Wonder Park
Wonder Park is a 2019 animated adventure comedy film written by Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec, about a young girl who encounters a real version of her magical amusement park run by anthropomorphic animals. The film features the voices of Jennifer Garner, Matthew Broderick, John Oliver, Mila Kunis, Kenan Thompson, Ken Jeong, Norbert Leo Butz, Brianna Denski, and Ken Hudson Campbell. The animation was provided by Ilion Animation Studios.
The film was directed by Dylan Brown. While he was involved through most of the production period, Paramount dismissed him in January 2018, citing "inappropriate and unwanted conduct". As a result, a director's credit is not included in the final film.
Wonder Park was released in the United States on March 15, 2019, by Paramount Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics, and was a commercial disappointment, grossing $119 million against a budget of $80–100M.
Plot
June Bailey, a young imaginative girl, and her mother come up with the idea of Wonderland, a magical amusement park run by a group of anthropomorphic 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, a chimpanzee who is the park's leader and 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. As a result, 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 to help her father. Instead, she finds a real 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 Clockwork Swings, the park's mechanism, but are attacked by Chimpanzombies, the park's former plush toys that now empower the Darkness. 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 where he 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 escapes.
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 selfishly 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 fixes one of the attractions to catch up with the animals and make it to Clockwork Swings. 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 Clockwork Swings is attached to her name written in cursive, just like the blueprint piece. With Peanut's help, they get Clockwork Swings 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
- Brianna Denski as June Bailey, an imaginative and optimistic girl who created Wonderland
- *Sofia Mali as Young June
- Jennifer Garner as June's mother
- Matthew Broderick as June's father
- John Oliver as Steve, a white porcupine who is the safety officer of Wonderland
- Mila Kunis as Greta, a wild boar who is Steve's love interest
- Kenan Thompson as Gus, an orange beaver who is Cooper's brother
- * Ryan Fitzgerald voices Gus in the Australian version and Joe Sugg in the UK version
- Ken Jeong as Cooper, a red beaver who is Gus' brother
- * Wippa voices Cooper in the Australian version and Caspar Lee in the UK version
- Norbert Leo Butz as Peanut, a chimpanzee who acts as Wonderland's main mascot and ride creator
- Ken Hudson Campbell as Boomer, a narcoleptic blue bear who welcomes the visitors to Wonderland
- * Tom Baker voices Boomer in the UK version
- Oev Michael Urbas as Banky, June's best friend
- Kevin Chamberlin as Uncle Tony
- *Eamonn Holmes voices Uncle Tony in the UK version
- Kate McGregor-Stewart as Aunt Albertine, Henry's older sister
- *Ruth Langsford voices Aunt Albertine in the UK version
- Kath Soucie as Bus Counselor Shannon
- Jim Meskimen as Police Officer
Production
Wonder Park started development in early 2012, with the story being written by Galaxy Quest and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events writer Robert Gordon and production commenced in September 2014. In June 2015, it was revealed that Spain's Ilion Animation Studios would produce the film. Animators and artists working on the film included Steven E. Gordon, Jorgen Klubien, Joan Berenguer, Betsy Bauer, Toni Reyna, Maddie Taylor, Ravinder Kundi, Ander Liza, Natalie Franscioni-Karp, Paula Benedicto, Marta del Valle Canencia, Alfonso Especo, Esther Encabo, Dalia Gutierrez Aranda, Euardo Quintana, Roberto Rubio Corral, Arnau Ollé López, Alvaro Granados, Nathan Fowkes, Jose Vicente de María Martínez, Victor Perez, Alfonso Badia, Laure Petrini, Jesus Merino, Alex Mateo, Alberto Montalvá Garcia, and Matt Burniston. Klubien's idea for the story was for it to focus on June Bailey and Peanut, who he described as "an embittered old has-been park mascot, now a fully grown chimpanzee". According to writer and producer André Nemec, the filmmakers were inspired by their childhood memories to create the park and build its rides, and went to actual amusement parks as research to accurately capture the feeling of how they were designed and being at one.In November 2015, Paramount Animation officially announced the project, then titled Amusement Park, with former Pixar animator Dylan Brown directing. The voices in the film were set as Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Garner, Ken Hudson Campbell, Kenan Thompson, Ken Jeong, Mila Kunis, and John Oliver. For the lead role of June Bailey, the filmmakers wanted an unknown actress for the part. More than 1,500 people from all over the US and the world auditioned before 11-year-old Brianna Denski from Terryville, Connecticut was offered the role. A raccoon character named Bandit was planned to appear as a main character, but was cut from the final film.
In January 2018, it was reported that Brown was fired from the production by Paramount Pictures, following an investigation into complaints of "inappropriate and unwanted conduct". The film was nearly complete at the time of Brown's firing. Paramount offered the director's credit to multiple key creative personnel on the film, but they refused, fearing the film would be detrimental to their careers. The position went then uncredited in the film. In April 2018, the title of the film was changed from Amusement Park to Wonder Park.
Music
The music for Wonder Park was scored by composer Steven Price. The album was released on March 8, 2019, a week before the film was released into theatres.Grace VanderWaal recorded the song "Hideaway" for the film.
In April 2018, it was reported that Rachel Platten would perform an original song for Wonder Park. The single, titled "Wonder", was released in March 2019.
Release
Wonder Park was released on March 15, 2019, by Paramount Pictures. In January 2017, the film was moved up from its original release date, March 22, 2019, to July 13, 2018. A few months later, it was pushed back from July 13, 2018, to August 10, 2018, and by August 2017, it was pushed back for a final time to March 15, 2019.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.Reception
Box office
Wonder Park grossed in the United States and Canada, and in other territories, for a worldwide total of, against a production budget of around $80–100 million.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. 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 " enough to consider this... production a success." The film fell 45% in its second weekend, grossing $8.8 million, and 43% in its third to $5.0 million.