Toon Party: Spaced Out

**Warning: Pooh's Adventures-eqsue Cringe Ahead**

***Toon Party: Spaced Out*** (known as ***Toon Party 2*** in some other countries) is an 2020 American-Canadian 3D computer-animated musical crossover science fiction comedy film produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Frenzy Animation, and the sequel to the 2016 film *Toon Party*. The film is being directed by Joshua Hays and Tony Browning (in their directorial debuts), with Nicholas Stoller, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Bob Barlen and Scott Bindley as writers. It featured an ensemble cast, including the reprised roles of Jesse McCartney, Mandy Moore, Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Josh Gad, Dan Castellaneta, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Finn Wolfhard, and Danny McBride, along with new additions to the cast including Stephanie Beatriz, Tiffany Haddish, Ryan Reynolds, Rachel Bloom, Awkwafina, Sterling K. Brown, Leslie Jones, Zach Woods, Brooklynn Prince, Ben Schwartz, Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel.

*Toon Party: Spaced Out* was released digitally via video on demand and in limited theaters on May 22, 2020. It was initially set to play in nationwide theaters on June 5, but the theatrical release was canceled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite receiving mixed to negative reviews from critics, it topped the digital rental charts in its opening weekend. The film subsequently received a secondary theatrical release in the United States beginning on April 30, 2021 in selected markets. A shorter version of the film, titled *Once Upon a Toon*, was released on January 15, 2021. A third and final sequel, *Toon Party: It's a Wonderful Toon* will be released on June 23, 2023.

## Plot

Following the events of the first film, Bryce's younger sister Paige has been invited to play with their father's ToonToy collection; in the Toon universe, this is represented by the arrival of space aliens. Nathan Ritter builds the aliens a heart as a token of friendship, but one eats it and demands more. Kate Anderson tries to attack, but this just makes the alien scream powerfully enough to shatter the town's windows. The aliens start to rampage across Toonsburg, causing structures to collapse. Nathan and Kate try to get help from the rest of the Toons, but they are outmatched and defeated. Meanwhile, Mayor Simon just ditches them to go golfing. Three years later, the now-teenaged Bryce has rebuilt Toonsburg into a post-apocalyptic wasteland known as "Apocalypse City", explained in the Toon universe as the result of repeated alien invasions, and some of the characters from the first film had disappeared. While this new life has hardened most of the citizens, Nathan remains upbeat, building a dream home for himself and Kate, who fears the home will invite another attack, and tells Nathan he needs to adapt to their harsh new world. Nathan himself is troubled by a vision of an impending cataclysm dubbed "Toonageddon". A mini-Lego doll named General Sweet Mayhem arrives looking for Apocalypse City's leader, and captures Kate and the rest of the Toon resistance and flies to the "Systar System" (in the real world, Paige takes them to her room over Bryce's protests). There, Queen Watevera Wa'Nabi tempts the group into supporting her; ("Not Evil") although Batman is initially tricked into agreeing to marry Wa'Nabi, the two eventually fall in love.

Meanwhile, Nathan tries to convince the Toons to help him rescue the captured characters, but they all refuse, who agree with Kate that Nathan is stuck in the past, and tell him that he's is not tough enough to go through the Systar System. Leonard, the King of Pig City, meets Nathan at his house and convinces him to build an alliance with the pigs after the Systar aliens took over Pig City. Nathan converts his house into a spaceship and travels through "the Stargate" (out of the basement) where only to come across a glassteroid storm. Just before Nathan and Leonard collide with one, they are saved by an galaxy adventurer FireStar. He brings Nathan and Leonard on-board and introduces himself as a galaxy-defending world-class detective/fourth wall-breaking and wisecracking superhero. FireStar tells Nathan his backstory of how he was left trapped under an couch in Bryce's home and was forgotten by his friends, but he managed to pull himself out and become who he is now. He has a whole control center with Donkey Apes that he trained. Nathan then decides to join FireStar in his quest to save his friends. Kate and her friends are taken to a spa, where Kate is given a wash, revealing that the red in her hair is painted, and her real hair is blonde. Watevra's assistants try to get Kate as pumped up as they are by forcing her to listen to the upbeat "Catchy Song". She escapes and finds herself crawling through a air duct next to Harrison Ford (voicing himself as a Toon).

