Rumble (2021 film)
Rumble is a 2021 American computer-animated sports comedy film directed by Hamish Grieve with a screenplay by Grieve and Matt Lieberman. Loosely based on "Monster on the Hill", a graphic novel by Rob Harrell, the film stars the voices of Will Arnett, Geraldine Viswanathan, Terry Crews, Stephen A. Smith, Jimmy Tatro, Tony Danza, Susan Kelechi Watson, Tony Shalhoub, Bridget Everett, Greta Lee, Ben Schwartz, Roman Reigns and Becky Lynch. Produced by Paramount Animation, WWE Studios, Walden Media and Reel FX Animation Studios, the film was released in the United States on December 15, 2021 on Paramount+ . The film received generally mixed reviews from critics with criticism for its writing, characters, and pacing, although the animation and voice acting received some praise. Plot. In a world where giant monsters and humans coexist, monsters compete in a popular professional wrestling global sport known as monster wrestling, with each city having its own monster wrestler. After the current wrestler for the small town of Stoker, the shark-like Tentacular becomes the new world champion, he announces he no longer wants to represent Stoker. The townspeople are later told if they do not find a new wrestler, they will lose  the town's stadium and its revenue, which prompts wrestling enthusiast Winnie Coyle to search for a new monster representative for her town. Winnie heads to an underground fight and finds the son of the famous late Stoker champion Rayburn, fighting under the name of "Steve The Stupendous". Winnie interferes in the match and causes Steve to win instead of taking a dive, as the underground arena employer wanted. Steve is confronted by his employer and threatened unless he can get the owner back the money she just lost. Winnie tells Steve she can help him get the money by  training him to fight Tentacular. Realizing he has no other way to make the money, Steve agrees to be trained. Steve initially is uninterested in learning how to fight properly and wins his first match by evading his opponent. Steve later tells Winnie he left Stoker because everyone saw him as an extension of his father and could not live up to his name. Winnie learns Steve loves dancing and decides to train him using dance moves. As they progress up the league's rankings, Tentacular announces he and his agent have bought Stoker's stadium and wants to demolish  it as Tentacular sees it as a reminder that he will be always compared to Rayburn. Even though Steve manages to repay his underground arena employer, he decides to help Winnie, reveals his identity as Rayburn Jr. and challenges Tentacular to a match for the stadium. During the fight, Steve avoids most of the hits by Tentacular in the first round, but Tentacular counters his dance moves in the second round. In the third round, Steve brings the fight and is able to not only use dance but land several hits. Winnie tells Steve to use Tentacular's suckers to  stick him to one of the corner posts. When Steve goes in for the final move, he and Tentacular collide and are both knocked out. Tentacular gets up first but is too rattled to end the match. The crowd gets Steve back up by clapping a salsa beat and he is finally able to defeat Tentacular and save the stadium. Production. On February 18, 2015, Reel FX Creative Studios announced an adaptation of the 2013 graphic novel "Monster on the Hill" by Rob Harrell, to be written by Matt Lieberman. On April 25, 2018, Paramount Animation announced that joined the  film as a co-producer, with Walden Media, at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. DisneyToon Studios vet Bradley Raymond was originally going to direct the film, but due to unknown reasons, he was eventually replaced by DreamWorks Animation veteran Hamish Grieve, head of story for films such as "Rise of the Guardians" and "", thus making his directorial debut. On June 12, 2019, the title was changed to "Rumble". Casting. The first casting announcement consisted of Geraldine Viswanathan, Will Arnett, and Terry Crews. Becky Lynch, Roman Reigns, Ben Schwartz, Jimmy Tatro, Tony Danza, Susan Kelechi Watson, Carlos Gómez, Charles Barkley, Chris Eubank , Bridget Everett, Michael Buffer, and Stephen A. Smith, revealing their involvement in the film. Release. On September 19, 2019, the film was scheduled to be released on July 31, 2020. On November 12, 2019, the release date was pushed to January 29, 2021. On October 27, 2020, the release date was then moved to May 14, 2021, and moved again on January 27, 2021 to February 18, 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. On November 26, 2022, the film made one final move to December 15, 2021, as a Paramount+ exclusive, cancelling its theatrical release altogether. Reception. On  Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews from critics, with an average rating of . On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100 based on reviews from 5 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."