Misfortunate World

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***Misfortunate World*** is a 2022 English-language Swedish-British animated fantasy adventure film, directed by Jack Pihl Wikström. It is his second film he made with Plotagon after *Dude Popper*.

The film was released on February 4, 2022, and earned positive reviews, with praise to the music score and animation, but criticism over its villains and plot.

## Plot

The film opens with Ernesto von Zauber greeting the audience when they find his storytelling room, he begins his narration about a peasant who saved the duchy.

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## Characters

Rod Harrison as Chester Bauer, a poor 27 year old peasant, seeking to find a better life.

* Rod also voices Stefan Bauer, deceased father of Chester.

Lisa Richards as Erika Shantelle, the beautiful daughter to Madame Shantelle.

Ryan Hamilton as Chad Desjardins, Chester's companion and slightly richer peasant.

Elizabeth Windsor as Madame Shantelle, a cruel and wicked woman who uses her wealth to get anything she wants.

Harold Davis as Ivoneus, a sorcerer who claims to be the most mystical man all of Zauberia, and an ally to Madame Shantelle.

Laura Smith as Imelda Pérez, a kind Hispanic woman and best friend to Erika.

Peter Atkinson as Ernesto Von Zauber, the mystical Duke of Zauberia.

* Peter also voices Lord Shantelle, Erika's deceased father.

Rhona Bruis as Leela MacGowan, a maid who is forced to clean Shantelle's floors.

Rachel Montgomery as Rose Bauer, deceased mother of Chester.

Micah Hernandez as Ben Von Zauber, son of Ernesto, and successor to the Zauberian throne.

Graham Sanderson as Peter Frook, a bartender who gives advice to the peasants.

## Production

Originally a character elimination by AstralStarPictures, after JPW bought the rights, he changed into an original idea, which was announced in 2017 as a Fantasy film, and users were allowed to audition their characters. However, the film ended up in development hell in 2018, and was briefly cancelled in 2019, but was later brought back in 2020 and began production on July 23, 2021.

It was planned to be released in November of 2021, but was later removed from the schedule due to stress. It was later put up for a 2022 release date. The film was completed on December 28, 2021 and was announced to be released on February 4, 2022.

The film had a troubled production, with delays and technical issues, Wikström expressed that he "hated working on the film" due to the problems.

## Reception

### Box office

The film was released on February 4, 2022, contrary to Dude Popper's high premiere attenders, Misfortunate World was unsuccessful in finding an audience, the highest being 11 people. Domestically the film grossed only $45.9 million, over 42% less than Dude Popper's domestic gross. Worldwide the film has currently earned $137.3 million. The film is expected to lose JPW Pictures over $10 million.

Internationally, the film ceased its operations in Russia due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The film ended its box office run on June 2, 2022, earning a worldwide result of $138,528,227. JPW Pictures ended up losing $11,471,773.

### Critical reception

Critical reception for the film upon release was positive. Based on 20 assessments on the like-to-dislike ratio system, 100% of assessments were positive (20 likes and 0 dislikes).

Sammy Knight wrote "For a film that goes for 67 minutes as opposed to Dude Popper's runtime, I feel like the film was very well-paced. That's one of the most surprising things about the movie. The animation is good for the limited materials you had, the music was wonderful to hear, and we have some decent character development. The only thing I'm not a huge fan of is the main villain, Ivoneus. I can see him as a threatening sorcerer, but he's not always applying his full wit and cunning in some of the scenes. But it's overall a great movie that I surprisingly liked more than Dude Popper." he gave the film an 8.5/10.

Jackster Does Plotagon wrote "While I found Dude Popper better, I had a good time with this movie. The animation was an improvement from the former despite parts lagging out, most of the characters were well developed and likeable, the voice acting was really good and the music even better. But Ivoneus really wasn't great as a villain, the short running time resulted in a lack of plot development and depth in places, and the movie took a bit of time to become engaging for me. However, I was perfectly satisfied." He gave the film an 8.4/10.

In a Discord chatroom, DBG Channel said the film was "pretty good".

JPW was not completely proud over the film, where he expressed his own criticism with the non-written script and technical issues, thus he explained his dismay over the troubled production, with that said, he said he didn't disown it, and said "I know inside there is a fantastic film, if only it wasn't ruined by technical issues and a lack of script."

## Lawsuit

On February 5, 2022, a day after the film's release, JPW filed for a lawsuit against PGP for failed marketing and terrible working conditions, the court ruled in favor of JPW, leading to PGP declare Chapter 11 Bankruptcy after being unable to afford $150,545,321 to pay in damages. PGP would eventually cease all operations just less than two weeks later.

## Trivia

* This is the second fantasy film made with Plotagon, after *A Distant Fantasy*.
* This is the first film where The Queen plays a main role.
* Joey and Jennifer were originally going to voice the characters, but after the discontinuation of both voices, the characters had to be recasted.
* This is the second Plotagon film that was initially cancelled, but later brought back into production, after *The Second Lizzie Movie: The World at Control*.
* Unlike previous films, most of the characters were auditioned by other users (with the exception of Ernesto von Zauber, Ivoneus, and Peter Frook, who were created by JPW himself).
* This is the second film where Old man and The Queen work together, after *Streets of Rage*.
* This is the first Plotagon film to be released in February.