Meanwhile, finding themselves in a space jungle, Nathan, Leonard, Sonic, FireStar, Courtney, and Silver are later soon attacked by several apes and later chases them though the jungle, but are fended off by an alien bomb which FireStar throws at the ape herd. They then escape a field of colossal Jungle Giants, but Nathan is gravely injured. Later, the gang finds an small town named Harmony Town with everybody to be overly happy and friendly, with the whole town go along and sing "Catchy Song", which FireStar finds the song annoying and painful. Numerous citizens gather on top of a giant wedding cake for Batman and Watevra's wedding. Kate, Homer, Lisa, Bart, Emmet, Audrey, Hiro, Red, Chuck, Bomb, and Anna meet up with Nathan, Leonard, Sonic, FireStar, Courtney, and Silver as they both plan to stop the ceremony by smashing the wedding cake. FireStar is suspicious of Kate and thinks she is brainwashed, but Nathan trusts her. Shortly after, the group is abducted by an another spaceship where the group discovers the Funilens, and meets up with Steve Smiley, who is revealed to have been the long-lost prince of the Funilens. The team meeting is disrupted when an metal ball sent by the space guards which hits the Funilens ship and destroys it. However, Nathan and the team escape via helicopter but Homer traps it in a canyon in front of a rampaging herd of space rhinos, but Nathan is able to repair the damage and help them ascend. Unfortunately, they lose the key (which Red stole in order to get in the space temple) when it falls out of Homer's hands, but Nathan is able to reclaim the key after using Homer as a 'sacrifice' to draw the herd's attention, subsequently ordering Emmet to spin the helicopter in time to catch Homer as he respawns (in which FireStar explains "it's cartoon logic"). Fleeing from the stampede, they finally land in a magical forest as well as the Angry Birds which they also escaped, using an map as an parachute. Nathan, who admits his selfish desire to be liked by everyone to Kate, who comforts him and tells him that there is more than life in the Systar System ("Beautiful Life").

Concluding that the wedding is a front for Toonageddon, Nathan devises a plan: As the other team members disguise themselves as a Alien Guard and grab a key card to get into the wedding cake. However, their disguise rips apart, but not before they drive the eagle guards into a breakdance battle, allowing them to escape. Meanwhile, as Kate tries to switch off the music defending the Space Temple where the wedding will take place, Mayhem explains to Kate that the wedding is a way to unite their two worlds to forestall Toonageddon, as reflected by Paige's desire to have Bryce to play with her, but they were just bad at communicating that. At the ceremony, Wa'Nabi reveals her original form, the heart Nathan gave the aliens, and Kate learns that her friends were not brainwashed, but simply having fun. Realizing FireStar has sinister motives, Kate tries to stop Nathan but, aided by FireStar and thinking that Kate is brainwashed as well, he destroys the temple.

Nathan realizes his mistake but is seized by FireStar, and Kate is knocked into the real world, where Bryce angrily destroys Paige's ToonToy temple wedding cake. FireStar reveals that he is an embittered version of Nathan from the future; abandoned for years underneath the same couch after crashing in the asteroid field, he became FireStar and to save his past self, constructed a time-traveling spaceship made from time machines from ToonToy sets based on various media that involve time travel. Out of bitterness over being neglected, FireStar has tricked his past self into bringing about Toonageddon, which he explains what is happening in the real world right now: Bryce and Paige's mother is fed up with their bickering and forces them to put away their ToonToy sets. When Nathan refuses to give up on his friends, FireStar throws him under the couch. Everything in the Toon universe begins to crumble and fall into the dark hole of the "Storajj Bin", as Bryce and Paige dismantle their creations and place them in storage bins as punishment. Discouraged, everyone sings "Everything's Not Awesome", but Kate convinces them not to give up hope; Bryce rebuilds the heart for Paige, reviving Wa'Nabi and in turn restoring the Toon universe, allowing the others to escape from the storage bin in various spacecrafts to save Nathan and stop FireStar. In FireStar's spaceship, Bart, Homer, Wyldstyle, Chuck and Bomb stall the Donkey Ape guards while Kate, Red, Silver, Emmet, and Sweet Mayhem save Nathan, and Leonard, Courtney, and Garry Pig sneak around the ship to find the "Ultimate Weapon" and destroy it, but the plan fails and the whole team are confronted by FireStar's guards, giving him a chance to send his duplicates of Nathan to the whole galaxy.

