MYCUN (franchise)

MYCUN is a computer animated comedy film series and media franchise produced by MYCUN Studios and released by Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox. It features the adventures of Gabriel Garza and his favorite characters known as the MYCUNs that like to embark on adventures and stop characters Gabriel hates. The word "MYCUN" is pronounced as "my-con."

The franchise began with the 2005 film MYCUN: The Movie and its 2008, 2012 and 2016 sequels Legend of MYCUN, MYCUN and the Mystery to New York and MYCUN Forever. The first film was traditionally animated and was a superhero film, making the first (and only) film in the series to be traditionally animated and be a superhero film, while the other films, which all of the them were produced by Geo G., were computer animated and were comedy films. The first film was also only traditionally animated mixed with CGI animation. A fifth film is scheduled for a July 5, 2019 release date, with sixth and seventh films announced for 2021 and 2023, respectively. It also includes a simulator ride attraction, MYCUN World Showcase Adventure, at Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood, and a television series for Fox titled Adventures of MYCUN, which premiered in the fall of 2008.

As of 2016, the MYCUN franchise is no longer co-owned by Universal, as the second film Legend of MYCUN failed in India and Universal is currently on focus on the MYCUN spin-off franchise Gabriel and the Wacky Pack, produced by Geo LTD. Pictures and Blur Studio.

The franchise has been highly acclaimed with its first two features being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, in addition to the first film's nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Score. The series has now grossed over $2.3 billion, making it the seventh highest-grossing animated franchise.

MYCUN: The Movie, Legend of MYCUN, and MYCUN Forever received a "Certified Fresh" rating of 89%, 96%, and 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, while MYCUN and the Mystery to New York, however, received a 35% "Rotten" rating, making it the lowest grossing film in the franchise.

MYCUN: The Movie (2005)
Main article: MYCUN: The Movie

MYCUN: The Movie, the first film in the series, was released on December 16, 2005. The film shows Gabriel Garza living in a boring life at his house in Pennsylvania with Roge, Leno, Cole, Loy, and the Lars in real life. He wants to think of something, but when a message from his nemesis, Carrie Underwood, appeared on his computer, she said in the message that she'll be taking over Gabriel's Imaginary World. So Gabriel had to enter a portal, which Loy built, to the Hoodwinked! universe to see Red Puckett, who saw Carrie Underwood and her evil friends, Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, Kelly Clarkson, Barney the Purple Tyrannosaurus Rex, Dora the Explorer, Boots the Monkey, Caillou, Chae Cook, the cast of Mother Goose Club, and the cast of Hoopla Kidz taking over that universe and even other media universes, including the Despicable Me universe, The Legend of Zelda universe, the Ico universe, the Coraline universe, the ParaNorman universe, and worst of all, Gabriel's imaginary world.

Following Gabriel through the portal to his workshop, Red meets Gru, the Minions (which were Gru's minions), Toon Link, Ico, Yorda, Coraline Jones, Norman Babcock, and Agatha Prenderghast, and Gabriel created his team called "MYCUN". Together, the MYCUNs go through a portal to Gabriel's imaginary world and must save it to defeat Carrie Underwood and her henchmen, who are ruling Gabriel's world. So it's up to the MYCUNs to stop Carrie Underwood and her henchmen from ruling Gabriel's world before it's too late.

Legend of MYCUN (2008)
Main article: Legend of MYCUN

Legend of MYCUN is the second installment in the series and the sequel to the 2005's MYCUN: The Movie, released on January 25, 2008. The sequel follows on Gabriel Garza, now 18 years old, becoming a king and the leader of the MYCUNs and other characters, and Red Puckett's husband (who becomes Gabriel's girlfriend from the first film) in his own village known as "MYCUN Village", located near at his own city known as "MYCUN City" with his newcomers, Bernard Bear, Victor Van Dort, Victoria Everglot, Emily the Corpse Bride, Hiro Hamada, Jak, Daxter, Caesar, Blue Eyes, Maurice, Rocket, Luca, and other apes, and makes his home to be "epic awesomeness and MYCUN-ish" until they have to defeat Koba and his evil group of apes with guns, Grey, Stone, Abe, Evil Minions, Caillou, and his clones, bad preschool/baby show characters, such as Mother Goose Club, Hoopla Kidz, Busy Beavers, LittleBabyBum, ChuChu TV Kids, CVS 3D Rhymes, and other bad people, who are trying to destroy Gabriel and take over Gabriel's new city, and his imaginary world as well.

MYCUN and the Mystery to New York (2012)
Main article: MYCUN and the Mystery to New York

MYCUN and the Mystery to New York is the third entry in the series, and was released in 3D on June 15, 2012. The film's screenplay was written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, and is based on Little Guy and The Mystery to New York. It focuses on Gabriel and the MYCUNs looking for a mystery to New York and Homer and Bart Simpson, and they must stop Koba from ruling New York.

MYCUN Forever (2016)
Main article: MYCUN Forever

Taking place four years after the events of MYCUN and the Mystery to New York, Koba creates an evil clone of Gabriel Garza named "Dark Gabriel" and moves to a faraway place to build his new empire with his henchmen. At there, he plans to make a machine to destroy MYCUN City and fleet. Meanwhile, Gabriel suddenly recalls his childhood memories. Remembering something about his biological mother Christine Garza accompanied by the MYCUNs and hearing about Koba moving to his new empire, he sets out on an adventure to find Christine with the MYCUNs (along with Lavender). They arrive at Koba's empire when Koba and Dark Gabriel teamed up with Tigger, Grover, and Elmo. The MYCUNs meet The Cook, Bert, and Ernie at some point, who were all arrested by Koba, and they must defeat Koba and his henchmen and destroy Koba's new empire before it's too late.

