Wonder Park

Wonder Park is a 2019 computer animated adventure film produced by Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Movies, with Ilion Animation Studios handling animation. The plot follows a young girl who encounters a real version of her magical amusement park, run by talking animals. The film stars the voice talents of newcomer Brianna Denski, and Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Garner, Ken Hudson Campbell, Kenan Thompson, Ken Jeong, Mila Kunis, John Oliver, Kath Soucie, Norbert Leo Butz, and Kevin Chamberlin. The film was directed by former Pixar animator Dylan Brown in his directorial debut; while he was involved through most of the production period, Paramount Pictures dismissed him in January 2018, citing "inappropriate and unwanted conduct."[1]

Wonder Park
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDylan Brown[lower-alpha 1]
Produced by
Screenplay by
  • Josh Appelbaum
  • André Nemec
Story by
Starring
Music bySteven Price
CinematographyJuan García González
Edited byEdie Ichioka
Production
companies
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15) (United States)
  • April 12, 2019 (2019-04-12) (Spain)
Running time
85 minutes[6]
Country
  • United States
  • Spain
LanguageEnglish
Budget$80–100 million[7][8]
Box office$119.6 million[9]

Wonder Park was released in 2D and 3D formats in the United States on March 15, 2019. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed over $119 million worldwide. A television series based on the film was scheduled to debut in 2019 on Nickelodeon, making it the third animated film from Nickelodeon Movies, after Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Barnyard, to serve as the basis for an animated series on the network.

Plot

June Bailey, a girl with a bright imagination, and her mother come up with the story of Wonderland, a magical amusement park run by a group of animals: Boomer, a big blue bear who greets guests; Greta, a wild boar; Gus and Cooper, beaver brothers; Steve, a porcupine who is the park's safety manager and is in love with Greta; and Peanut, the leader of the park and a chimpanzee who has the ability to create rides by listening to June's mother's voice.

Over time, June's mother starts to get sick and is sent away for recovery, June starts alienating from Wonderland and burns the blueprints of the park out of frustration. Sometime later, June's father sends her to math camp. After misinterpreting a note from her father as a cry for help, June uses her friend Banky to create a distraction on the bus to escape and return home, but instead, she finds a broken-down Wonderland in the woods.

The park is currently being surrounded by a cloud named the Darkness; June and the animals attempt to fix the park's mechanism but are attacked by Chimpanzombies, the park's former plush toys. In the chaos, June gets separated from the animals and finds herself in a floating chamber known as Zero-G Land.

There, June finds Peanut hiding from the Darkness and confesses he felt lost after he stopped hearing the voice in his head, this leads June to realize that the Darkness was created by herself as a result of her cynicism from her mom's illness, the Chimpanzombies break in and take Peanut as their prisoner, but June manages to escape.

June runs back to the animals to tell them she found Peanut but also confesses that she is responsible for the Darkness. Feeling upset over this revelation, they abandon her. After noticing the piece of the blueprint and realizing that she has been able to create the ideas for the park herself, June manages to fix one of the attractions to catch up with the animals and make it to the park's mechanics. She also explains why she created the Darkness, and seeing that she wants to help, the animals reform the team to save Peanut and Wonderland.

The gang finds the Chimpanzombies taking Peanut to get sucked up into the Darkness. The animals fight back while June rushes to save Peanut by jumping into the void. She promises him that she will provide the voice for his imagination and that he should not let the Darkness take over him, giving him an idea to make a slide out of bendy straws to escape. While the gang and Peanut are riding the slide to avoid the chimpanzombies, June then notices that the park's mechanics is her name written in cursive, just like the blueprint piece. With Peanut's help, they get the mechanics back up and running by using her name to move the gears, and clear up Wonderland from the Darkness. A cloud remains over the park, to which June interprets as a reminder to continue to be imaginative.

June returns home, and with it, her now cured mother, and they set up a Wonderland in their backyard. June then shares with other kids the story of Wonderland.

