LazyTown: The Movie

LazyTown: The Movie is a 2018 Icelandic-British-American-Canadian live-action/animated musical fantasy comedy-drama action-adventure family film based on the Icelandic children's educational musical comedy television series LazyTown.

The film stars the regular television cast of Magnús Scheving, Chloe Lang, Stefán Karl Stefánsson, Gudmundur Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, Ronald Binion, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, and Aymee Garcia, who reprise their roles as Sportacus, Stephanie, Robbie Rotten, Ziggy, Trixie, Stingy, Pixel, Mayor Milford, and Bessie Busybody respectively. Sportacus was later played by Dyri Kristjansson for the opening sequences and the rest of the film. Robbie Rotten was also later played by Justin Theroux for the rest of the film due to Stefán's health issues.

The film also stars the returning characters from the original Icelandic LazyTown plays which include Jives (a lethargic boy played by Zachary Gordon), a money-wasting beggar (played by Jack Black), a police officer (played by Will Smith), a mailman (played by Seth Rogen), and Haninn (a lazy rooster puppeteered by Gudmundur Thor Karason and voiced by Owen Wilson).

New additions to the cast of characters include Sportacette (a new and original live-action character and Sportacus' love interest played by Scarlett Johansson), Stingy's parents (Stingy's dad is puppeteered and voiced by Eric Jacobson while Stingy's mom is puppeteered and voiced by Stephanie D'Abruzzo), Caramelphanie (another original live-action character and Stephanie's long-lost sister played by Julianna Rose Mauriello, an actress who first played Stephanie from LazyTown), LazyBot 1000 (a new and original CGI animated character with hand-drawn cartoon movements translated into CGI; Robbie Rotten's latest invention of trying to banish Sportacus from LazyTown and kill him so Robbie Rotten can take over the whole LazyTown and turn LazyTown back into its former state of being a lazy town; voiced by Bill Hader), Ronald the Apple Worm (a hand-drawn animated character with a head shaped like an apple and a body shaped like a worm; one of the minor characters of the film; voiced by Tom Kenny), the Lazies (a group of hand-drawn and CGI animated anthropomorphic potatoes that are very lazy couch potatoes; tiny creatures in LazyTown and Robbie Rotten's minions; all voiced by Frank Welker, Dee Bradley Baker, Tom Kenny, and Rob Paulsen), Thomas the Banana Dog (a hand-drawn animated character who looks like a banana, but has human and dog characteristics and can talk like a real human; voiced by Jason Bateman), and Ronald's parents (Ronald's mom is voiced by Tara Strong, the voice of Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, while his dad is voiced by Arthur Holden; both of these characters are hand-drawn animated).

Cameo appearances for the film include Big Bird (from Sesame Street; puppeteered by Matt Vogel and voiced by Caroll Spinney and Vogel), Kermit the Frog (from The Muppet Show; puppeteered and voiced by Matt Vogel), and Elmo (also from Sesame Street; puppeteered and voiced by Ryan Dillon).

65% of the film was shot at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Additional shooting was done in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The opening scene was shot in Iceland and in Surrey, England, UK.

Produced by LazyTown Entertainment, Sesame Workshop, The Jim Henson Company, and formerly Clearwater Animation (before they dropped out in December 2017), and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, the film is part live-action, part puppetry (with the Muppets making cameo appearances in the movie), part hand-drawn animation, part stop-motion animation, and part computer-generated imagery.

The film was released on October 12, 2018, 4 years after the show ended, in 2D, Digital 3D, RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX, and IMAX 3D. It also serves as the series finale of the said show. This is also the final film role for Stefán Karl Stefánsson, who died nearly 2 months before the film was released. This film is dedicated to his memory.

The movie was originally going to be rated G by the MPAA, and it would have been a family-friendly film and it would have also been the first G-rated film in a long time since Pixar's Cars 3, but the film was later re-rated PG due to some violence and mild crude humor.

The film received universal acclaim from not only audiences and critics, but also fans of the original series, and was a box office success. It was known as not only the best film of 2018 but also one of the best films ever made. Plus, it also scored a rare 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film received numerous awards and nominations, with the most nominations at the 91st Academy Awards with 15 (including Best Picture), eight nominations at the 76th Golden Globe Awards, winning six (for Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Foreign Language Film), and twelve nominations at the 24th Critics' Choice Awards (winning seven, including Best Picture), among others.

