| General | Trivia | Gallery | Soundtrack | Quotes | Transcript | Trailer transcripts | Credits | Release dates | Home media | Tropes | Box Office Mojo |
Computeropolis is a 2007 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Universal Animation Studios, Regency Enterprises and Dune Entertainment and released by Universal Pictures. It is the studio's first fully computer animated film. The film was directed by Audel LaRoque and co-directed by David Silverman from a screenplay by Thomas Lennon, and stars the voices of Jesse McCartney, David Spade, Kelsey Grammer, Dan Fogler, David Hyde Pierce, Jodi Benson, Jon Lovitz, Jennifer Tilly, and William Shatner. It features a number of visual references to Microsoft Windows products, primarily including that of Windows XP. The story follows a young computer game designer named Peri Dazz, who attempts to publish his own game named Frenzy to the internet and suddenly stumbles upon an online universe deep inside the realms of his computer. While finding a way to return home, Peri joins Nicky Kickzoo, the protagonist of Frenzy, on a risky mission to eliminate King Trojan, a virus capable of corrupting the entirety of the global system.
Computeropolis premiered at the Westwood Village Theater on November 12, 2007, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 14, 2007. It received universal acclaim from critics and was a box office success, grossing $587 million worldwide on its $65 million budget, making it the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2007. The film won the 2007 Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production for Spade, and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 2008 Academy Awards. Computeropolis saw a 3D re-release in theaters on December 15, 2017 to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The film's success helped spawn an expanded franchise, with four sequels — Computeropolis 2 (2010), Computeropolis 3 (2014), Computeropolis: The Deep Web (2018), and Computeropolis: Webcation (2021) — a holiday special, several short films, theme park attractions, and two television spin-offs.
Plot[]
Percy Anthony "Peri" Dazz is a 14-year-old computer designer living with his parents Heather and Earl Dazz. One weekend, Peri's parents leave town, leaving him with a list of house chores. For a while, Peri is bored of the work until he comes up with an idea for his own computer game called Frenzy. Once he finishes, Peri transfers the game file into an "exe." file and opens up GameGenius.com to upload it. However, when he opens up the internet, he discovers a popup ad on a website called "Computeropolis.com" with a download link. When he clicks on the link, the computer has a blinding white flash that begins to suck up random things in the room. Peri tries to escape, but fails and gets sucked in.
Peri discovers an online city deep inside the realms of his computer. However, he is caught by two internet officers named Paul and Frank, who take him to a lab where he is increased by a PC Chip, which allows Peri to use the desktop menu from his point of view. After he is finished getting tested at the lab by using a mouse cursor, Peri meets Nicky Kickzoo, an enterprising scavenger hunter who is the character Peri created for his Frenzy game. Nicky initially despises Peri, who wants to get back home, but ends up taking him along.
The duo arrives at the Desktop Component League (DCL), an organization department company headed by CEO Manager Marc to fund his research; their duties as upholders of the law range from capturing viruses to protecting the city of Computeropolis. There, Marc orders Peri and Nicky to capture King Trojan, a virus that was inadvertently given access to Peri's computer when he clicked the download link. During their mission, Peri and Nicky meet Travis, a fat, video game-obsessed kid who knows Peri from GameGenius.com and joins the heroes to stop Trojan. However, they are captured by Trojan and his oafish and mean-spirited minion Milo and transports them to Trojan's Lair.
At Trojan's Lair, they see how the viruses are created. Then, Peri, Nicky, and Travis manage to escape while Trojan's minions chase them. The heroes succeed, but Peri forgets to upload Frenzy to GameGenius.com, as he already has an "exe." file of the game on his computer. Nicky convinces him to visit the GameGenius site, confident that Peri's game will get popular once it is published. When they arrive at the site, a GameGenius administrator learns that the Frenzy game will not be published due to negligent issues. Peri accuses Nicky of attempting to lie without telling him about the issue. Then the rest of the DCL arrives, with Marc asking Peri and Nicky if they caught Trojan; Trojan is still there and announces his plan to initiate a full-scale assault on his hard drive.
