The Broadways

Theatrical release poster.

***The Broadways*** is a 2002 American computer-animated comedy film Directed by Michael Brannon and also was made by Studio 4 Animation under DreamWorks Animation under DreamWorks Pictures.

The Broadways debuted in limited theatres on September 25, and was released in theatres in the United States on October 4, 2002 and this film was notable for being the first film from Studio 4 Animation. It earned $97 million worldwide, finishing its theatrical run as the one of the worst animated movies of all time and still succeeded at the box office.

## Synopsis

It follows The Broadways with their lives turned upside down by the arrival of the antagonists The Hostiles. They perpetuate chasing how the parts of TBW's house perform, more or less having them not realise that they were caught in a footage pulling the fire alarm lever, causing a downhill experience of TBW's everyday routines. It's up to the main TBW to subdue their experience and have their things go back to the way it should.

## Plot

The film starts off with Joey getting ready for his first day of school with morning duties that happened in the past and all of the time and goes out to school with his bike until he turns up, Joey tries climbing up the stairs, but fails until he did it successfully and runs to his own classroom while his seat was next to Mia, his childhood friend yet girlfriend, as Mrs. Dunwell gives the students seven sheets of mathwork as the hostiles set off a fire alarm, which causes them to get into serious trouble and even consequences.

While at the Broadway home at one point, Chris is concerned after the fire alarm, and tries to figure out what he can do to solve this but he gets lost for solutions and is still scared. A few hours later after the school, Chris goes to Ernie’s house as he is playing an unmentioned video game, Ernie talks about the fire alarm taking place, Ernie told about how the school was actually cancelled for the next two weeks.

To the present, Chris was talking about the fire alarm that somebody pulled at his school. Following this, Joey gets a call from Mia while being aquatic with her water-proof cell phone saying that something terrible has occurred and is being shown on the news. They head out to Joey's home to turn the TV on to BWTLN, to see the barn located in Broadwater Town burned down, which was caused by Doper and Cater. Then Joey planned to team up with another group to prevent The Hostiles from causing more trouble, which is The Jenny's. Joey came up with a good idea that in order to get away from The Hostiles is to take a trip to Creamaville, which made Chris think Lord Creamington lives in. Then Joey loads up the gang's stuff into the trunk of their cyan TBW car, he closes it and the whole gang gets in, then they begin to head down to Creamaville. Joey informs them that they are heading down to Creamaville, As they stopped by the intersection, they notice a black car with the Hostiles on it. And it seems as if the two hostile species and one human aren't in, making the gang believe that the car is being driven by itself. They look in the window to see The Hostiles at a Disco party, throwing a bunch of diamonds up in the air and dancing along with the others. Then The Hostiles chats with the two other boys. Soon, the gang drove around to the edge of the intersection where their car was parked, which The Hostiles stood near. Joey tends to see how nervous the people are. Then The Hostiles immediately got into their car, started up the ignition and began driving off. "Let's get them!" said Jackie, which causes a car chase, and the hostiles end up crashing into a warehouse, however only sustaining minor bruises. The Broadways turn to the left as they keep going down to Creamaville. Iconio's house inside shook. Warloo looks out the window, seeing The Hostiles' car outside as they stumble out with little bruises. Then The Hostiles meet with leader Warloo to eliminate the TBW and TJ gangs. The Broadways car drives down the road where a sign saying "Welcome to Creamaville'' surrounds them, which means TBW has made it just in the nick of time. Then they begin discovering around Creamaville, until less than a minute Creamington approaches them Joey talks to Creamington about The Hostiles that they have done crimes in the past, which lead Creamington into confusion. Joey explains further to Creamington about The Hostiles, The BW put their hand in. Jacob starts calling Jenny on his phone, a few seconds later he picks it up. She talks to Jenny about The Hostiles causing damage to the Broadwater Town. Meanwhile at The Hostiles' house, The Other Humans are sitting on the couch, waiting for Marita to arrive as he gets introduced to The Hostiles, meeting The Icons, shaking hands with The Hostiles. Then Dopadoor helps out with Jia and the other criminals' with hatching a brand-new plan as they head on down towards The Hostiles car. The five got into The Hostiles car and began driving down. Back with The Broadways, their car drives up to the place where The Jenny's is located. The Broadways along with the former members go inside their place, where we see the main members of The Jenny's. about where they investigate footage across the Broadwater Town back when The Hostiles were caught on tape.