Plot
The beginning of the film took place before the events of LazyTown, which is a children's television show by the way, where Haninn the Rooster appears in 1703 as the narrator of the whole entire film. Haninn tells the audience a story where a group of 711 lazy Icelandic people settled on an empty plain to build the laziest town at Iceland in 1703 known as "LazyTown". Many years later in 1964, Sportacus was born and was named after his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Sportacus, both of which are the physical education teachers of the LazyTown School. At age 6, when Sportacus was a little child, he had watched many exercise films and decided to become an athlete. So, he began doing some exercises, and his parents saw what he was doing and they were very proud of him. 5 years later, in 1975, while Sportacus was at PE in the LazyTown School, another child was born. His name was Robbie Rotten, and he lives in a very boring and lazy life with his lazy parents, Mr. and Mrs. Rotten. Unlike Sportacus and his parents, the Rottens are very, very lazy, and Robbie likes to be lazy. In 1988, Sportacus became an athlete and he participated in the 1988 Summer Olympics that took place in Seoul, South Korea.

In 1994, when Sportacus became popular in LazyTown, Robbie Rotten, at the age of 19, became a very sneaky and very lazy criminal of LazyTown when he killed Sportacus's parents with a gun. Sportacus, at age 30, was sad that his parents were dead, but was angry because Robbie killed them on purpose. Sportacus later gets revenge on Robbie for killing his parents, and so they started fighting. Sportacus finally defeated Robbie with bananas and banana peels and calls the police on him. Robbie was soon arrested and Sportacus became the athletic superhero of LazyTown. LazyTown was soon changed from a very lazy town into a very happy, very healthy, and very safe one. 2 years later after Robbie Rotten's first defeat, Stephanie was born in the United States where she lived with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Meanswell. At age 6, when her parents died from a double homicide, she migrated to Iceland. She was later sent to an Icelandic orphanage. 2 years later, her foster mother, the owner of the Icelandic orphanage send Stephanie out of the orphanage, because she got a phone call from Stephanie's uncle, Milford Meanswell, the new and current mayor of LazyTown, that Stephanie should move to LazyTown because her uncle has to raise (or take care of) her.

The main plot of the film took place on the present day and it also took place during and after the events of LazyTown, where Stephanie lives a happy and healthy life with her uncle, her uncle's secretary Bessie Busybody, Sportacus, and the other kids (Stingy, Ziggy, Trixie, and Pixel) while Robbie Rotten lives a very boring and lazy life in his secret underground lair underneath LazyTown. Robbie Rotten has been planning to get rid of Sportacus, which he called him "Sportaflop", and turn LazyTown back into its former state of being a lazy town for a very long time and was also planning on getting revenge on Sportacus. Soon, Robbie had an idea, which is a very awful idea, and he made a new invention called the LazyBot 1000. The LazyBot is Robbie's latest invention of trying to banish Sportacus from LazyTown and kill him so Robbie Rotten can take over the whole LazyTown and turn it back into a lazy town as before.

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After the "The End" title card appears, The entire cast performs a cinematic version of "Bing Bang" over the first part of the closing credits. "Lazytown Forever" plays during the second half of the credits.

Development
On August 16, 2014, the 10th anniversary of the premiere of LazyTown, a mysterious code was sent through LazyTown's Twitter. It read, “TGF6eVRvd246IFRoZSBNb3ZpZSBoYXMgYmVlbiBjb25maXJtZWQhDQpPY3RvYmVyIDEyLCAyMDE4“. Decoding it in Base64 reveals the hidden message: “LazyTown: The Movie has been confirmed! October 12, 2018.” Fans of LT were hyped after revealing the hidden message.

Casting
US casting was done by Ruth Lambert and Stephanie Klapper. Canadian casting was done by Coreen Mayrs and Heike Brandstatter. UK casting was done by Alex Kelly.

Live-action filming
Principal photography began in August 2016 at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California and wrapped in January 2017. Additional shooting was done in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The opening scene was shot in Iceland and London, England. Reshoots were done from January-April 2018.

