Alpha and Omega (film)
Alpha and Omega | |
---|---|
Directed by | Anthony Bell Ben Gluck |
Screenplay by | Chris Denk Steve Moore Ben Gluck |
Story by | Steve Moore Ben Gluck |
Produced by | Ken Katsumoto Steve Moore Richard Rich |
Starring | Justin Long Hayden Panettiere Dennis Hopper Danny Glover Christina Ricci |
Edited by | Scott Anderson Joe Campana |
Music by | Chris P. Bacon |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Lionsgate |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | Template:Film US |
Language | English |
Budget | $20,000,000[1] |
Box office | $50,507,267[2] |
Alpha and Omega is a 2010 3D American computer animated comedy-drama film produced by Crest Animation Productions and Richard Rich. The film is directed by Anthony Bell and Ben Gluck, starring the voices of Justin Long, Hayden Panettiere, Dennis Hopper (in his last film appearance), Danny Glover and Christina Ricci.
The film was released in 3-D (and also in 2-D) on September 17, 2010 to 2,625 theaters nationwide by Lions Gate.[3]
The film was also dedicated to Dennis Hopper, being his final work.
Plot
Humphrey (Justin Long) and Kate (Hayden Panettiere) are two wolves from the same pack in Canada’s Jasper National Park but on opposite ends of the social order. Kate, daughter of the main Alpha male Winston (Danny Glover) and his mate Eve (Vicki Lewis), is herself an Alpha and takes her duty to the pack seriously. Humphrey, on the other hand, is an Omega wolf, the lowest of the pack, and spends his days making fun with his other Omega friends. Despite his low rank in the pack, Humphrey falls in love with Kate and is valued in the pack as a peacemaker by virtue of his affable nature.
During her youth, Kate left to begin Alpha school with her father. She returns as a fully trained Alpha but on her first hunt (the Alphas are the ones responsible for providing food for the pack), two members of the Eastern pack cross into Western pack territory due to the lack of caribou in their own land. The hunt is ruined and the packs are nearly at war with each other. The two packs have had a bitter rivalry ever since Tony (Dennis Hopper), the Alpha male of the Eastern pack, commanded his wolves to cross over into Western territory (against pack law) in order to hunt, to prevent their pack from starving. Winston and Tony meet up one night and arrange for Kate to marry Garth (Chris Carmack), Tony's son. Kate, having a sense of responsibility and duty, wearily agrees for the good of the pack and she meets Garth at the Howling Rock.
Garth is also an Alpha and appears perfect at first in every way, until Kate hears his howl. Kate, taken back by Garth's terrible howl, leaves the scene to "get water". Humphrey then notices Kate and surprises her. The two then talk about Garth, when all of the sudden, they get tranquilized by some men in the butts and taken away to Idaho. The two wolves wake up at Sawtooth National Recreation Area and meet a French-Canadian goose named Marcel (Larry Miller) who has an avid interest in golf and his caddy, a duck named Paddy (Eric Price). Humphrey and Kate learn that they were relocated to repopulate the species. Marcel and Paddy agree to help the wolves return home to Jasper.
Trouble brews back at Jasper as the two packs discover that Kate has gone missing. Tony warns Winston that on the next full moon if Kate doesn’t return to marry Garth, he and his pack will declare war for their territory. Lilly (Christina Ricci), an Omega wolf who is Kate’s younger sister, has a crush on Garth and suggests that she show him around.
After a failed attempt to get home (in which the wolves hid in the back of a van), Kate finds a ravine and attempts to cross it. She slips down the cliff, but Humphrey saves her. After that the two find a den for the night.
The next morning, Marcel and Paddy find the wolves and direct them to a train over a snowy mountain that will take them to Jasper. Climbing the mountain, Humphrey meets a bear cub who is unfamiliar with wolves. When they are playing, the cub gets hurt when a snowball is thrown at him. This angers a trio of bears (most likely the cub's family) who think that Humphrey was trying to harm the cub. When Kate realizes that Humphrey is in danger, she rushes in to help him, causing them to slide down the other side of the mountain. Humphrey saves Kate, and, as the train passes by, the two wolves manage to get into a boxcar just in time.
Meanwhile Lilly and Garth are bonding. At the midnight howl, Lilly is not deterred by Garth's less than perfect howl and teaches him to howl with his heart. At the same time, Humphrey and Kate begin to howl together as well on the train. Both couples sing in perfect unison. By this time, the full moon has come and the packs declare war against one another.
Shortly after, as the train passes by Jasper, Humphrey attempts to tell Kate how he feels about her, but the sight of the packs fighting causes her to jump off the train before he can finish. Kate stops the fight by announcing that she will marry Garth for the good of the packs, much to Humphrey and Lilly's dismay.
