MYCUN: The Movie

MYCUN: The Movie is a 2005 American computer-animated crossover superhero film produced by Geo LTD. Animation in co-production with Glass Ball Productions. Directed by Michael Wildshill, it features an ensemble cast, including Spencer Klein, Kristin Chenoweth, Anne Hathaway, Steve Carell, Pierre Coffin, Sachi Matsumoto, C. Elbourn, Christina Ricci, Gus Lewis, and Jodelle Ferland. As a crossover film, MYCUN also features characters from Gabriel Garza, Hoodwinked!, Despicable Me, The Legend of Zelda, Ico, Coraline, ParaNorman, and many others. With an exception of Gabriel Garza, neither the films nor video games whose characters appear in the film involve the participation of Geo LTD. Animation. In this film, Gabriel Garza teams up with third-party/copyrighted characters to prevent his hated singer Carrie Underwood from invading his mental world.

MYCUN: The Movie was animated in-house at MYCUN Studios' main headquarters in North Hollywood, California, and was originally envisioned by Wildshill in 1999. He began developing the film in 2001 and wrote the original screenplay with Landis to pitch the story to Universal Pictures. The film, which took approximately five years to develop, began animation in December 2003, and production was wrapped up in April 2005. Mark Mothersbaugh composed the film's score.

The film's world premiere was held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, California on December 8, 2005, and had its general release in the United States on December 16, 2005. Upon its release, it received critical acclaim from critics, who praised its screenplay, animation, and voice acting. It was a box office success, grossing $506,9 million becoming the fourth highest-grossing animated film of 2005. MYCUN: The Movie won the 2005 Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production for Spencer Klein, for his voice performance as Gabriel Garza, and was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit, and Disney/Pixar's Wondercolts. The film's success helped spawn an expanded franchise, with three sequels — Legend of MYCUN, MYCUN and the Mystery to New York, MYCUN Forever — three television series, and a fifth installment set for a July 5, 2019 release date.

Plot
Gabriel Garza lives in a boring life at his house in West Wyomissing, 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, Justin Bieber, 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, the Big Hero 6 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, Agatha Prenderghast, Hiro Hamada and Baymax, 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. When they arrive at an old desert at Gabriel's world, they suddenly got captured in cages by Carrie and her minions.

At the Wooden Underwood Enterprises, Carrie's staff cheer after she caught Gabriel and the MYCUNs. Later, Gabriel and his friends were locked up in the dungeon of Wooden Underwood Enterprises. Then Hiro and Gru's minions had an idea to trick Carrie by pretending to serve her, but Gabriel won't let them because he says that Carrie is "one of the worst people we know." However, Hiro and the Minions ignored and got out of the dungeon and into the entrance hall and saw Carrie. One of the Minions said that they want to "work" here. Carrie told them that they all have to work as janitors. Suddenly, Hiro zapped Carrie with the Lipstick Taser and the MYCUNs escaped.

However, Gabriel accidentally steps into a pool of invisible super glue and cannot get out of it. Later, Carrie hires a kid named Ninh Nguyen to track down the MYCUNs, but the MYCUNs dress up as ninjas and hide in front of the windows, meaning that Ninh is "lying" to Carrie and she fired him. Then Gabriel, who is not wearing socks, shoes, and his glasses, returns, and Red gave him an extra pair of glasses, shoes, and socks. Meanwhile, in the real world, the Wacky Pack worries about Gabriel. Leno gets Loy's PhotoReal 2000 to load a picture of Gabriel, but nothing happened. Loy said that Gabriel would be brave without the trio.

Back at Gabriel's world, Gabriel and the MYCUNs were planning to build their own city called MYCUN City, but there were cactuses and thorns anywhere, and Gabriel said they should get the water supply from the cactuses. However, Gabriel gets hurt from the cactuses and thorns, and Red takes prickles off Gabriel's back and holds hands together.

