Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi 2

Theatrical release poster

***Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi 2*** is a 2006 American animated musical-adventure comedy film produced by Renegade Animation and Cartoon Network Studios and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was directed by Lindsey Pollard and produced by Sam Register, Ramsey Ann Naito, Michael Ouweleen, John Pomeroy and Charlie Bean, from a story written by Adam Beechen, Michelle Lamoreaux, Robert Lamoreaux and Howie Perry. The film is a sequel to 2003's *Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi*, and is based on the Japanese pop-rock group Puffy AmiYumi, as well as the Cartoon Network animated spin-off television series of the same name. This film serves as the series finale of *Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi*. It is Cartoon Network's first feature film sequel and is the first sequel from the studio to be created by the original film's story writing and producing team. In the film, Ami, Yumi, Kaz, Yuri, Misaki Yoshimura, Takuya Nagsako, Emi, Tekirai, Jang-Keng, and Zoe Zero go to Ami and Yumi's hometown, Tokyo, to visit Ami's little brother, Ryou Onuki, along with her two enthusiastic friend Erika Tanaka, and Cowgirl Casey, and Ryou's best friend, Botan Sakai. But the reunion quickly takes a bizarre turn when a new foe comes in, with emerging plans to get rid of Yumi Yoshimura in order to inherit her fortune.

Janice Kawaye, Grey DeLisle, Keone Young, Jess Harnell, Cree Summer, Fred Tatasciore, Mary Jo Catlett, Rob Paulsen, Nika Futterman, and Frank Welker reprised their respective roles, joined by Nancy Cartwright, Pamela Adlon, Nicholas Elia (his animated film debut), Russi Taylor, Carolyn Lawrence, and Hank Azaria. *Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi 2* held its world premiere in Japan on August 11, 2006, and was released in the United States on August 25, 2006. It received mixed reviews from critics, but was a modest box office success, earning $319 million worldwide on its $59 million budget.

## Plot

Sometime after the third season of the series, Ami, Yumi, Kaz, Yuri, Misaki Yoshimura, Takuya Nagsako, Emi, Tekirai, Jang-Keng, and Zoe Zero go to Ami and Yumi's hometown, Tokyo, to visit Ami's little brother, Ryou Onuki, along with her two enthusiastic friend Erika Tanaka, and Cowgirl Casey, as well as Ryou's best friend, Chiyo Sakai. But the reunion quickly takes a bizarre turn when a new foe comes in, with emerging plans to get rid of Yumi Yoshimura in order to inherit her fortune.

## Cast

* Janice Kawaye as Ami Onuki, an leader of the Puffy
* Grey DeLisle as Yumi Yoshimura, an member of the Puffy
* Keone Young as Kaz Harada
* Jess Harnell as Ned Nicholas
* Fred Tatasciore as Yuri Yoshimura
* Cree Summer as Zoe Zero
* Rob Paulsen as Takuya Nagsako
* Nika Futterman as Emi Etsuko
* Mary Jo Catlett as Misaki Yoshimura
* Frank Welker as Tekirai
	+ Welker also voices Jang-Keng
* Hank Azaria as Eldwin Blair. Azaria replaces Nathan Carlson from the series.
* Jim Cummings as Tim, one of Eldwin Blair's henchmen.
* Cam Clarke as Glen, one of Eldwin Blair's henchmen.
* Pamela Adlon as Ryou Onuki, Ami Onuki's little brother
* Nancy Cartwright as Fumiko Yosano.
* Russi Taylor as Erika Tanaka
* Carolyn Lawrence as Cowgirl Casey
* Nicholas Elia as Botan Sakai
* John DiMaggio as Bob, a tourist.
* Cheryl Chase as Kate, a tourist.
* Diedrich Bader as The Talking Rabbit
* James Arnold Taylor as Flynn Andrews
* Ami Onuki (uncredited), and Yumi Yoshimura (uncredited) as themselves (Live-Action scene only)

## Production

### Development

On November 3, 2003, a year before *Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi* (2004) was premiered, series creator and writer Michelle Lamoreaux commented on a possible sequel, stating, "We would love to bring these two girls to the big screen back once more, but we haven't started writing it yet". In January 2004, Variety reported that Lindsey Pollard would direct in her directorial debut on an animated musical comedy sequel based on the Japanese rock band and the spin-off television series. Production began in February 2004.

