Game Zone

***Game Zone*** is a 2003 American live-action/animated science fiction action comedy film directed by Tim Hill, written and produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and co-written by Dan Schneider and Karey Kirkpatrick. It starred Amanda Bynes, Drake Bell, Piper Perabo, Mandy Moore and Jennifer Garner, while Billy West, Tom Kenny, Christina Ricci, Eric Bauza, Josh Peck, Elizabeth Banks and Kelsey Grammer headline the voice cast. It is the first theatrically-released film to feature the *Toony Tales* characters since *Toony Tales: Worldwide West* (1996). The film follows a young computer game designer named Sarah Hopes who teams up with the Toony Tales characters to help them to win a video game competition against a group of robot-like creatures who intend to take every last kind of them.

After having the release date changed three times, *Game Zone* was released in the United States on February 14, 2003, by Paramount Pictures. It was a box office success, opening at number one at the North American box office and grossing over $351 million worldwide. However, it received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the blending of live-action and animation, visual effects, score by Mark Mothersbaugh, performances (particularly Bynes), and the faithful Games Animation comedy gags, but criticized the plot and lack of originality with several negative comparisons to *Tron* (1982), *WarGames* (1983) and *Space Jam* (1996). However, the film has amassed a significant cult following, and is considered among the most iconic 2000s movies.

## Plot

In 1992, a young girl named Sarah Hopes tells her parents that she wishes that she can make video games for once in her life when she grows up, and then become a computer designer. A few years later, after being inspired by video games, Sarah is now known for her computer games, such as Zany Beaver and Maia: The Nature Warrior on GameHut.com, and hopes to graduate from gaming school. Meanwhile in the video game world, the world called SaturnGaming.com faces decline. The master of the world, Master Saturn, ordered his assistant Zander to get new games in order to make it succeed. But before he did, he planned to use the Games Animation/Toony Tales characters as the stars of some games. So, he sends Saturn's diminutive minions the Tinybots to Earth to abduct the Games Animation characters in order to develop the new games featuring them. However, their ship accidentally crashes, landing into the Games Animation world, merging with the video game universe in it.

The next day, Sarah's parents leave town for vacation, while she tries to make another computer game featuring her character Groob. Once she finishes, Sarah transfers the game file into an "exe." file and opens up GameHut.com to upload it. However, when she opens up the internet, she discovers the GameHut.com has been out of order that day. Meanwhile in Games Animation world, after being chased by Bully and his gang, Reed and Smedley discover a video game city outside of their world, and they meet a penguin named Peppy that can talk and be understood in the video game universe, though the gamers playing his own game simply hear him as a normal penguin. Along the way, they also met an annoying chipmunk named Groob, who discovered the alien ship crashed into their world.

Upon the Tinybots' arrival, Reed, Smedley and the other Toony Tales take advantage of the Tinybots' small stature and challenge them to a video game competition, with the help of a nature warrior princess named Maia. Through a documentary of video games, the Tintbots learn that the best games are made from the video games developer, and accept the proposal. They go into the video game office in the real world, stealing the powers of the video game characters, and soon transform themselves into the large and powerful Gamestars, easily intimidating the Toony Tales. Reed tried to seek professional aid.

While trying to hang out with her friends, Brain, Taína and Kimmy, Sarah discovers the arcade machine at the abandoned arcade and then she tries the machine out. Sarah pushes the start button on the machine, then nothing happens at first, but all of a sudden, the arcade starts to have a blinding white flash that begins to suck up random things in the arcade building. Sarah tries to escape, but fails, gets sucked into the arcade cabinet and landed in the Games Animation world. Reed explains the situation to Sarah, whom Hopes is placed on as one who is best known for video games. Although reluctant, Sarah agrees to play after a confrontation with the Gamestars insults his pride, and organizes both the Toony Tales and Gamers into a team called the "ToonPlayers". During their first days of training, Evie, whom Reed falls in love with since they met in the Wild West, is added to the team thanks to her talents. Sarah sends Reed, Smedley, Louie, Groob, Peppy and Zany back to her house to obtain her video game stuff. After gathering the stuff, the gang are later seen by Brain and Taína, who follows them back to the Games Animation world and joins the team as well.