Voice cast

Production

Wonder Park started development in early 2012, with the story being written by Galaxy Quest writer Robert Gordon[13] and production commenced in September 2014.[14] In June 2015, it was revealed that Spain's Ilion Animation Studios would produce the fully animated 3D film.[15] In November 2015, Paramount Animation officially announced the project, then titled Amusement Park, with former Pixar animator Dylan Brown helming.[16] The voices in the film were set as Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Garner, Ken Hudson Campbell (originally Jeffrey Tambor),[17] Kenan Thompson, Ken Jeong, Mila Kunis, and John Oliver.[16] For the role of June Bailey, more than 1,500 people auditioned before 11-year-old Brianna Denski of Plymouth, Connecticut, got the role.

In January 2018, it was reported that director Dylan Brown was fired from the production by Paramount Pictures, following an investigation into complaints of "inappropriate and unwanted conduct."[18] Paramount offered the director's credit to multiple other key creative personnel on the film, but they refused to the credit, fearing the film would be detrimental to their careers.[19] The position went then uncredited in the film.[20][1] In April 2018, the title of the film was changed from Amusement Park to Wonder Park.[21]

Music

The music for Wonder Park was scored by composer Steven Price. The album was released on March 8, 2019.[22]

Grace VanderWaal recorded the song "Hideaway" for the film.[23]

In April 2018, it was reported that Rachel Platten would perform an original song for Wonder Park.[24] The single, titled "Wonder," was released in March 2019.

Release

Wonder Park was released in 2D and 3D on March 15, 2019, by Paramount Pictures.[25][16] In January 2017, the film was moved up from its original release date, March 22, 2019, to July 13, 2018.[26][25] A few months later, it was pushed back from July 13, 2018 to August 10, 2018,[27] and by August 2017, it was pushed back for a final time to March 15, 2019.[25]

Home media

Wonder Park was released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 18, 2019, and on Digital HD on June 4, by Paramount Home Entertainment.[28]

Reception

Box office

Wonder Park grossed $45.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $74.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $119.6 million, against a production budget of around $80–100 million.[9][8]

In the United States and Canada, Wonder Park was released alongside Captive State and Five Feet Apart, and was projected to gross $8–14 million from 3,838 theaters in its opening weekend.[8][7] It made $5.4 million on its first day, including $700,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $16 million, which beat projections, though Deadline Hollywood said it was "[not] enough to consider this... production a success."[20] The film fell 45% in its second weekend, grossing $8.8 million, and another 45% in its third to $4.5 million.[29][30]

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 34% based on 103 reviews, with an average rating of 4.79/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Colorful and energetic but lacking a compelling story, Wonder Park is little more than a competently made diversion for very young viewers."[31] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."[32] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[20]

Other media

Television series

Prior to Wonder Park's release, Paramount Animation announced that a television series based on the film would debut on Nickelodeon, after the film's theatrical release. This would have been the third animated film from Nickelodeon Movies to have a series spin-off, after Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Barnyard, and the first animated film from Paramount Animation to inspire a series spin-off from the film.[33]

Mobile game

Prior to the film's release, a licensed mobile game titled Wonder Park Magic Rides was released by Pixowl.[34]