In September 2004, Warner Bros. Pictures and Cartoon Network revealed the film's title to be *Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi 2*, which would be produced by Sam Register, Ramsey Ann Naito, Michael Ouweleen, John Pomeroy and Charlie Bean, with Tim McCanlies, William Schifrin and John Logan writing the film's screenplay. In November 2004, it was announced that Adam Beechen, Michelle Lamoreaux, Robert Lamoreaux and Howie Perry would be added as the story writers.

### Casting

In March 2004, it was announced that actress Janice Kawaye and Grey DeLisle would reprise their roles as Ami and Yumi. By August 2004, it was later announced that Pamela Adlon would join the cast as the new character: Ryou Onuki, Ami's little brother. The rest of the cast was announced in December 2004.

### Animation

The film was animated in-house by Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, California and Renegade Animation in Glendale, California. In April 2004, it was reported that Renegade Animation would completely transfer their animation workflow into using the Linux operating system. In 2005, they decided to partner with Hewlett-Packard for a three-year deal for which they used their dual-processor HP workstations and ProLiant servers running Red Hat Linux 9 software. Starting with this film, they had replaced its entire render farm with x86-based Linux servers.

*Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi 2* was the first Cartoon Network Studios production to completely utilize Linux software, with more than 250 workstations used. Starting with storyboards, the artists first drew sketches on paper to visualize the scene, which were later edited into animatics. For the character animation, rough character sketches were passed through the ToonShooter software, which digitized the sketches. From that point, the animators were able to easily integrate the animation into existing scenes. Production software lead Dylan Kohler explained, "ToonShooter is an internal tool we wrote for Linux. It captures low resolution 640 x 480 line art that the artists use to time the film." The animated characters were then digitally colored using the Linux software application, InkAndPaint. The digital production also gave the directors a unique "virtual camera" for complicated shots within the film. With the ability to operate in the z-plane, this camera moved through a digital wire-frame set; the background and details were later hand-drawn over the wireframes. The film's traditional animation was provided by Rough Draft Korea and Starburst Animation in Seoul, South Korea, and Toon City Animation in Manila, Philippines.

### Music

*Main article: Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi 2/Soundtrack*
The film's original score was composed by James Newton Howard. The soundtrack album was released on August 22, 2006 by Atlantic Records. Originally, Pollard wanted John Debney to compose the music, but he was too busy composing for other feature-length projects, such as *Keeping Up with the Steins*, *The Ant Bully*, *Barnyard*, *Idlewild*, and *Everyone's Hero* (all five of which were released in 2006).

## Release

The film was originally scheduled for release on August 4, 2006, but on January 19, 2005, its release date was pushed back to August 25, 2006 with *Barnyard* taking its place.

The film premiered on August 11, 2006, at Japan, and was released in the United States on August 25, 2006.

The theatrical release was accompanied by a *Tom and Jerry* short film *The Karate Guard*.

A montage of "outtakes" were made and included in the end credits of the film starting on September 29, 2006, which was done because Warner Bros. hoped it would encourage people to view the film a second time.

### Marketing

Coinciding with the film's release, Burger King released nine toys in their Kids' Meals.

Baskin-Robbins promoted the film for its new Puffy AmiYumi COOL Sundae that consists of crushed chocolate, hot fudge, sprinkles, maraschino cherries, strawberry syrup, squiggly gummy worms and whipped cream.

A tie-in comic titled Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: Ami and Yumi Great Adventure was released on July 15, 2006, collecting three prelude issues.

### Trailers

* The film's first teaser trailer was released on July 15, 2005, and was later shown in theaters in front of *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory*, *Sky High*, *Class of 3000*, *Corpse Bride*, and *Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.*
* The second teaser trailer was was released on November 4, 2005, and was later released with *Chicken Little*, *Zathura*, *Yours, Mine and Ours*, *The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe*, *Cheaper by the Dozen 2*, and *Hoodwinked*.
* The first theatrical trailer was was released on January 27, 2006 and was shown with *Nanny McPhee, Curious George, The Pink Panther,* *Eight Below, Doogal* and *Aquamarine.*
* The second theatrical trailer was released in March 10, 2006, and was shown before *The Shaggy Dog, Ice Age: The Meltdown*, *The Wild*, *RV*, and *Hoot*.
* The third and final theatrical trailer was released in May 5, 2006 during an episode of *Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi*, and was shown before *Over the Hedge*, *Cars*, *Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties*, *Nacho Libre*, *Monster House, The Ant Bully*, *Barnyard,* and *Material Girls*.
* TV spots began to air between late July and early September of 2006.

