The Alaina Gleen Movie

***The Alaina Gleen Movie*** is a 2004 American animated adventure comedy film produced by 20th Century Fox Animation and based on the animated television series of the same name. The film was written and directed by Karey Kirkpatrick (in his directorial debut) and co-directed by Kevin Lima, and co-written by J. David Stem, David N. Weiss, Tab Murphy, Bob Tzudiker, Noni White, and series creator Thalia Ward. Ward wrote and executive produced the film, but decided not to direct it, therefore, Kirkpatrick was selected to direct. The film stars the regular television cast of Catherine Cavadini, Tom Kenny, Jason Marsden, Jodi Benson, Jim Cummings, Billy West, Dan Castellaneta, Rob Paulsen, Jeff Bennett, and Kath Soucie, with guest roles from Glenn Close, Christopher Lloyd, Patrick Warburton, Whoopi Goldberg, and Eric Idle.

In the film, Alaina Gleen, Max Hat, Professor Hinkle Higgins, Spy Squirrel, Eddie Elephant, and Jason Baxter, must venture out to outer space where they rescue Lucy Jones from the planet Zhor. However, Lucy becomes tempted to stay on the planet when she is treated with respect by its people. Meanwhile, a corrupt king named King Larry who leads a race of monster-like aliens named the Groxes, who plan to conquer and destroy Earth, where Alaina and her friends must stop them from doing it.

*The Alaina Gleen Movie* was released theatrically on September 17, 2004 by 20th Century Fox, and received mixed reviews from critics and fell short of Fox's financial expectations earning over $119 million on its $65 million budget. It also served as the series finale of the original *Alaina Gleen* series, as no further episodes were made to continue from where it left off; however, the franchise was rebooted in 2010 with a computer-animated film of the same name.

## Cast

*Main article: List of Alaina Gleen characters*
* Catherine Cavadini as Alaina Gleen / Additional Voices
* Tom Kenny as Max Hat / Additional Voices
* Jodi Benson as Lucy Jones
* Jason Marsden as Jason Baxter
* Jim Cummings as Professor Hinkle Higgins / Bruce Bird / Additional Voices
* Billy West as Eddie Elephant / Additional Voices
* Kath Soucie as Sally Gleen / Additional Voices
* Tianna Hopes as Betty Gleen / Additional Voices
* Hank Azaria as Charlie Baxter / Mr. Piggy / Additional Voices
* Dan Castellaneta as Roger Rumpkins / Additional Voices
* E.G. Daily as Zoey Bird / Additional Voices
* Debi Derryberry as Benny Bird / Additional Voices
* Nancy Cartwright as Alex Bird
* Kat Cressida as Ellie Bird
* Jeff Bennett as Spy Squirrel / Additional Voices
* Charlie Adler as Principal Mockles
* Rob Paulsen as Kevin / Additional Voices
* Glenn Close as Queen Susie
* Christopher Lloyd as King Larry
* Whoopi Goldberg as Ms. Zoop
* Eric Idle as Dr. Gotor
* Patrick Warburton as Lord Smashator

### ADR Loop Group

* Steve Alterman
* Kirk Baily
* Bob Bergen
* Lanai Chapman
* Jennifer Darling
* Corey Burton
* Rodger Bumpass
* Bill Farmer
* Nicholas Guest
* Willow Geer
* Paige Pollack
* Jim Ward
* Jess Harnell
* Tracy Metro
* Bridget Hoffman
* Jeremy Maxwell
* Scott Menville
* Ruth Zalduondo
* Jeff Fischer

## Production

### Animation

The film's animation was produced by Film Roman and Warner Bros. Animation in Burbank, California, Yowza! Animation in Toronto, and Rough Draft Studios in South Korea. Additional animation was done at AKOM Production Co. in Korea, Wang Film Productions/Cuckoo's Nest Studio in Taiwan, and Bardel Animation in Canada. As with the television series, the storyboarding, characters, background layout, and animatic parts of production, were done in America. The overseas studios completed the inbetweening, digital ink and paint, and rendered the animation to tape before being shipped back to the United States.

The team of animation directors was supervised by Bradley Raymond and lead by James Barnett, and was directed by David Silverman, Maya Patterson, Jim Brawley, Robert Alvarez, John Rice, Steven Dean Moore, Jim Reardon, Chuck Sheetz, Douglas McCarthy, and Gregg Vanzo, all animation directors for the series, respectively. The layouts for the movie were done between Studio B Productions in Canada and Walt Disney Animation Japan.

Thalia Ward stated that the animation of the film would "top the original TV series' animation" and "would be much better than what you see on TV".