Then an unexpected voice came from Warloo, leading Joey by a startle. Joey and the others head on out to see who was there, and they all gasped in immediate shock as it was The Hostiles, they came up with a plan along with Dopadoor to take over the world and put everyone under his control, including the Broadwater Town, with the help from the criminals behind them, just after the fight broke out, Chris demands The Hostiles to stop this all at once as and all work together to stop it from happening, The FBI then threw The Hostiles straight to jail in a paddy wagon, as Henry had an idea to defeat Dopadoor in which stormy weather was coming, he started his ultimate powers, an ultimate mega punishment. They stand way far back. His powers begin as he kills Dopadoor way up high in the sky in a blast, as The Broadways and The Jenny's are praised for their heroism, as after the ceremony, Jackie and Joey set off a party at his own home next to his dad's.

In a mid-credit's scene, in the Broadway Penitentiary, one week later, inside The Hostiles, excluding Dopadoor since he had been erased from existence, dressed in orange prison outfits being taken to their cell. They have given up to exhaustion, so they all lay down and decide to nap.

## Voice cast

* Ryan Reynolds as Joey.
* Tobey Maguire as Jackie, Joey's best friend from school.
* Mandy Moore as Mia, Joey's personal puppy love, as revealed at the end of the movie.
* Zach Galifianakis as Chris, The second member of Joey and Jackie's Huge Crowd of Friends.
* Rachael MacFarlane as Jennifer.
* Ed Helms as Ernie, Chris’ cousin.
* Martin Short as Todd, Joey’s pet icon.
* James Woods as Devin, Joey's father.
* Dwayne Johnson as Principal Warditch, the principal of Joey’s School and even the mayor of the town council.
* Benjamin Bratt as Spencer.
* Salma Hayek as Katie.
* Rachel House as Audrey.
* Hugh Jackman as Dopadoor.
* Shia LeBouf as Cater.
* Jonah Hill as Doper.
* David Rudman as Warloo
* Kevin Clash as Wannerbing.
* Ian McShane as Bunzen.
* Shane Riche as Creamington, the owner of his portable museum and speaks in an English accent.
* Joan Cusack as Jenny.
* Kristen Wiig as Tina.
* Glenn Close as Taylor.
* Maya Rudolph as Smeech.
* Eddie Murphy as Murray.
* Jim Carrey and Kevin Kline as Kevin and Justin.
* Dan Fogler as Tempus, a dodo.
* David Sant as Police Officer #1
* Clancy Brown as Police Officer #2
* Carlos Alazraqui as Police Officer #3
* Fred Tatasciore as Police Officer #4

The only character in this movie that does not have a voice actor is Henry, who is a silent character, as to communicate, he would have to use signs out of the blue.

### Additional Voices

* Phil LaMarr
* Jimmy Hayward
* Eric Bauza
* Mellissa McCarthy
* Phil Procter
* Debi Derryberry
* Jess Harnell
* Steve Little
* Frank Welker
* Jeff Bennett
* Danny Jacobs
* Michael Brannon
* Tom Kenny
* Cody Cameron

## Production

### Development

When Studio 4 Animation was founded in July 1997, development on the film began by Brannon himself on February 7, 1998, but when he wrote the first draft, he lost track of how it would go, however in the same month, Drake Jusgenick, Brannon's friend began working on a script for the film on a typewriter. The staff came on board to work on the script in September. The script was officially completed on December 10, 2000.