### Video game

A video game based on the film was released on August 15, 2006 on PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, PC, and Macintosh.

### Home media

*Main articles: Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi 2/Home media*
*Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi 2* was released on DVD, and UMD Video on December 19, 2006. The Blu-ray version was released on May 13, 2014.

It was released again on Blu-ray 3D, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, DVD, and Blu-ray on November 19, 2019 to honor the 15th anniversary of the show.

## Reception

### Critical response

*Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi 2* has received a mostly mixed response from critics and fans alike, who praised its animation and voice cast, but criticized its story. Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 63% based on 135 reviews; the average rating is 6.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "The comedy and humor are spot-on as usual, but *Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi 2*'s unfortunate tendency to throw in musical film cliches and contrived plot points suggests that the franchise has been corrupted." Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, gave the film a score of 61 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, down from the first film's "A".

### Box office

*Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi 2* grossed $95 million in the United States, and $69 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $319.7 million.

## Cancelled Sequel

In August 27, 2006, it was announced that there would be a third sequel to *Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi*. The story would have involved Ami, Yumi and their friends trying to stop Julie Hinikawa (formerly Jewel) from trying to rid of them again. It was set to be directed by Lindsey Pollard, again and scheduled to be released in 2009, but on October 2, 2006, the film was cancelled along with the TV series of the same name.

## Sound Effects

*Main article: Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi 2/Sound Effects*
## Gallery

*Main article: Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi 2/Gallery*

## Trivia

* This is the sixth Cartoon Network theatrical film.
* The eighth Warner Bros. animated film of 2000s to be produced in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, after *Pokémon The Movie 2000*, *Pokémon 3: The Movie*, *The Powerpuff Girls Movie,* *Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, Clifford's Really Big Movie*, *Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light*, *The Ed, Edd n Eddy Movie*, *Mike, Lu & Og: Journey Back to Manhattan* and *Class of 3000*.
* This is the seventh Warner Bros. animated film of 2000s to be rated PG by the MPAA, after *Osmosis Jones*, *The Powerpuff Girls Movie*, *Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi*, *Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light*, *The Ed, Edd n Eddy Movie*, *Mike, Lu & Og: Journey Back to Manhattan* and *Class of 3000*.
* The eleventh Warner Bros. animated film to be rated PG by the MPAA, after *Twice Upon a Time*, *Batman: Mask of the Phantasm*, *Space Jam, The Iron Giant, Osmosis Jones, The Powerpuff Girls Movie, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light*, *The Ed, Edd n Eddy Movie*, *Mike, Lu & Og: Journey Back to Manhattan* and *Class of 3000*.
* The film was released on DVD and UMD Video on December 19, 2006, by Warner Home Video.
* In theaters, a *Tom and Jerry* short entitled *The Karate Guard* was shown prior to the film.
* This is the third Cartoon Network theatrical film to have a box office success.
* The fourth Warner Bros.' animated film to be released in September, after The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979), Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (1988) and Corpse Bride (2005).
* The tenth Warner Bros. animated musical film, after *Gay Purr-ee*, *Rover Dangerfield*, *Thumbelina*, *A Troll in Central Park*, *Quest for Camelot*, *The King and I*, *Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi*, *Mike, Lu & Og: Journey Back to Manhattan*, and *Class of 3000*.
* *Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi* is Warner Bros.' ninth animated film to become a franchise after *Looney Tunes* (which had 8 sequels), *Batman* (which had 5 sequels), *Superman* (which had 3 sequels)*,* *Scooby-Doo* (which had 9 sequels), *Pokémon* (which had 3 sequels), *Justice League* (which had 1 sequel), *Tom and Jerry* (which had 4 sequels), and *The Little Polar Bear* (which had 2 sequels).
* As the film got mixed reviews, it is widely considered by fans the bottom of the *Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi* franchise.
* This film reunites Rob Paulsen, Frank Welker and Jeffrey Garcia, who were currently working on a hit Nickelodeon show *The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius* as Carl Wheezer, Goddard and Sheen Estevez, respectively.
* Yumi Yoshimura was originally going to be the one to give the warning. But the writers scrapped the idea for unknown reasons.

## 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.

## Credits

*Main article: Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi 2/Credits*