The competition between ToonPlayers and Gamestars eventually begins, but the Gamestars dominate the first half, sinking the ToonPlayers' morale. Brain and Taína overhears how the Gamestars obtained their power and informs Sarah. Reed, Groob, Peppy and Sarah rally the ToonPlayers and they dominate the third quarter and the start of the fourth using old-school gags and cartoon weapony.

After the third events, Sarah made a deal with Master Saturn: a win by Toonplayers would require the Gamestars returning their stolen powers, while a win by the Gamestars would allows Saturn to take over the video game universe, make other video game characters, including Groob, Peppy, Zany and Maia, a new games for SaturnGaming.com and making Sarah as his servant for the rest of their life. Now more determined to win than ever, Zander orders the Gamestars to win by any means necessary; throughout the fourth events, they subsequently begin playing even rougher and dirtier than before against the ToonPlayer, leaving most of their roster injured and unable to continue.

With ten seconds left in the competition, the ToonPlayers are down by one point and one player, with only Sarah, Reed, Smedley, Evie, Groob, Peppy, Maia, Brain, Taína left. Kimmy unexpectedly arrives and is recruited to fill the spot. The last event of the competition was Powerball, with Saturn ordering Gamestars to stop the ToonPlayers as he and Zander were hoping to win so they can take over the video game universe.

In the final seconds, Sarah gains the powerball with her friends' help, but the Gamestars threaten to kill her. Remembering advice from Reed, she uses cartoon physics to throw the ball, winning the match with a buzzer beater. Groob, Peppy, Zany and Maia befriended the Toony Tales characters with honor, while embracing the responsibilities of his new life with them. Seeing the Gamestars being reprimanded by Zander after being let down to Saturn, Taína helps them realize that they only listened to him because they were smaller. The Gamestars encase both Saturn and Zander in a missile and send them to the blank world. Giving up their stolen power and returning to the other video game characters, the Tinybots are recruited into the Toony Tales ensemble. Sarah remembers that her parents are to arrive at the end of the weekend. The Tinybots drop off the teens in the real world while the Toony Tales characters, including Groob, Peppy, Zany and Maia, say goodbye to them.

One year later, Sarah finally graduated from gaming school and finally became a video game designer along with Taína. As they are about to work on their own video game, Sarah designs her own characters. The game was only the beginning for her.

## Cast

* Amanda Bynes as Sarah Hopes
* Drake Bell as Brian
* Piper Perabo as Taína
* Mandy Moore as Kimmy
* Jennifer Garner as Ava

### Voice cast

* Billy West as Reed / Pokey Crane
* Tom Kenny as Smedley / Mr. Mittens / Lenny / Ted
* Cheryl Chase as Sally
* Gregg Berger as Joey
* Kath Soucie as Peppy Mouse / Penny
* Tara Strong as Nancy / Miss Bow Wow
* Grey Griffin as Jenny
* Jeff Bergman as Hokey Tiger
* Maurice LaMarche as Count Dogcula
* Charlie Adler as Raymond Fox
* Debi Derryberry as Patty and Charlie
* Jill Talley as Jenna
* Christina Ricci as Evie
* Eric Bauza as Groob, an annoying chipmunk who helps the ToonPlayer after the robots turning the Games Animation world and video game universe into one.
* Josh Peck as Peppy, a sarcastic, wise-cracking penguin who is part of the video game gang.
* Elizabeth Banks as Maia, a nature warrior princess who is also part of the video game gang.
* Jess Harnell as Zany, a crazy insane beaver who is also part of the video game gang.

