is the same as the show, although CGI was used for the moving spaceships, the Timenado, the time beams, Father Time, as well as the hallway inside the Timenado.
* Mordecai and Rigby's designs as teenagers are the same from "A Skips In Time", although Mordecai does not have braces.
* Originally the movie was supposed to be a 40-minute special, but J.G. Quintel refused and acknowledged Cartoon Network to make it a full movie and both agreed.
* The movie was on the short-list for becoming nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, although it did not get nominated. This also marks it as the first Cartoon Network Feature to come into the Academy Award.
* The movie revealed that Mordecai and Rigby been best friends since they were toddlers.
* The movie focuses more on Rigby than Mordecai.
* Fred Tatasciore voices Father Time instead of Alan Sklar in "It's Time".
* This is the first appearance of Mordecai and Rigby's old High School principal, Principal Dean. Who will be a recurring character in Season 7 during the High School arc.
* Although Rigby is the main protagonist of the movie, ironically, it is Hi-Five Ghost who is the first one to note that strange things were happening, because he tells the others when future Rigby's ship crashed into the park.
* Despite teenage Mordecai and Rigby getting expelled for blowing up the science lab, Mordecai is shown to have still graduated and received a diploma in "More Smarter". It's likely Mordecai's grades were good enough to receive his credits and qualify for graduation, just not attend school or the graduation ceremony. Mordecai also states that he went to a junior college instead.
* It is revealed that Benson, Pops. Skips, Muscle Man, and Hi Five Ghost have been working at the park since Mordecai and Rigby were in High School.
* It is revealed that Margaret has been riding in Chopper 6 since Mordecai and Rigby were in High School, Which explains her fascination in the news.
* It is revealed that Mordecai and Rigby accidently created the Timenado from "A Skips in Time" when they were teenagers in High School.
	+ This was foreshadowed when a portal to Mordecai and Rigby's teenage selves appeared when they tried to send teenage Skips back to his time.

* It is revealed that Rigby is the reason that he and Mordecai work at the park.
* This is the 5th and last time Benson's car gets destroyed.

### Episode Connectionsedit | edit source

* The response Mordecai said to Past Mordecai when he asked him if he gets into College U is a callback to the episode "Mordecai and the Rigbys".
	+ In the episode, "Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise," is the same response Future Mordecai (the one that turned into a rockstar) said when Mordecai asked about future events. If he got together with Margret to be precise.
		- In each scenario, the phrase meant no.

* The following is a list of episodes that are seen when Rigby go around the time portals: "Limousine Lunchtime", "Rigby in the Sky With Burrito", "The Real Thomas", "Temp Check", "Death Punchies", "The Power", "Lunch Break" and "Mordecai and the Rigbys".
* This entire movie revolves around destroying the Timenado, which first appeared in "A Skips in Time".

* The movie's future timeline is foreshadowed in some Season 7's episodes, which is soon happening in the finale of that season and all part of the Season 8's storylines. Except it is now in a brand new timeline, retconning some of the previous timeline's fate of Mordecai and Ross' future, thanks to Rigby's atonement.

* Past Muscle Man and Hi Five Ghost have the same appearances in the flashback from "Struck by Lightning."

* Father Time makes his first appearance since, his debut in "It's Time."

* Some of the video games at the arcade were Lemonade Stand, Hats 4 Sale, Candle Maker, and two Ball of Yarns from "Just Set Up the Chairs."
* The movie foreshadows the High School arc in season 7.

* In the movie Future Mordecai's ship gets destroyed while Future Rigby's ship survives. The same things happens again but mirrored in "A Regular Epic Final Battle," where Rigby's ship gets destroyed but Mordecai's ship survives.
* Benson's car has previously been destroyed in "Picking Up Margaret," "Benson's Car," "Paint Job," and "Dumped at the Altar."

### Pop Culture Referencesedit | edit source

* The movie includes three real-life songs, "March of the Swivel Heads", "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" and "Pale Blue Eyes".
* The real-life show, "Everybody Loves Raymond" is mentioned.
* West Anderson High School may be a reference to the filmmaker Wes Anderson.
* Also, another real-life media referenced by Ross (but not exactly mentioned) is the movie is "Back To The Future".
* When Mordecai and Rigby rush to the park, the situation is a reference to "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". In Fact, the Music was taken directly from the aforementioned movie.
* A tune similar to Tears for Fears's "Head Over Heels" plays when West Anderson High School first appears, making this sequence a slight reference to the cult movie Donnie Darko.
* The plot of the movie is almost based on the combination of the "Back to the Future" and "Star Wars" plots.

### Goofsedit | edit source

* When future Rigby runs to his ship saying Stupid, stupid, the lip syncing is off.
* Muscle Man wants to go to the restroom when he and Hi Five Ghost are guarding the spaceship. When they enter the restroom, Muscle Man's clothes are sucked by the toilet and he gets naked. After they go out of the spaceship, Muscle Man seems not to be naked. But when Muscle Man and HFG go out of the bush, Muscle Man is naked again.
* During the scene in that Mr. Ross forced Rigby to reveals the truth to Mordecai, their past selves were seeing the confession of the present Rigby, yet the past Mordecai and past Rigby were unfazed for the revelation about the lies, leaving a strange plot hole because the past Mordecai don't get angry with the past Rigby to learned about his lies of the university, and also, the past Rigby wasn't nervous to see as his lies were being exposed by his present self in front of his best friend.
* The movie reveals that Mordecai and Rigby both got expelled from High School, but in "Rigby in the Sky with Burrito" Rigby was revealed to have dropped out of High School.
* If both Mordecai and Rigby got expelled then how did Mordecai get his High School diploma in "More Smarter."