Outraged, Marc accuses Peri and Nicky of lying to him about capturing Trojan. Nicky admits he thought that if Peri spent time with him, he would befriend him. Peri leaves to find his home so his parents will be home in no time by the end of the weekend. Then Clippit appears and Peri asks him which way is his house. Then Clippit takes Peri to a portal which leads him back home. Back home, Peri happens upon the screen saying that his game Frenzy is successfully published to GameGenius.com. Meanwhile, the DCL offers to reinstate Nicky, but he refuses, and instead, he confessed to Clippit that he cheated, just as he is alerted to Peri's break-in. Realizing what happened, Nicky defies Clippit and enters the same portal. Nicky finds Peri sitting outside of his house and brings him back to his room where he uses Peri's childhood photos and old projects to prompt him to rejoin the group on their mission. Peri opens up the Computeropolis file that Peri downloaded before, reopening the portal for the duo to jump back through.
Peri, Nicky, Travis, and the rest of the DCL fight Trojan and his minions (including Milo). Trojan returns for a final confrontation to kill the boy. However, the DCL manages to download an antivirus program for Peri's computer, causing Trojan and his virus minions to disintegrate into digital pixel dust. Peri remembers that his parents are to arrive at the end of the weekend. Peri uses the portal to head back home in time for Heather and Earl's return. Peri explains to them what happened. They at first do not believe Peri due to his "imagination during his childhood", but Peri proves that he is not making it up by using his inner PC chip to move the mouse pointer (which he brought with him in preparation) and uses the pointer to clean up the entire house, as his parents had assigned him earlier. Then he returns to Computeropolis to attend a party at the DCL headquarters, during which Marc assures Peri that averting major city destruction was only the beginning for him.
Voice Cast[]
- Main article: List of Computeropolis characters
- Jesse McCartney as Percy Anthony "Peri" Dazz, a 14-year-old computer game designer.
- David Spade as Nicky Kickzoo, a street-wise scavenger hunter and a character Peri created for his Frenzy game.
- Kelsey Grammer as King Trojan, an evil virus who plans to destroy the entire internet and Peri's computer.
- Dan Fogler as Travis, a clumsy, happy, hyperactive, happy-go-lucky, and overweight user from GameGenius.com who is one of Peri's friends.
- David Hyde Pierce as Manager Marc, the leader and founding member of the Desktop Component League (DCL).
- Jodi Benson as Commander Cindy, a DCL member who has a command-line interface laptop that interacts with her.
- Jon Lovitz as Notepad Ned, a DCL member obsessed with writing on a notepad.
- Lovitz also voices Paul, one of the two internet officers who try to arrest Peri.
- Jennifer Tilly as Painting Paula, a DCL member and a talented painter.
- William Shatner as Frank, one of the two internet officers who try to arrest Peri.
- Harland Williams as Milo, King Trojan's oafish henchman.
- Audel LaRoque as Media Player Mike, a blind, purple-haired DCL member who does not speak but only makes music and sound effects. LaRoque provided vocal sounds for the character, though uncredited. The character's appearance sparked confusion among some viewers who thought the character was a female.
- Kari Wahlgren as Carol, a voice inside Peri's computer via Computeropolis.
- Michael Wildshill as Clippit, an intelligent user interface for Microsoft Office who annoys Peri and Nicky.
- Tress MacNeille as Heather Dazz, Peri's mother.
- Jeff Bennett as Earl Dazz, Peri's father.
- Chris Edgerly as Bill, a lab worker who increased Peri the PC Chip.
- Corey Burton as Sam, a lab worker who is Bill's assistant.
Additional Voices[]
- Jack Angel
- Bob Bergen
- Rodger Bumpass
- Jennifer Darling
- Debi Derryberry
- Paul Eiding
- Bill Farmer
- Gary Hall
- Audel LaRoque
- Thomas Lennon
- Sherry Lynn
- Danny Mann
- Cynthia Marion
- Mona Marshall
- Mickie McGowan
- Amy McNeill
- Brandon Minez
- Laraine Newman
- Phil Proctor
- Jan Rabson
- David Silverman
- Tom F. Warner
- Michael Wildshill
Production[]
Development[]
Coming soon.