Notes
  1. Brown was fired near the end of production; Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies subsequently did not include a director's credit in the completed film.[1]
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References
  1. Miller, Dylan (March 15, 2019). "Paramount's new animated movie Wonder Park doesn't have a credited director, and here's why". The A.V. Club. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  2. "Film releases". Variety Insight. Variety Media. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  3. Pedersen, Erik (July 9, 2018). "'Wonder Park' Comes Alive With Teaser Trailer & First Photo". Deadline. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  4. Uriondo, Miguel Ángel. "'Amusement Park', la mayor película de animación de la historia de España". sabemos digital.com. Retrieved December 6, 2015.
  5. Peña, Ángel. "'Ilion goes to Hollywood': la edad de oro de la animación española". expansion.com. Retrieved July 18, 2016.
  6. "Wonder Park (2019)". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
  7. Rubin, Rebecca (March 13, 2019). "Box Office: 'Captain Marvel' Heads for Heroic Second Weekend". Variety. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
  8. Faughnder, Ryan (March 14, 2019). "'Captain Marvel' is likely to crush 'Wonder Park' at the box office". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
  9. "Wonder Park (2019)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  10. "Nova stars Fitzy and Wippa join Mila Kunis, Jennifer Garner in Wonder Park". www.news.com.au. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
  11. "Wonder Park: hear Tom Baker, Caspar Lee and Joe Sugg in new trailer". November 15, 2018. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
  12. https://filmsintown.com/2019/04/08/wonder-park-pg/
  13. McClintock, Pamela (April 25, 2012). "Paramount's Adam Goodman Opens Up About 'Top Gun 2,' 'Transformers 4' and Possibly Cutting Ties With DreamWorks Animation (Q&A)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  14. Lang, John Hopewell,Jamie; Hopewell, John; Lang, Jamie (June 13, 2018). "Paramount Animation's 'Wonder Park' Rocks Annecy". Retrieved February 20, 2019.
  15. Hopewell, John (June 15, 2015). "Annecy: Paramount Animation, Spain's Ilion Ally on 3D Tentpole (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on February 1, 2017. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
  16. McNary, Dave (November 10, 2015). "Paramount Sets 'SpongeBob 3' for 2019, Delays 'Monster Trucks' to 2017". Variety. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  17. Collinson, Gary (June 25, 2018). "Paramount drops Jeffrey Tambor from animated movie Wonder Park". Flickering Myth. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
  18. "Paramount Fires 'Amusement Park' Director Over "Inappropriate" Conduct Claim (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
  19. Aguilar, Carlos (March 16, 2019). "'Wonder Park' Sinks With Negative Reviews And Notoriety For Having No Credited Director". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  20. D'Alessandro, Anthony (March 17, 2019). "'Captain Marvel' Rises To Second Best 2nd Weekend In March With $69M+ – Sunday AM Update". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
  21. Busch, Anita (April 12, 2018). "The Boss Baby's Ramsey Naito, Others Join Paramount Animation Executive Ranks". Deadline. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  22. says, Dan Pierce. "'Wonder Park' Soundtrack Details - Film Music Reporter".
  23. Moreau, Jordan. "Ken Jeong Shares the Advice He Gave to His Young Wonder Park Co-Stars", Variety, March 11, 2019
  24. "'Wonder Park' to Feature Original Song by Rachel Platten - Film Music Reporter".
  25. D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 7, 2017). "Paramount Will Now Construct 'Amusement Park' On March 2019". Deadline. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  26. D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 26, 2017). "Paramount's 'Amusement Park' Relocates To Summer 2018". Deadline. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
  27. D'Alessandro, Anthony (March 28, 2017). "Paramount Teases Nickelodeon-Based Feature Toon Lineup Including 'The Loud House' – CinemaCon". Deadline. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  28. "Wonder Park DVD Release Date June 18, 2019". DVDs Release Dates. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
  29. D'Alessandro, Anthony (March 24, 2019). "How Universal Drove Jordan Peele's 'Us' To $70M+ Opening, The Best Start For A Live-Action Original Since 'Avatar' – Update". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 31, 2019.
  30. D'Alessandro, Anthony (March 31, 2019). "'Dumbo' Hovers Low With $46M+ But Hopes On Matinees; Matthew McConaughey Hits Bottom With $1.7M 'Beach Bum'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 31, 2019.
  31. "Wonder Park (2019)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  32. "Wonder Park reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
  33. Donnelly, Matt (March 28, 2017). "Paramount's 'Amusement Park' Movie to Become Nickelodeon TV Show After Theatrical Release". The Wrap. Archived from the original on April 1, 2017. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
  34. "Wonder Park Magic Rides: A SuperParent First Look". superparent.com. Retrieved April 5, 2019.
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