The next day, a heartbroken Humphrey decides to leave Jasper and travel on his own and shares his goodbyes with Kate, Marcel and Paddy (who have arrived and decided to stay). Yet Kate feels heartbroken too after realizing how she feels about Humphrey. During the ceremony Kate decides to not marry Garth, declaring her love for Humphrey. Garth declares his own love for Lilly. Winston is confused while Tony is revolted that his son is in love with an Omega, which goes against pack customs. His pack starts to fight the other pack out of anger, but the conflict is cut short when a massive stampede of caribou interrupts the scene. Winston and Tony get caught in the stampede and Kate and Humphrey (who decided to return) rush in to save them. Kate is hit and Humphrey shields her with his body, and Winston and Tony growl at the passing caribou in order to protect Humphrey from getting hit. After the stampede passes, it appears that Kate has been trampled to death. Upon her seemingly apparent death, the wolves of both packs begin to howl in mourning sadness, but she wakes up to the joy and relief of the packs. Now, at long last, Humphrey and Kate reveal their feelings for each other. Winston and Tony then decide to unite the packs.
Later at the Moonlight Howl, all the wolves celebrate the marriages of Kate & Humphrey and Garth & Lilly. The film ends with Humphrey and Kate singing a beautiful duet.
Voice cast
- Justin Long as Humphrey – An Omega wolf, the main protagonist, and Kate's love interest. He is the leader among his group of Omega friends, and like them, he likes to have fun and has a laid-back attitude. He falls in love with Kate, but he's heartbroken when he finds out that she has to marry Garth, but in the end, Kate returns his feelings and they get married.
- Hayden Panettiere as Kate – An Alpha wolf, the deuteragonist, and Humphrey's love interest. She is the eldest daughter of Eve and Winston, the lead Alpha's of the pack. Kate takes responsibility seriously, which explains why she doesn't like Humphrey's apparent disregard for the well-being of the pack. But she starts to fall in love with him as they make their way back to Jasper. At first, she's engaged to Garth, but later, she declares her feelings for Humphrey and they get married at the end of the movie.
- Dennis Hopper as Tony – The Alpha male of the Eastern pack and the main antagonist, who turns good at the end.
- Chris Carmack as Garth – An Alpha wolf from the Eastern Wolf pack and Lilly's love interest. He is the son of Tony, and at first, is engaged to Kate, but falls in love with Lilly after spending time with her. He has a bad howl at first, but it improves later in the film after Lilly teaches him.
- Christina Ricci as Lilly – An Omega wolf and Garth's love interest. She is the youngest daughter of Winston and Eve, and though the rest of her family are Alphas, she is rejected to the Omega position because she has leucism. She usually wears her hair over her eyes, but later wears it back when Garth comments that she looks beautiful this way. She falls for Garth, and he later returns her feelings, allowing them to marry and unite the packs.
- Danny Glover as Winston – Kate and Lilly's father and the Alpha male of the Western pack.
- Vicki Lewis as Eve – Winston's mate, and Kate and Lilly's mother.
- Larry Miller as Marcel – A golf-playing French-Canadian goose.
- Eric Price as Paddy – A duck and Marcel's caddy. Price also plays Mooch, an overweight Omega wolf and one of Humphrey's friends.
- Kevin Sussman as Shakey – An Omega wolf and another one of Humphrey's friends.
- Brian Donovan as Salty – An Omega wolf and another one of Humphrey's friends.
- Paul Nakauchi as Hutch – An extremely loyal Beta wolf who readily reports urgent news to Winston.
- Maya Feltheimer as the bear cub – A small, innocent rascal who plays with Humphrey.
Language | Humphrey | Kate | Tony | Garth | Lilly | Winston | Eve | Marcel | Paddy | Mooch | Shakey | Salty | Hutch | Sweets | Candy | Bear cub |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
English | Justin Long | Hayden Panettiere | Dennis Hopper | Chris Carmack | Christina Ricci | Danny Glover | Vicki Lewis | Larry Miller | Eric Price | Eric Price | Kevin Sussman | Brian Donovan | Paul Nakauchi | Maya Feltheimer | ||
Bulgarian | Dejan Slavchev | Violeta Markovska | Emil Emilov | Ivan Petkov | Mina Kostova | Marin Yanev | Mina Kostova | Stanislav Pishtalov | Christian Fokov | |||||||
Czech | Michal Holáň | Kateřina Petrová | Petr Pospíchal | Jiří Dvořák | Kateřina Hrachovcová | Pavel Rímský | Martina Hudečková | Otakar Brousek | Antonín Navrátil | |||||||
Dutch | Jim Bakkum | Bettina Holwerda | ||||||||||||||
French (Canada) | Hugolin Chevrette-Landesque | Aurélie Morgane | Jacques Lavallée | Philippe Martin | Eloisa Cervantes | Patrick Chouinard | Mélanie Laberge | Denis Mercier | François Sasseville | Frédéric Paquet | Bernard Fortin | Benoit Éthier | ||||