Back at the real world, the Wacky Pack orders pizza and sends one of them to the portal for Gabriel and the pizza box fell off the sky. Gabriel then had an idea to build a pizza restaurant called "Pizza Hut", while Dave would say that they can watch satellite television programming with the satellite dish on their own high-definition television. However, Red told Gabriel that his pizza restaurant has the same name as "Pizza Hut" and they should call it "MYCUN Pizza" instead. Later, Ninh, who was fired from Wooden Underwood Enterprises before, arrives to ask his questions about hating some stuff, but Gabriel and Ninh started to fight each other, then Ninh kicked him in the chest, and finally Red kicked Ninh's butt and face. Ninh gets upset when he got hurt and went back to his home in the real world to recover his face. Gabriel and the MYCUNs take a break for the night.

The next day, the group encounter a giant ball-shaped rock. Gabriel, Gru, the Minions, Hiro, and the others make it safely, but Red struggles, about to get ran over. Gabriel rescues her, almost got run over. When the MYCUNs almost reach the mountain, the group met Carrie Underwood and her henchmen. However, Geo Guy, who lived at a cave on the mountain of Gabriel's imaginary world, appeared and joins Gabriel and the MYCUNs to chase Carrie and her henchmen down the mountain and into the Wooden Underwood Enterprises building but Carrie traps Geo Guy, Gabriel, and the MYCUNs with her working Rube Goldberg-like mouse trap with a bigger cage, telling that Gabriel, Geo Guy, and the MYCUNs won't be arrested until Christmas Day.

Disguised as a Baa Baa Sheep clone, Kevin and Hiro freed Gabriel and the MYCUNs in their cages and lets them go to the bathroom. In the boys' bathroom, Hiro pulls out a screwdriver and unscrews the boys' bathroom vent cover while Gabriel takes out a ladder from his backpack. Gabriel and his male MYCUN members went inside the vent, and they took the female MYCUN members to escape. Suddenly, they are surrounded by Carrie Underwood and her henchmen before they battle. After the battle, the Minions set up some bombs all around and inside Wooden Underwood Enterprises, and it exploded into a million pieces.

Although the Minions are able to foil Carrie's plan and destroy Wooden Underwood Enterprises, Gabriel cannot stay in his Imaginary World and is forced to confess that he had to get home for Christmas, leaving and disappointing the others who feel used by him. When Gabriel went to the portal to the real world to get home, he is lost in the snow. Very tired and hungry, Gabriel struggles to get home and ends up getting covered in snow. The next day on Christmas Day, however, Gabriel hears Red's voice and wakes up, seeing his house, and realizing he made it. When Gabriel went home, his father, Marvin, his stepmother, Celia, his stepbrother, Adan, and his two stepsisters, Jannie and Nana, walk over to Gabriel and say they were so worried about him, and so does Roge, Leno, Cole, Loy, and the Lars. Gabriel opened his Christmas presents where he got a brand new computer. Marvin puts the computer to Gabriel's room, and Gabriel enjoys it.

Back in the Imaginary World, Gru confirms Red's suspicions when he believes that a story tells about Carrie Underwood, who somehow found Gabriel's information about hating Carrie and her friends on the internet with his location. Also in the story, Carrie hijacked the portal and plans on divorcing her husband Mike Fisher so she could start Wooden Underwood Enterprises. They also learn that Hiro had known the truth about Wooden Underwood Enterprises before. Upon realizing Carrie's story, the group is then ambushed by Carrie and her henchmen and they took them to Underwood Jail, which is a mixture of a normal prison and Carrie Underwood's live tour.

Later that night in the real world, Gabriel prays to God that he could return to his Imaginary World, and rejoin the MYCUNs to defeat Carrie Underwood someday. Hiro, Baymax, and the other Minions exit a portal and convince Gabriel, Roge, Leno, Cole, Loy, and the Lars to rescue the MYCUNs. Gabriel wanted to ask Loy to make a clone out of him, but Loy said yes and cloned Gabriel with his clone-creating machine. The actual Gabriel left his clone "Gabriel Garza the 2nd" behind and said goodbye to his parents, as Roge, Leno, Cole, Loy, and the Lars, along with Hiro, Baymax, and the Minions, joined him to go through the portal to save the MYCUNs. Gabriel 2.0, Gabriel's clone, likes to live in the real world until college while the actual Gabriel returns to his own Imaginary World.