FireStar has Nathan imprisoned over a large concert stage where all the captured Toons are the audience with the Systar System overrun by Nathan robot clones made by FireStar's dinosaurs, all chasing after Kate. Everyone in the Toon universe including the apes are fighting against FireStar's Donkey Apes and Nathan robot clones while Nathan saves Kate, FireStar uses "The Ultimate Weapon" which it makes an powerful explosion in which it begins to tear the entire Toon world apart at the plates beneath it. However, Nathan launches FireStar's lava balls at the ship's self-destruct button, with everyone escaping while the spaceship explodes, as well as causing the clones to disappear with the plates back together, saving the entire Toon universe. After FireStar's spaceship is destroyed, Nathan and Kate overpower FireStar and destroy his remote time machine, preventing him from escaping to the past. Nathan's self-acceptance causes FireStar to fade from existence, Nathan and Kate reconcile. Bryce and Paige's mom has a change of heart upon seeing them playing together, and quietly lets them rebuild their ToonToy creations. The Toon universe is recreated as a mishmash of Apocalypse City and the Systar System, dubbed "Syspocalypstar City". Mayor Simon returns from his golf trip but gets kicked out of town almost immediately. Nathan's dream house is rebuilt, with Kate's hair color back to red, and Kate gifts Nathan her very first album "Best of Kate Anderson", much to Nathan's shock.

In a mid-credits scene, Nathan and Kate crash an child's Sweet Feeder game on her iPad.

## Voice cast

* Jesse McCartney as Nathan Ritter
* Mandy Moore as Kate Anderson / Rapunzel
* Ryan Reynolds as FireStar
* Bill Hader as King Leonard
	+ Hader also plays "The Father", Bryce and Paige's  father in the real world.
* Stephanie Beatriz as General Sweet Mayhem
* Tiffany Haddish as Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi
* Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson
* Nancy Cartwright as Bart Simpson
* Julie Kavner as Marge Simpson
* Yeardley Smith as Lisa Simpson
* Chris Pratt as Emmet Brickowski
* Elizabeth Banks as Lucy / Wyldstyle
* Alison Brie as Princess Unikitty
* Nick Offerman as Metal Beard
* Will Arnett as Bruce Wayne / Batman
* Charlie Day as Benny
* Kristen Bell as Princess Anna
* Idina Menzel as Queen Elsa
* Ben Schwartz as Sonic the Hedgehog
* Jason Sudeikis as Red
* Rachel Bloom as Silver
* Josh Gad as Chuck / Olaf
* Danny McBride as Bomb
* Peter Dinklage as Ethan "Mighty" Eagle
* Leslie Jones as Zeta
* Nolan North as Terence
* Maya Rudolph as Matilda
* Awkwafina as Courtney
* Sterling K. Brown as Garry Pig
* Sarah Vowell as Violet Parr
* Taylor Swift as Audrey
* Ryan Potter as Hiro Hamada
* Patton Oswalt as Steve Smiley
* Finn Wolfhard as Bryce, a young teenager in the real world, whose imagination drives the events happening in the Toon universe.
* Kathryn Hahn as Mom, the unnamed mother of Bryce and Paige in the real world.
* Brooklynn Prince as Paige, Bryce's younger sister, who is the reason why the aliens from space attacked Toonsburg
* Andy Serkis as Caesar
* Steve Zahn as Bad Ape
* Toby Kebbell as Koba
* Karin Konoval as Maurice
* Terry Notary as Rocket
* Michael Adamthwaite as Luca
* Judy Greer as Cornelia
* Ty Olsson as Red Donkey
* Aleks Paunovic as Winter
* Tony Hale as Mime Bird
* Zach Woods as Carl Eagle
* Pete Davidson as Jerry Eagle
* Trey Parker as Chocolate Bar Guy
* Keith Ferguson as Bobby Bird
* Richard Ayoade as an talking ice cream cone
* Noel Fielding as Balthazar
* David Dobrik as Axel
* Pharrell Williams as Cool Spot
* Jodi Benson as Ariel
* Harrison Ford as himself