French (France) | Pierre Tessier | Kelly Marot | Bernard Tiphaine | Denis Laustriat | Marie-Eugénie Maréchal | Richard Darbois | Déborah Perret | Michel Mella | Bernard Alane | Guillaume Lebon | Thierry Ragueneau | |||||
German | Viktor Neumann | Cathlen Gawlich | Kaspar Eichel | Luisa Wietzorek | Jürgen Kluckert | Helmut Gauß | Steven Merting | Rainer Fritzsche | Ilka Teichmüller | Eva Thärichen | ||||||
Polish | Waldemar Barwiński | Milena Suszyńska | Modest Rucinski | Joanna Pach | Mirosław Zbrojewicz | Agnieszka Kunikowska | Włodzimierz Bednarski | Tomasz Bednarek | James Szydlowski | Jacek Bończyk | Marek Molak | |||||
Russian | Sergey Lazarev | Lera Kudryavtseva | Igor Starosel'tsev | Alexander Gavrilin | Lina Ivanova | Vasily Bochkarev | Alexander Kljukvin |
Production
Pre-production and post-production took place in Los Angeles.[4] But production mainly took place in Toronto, Canada.[4]
Reception
Box office
The film took in $2,288,773 on its opening day, and $9,106,906 on its opening weekend domestically, reaching fifth place at the box office. The film's opening was mildly disappointing, as it had only earned a fraction of 2010's other animated films as well as claiming the record for lowest-grossing 3D film released in at least 2,000 venues from Piranha 3D (only to lose it to My Soul to Take three weeks later). In its second weekend, due to being overshadowed by Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole for 3-D screens, the film dropped 48% to $4.8 million and eighth place. At this point, Rotten Tomatoes stated the film had only "bland visuals" to look at and that Alpha and Omega was the runt in 2010's animated litter, but after its third weekend, the film held better with a 37% drop to around $3 million and finishing in tenth place. The film ended its run on December 2, 2010 after grossing $25 million domestically and $45 million worldwide. Produced on a $20 million budget, the film has been declared a financial success, and is Lionsgate's highest-grossing animated feature to date.
Marketing
Video game
Published by Storm City Games, a video game adaptation called Alpha and Omega (based on the movie) was exclusively released for the Nintendo DS in late 2010 and is only available in North America.
Book
A book called Alpha and Omega (based on the movie of the same name) was published in 2010.[citation needed]
Home media
Alpha and Omega was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 11, 2011, and the PSP version was released on February 8, 2011.
International Premiere
Year | State | Language | Name | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
16 | September | 2010 | Kazakhstan | Russian | Альфа и Омега |
Russia | |||||
17 | Canada | English | Alpha and Omega | ||
Singapore | |||||
United States | |||||
23 | Israel | Hebrew | אלפא ואומגה | ||
30 | Czech Republic | Czech | Alfa a Omega | ||
Malaysia | English | Alpha and Omega | |||
Slovakia | Slovak | Alfa a Omega | |||
20 | October | France | French | Alpha et Oméga | |
21 | Hungary | Hungarian | Alfa és Omega | ||
Kuwait | Arabic | ألفا وأوميجا | |||
22 | Ireland | English | Alpha and Omega | ||
United Kingdom | |||||
27 | Belgium | Dutch | Alpha en Omega | ||
Greece | Greek | ||||
5 | November | Bulgaria | Bulgarian | Алфа и Омега | |
Poland | Polish | Zakochany Wilczek | |||
1 | December | Egypt | Arabic | ألفا وأوميجا | |
20 | January | 2011 | Thailand | Thai | อัลฟ่าแอนด์โอเมก้า |
21 | Iceland | ||||
9 | February | Netherlands | Dutch | Alpha en Omega | |
24 | South Korea | Korean | 알파앤 오메가 | ||
24 | March | Portugal | Portuguese (Portugal) | Alpha e Omega | |
22 | April | Turkey | Turkish | Alfa ve Omega | |
20 | July | Finland | Finnish | Alfa ja Omega | |
Norway | Norwegian | Alpha og Omega | |||
Sweden | Swedish | Alpha och Omega | |||
23 | September | Iran | |||
26 | October | Italy | Italian | Alpha e Omega | |
15 | June | 2012 | Brazil | Portuguese (Brazil) | A Lady e o Lobo |
Japan | Japanese | アルファとオメガ |
References
- ^ http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2010/ALPOM.php
- ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=alphaandomega.htm
- ^ Fischer, Russ (May 25, 2010). "'Alpha and Omega' Movie Trailer". /Film. Retrieved June 20, 2010.
- ^ a b Giardina, Carolyn (April 2, 2008). "Animated cast joins 'Alpha'". The Hollywood Reporter. e5 Global Media. Archived from the original on April 11, 2008. Retrieved June 20, 2010.
External links
- 2010 films
- American films
- American comedy films
- American animated films
- Computer-animated films
- English-language films
- 2010s 3D films
- 2010s fantasy films
- Animated comedy films
- Films about animals
- Films featuring anthropomorphic characters
- Lions Gate Entertainment films
- Animated duos
- Animated features released by Lions Gate Entertainment