After the film's release in November 2002, Creamington sparked extreme backlash from viewers.

### Casting

Ryan Reynolds was chosen for the role as Joey on August 1, 2001. Mike Myers was supposed to play the villain Dopadoor, but then his final choice was for Hugh Jackman to voice him instead. Tobey Maguire and Mandy Moore were casted in December 2001, casting eventually took place around January of the same year-May 2002.

### Animation

In May 2001, Production on animation officially began during production of said movie, most of them were inexperienced, which led Studio 4 Animation to select 100 percent of its new 3D CGI animation team from its own animation staff and place them through rigorous training programs, which included introductory to a custom software, named "Hotplate" that would serve as main animation software use on project.

Animation began work on June 30, 2001 and concluded on May 13, 2002.

### Music

The Broadways is the only Studio 4 film to be scored by Thomas Newman. The film's orchestral score was released on September 24, by Varese Sarabande, ten days before the film opened in theatres.

## Release

### Theatrical

The film opened early in its limited release on September 25 in other states, It was theatrically released in the United States on October 4, 2002 by DreamWorks Animation under DreamWorks Pictures, and internationally by United International Pictures.

### Home Media

The film was first released on both VHS and a two-disc collector's edition DVD set by DreamWorks Home Entertainment on January 10, 2003. The DVD consisted of widescreen and a pan and scan full-screen versions and bonuses like an interactive featurette of Jackie, a commentary with Micheal Brannon and employee Johnny Shea interviewing the film’s protagonist, Joey, in July 2003, there were $5 million copies sold.

Paramount Pictures released the film on Blu-ray in North America on October 3, 2006, and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment re-released it solo on DVD in August 23, 2016, followed by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment re-releasing the film on Blu-ray and DVD on June 5, 2018.

### Marketing

A trailer premiered on May 24, 2002 and was attached to the screenings of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. Several companies released promotional products related to the film. In August 2002, it was announced that a series of comic books based on the film would be published by their own subsidiary, Studio 4 Publishing by the middle of the year, the junior novelization was released in the later of September 2002, a few months before the actual films release with removing Creamington from the junior novel,

### Reception

The Broadways has received mixed to an major amount of negative reviews from critics and audiences for its writing, characters, animation, and vocal performances, On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 8% based on 266 reviews, The site's critical consensus read, "A really nonsensical and childish film with little-to-no humour inserted into the film and in the pioneering feat of junky animation and is completely messed-up with an potentially wasted story." Shortly with an average rating of 1.9/10. Metacritic gives the film a score of 18 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".

Shortly after the film's release, drama circulated around the employees of Studio 4 Animation, except for the fans who watched the movie. Many people who previously worked with the same studio, especially its own employees and fans, cited The Broadways as "the film that is responsible for the line "not a good way to start the Studio 4 movies, but this movie did fine at the box office".

But through home video releases and foreign countries, the film was a moderate success and received a cult following over the years and developed it’s “so bad, it’s good” charm thanks to the storytelling and the animation.

Later in 2013, TheMysteriousMrEnter gave an extremely negative review to the film, calling it "vile, annoying, disgusting and just plain terrible", the same person found this film very nonsensical as the majority of the film didn't include sound effects, or even music to denote the tone of each character. He even didn't want a sequel for this film.

### Box Office

As of April 6, 2003, The Broadways has grossed $35.2 million in North America and $62 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $97.2 million, against a small budget of $19 million and the fact they have spent most of their money both on the animation and cast.

## Franchise

*Main article: The Broadways (franchise)*

It only spawned three shorts films, with *Life of Jackie Human* released on March 21, 2003, *The Broadways Are Back in Town* on April 16, 2010, and finally *Advanced Gymnastics* on September 2, 2011.

### Bootleg video game

A bootleg video game exists, it was released on the PC on September 24, 2002, however, critics considered it much worse than the film itself.