Puppet designing and building
The puppets for the movie were designed and built by Jim Henson's Creature Shop in Hollywood, California and its sister facility in New York City, New York, Screen Novelties in Los Angeles, California, and Puppet Heap in Hoboken, New Jersey.

2D character animation
The 2D animation for the film was provided by Clearwater Animation in Clearwater, Florida. Additional 2D animation was provided by Film Roman in Woodland Hills, California, Rough Draft Studios in Glendale, California, Duncan Studio in Pasadena, California, Powerhouse Animation Studios in Austin, Texas, Chandelier Studios in San Mateo, California, Yowza Animation in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Mercury Filmworks in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Bardel Entertainment in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Toon City Animation in Manila, Philippines, Digital eMation in Seoul, South Korea, Rough Draft Korea (also) in Seoul, South Korea, and Feitong Cartoon in Hong Kong

Stop-motion animation
The stop-motion animation for the film was provided by Screen Novelties in Los Angeles, California.

Visual effects, CGI, and stereoscopic 3D conversion
The CGI environment, CGI animation, and visual effects were provided by Sony Pictures Imageworks in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Industrial Light & Magic in San Francisco, California and its sister facilities in Singapore City, Singapore, London, England, and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, WETA Digital in Wellington, New Zealand, Digital Domain in Los Angeles, California, Artem Ltd. in London, England and its sister facility in Glasgow, Scotland, Framestore in London, England, and Double Negative (also) in London, England.

Additional visual effects work was done by Rodeo FX in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and its sister facilities in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, Munich, Germany, and Los Angeles, California, Technicolor VFX in Los Angeles, California and its sister facilities in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and London, England, Cinesite in London, England and its sister facilities in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Trixter in Munich, Germany and its sister facility in Berlin, Germany, The Mill VFX (also) in London, England, Moving Picture Company in London, England and its sister facilities in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Method Studios in Los Angeles, California and its sister facilities in New York City, New York, Atlanta, Georgia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, San Francisco, California, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and Pune, India, Luma Pictures in Santa Monica, California and its sister facility in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Base FX in Beijing, China and its sister facilities in Wuxi, China and Xiamen, China, and Jim Henson's Creature Shop in Hollywood, California.

Previsualization was done by The Third Floor in Los Angeles, California and its sister facility in London, England.

The stereoscopic 3D conversion was done by Legend3D in San Diego, California and StereoD in Burbank, California and its sister facilities in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Pune, India.

Editing and compositing
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Post production
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Music
The music was composed by Mani Svavarsson, the composer for the original LazyTown TV series, with help from Alan Menken and John Debney. The music is a mix of pop and orchestrally classical music.

Release
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Marketing
On November 10, 2017, the teaser trailer was released on YouTube. The trailer makes the movie look like an action-thriller movie at first until the hero is revealed to be Stingy. He then says, “This movie is mine.” It then cuts to the LazyTown logo, while a shiny “The Movie” appears underneath it. The trailer gained 2 million views within 24 hours of its upload. The teaser was eventually attached to Daddy's Home 2, Murder on the Orient Express, The Star, Justice Leauge, Coco, Ferdinand, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and Maze Runner: The Death Cure.

The first trailer was released on February 9, 2018, and was shown before Peter Rabbit, Black Panther, Early Man, A Wrinkle in Time, Pokemon Sun & Moon: The Movie, Sherlock Gnomes, Isle of Dogs, Rampage, and Avengers: Infinity War. The second trailer was released on May 2, 2018, and was shown before Show Dogs, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Incredibles 2, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, ''Teen Titans Go! To The Movies, and Mission Impossible - Fallout''. The third and final trailer was released on August 9, 2018, and was shown before The Meg, Crazy Rich Asians, Alpha, The House With a Clock in its Walls, and Smallfoot.

Soundtrack
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Home media
The film was released on digital platforms on January 15, 2019, and on DVD and Blu-ray on February 5, 2019.

Box office
LazyTown: The Movie was released on October 12, 2018, and opened on 11,782 screens. It grossed $686 million compared to its $190 million budget and was a box office success.