Meanwhile, back in Gabriel's Imaginary World, Red woke up in a prison cell at Underwood Jail, only to find out that she, along with Gru, Toon Link, Ico, Yorda, Coraline, Norman and Aggie are now surrounded by tall chain-link fences. Carrie Underwood steps on the stage to sing "Good Girl" before she attempts to kill them, for good. When Gabriel, Roge, Leno, Cole, Loy, the Lars, and the Minions arrive to rescue the MYCUNs as well as Caesar, Blue Eyes, Maurice, Rocket, Cornelia, Luca, and other apes, Carrie Underwood and her henchmen arrive and surround Roge, Leno, Cole, Loy, the Lars, Hiro, Baymax, and the Minions as well as the apes, while Gabriel secretly ran out of Underwood Jail, and go through the portal to his workshop.

Meanwhile, back at Underwood Jail, Carrie and her minions outnumber the MYCUNs, but Gabriel calls for backup and Homer Simpson, Lucy Wilde, Dr. Nefario, Margo, Edith, Agnes, Bart Simpson, Lisa Simpson, Marge Simpson, Maggie Simpson, Geo Guy, the cast of Father Lion League, a fictional television show that is a rip-off and a rival of Mother Goose Club, and Hiro, Baymax GoGo Tomago, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, Fred, and Aunt Cass "Cassie" Hamada arrive and interfere. As the group tried to leave, Norbert is stranded and Carrie attempts to kill him. Gabriel manages to save him, so he can defeat Carrie Underwood, and escape with all of his friends. After that, the jail explodes.

With Gabriel's Imaginary World safe, Underwood Jail destroyed, and the innocent people, animals, creatures, and living objects out of jail free, the Forest Animals from Hoodwinked! arrive at the desert to build the MYCUN's new city and the police force to arrest Carrie Underwood and her henchmen and took them back to their homes. After Carrie and her henchmen got arrested, Marvin arrives in the Imaginary World to take Gabriel back home, but he decides to stay with his best friends instead.

Gabriel and Marvin then realize that Gabriel is home.

After that, Gabriel and Red let out a kiss. On top of the mountain where they formed their own village, Gabriel became the king of the Imaginary World. The MYCUNs started celebrating as Gabriel, Red, Gru, Toon Link, Ico, Coraline, Norman, and Hiro sing "MYCUN Song" in front of the Minions and the others, including Caesar, Blue Eyes, Maurice, Rocket, Cornelia, Luca, and other apes, who are all joining the MYCUNs as newcomers of the team.

Cast

 * Spencer Klien as Gabriel Garza
 * Kristin Chenoweth as Carrie Underwood
 * Anne Hathaway as Red Puckett
 * Steve Carell as Felonious Gru
 * Pierre Coffin as Dave the Minion, Stuart the Minion, Kevin the Minion, Bob the Minion, Norbert the Minion, Larry the Minion, Carl the Minion, Tom the Minion, Phil the Minion, Jerry the Minion, and Additional Minions
 * Sachi Matsumoto as Toon Link
 * Dakota Goyo as Ico
 * Christina Ricci as Coraline Jones
 * Gus Lewis as Norman Babcock
 * Jodelle Ferland as Agatha "Aggie" Prenderghast
 * Ryan Potter as Hiro Hamada
 * Scott Adsit as Baymax
 * Elle Fanning as Yorda
 * Rieko Takahashi as Yorda (from archival recordings)
 * Geo G. as Roge
 * E.G. Daily as Leno
 * Jacob Hopkins as Cole
 * Jake T. Austin as Loy
 * Jeff Fowler as the Lars
 * Ashleigh Ball as Miranda Lambert
 * Jeff Gunn as Brad Paisley
 * Kelly Clarkson as herself
 * Ariel Winter as Dora Marquez
 * Taylor Grodin as Boots the Monkey
 * Tara Strong as Caillou / Elmo
 * James Arnold Taylor as Johnny Test
 * Justin Chapman as Barney the Dinosaur
 * Adam Rodriguez as Justin Bieber
 * Jim Carrey as Chae Cook
 * Cree Summer as Teddy Bear
 * Jeremy Shada as Eep the Mouse
 * Stephanie D'Abruzzo as Mary Quite Contrary
 * Alexander Gould as Jack B. Nimble
 * Annie Potts as Little Bo Peep
 * Grey Griffin as Annie
 * Bill Fagerbakke as Ben the Dog
 * Andrea Libman as Penny the Dog
 * Tim Allen as Ace the Dog
 * Brian Koch as Mango
 * Kristen Wiig as Lucy Wilde
 * Miranda Cosgrove as Margo Gru
 * Dana Gaier as Edith Gru
 * Elsie Fisher as Agnes Gru
 * Russell Brand as Dr. Nefario
 * Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson
 * Nancy Cartwright as Bart Simpson
 * Yeardley Smith as Lisa Simpson
 * Glenn Close as Granny Puckett
 * Patrick Warburton as Wolf W. Wolf
 * Cory Edwards as Twitchy
 * Jim Belushi as Kirk Kirkendall
 * Nick Offerman as Marvin Garza
 * Emma Thompson as Celia Garza
 * Freddie Benedict as Adan
 * Julie Lemieux as Jannie
 * Kath Soucie as Nana
 * Marc Weiner as Swiper the Fox
 * Rob Paulsen as Ninh Nguyen
 * Mike Fisher as Himself
 * Andy Serkis as Caesar
 * Nick Thurston as Blue Eyes
 * Karin Konoval as Maurice
 * Terry Notary as Rocket
 * Judy Greer as Cornelia
 * Scott Lang as Luca
 * Toby Kebbell as Koba