### ADR Loop Group

* Carlos Alazraqui
* David Cowgill
* Bob Bergen
* Dave Boat
* Yuri Lowenthal
* Tara Strong
* Debi Derryberry
* Terri Douglas
* Keith Ferguson
* Bridget Hoffman
* Daniel Kaz
* Steve Blum
* Bryce Papenbrook
* Phil LaMarr
* Marcella Lentz-Pope
* Scott Menville
* Arthur Ortiz
* Courtney Peldon
* Cam Clarke
* Max Mittelman
* Fred Tatasciore
* Kari Wahlgren
* Diamond White
* Ashley Johnson
* Debra Wilson

## Production

### Development

In December 2016, Rob Minkoff said that there were ideas for a sequel, and that writer Phil Lord already did a couple of script drafts for the sequel. On March 6, 2017, Deadline reported that the first film's co-director Rob Minkoff would direct the sequel with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller as producers and Nicholas Stoller writing the film's script. In August 2017, 20th Century Fox announced that the development on the sequel had begun, along with the sequel's title, which was officially announced as *Toon Party 2: Spaced Out,* and Karey Kirkpatrick was announced as the film's director, replacing Minkoff as director as left due to "creative differences". By April 2018, Stoller announced that the first draft of the script was completed. Subsequent rewrites were provided by *The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature* writers Bob Barlen and Scott Bindley. By August 2018, Kirkpatrick had been replaced by Joshua Hays and Tony Browning reportedly due to "creative differences" Production started in Canada on November 2, 2018. In May 2019, Fox removed the "2" subtitle from the film's title. The CGI animation was done at Mikros Image in Paris and London, Blur Studio (for Sonic's animation), and Reel FX, while the apes' motion capture animation was at Weta Digital.

The film was dedicated to Sally Browning, Tony Browning's grandmother, who died on October 19, 2019.

### Casting

Most of the previous voice actors, including Jesse McCartney, Mandy Moore, and Bill Hader signed on to reprise their roles. Moore stated in May 2018 that she had recorded her first lines for Kate.

In October 2018, it was announced that Tiffany Haddish has joined the cast to voice a brand new character in the sequel. The following month, Ryan Reynolds was cast to voice a main character in the film. On April 19, 2019, it was announced that Stephanie Beatriz and Rachel Bloom joined the cast. In July 2019, Sterling K. Brown, Kristen Bell, and Awkwafina joined the cast. In November 2019, Trey Parker (co-creator of Comedy Central's *South Park*) was cast to voice a background character in the film.

### Music

On February 11, 2019, John Powell was revealed to be returning for the sequel's score, while the songs were written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Jon Lajoie, and Robert Lopez. The film will feature an original song called "Beautiful Life", performed by Mandy Moore and Jesse McCartney, written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, and composed by Alan Menken. The film originally had no songs until five months into production when the suggestion of making the film a musical came from 20th Century Studios former president Emma Watts as well as writer Nicholas Stoller, due to the success of competing Disney musical films like *Frozen* and *Moana.*

## Release

#### Theatrical and streaming

*Toon Party: Spaced Out* was originally set for October 4, 2019, but was pushed back to November 22, 2019, then December 13, and later January 17, 2020, before finally moving to June 5. In March 2020, the film's theatrical release was delayed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was later announced on April 30, 2020 that 20th Century Studios would release *Toon Party: Spaced Out* through video on demand on May 22 instead of in theaters. The film was eventually reissued in North American theaters on April 30, 2021.

The film is rated PG by the MPAA for “frenetic and prolonged sequences of animated action, mild language, some thematic elements, and rude and suggestive humor.”