MYCUN Redemption (2019)
Main article: MYCUN Redemption

In May 2015, Taylor Grodin said that it is possible that the series could see six more sequels after MYCUN Forever, bringing it to a ten-film series. On April 27, 2016, C. Elbourn said he had no plans for a fifth film but was open to the possibility.

On June 22, 2016, 20th Century Fox announced that a fifth film is scheduled for a June 14, 2019 release date. On June 28, Christian Adams was hired at MYCUN Studios to work on the script for the fifth film. Later that day, he announced that MYCUN had signed a contract with Digital Leisure to use BrainDead 13 characters in the film. On August 27, 2016, it was announced that Taylor Grodin would be returning to direct the film and D.A. Nichols and Abbey Thickson would be coming in as producers. It was also reported that Elijah Wood, Toby Kebbell, Selena Gomez, Steve Carell, Pierre Coffin, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Andy Serkis were set to reprise their roles from the previous installment.

On September 4, 2016, the title for the fifth film has been revealed as MYCUN Redemption.

Short films
Four short films based on the MYCUN films, all directed by Taylor Grodin, Dial "G" for Gabe, Like a Boss!, MYCUN-usical and MYCUN Outs were released in 2006, on the film's DVD. Legend of MYCUN DVD and Blu-ray release in 2008 included another four short films also directed by Grodin:  Where're My Glasses?, Monkey Business, MYCUN of the Apes and The Minions' Missing Adventure. A traditionally animated short film, titled Minion-Ape Battle, was released in 2012 on the DVD and Blu-ray release of MYCUN and the Mystery to New York. Another short film, titled Minion & Ape Montage, was released in 2016 on the home media release of MYCUN Forever.

Adventures of MYCUN (2008-present)

 * Main article: Adventures of MYCUN

Adventures of MYCUN is an animated television series based on the MYCUN film series. The show officially premiered on Fox on September 28, 2008. All of the cast from the films reprised their roles in the show. After the show ended on May 11, 2014, Elijah Wood, who voices Gabriel Garza, stated that he was unaware of any plans for season eight. However, the following month, Geo G., the creator of the show, stated that the show would be revived in late 2014, starting with "MYCUN Reunion", which aired on September 28, 2014.

MYCUN TV (2010-present)

 * Main article: MYCUN TV (sketch series)

MYCUN TV is an American animated sketch comedy-variety crossover show created by Geo G., D.A. Nichols, and Taylor Grodin. It is based on the Cartoon Network series MAD, as well as Fox's Mad TV, NBC's Saturday Night Live, and Nickelodeon's All That and The Amanda Show. The series is also based on the Adventures of MYCUN season 3 episode of the same name. The series premiered on Fox on September 26, 2010. Like Adventures of MYCUN, all of the cast from the series reprise their roles in the show.

MYCUN Shorts (2017-present)

 * Main article: MYCUN Shorts

A television series of shorts called MYCUN Shorts began to air in early 2017. Developed and produced by CGI Entertainment, in partnership with MYCUN Studios, 20th Century Fox Television handled distribution worldwide. It aired on Cartoon Network in the United States, while Fox aired it outside the United States.

MYCUN Halloween Party (2009)
Main article: MYCUN Halloween Party

A Halloween special, titled MYCUN Halloween Party, was aired on October 31, 2009, on Fox. It was the first ever Adventures of MYCUN special and was 30 minutes long. The MYCUNs were dressed up for Halloween and then a package arrived and it was a bag of peanuts, and Hiro thinks that he hated peanuts but he ignored and he tries it, but Gabriel thinks it has gone awry, and Hiro becomes a zombie, with the others also becoming undead later on through the episode. However, Gabriel turns everyone into normal by using Gru's Anti-Zombie Gun because Koba sent the peanuts to MYCUN Village.

The Wonderful World of MYCUNs (2013)
Main article: The Wonderful World of MYCUNs

A 90-minute television special, titled The Wonderful World of MYCUNs, was aired on August 8, 2014, on Fox. It is a crossover between MYCUN and The Wonderful World of Zak. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 3, 2014.

The Amazing World of MYCUN (2016)
Main article: The Amazing World of MYCUN

A 1-hour television special, title The Amazing World of MYCUN, was aired on Fox and Cartoon Network on September 23, 2016. It is a crossover between The Amazing World of Gumball and MYCUN. Cartoon Network announced the crossover on July 10, 2016. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 11, 2016.

Reception

 * For more details on the reception of each film, see the "Reception" section on each film's article.

Cast and characters
Main article: List of MYCUN Characters More coming soon!

Video games
Main article: List of MYCUN video games

Theme park attractions
MYCUN World Showcase Adventure is a simulator ride that opened on January 28, 2009 at Universal Studios Florida and on March 4, 2011 at Universal Studios Hollywood.

MYCUN Village is one of the eight themed lands in Universal Studios Singapore, and it consists of many locations from the MYCUN franchise, including Gabriel's House.

MYCUN Village was announced for Universal Orlando Resort in 2015, set to be around 13 acres (4.9 ha) and feature a different attraction line-up including a new entrance for an expanded MYCUN: Give It A Ride!. Construction on the land began on March 14, 2016. It opened on January 12, 2017.

MYCUN inspired rides and attractions will be featured at the first 20th Century Fox theme park, called 20th Century Fox World, build in 2016 as part of Malaysia-based Resorts World Genting.

Chronology
Coming soon!

Trivia

 * This is one of the few Geo G. franchises to be credited as "Gabriel Garcia."
 * So far, the Minions are the only characters to appear in every media of the franchise.