Development
Michael Wildshill came up with the concept for MYCUN: The Movie in 1999. He envisioned a story where the main character needs to team up with his favorite characters and must stop a singer and other characters he hates from destroying his world.

Wildshill began work on the film with Geo G. in January 2001. By mid-2001, Wildshill had drafted a treatment with Geo that bore some resemblance to the final film. Wildshill and Geo pitched the story to Universal Studios with some initial artwork in January that year. He and his story team left with some suggestions in hand and returned to pitch a refined version of the story in June. The film was originally developed under the title of Gabriel's Angels, but was changed in order to distance it from the television series, Charlie's Angels. In addition to Gabriel's Angels, other titles that had also been considered included Team Gabriel, Crossoverland, Gabriel vs. Underwood and MinionsYesCarrieUnderwoodNo, among others.

In August 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported that Wildshill was working on a then-untitled project that would eventually become MYCUN: The Movie, albeit nothing else about the film was known at the time. In June 2002, Universal revealed the film's title to be MYCUN: The Movie, then planned for a summer 2005 release. In addition, it would be animated with computer-animation. In December 2003, production of the film officially began.

Writing
John Landis was attracted to write the script for MYCUN: The Movie, and began developing a treatment in February 2001. In its earliest stages, the story was very different from the final film, in which the character of Gabriel Garza (known at this stage as Gabe Gomez) heard that Gabriel's most hated characters were going to destroy the world, where he must stop Carrie Underwood from taking over the world. Gabriel's favorite characters had not yet been added.

Casting
During the time, when Universal was looking for a younger actor for the voice role of Gabriel Garza, Shia LaBeouf was considered for the character. He screen tested for the role and was interested, but when Michael Wildshill was unable to make contact with him, he took it as a "no". In addition to LaBeouf, Zach Braff, who subsequently accepted the role of BJ Wilson in another Universal animated film, BJ and Wally, was also considered for the role of Gabriel. Wildshill took the role to Spencer Klein, and he accepted.

For the role of Carrie Underwood, Kristin Chenoweth. In January 2004, it was announced Klein and Chenoweth were cast.

Animation
MYCUN: The Movie was animated in-house at MYCUN Studios' headquarters in Burbank, California.

More coming soon!

Music

 * Main article: MYCUN: The Movie/Soundtrack

The film's original score was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh. The soundtrack album was released on December 13, 2005, by Varèse Sarabande.

Release
MYCUN: The Movie premiered at the Grauman's Chinese Theater on December 8, 2005, and opened in theaters on December 16, 2005, in North America.

On March 1, 2019, Fox and IMAX announced that the film would be reissued and digitally re-mastered for IMAX theaters (alongside its sequels, Legend of MYCUN, MYCUN and the Mystery to New York, and MYCUN Forever) using their DMR Technology in a quadruple feature for a one-day only, "Fan Event", on May 1.