### Marketing

* The first poster was released and first teaser trailer for the film was released by 20th Century Fox on June 13, 2019, and was attached to screenings of *Toy Story 4,* and the trailer quickly became viral, getting more than 5 million views in 24 hours.
* On November 19, 2019, Fox released 21 character posters for the film, along with promotional film stills, as well a official trailer, which was released online a couple days later and was attached to screenings of *Frozen II*.
* Another teaser trailer was released online on January 30, 2020, parodying the teaser of *The Galaxy's Misfits,* and was (ironically) exclusively attached to screenings of that film.
* The second and final official trailer was released on February 12, 2020.

20th Century Studios partnered with more than 100 licensing and promotional partners to market the film including Sprint Corporation, which gives customers free movie tickets when they buy a free smartphone and switch, Chevrolet, Chiquita, Fandango, McFarlane Toys, McDonald's, Discover credit cards, and Ziploc. In late September 2019, American pizza chain Pizza Hut announced that they will be the official partner of the film. On November 20, 2019, Fox released *Toon Party* on YouTube in its entirety for one week only, with a trailer for *Toon Party: Spaced Out* attached.

20th Century Studios also released a short film, titled *Nathan's Christmas Party*, as a Christmas styled promotion for the film on December 13, 2019 on YouTube.

A Lego video game based on both films was announced at E3 2019, and was released on May 19, 2020 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

### Home media

*Toon Party: Spaced Out* was later released physically on August 11, 2020. The latter release covered the 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD formats, including both the original theatrical version and *Super Spaced Out Cut* extended edition. Joshua Hays announced in an Instagram post that *Once Upon a Toon* will release on Digital HD and Blu-ray/DVD combo (no standalone DVD) on March 2, 2021.

### *Once Upon a Toon*

At the end of September 2020, 20th Century Studios announced that it would release an untitled *Toon Party* film in theaters on January 15, 2021. The studio suggested that press and fans "guess away" as to what this new film would be, but it was believed to be a shorter, re-cut version of
*Toon Party: Spaced Out*, due to many audiences complaining about the original cut's running time (2 hours and 29 minutes). Director Joshua Hays hinted that the shorter version of the film would feature short scenes of FireStar telling the story of the film to a young teenager named Timmy (also voiced by Ben Schwartz). Stoller wrote new scenes for the new version, and Hays and Browning returned to animate them during three days in October. The majority of the version is the same as the original cut, but edited to "meet more impatient family audiences". However, some fans said that the shorter version was unneeded, leaving them to like the original cut of the film.

20th Century Studios officially announced *Once Upon a Toon* on November 18, 2020 with the new version's running time to be 2 hours and 3 minutes, and was later released in theaters on January 15 for a three-week limited engagement.

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the version of the film holds an approval rating of 36% based on 41 reviews, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "*Once Upon a Toon* may be a slight improvement over the original longer cut of *Toon Party: Spaced Out*, but doesn't add enough humor to justify its own existence." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 37 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 77% overall positive score and a 53% "definite recommend"

## Reception

### Box office and VOD sales

In the U.S., the film made about $50,000 in its opening weekend from 30 drive-in theaters, amid extensive movie theater closures due to restrictions targeted at the COVID-19 pandemic.

*Toon Party: Spaced Out* was the top-rented film on Prime Video, Google Play, FandangoNow, and the iTunes Store in its opening weekend. Although Fox has yet to report actual figures, the film had a higher count than *Trolls World Tour* and *Scoob!*. When the film was reissued in North American theaters on April 30, 2021, it debuted in 6th place at the box office over the weekend with $1.1 million.

### Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 26% based on 133 reviews, with an average rating of 4.21/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Unoriginal and unfunny, *Toon Party: Spaced Out'*s frantic animated antics may or may not still offer some entertainment to all but the least discriminating viewers." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 42 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."

## Sequel

*Main article: Toon Party: It's a Wonderful Toon*
A sequel to the film, titled *Toon Party: It's a Wonderful Toon*, was officially announced on May 21, 2021 and is scheduled to be released on June 23, 2023. It will be directed by Mike Mitchell, co-directed by Larry Leichliter, and written by Kate Kondell, Pamela Ribon, Jonathan Aibel, and Glenn Berger. Mitchell also indicated that it would be "the final chapter" in the *Toon Party* series.

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