Music[]
- Main article: Computeropolis/Soundtrack
The film's original score was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh, who previously collaborated on the score of Spy Kids. The soundtrack album was released on January 31, 2008, by Varèse Sarabande.
Release[]
Theatrical[]
- Main article: Computeropolis/Release dates
Computeropolis was initially set for release on July 16, 2007, but the date was later changed to December 14, 2007. The film premiered at the Fox Village Theater on November 12, 2007, and was theatrically released on December 14 in the United States and Canada, in Australia on January 3, 2008, and in the United Kingdom on April 15. After the success of the 3D re-release of Jurassic Park, Universal re-released Computeropolis in 3D on December 15, 2017 for its 10th anniversary of the film.
Reception[]
Box office[]
Coming soon.
Critical reception[]
Computeropolis received widespread critical acclaim, becoming a cult hit among critics upon release. Based on 169 professional critic reviews, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 90% of those reviews were positive, with an average rating of 7.7/10. On the website, the critics' consensus reads, "Having enough colorful animation, brilliant humor and action-packed scenes to compete with the likes of Pixar, Computeropolis perfectly lives up to be a hit on its own." Using a weighted average calculator, Metacritic assigned the film a score of 76 out of 100, based on 73 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three out of four stars, saying "In its first fully computer-generated feature, Universal Pictures offers audiences Computeropolis the whole family could enjoy the delightful addition to the company's other classics with non-stop humor." Richard Corliss of Time Magazine praised David Spade's performance as Nicky Kickzoo, 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 Audel LaRoque, Computeropolis has a very engaging concept for a movie taking place inside your computer."
Some critics have likened Computeropolis to science-fiction live-action films such as Tron and The Matrix; Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News described the film as "Toy Story meets Tron". Kyle Smith of the New York Post gave the film three out of four stars, saying that "Computeropolis seems to duplicate the usual animation look of Sean Santos, but was made using computer software and has truly amazing action sequences, charm, wit, and humor with a host of quirky characters such as Peri Dazz and Nicky Kickzoo." Charles Herold of The New York Times summed up his review stating that "Computeropolis is not only a great kids movie, but it is an enthusiastic movie with perfect moments that live up to its plot as well as other Universal animated hits like Ama and the Mysterious Crystal and Paint World."
Some critics, however, criticized some unexpected product placements of Microsoft Windows products such as Windows 95/98 and XP. Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail described Computeropolis as a "90-minute feature-length commercial for Microsoft", while Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post wrote that it was little more than an exercise in advertising PC downloads to children. Bill Muller of The Arizona Republic stated, "While not as bad as say, Mac and Me, Universal's Computeropolis sometimes has overuse of Microsoft products, but tries hard enough to appeal fans who may be puzzled by the movie's visual disconnect." Mark Caro of the Chicago Tribune considered Peri's quote "Bye for now and where do you wanna go today?" as a clever reference to the 90's Microsoft slogan.
Sequels[]
- Main article: Computeropolis (franchise)
Computeropolis was followed by two sequels: Computeropolis 2 (2010) and Computeropolis 3 (2014). While the first sequel received similar acclaim from critics, the third film, however, got some mixed reviews but was still a box office hit. A fourth installment, titled Computeropolis: The Deep Web, was released on June 1, 2018.
A fifth film, titled Computeropolis: Webcation, was released in the United Kingdom on June 30, 2021, and later will release in the United States on September 17. It was initially set to be released on May 21, 2021. The film was delayed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before moving to its current release date.
Spin-Offs[]
Manga[]
- Main article: Computeropolis (manga)
Television series[]
- Main article: Computeropolis: Adventures of Peri and Nicky
Holiday special[]
- Main article: Computeropolis Xmas
Transcripts[]
Main[]
To see the main transcript of the film, click here.
Trailers[]
To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here.
Template:Computeropolis
v - e - d  | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|