Marketing
Upon its release, Burger King had a promotional tie-in with seven toys including Gabriel Garza, Carrie Underwood, Red Puckett, Gru, Dave, Toon Link, and Ico with a paid Kids' Meal order. Ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins also promoted the film for its new Gabriel & Red's Loaded MYCUN ice cream that consists of Hershey's chocolate, hot fudge, crushed chocolate cookies, whipped cream and chocolate syrup.

Trailers

 * The film's teaser trailer was released in December 2004 on DVD and VHS prints of Computeropolis, and was later shown in theaters with other films such as Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Zina and the Vivid Crew, Fat Albert, Elektra, Pooh's Heffalump Movie, Are We There Yet?, The Pacifier, Robots, Ice Princess, Tj's World: The Movie, Kim Possible Movie: So The Drama, and Madagascar..
 * The first theatrical trailer was released in June 2005, and was shown with Wondercolts, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Bad News Bears, Kenny's Drive, The Proud Family Movie, and Corpse Bride.
 * The second theatrical trailer was released in October 2005, and was later shown before Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Chicken Little, Zathura: A Space Adventure, Yours, Mine, & Ours, and Metro Cone.
 * There were a few television spots for the film; the first one was released in November 2005, the second one was released in December 2005, and the third one was released in January 2006.

Video game
A video game based on the film was released on December 6, 2005 on PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox 360, Xbox, PlayStation Portable, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X.

Home media
MYCUN: The Movie was first released on DVD on May 2, 2006, in separate widescreen and full screen editions. The release includes four "mini-movies", Dial "G" for Gabe, Like a Boss!, MYCUN-usical and MYCUN Outs, which takes place after the events of the film. The film was the best-selling DVD in its initial week of release, selling over 800,000 copies and making over $19.9 million making it the fifth-top selling DVD of 2005. It was also released on UMD for the Sony PSP. It was released on Blu-ray on January 23, 2007, together with the rest of the Universal Pictures films. It was later released on Blu-ray 3D in North America on May 3, 2011, together with its sequel. It was also released on Blu-ray 3D and Blu-ray + DVD combo pack on April 16, 2013. It was also released on 4K Ultra Blu-Ray on November 15, 2016.

Box office
MYCUN: The Movie was released on December 16, 2005, and opened on 11,782 screens. It got to earn $89,729,840 during its opening weekend, placing first in its box office during that weekend and setting new records such as earning the highest-opening weekend for a non-sequel animated feature, and the highest opening for an original non-Disney/Pixar film. The film also earned the highest-grossing domestic debut for Glass Ball Productions (later overtaken by its sequel in 2008). By the end of its theatrical run, it grossed a total of $506,925,236 worldwide, making it 2005's fourth highest-grossing 2005 animated film.

Critical response
MYCUN: The Movie received widespread critical acclaim, becoming a cult hit among critics upon release. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 89% approval rating with an average rating of 7.5/10 based on 233 reviews. The site's consensus reads "MYCUN: The Movie offers visual treats that more than compensate for its somewhat thinly written story, adding up to a satisfying diversion for younger viewers." Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 100 out of 100 based on 40 reviews. On Metacritic, it received a score of 93 out of 100, based on 73 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film four out of four stars, saying "In one of the most anticipated movies of the year and its first computer-animated feature, MYCUN Studios offers audiences MYCUN: The Movie the whole family could enjoy the delightful addition to the MYCUN Studios classics with non-stop humor." Richard Corliss of Time Magazine praised Spencer Klein's performance as Gabriel Garza, stating that "it gets even funnier for his comic relief career that brings the well-known self for his life." Todd McCarthy of Variety liked the concept, also stating "As directed by Michael Wildshill, MYCUN: The Movie has a very engaging concept for a movie taking place to stop an evil singer from destroying Gabriel's mental world."

Sequels

 * Main article: MYCUN (franchise)

MYCUN: The Movie was followed by two sequels: Legend of MYCUN (2008) and MYCUN and the Mystery to New York (2012). While the first sequel received similar acclaim from critics, the third film, however, got mixed reviews and was a box office bomb. A fourth installment, titled MYCUN Forever, was released on May 30, 2016.

A fifth film, titled MYCUN Redemption, is set for release on July 5, 2019.

Manga

 * Main article: MYCUN (manga)

Television series

 * Main article: Adventures of MYCUN