Beastz

*This article is about the original 2006 film. For the franchise, see Beastz (franchise).*

## *Beastz*

### **Produced by**

Steven A. Morlus
Paul McKenzie

### **Screenplay by**

Mike Glebus
Harriet Chapman

### **Story by**

Rodney Ousley
Dianne Shannon

### **Starring**

Hugh Jackman
David Spade
Craig Robinson
Hank Azaria
Zach Galifianakis
Anna Faris
Bill Hader

### **Production company**

United Artists
United Artists Feature Animation
Morlus Animation

### **Followed by**

*Thorebots*
*Beastz 2*

***Beastz*** is a 2006 American computer-animated fantasy comedy film produced by Morlus Animation and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The eighth feature film produced by Morlus, *Beastz* was Morlus's first fully computer animated feature film. The film was directed by Rodney Ousley from a screenplay by Mike Glebus and Harriet Chapman and a story by Ousley and Dianne Shannon, and stars the voices of Hugh Jackman, David Spade, Craig Robinson, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Anna Faris and John Leguizamo. The film follows a trio of beasts by the names of Bernard, Louie and Flint who go and attempt save their village from the Migrens, which are vicious creatures who attempt to hunt them down after a major incident between the species.

*Beastz* was animated in-house at Morlus's main headquarters in San Francisco, California and envisioned by Ousley in 2000. The film was originally going to be a television series but it was later reconstructed as a feature-length film. Heitor Pereira composed the film's orchestral score.

Beastz was released in the United States on May 12, 2006 and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the film for its animation, storyline, voice acting and humor, and grossed over $285 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing Morlus film at the time until *Phoenix* surpassed it in 2011.

After this success, Morlus launched a franchise based on the film; a sequel titled *Beastz 2* was released on August 3, 2012, along with a television series titled *Beastz: The Series* premiering later the following year on Cartoon Network, and a spin-off film, Guchii, was released on December 7, 2018. The third and final installment in the trilogy, Beastz 3, was released on March 1, 2019.

## Cast

* Hugh Jackman as Bernard, a strong male beast who is often aloof but also suave and good-hearted.
* David Spade as Louie, a naive and clumsy male short beast who can be annoying but also supportive to his friends.
* Craig Robinson as Flint, a lazy and cowardly male beast who has a craving for pomegranates.
* Hank Azaria as King Darren, a short and arrogant male beast who is the chief of the Beasts village.
* Zach Galifianakis as Althrope, the ruler of the migrens and the main antagonist of the film.
* Anna Faris as Abigail, a young female beast, who is Bernard's supportive sister.
* Bill Hader as Guchii, a small and incompetent migren who is Althrope's minion.

## Production

### Development

Rodney Ousley, came up with the concept for *Beastz*, the creator of *Zooge Toons* and the co-founder of Morlus Animation.

He pitched the film to Morlus Animation with some initial artwork in the beginning of 2003. He and his story team left with some suggestions in hand and returned to pitch a refined version of the story in March.

On April 24, 2004, it was announced that Morlus Animation has started the production for *Beastz*, albeit nothing else about the film was known at the time.

### Writing

The film's script is credited to Mike Glebus and Harriet Chapman from a story by Ousley and Shannon.
*More coming soon!*

### Animation

Ousley described the film's animation as "a blend of animated films with cartoon-like styles like *Madagascar* or *Ice Age"*. *Beastz* was animated in-house at Morlus Animation's headquarters in San Francisco, California. The movie's animation was made using WaveFront's Maya animation software and rendered with Pixar's Renderman.

### Music

*Main article: Beastz (film)/Soundtrack*
The film's original score was composed by Heitor Pereira. The soundtrack album was released on June 6, 2006, by Atlantic Records.

## Release

*Main article: Beastz (film)/Release dates*
*Beastz* premiered in theaters on May 12, 2006, in North America. The film was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for "mild language, crude humor and some thematic elements". In the United Kingdom, it received a PG rating by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) for "mild slapstick violence and language". In Australia, the film was rated PG by the Australian Classification Board (ACB).

### Marketing

#### Trailers

* The film's teaser trailer was released in September 2005, and was later shown in theaters with other films such as *Corpse Bride*, *Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit*, *Chicken Little*, *Metro Cone*, *Yours, Mine & Ours*, *The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe*, *Cheaper by the Dozen 2*, *Hoodwinked!* and *Nanny McPhee*.
* The first theatrical trailer was released in February 2006, and was later shown before *The Pink Panther*, *Curious George*, *Eight Below*, *Doogal*, *Aquamarine*, *Robot Siblings*, *Ice Age: The Meltdown*, *Akeelah and the Bee* and *Hoot*.
* There were a couple of television spots for the film; the first one was released in April 2006 and the second one was released in May 2006.

### Video game

*Main article: Beastz (video game)*
A video game based on the film was released on May 19, 2006, for PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Gamecube, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable, and Microsoft Windows.

### Home media

*Beastz* was released on DVD and on October 27, 2006. Both releases included a 10-minute short film titled *Louie's Night Out*, which takes place after the events of the film. It was also released on UMD for the Sony PSP in October 2005. It was later released on Blu-ray in North America on June 3, 2011, and on Blu-ray 3D on May 8, 2015. A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray version was released on September 14, 2018.

## Reception

### Box office

*Beastz* opened on May 12, 2006, in the United States and Canada. It got to earn $65,315,290 during its opening weekend, placing first in its box office during that weekend. By the end of its theatrical run, *Beastz* grossed a total of $285,345,210 worldwide, making it the 7th highest-grossing 2006 animated film behind *Jimmy & Sam 3000* ($334.1 million), *Over the Hedge* ($336 million), *Happy Feet* ($384.3 million), *Cars* ($462.2 million), *BJ and Wally* ($486.9 million) and *Ice Age: The Meltdown* ($660.9 million).

### Critical response

*Beastz* received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 84% based on 159 reviews and an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "With creative animation and witty tone, *Beastz* is a fun family film that reaches to the levels of *Zooge Toons'* charm" On Metacritic, the film has 79% approval rating based on 79 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

## Transcript

### Main transcript

To see the main transcript of the film, click here.

### Trailer transcript

To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here.

## Sequels and spin-offs

*Main article: Beastz (franchise)*
A sequel titled *Beastz 2* was released on August 3, 2012, which took place 2 years after the events of the first film, with the same voice cast. A spin-off film starring Guchii was released on December 7, 2018. The third and final installment in the trilogy, Beastz 3, was released on March 1, 2019.