### Casting

The series' regular voice actors Catherine Cavadini, Tom Kenny, Jason Marsden, Jodi Benson, Jim Cummings, Billy West, Charlie Adler, Hank Azaria, Dan Castellaneta, Rob Paulsen, Jeff Bennett, and Kath Soucie reprised their roles in the film. On November 7, 2003, it was reported that Glenn Close and Christopher Lloyd would play new characters Queen Susie and King Larry, respectively. Whoopi Goldberg, Eric Idle, and Patrick Warburton were later added to the cast in May 2004. The cast did the first of three table readings in July 2002, and began recording every week from May 2003 until the end of production.

## Release

### Theatrical

The teaser trailer for the film was released on July 18, 2003, and was attached to theatrical screenings of *Jeremy Monroe: The Biggest Movie Ever*. The film's official trailer was later released on March 26, 2004, and was attached to *Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed*. The final trailer was released on July 16, 2004. *The Alaina Gleen Movie* premiered at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California on September 4, 2004 with a pink carpet instead of the traditional red, and was theatrically released on September 17, 2004 in the United States and Canada and in the United Kingdom on October 28, 2004. The film was accompanied by the *Twentieth Toons* short film *Laurarella* featuring Laura Reed.

The film was originally slated for release on July 2, 2004, but by October 2003, it was delayed to September 17, 2004 to avoid competition with Columbia's *Spider-Man 2*. The film made its television debut on Fox Family on June 23, 2006.

### Marketing

Prior to and during its theatrical run, the film was promoted across the United States. Burger King produced a line of *Alaina Gleen* toy figures that were given away with children's meals, and ran a series of *Alaina Gleen*-themed television adverts to promote this. Convenience store chain 7-Eleven served a limited-edition Slurpee themed to *Alaina Gleen* in September 2004.

Hasbro also released a line of action figures based on the film, while Kellogg's included film-branded spoons in their cereal boxes and Sony produced a limited edition *The Alaina Gleen Movie* PlayStation 2 console.

### Video game

*Main article: The Alaina Gleen Movie (video game)*
A video game based on the film was released on September 28, 2004 for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, PC, and Macintosh and was developed by Heavy Iron Studios and published by THQ. Most of the cast from the film reprised their roles in the game.

### Home media

The film was released on VHS and DVD on January 25, 2005, both in widescreen and full-screen editions, by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The DVD release included an audio commentary by Karey Kirkpatrick, Kevin Lima, Thalia Ward, and the cast of the original *Alaina Gleen* television show, the *Laurarella* theatrical short film, isolated audio tracks, trailers and TV spots, deleted scenes, DVD-ROM features, a sneak preview of the 2005 Blue Sky animated film *Robots,* and a THX optimizer. The film was also released on Game Boy Advance Video in October 2005 and on UMD for the PlayStation Portable in September 2005. A new 2-disc release with extra features was released on June 13, 2006, in time for the release of *Puppet Pals*.

*The Alaina Gleen Movie* was later released on Blu-ray for the first time on November 17, 2020.

## Reception

### Box office

In North America, *The Alaina Gleen Movie* opened on Friday, September 17, 2004 alongside *Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow*, *Mr. 3000*, and *Wimbledon*. The film grossed $8,896,223 on its opening day in the U.S. and ended up grossing $22,718,184 in its opening weekend at 2,934 theaters, topping the box office for that weekend. This outperformed the expectations of $12 million that Fox had for the release. The film fell 57% in its second weekend while grossing $9,792,648, dropping to 2nd place behind *The Forgotten*. In the film's third weekend, it fell 64% at the box office, while grossing $3,583,114 and dropping to 4th place behind *The Forgotten*, *Shark Tale*, and *Ladder 49*.

It closed on December 16, 2004, earning $51.2 million in North America and $68.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $119,616,243. On January 9, 2005, it was reported that Fox would have to write-down about $15 million due to the film unable to recoup its $65 million budget.

### Critical reception

*The Alaina Gleen Movie* received mostly mixed reviews from critics and fans. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 46% based on 179 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The site's consensus reads: "Even though *The Alaina Gleen Movie* might entertain the little kiddies and some hardcore fans of the show, its standard story and washed-out humor feels like an extended episode of the show." Metacritic, another review aggregator, gives the film a score of 41 out of 100 from 52 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

## Transcripts

### Main

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

### Trailers

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

**Films:** ***The Alaina Gleen Movie*** ● *Alaina Gleen* ● *Alaina Gleen 2* ● *Alaina Gleen: Imaginary Vacation* ● *Alaina Gleen: World's Most Wanted*
**Specials:** *Alaina Gleen: Imaginary Island* ● *Gleenlogy*
**Video games:**

**Upcoming:** *The Pixelators: Supercharged* (2023)