Dreamworks Acquires Rights To Captain Underpants Movie

I must say, that song is really making me warm up to this idea. I HATE toilet humor, but this lyric video shows that it's all just a lot of fun. You just forget your expectations and enjoy the silliness.

"And by some unlucky chance, Captain Underpants, is his name!"

Well considering the first book made a reference to George and Harold spamming the announcements by playing Weird Al all day, I'd say this is fitting. That's actually how I first heard of Weird Al.

Apparently Captain Underpants could change up the U.S. feature animation industry big time...

TL;DR: Believe it or not, Captain Underpants is setting the stage for some historic firsts, namely it's:

• The first DreamWorks production to be outsourced by something not affiliated with DreamWorks.
• The first DreamWorks movie to be produced in Canada.
• And it's the cheapest DreamWorks CGI movie with a budget of $38 million. (For comparison, this is even cheaper than your average Illumination Entertainment movie, which is budgeted at around $75 million.)

Apparently, outsourcing to different animation studios to take care of the animation itself along with the lighting and effects while the main studio deals with the story and pre-production can prove to be profitable to an animation studio on one hand. But on the other hand, it doesn't exactly paint a bright picture for big animation jobs in America.

I'm honestly not sure how we should take this...

edited 2nd Jun '17 3:17:10 PM by TargetmasterJoe

It's THAT cheap!? The film doesn't look that way, especially considering it uses multiple animation formats throughout the film. Maybe the pseudo-2D look (and Canada's production tax breaks and funding) has something to do with it.

Though it helps that the film is getting a surprisingly positive response from critics. Though, we'll have to see if it translates to decent to above-average (for Dreamworks) ticket sales, like the Boss Baby.

edited 2nd Jun '17 3:13:30 PM by XMenMutant22

Thank goodness. Movies based on kid's books often don't do well.

Good grief, I was expecting a 70 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, not 88. Not that that's a bad thing, of course. It' good that it's generally considered a great movie. (I doubt I'll still be able to convince the rest of my family to watch it with me though. )

Also, on the whole cheap thing, they sure had me fooled with that kind of animation. It may have been made on a low budget, but it sure doesn't look like it. And that's also a good thing. (Right?)

edited 2nd Jun '17 3:55:50 PM by kablammin45

As long as the quality is there I dont really mind.

Thats the thing. This is an excellently animated movie that is at the level of a high budget Disney movie, and it has a budget for a cash in throwaway film.

That's pretty incredible, like Gareth Edwards Monster incredible.

Wasn't the animation for Kung Fu Panda 3 outsourced to China?

Yes the film includes 2D animation that must be a ton cheaper to produce, especially when they have it in the style of crude child drawings. The article states there are even moments of live-action puppetry!

I just hope the animators were treated with respect, other than the ones at Nitrogen. -_-

I'm happy CGI is now at the point where it can emulate 2D animation principles more convincingly, so that people don't always say it looks stiff and robotic.

edited 2nd Jun '17 8:20:51 PM by kyun

Saw it! I loved it a lot; it pitch-perfect captures the spirit of the books.

A couple of the books' plots are mixed together (Professor Poopypants as the villain, the Turbo Toilet being invented by Melvin, etc), and a few new subplots added, but overall it works great in having the story work feature-length. I also liked how they improved George and Harold's motives with their pranks to ultimately be for their classmates's fun as well. Some of their pranks in the books, like screwing up the invention convention or causing disaster at the football games, came off in retrospect as being jerks to their fellow students, so it was nicer to see here that it's really so all their friends get an escape from the school's misery.

I also got used to their voices quickly despite my early skepticism. Only thing that took me a while to warm up to was Professor Poopypants' Adaptational Villainy. It made more sense once his backstory is revealed, but he's introduced for most of the film as a Card-Carrying Villain. That, and the other teachers are mostly background cameos. They don't even do the gym teacher Running Gag.

However, yes, they do have a Flip-O-Rama.

They didn't do the Gym Teacher Running Gag, that was one of the best ones.

Speaking of Poopypants and changes made in the movie, I do like his evil plan here being about getting rid of the laughter part of the brain and making the whole world into joyless zombies, ala the third book rather than his actual plan in the book which was just using an enlarge robotic suit to make himself emperor of the world and force people to change their names to be something stupid (I remember that page being an interactive activity where I could actually change my name into a funny version of it). It seems more fitting for a guy who has been made fun of throughout his life for having a ridiculous name to devise a scheme to get rid of joy.

Overall this was a really good adaption that makes me hope they would actually make two sequels that adapts the other 8 books. Definitely the best Dreamworks film of 2017.

Do they have a ruined billboard joke? I remember that being a Running Gag in the books.

Yup, they do, right during the first scene in Mr. Krupp's office.

This movie sounds like a great adaptation.

Well I have high hopes for Dreamworks then! They will save a ton with this small budget, and it will also boost its chances of being a hit!

I was worried about the movie looking like a cluster**** of the first 4 books, but when I watched the movie I was impressed how well it actually got things together and then some, mainly with easter eggs.

Also, I didn't expect Captain Underpants to have Unlimited Underwear Works.

Well, it's going up against Wonder Woman, itself looking to be a major hit, and the first DC/Warner Bros superhero film since probably The Dark Knight to be a GOOD MOVIE. So I wonder how this film will do against it!

If I was honest, it won't beat Wonder Woman but it will at least make back its budget since this movie definitely appeals to child demographic who would enjoy funny super heroes like this guy.

I should know, my little sister is more hyped for this movie than Wonder Woman and she likes Wonder Woman.

Captain Underpants will be Wonder Woman for the kids XD Not to mention the nostalgia crowd; I want to see it at some point myself, I loved those books when I was younger.

I'd say this film's plot is actually an improved version of the first four books' plot. George and Harold are given a reason to pull all their pranks, Mr. Krupp gets some surprisingly heartfelt characterization, the idea of Mr. Krupp putting George and Harold in separate classes rather than blackmailing them is both funnier for how serious they all treat it and gets away from the Unfortunate Implications of the original plot, Professor Poopypants' plan makes more sense, etc...

I liken it to a "second draft" of the books.

Was Dave Pilkey involved in the movie, or no?

He's credited as a producer, and was involved with the first draft of the script, but was otherwise very hands off.

He is VERY pleased with what Dreamworks has done with this movie, there is no animosity or "selling out" feelings from the author at all!

Thank goodness. As an aspiring author myself I'd love to have that reaction to a movie that gets based off one of my books >.>

Even if I don't think that'll ever happen XD