*More coming soon!*

## Production

### Development

*Game Zone* as a concept dates back to early 1993, when Phil Lord and Christopher Miller had always wanted to do a live-action/animated film about cartoons characters teaming up with the video games characters to save their world from an evil video game overlord. While working on *All That* for Nickelodeon, Dan Schneider came up for a concept of a movie that revolves about female video game players.

Upon pitching the project to Brian Robbins, co-founder of Tollin/Robbins Productions in 1994, Schneider recalled Robbins saying "it fits perfect for a live-action/animated feature".

After the success of *Space Jam* in 1996, Tollin/Robbins Productions sent the project to Paramount Pictures. While meeting Lord and Miller, Robbins hired them to write the script for *Game Zone*, which they agreed the offer. In April 1997, The Morning Call reported that Brain Robbins was working on "a video game/cartoon original story" for Paramount and Nickelodeon Movies.

*More coming soon!*

### Filming

Filming began from April 2002 in Los Angeles, St. Louis, and New York City.

### Animation and visual effects

Like Nickelodeon's pervious 2001 animated film *Sweet Destiny*, *Game Zone* was jointly produced by Paramount Feature Animation and Nickelodeon Animation Studio with Paramount Digital Images handling the CGI animated sequences. Pre-production was done at the main Feature Animation studio in Los Angeles, California, starting as early as mid-1999. The animation work was done at Paramount Feature Animation London in London, England.

*More coming soon!*

## Music

*Main article: Game Zone (soundtrack)*
*Coming soon!*

## Release

In the United States, *Game Zone* was originally scheduled to be released on September 27, 2002, but was pushed up to March 7, 2003. The film was then pushed back to February 14, 2003, with *Thieves and Kings* taking its March 2003 slot.

### Marketing

The first teaser trailer was released on May 24, 2002, and was attached to *Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron*. The film's second trailer was released on September 27, 2002, and was attached to *Musical Stories 2002*.

Upon its release, Burger King had a promotional tie-in with five toys including Sarah Hopes, Reed, Evie, Groob and Zany with a paid Kids' Meal order. Ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins also promoted the film for its new ToonPlayer's Game Cream ice cream that consists of Hershey's chocolate, hot fudge, crushed chocolate cookies, whipped cream and chocolate syrup. Nickelodeon also promoted the film with several promotional spots, alongside the sweepstakes for the film's merchandise, which appeared on Nick.com but later expired on February 25, 2003. Other merchandise promoted for the film includes plush items, toys, activity sets, keepsakes and apparel.

### Video game

*Main article: Game Zone (video game)*
A video game based on the film was released in December 3, 2002 for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PC and mobile phones. It was published by THQ and developed by Blitz Games for the console versions, and was ported by ImaginEngine for PC and by Vicarious Visions for the GBA. Skyworks Interactive also developed the mobile version. Upon release, the game received a mixed-to-positive reception.

### Home media

*Game Zone* was released by Paramount Home Entertainment on VHS and DVD on June 10, 2003. Special features include a behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes, a music video, and many others. It was later released as a double feature with *The Toony Tales Movie* on Blu-ray on May 8, 2012.

## Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 38% of 195 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "While it may be a good return for Games Animation's popular characters, *Game Zone* lags behind with its confusing story and the overabundance of eye candy for young viewers." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 47 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore assigned the film an average grade of "B+" on its A+ to F scale.

*More coming soon!*

## Future

*Main article: Untitled Toony Tales film*
In 2021, Nickelodeon CEO Brian Robbins announced that a new film installment to the *Toony Tales* franchise was in development at Paramount Pictures. Tim Story was announced to direct it, with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller returning to do the screenplay. Dan Schneider is not involved with the project, following his firing from Nickelodeon in 2018. Mark Mothersbaugh will not return to compose the score, and will be replaced by frequent Tim Story collaborator Christopher Lennertz. The title is yet to be revealed, though its release date is set for October 2024.

## 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.