Purple Squirrel

Purple Squirrel is a 2000 American computer-animated adventure comedy film produced by Buddy Studios and Nickelodeon Movies and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by Cal Brunker (in his feature directorial debut) from a story by Lorne Cameron, and is produced by Graham Moloy.

It stars the voices of Will Arnett, Kari Wahlgren, Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Danny McBride, Halsey, Ryan Reynolds, Mila Kunis, Wanda Sykes and Peter Stormare. The film follows Surly (Arnett), a purple squirrel on a courageous mission with his girlfriend Hazelnut (Wahlgren) in the streets of Los Angeles, California whilst trying to avoid being captured by an evil street rat named Scab (Stormare).

The film was released in the United States on March 26, 2000. The film received critical acclaim, with critics praising the animation, plot, storyline, characters, directorial by Cal Brunker, Will Arnett's vocal performance as Surly the Squirrel, humor, and musical score by Alan Silvestri. Purple Squirrel was nominated at the Kids' Choice Awards for Best Hero From an Animated Movie. It was a box office success, grossing over $840.2 million, making it the first highest-grossing film to be distributed by Buddy Studios and the highest-grossing animated film of 2000.

It started the Purple Squirrel franchise, being followed by five sequels: Purple Squirrel Returns (2002), Purple Squirrel Three (2005), Purple Squirrel: The Reckoning (2010), Purple Squirrel: Five To Five (2020) and Purple Squirrel: The Sixth Universe, which is to be released in 2025.

Plot
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Voice cast

 * Will Arnett as Surly, a purple squirrel and the main protagonist.
 * Kari Wahlgren as Hazelnut, a female pink squirrel and Surly's girlfriend.
 * Anthony Hopkins as Henry, a golden brown squirrel and Surly's father.
 * Olivia Colman as Victoria, a light brown squirrel and Surly's mother.
 * Sam Rockwell as Robinson, a black and white wolf.
 * Scarlett Johansson as Hemisphere, a red striped spider.
 * Danny McBride as Ginny, a goofy guinea pig.
 * Halsey as Rella, a blue rabbit with long ears.
 * Ryan Reynolds as Brandon, a brave deer.
 * Mila Kunis as Betty, a lovely deer and Brandon's girlfriend.
 * Wanda Sykes as Stella, a short-tempered, sassy striped skunk. Stella also appears as a supporting character for Hammy in 2009.
 * Peter Stormare as Scab, a evil street rat and the main antagonist.

Development
Development on Purple Squirrel started in 1997. Warner Bros. Pictures had intended the film to be a live-action/animated hybrid using 2D animation in a real world environment, like Space Jam in 1996. The animation had begun in March 1998 and was planning to be wrapped up in January 1999 with a planned release date of April 9, 1999. However, the plans were scrapped around November 1998, and the film rights were sold to Paramount Pictures in December 1998.

Behind the scenes during production, Cal Brunker had been working with Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies, with his yet-to-be-founded film studio, Buddy Entertainment (now Buddy Studios). Lorne Cameron wrote the story and started planning the storyboard on December 29, 1998. Cal Brunker served as director and Graham Moloy served as producer. Storyboarding wrapped up on September 28, 1999.

Voice casting
During test recordings, Jim Carrey was originally set to be casted as Surly the Squirrel. However, Will Arnett got the role as the character, with test audiences saying Arnett's performance as Surly was "joyful", "fulfilling" and "very comedic". Arnett said in a 1999 interview that he had "expressed interest during the test recordings alongside Jim", and when he got the role, he said that he "never thought of getting the role. I always thought Jim would get the role instead of me. But, here we are!"

Animation
The film was animated entirely in Alias' Maya 3D animation software. Purple Squirrel had over 129 sequences, each with 2,102 shots. The animation production spanned from July 8, 1999 to January 7, 2000. The process for the animation took 48 days, while rendering took an additional 29 days.

Music
The music was composed by Alan Silvestri, with original music by Canadian rock band Finger Eleven.

Soundtrack
The film's music was composed by Alan Silvestri, with original songs by Canadian rock band Finger Eleven. The score album was released on March 27, 2000 through Geffen Records, while the soundtrack album with songs by Finger Eleven was released on April 2, 2000 through Mercury Records.

Release
The film was released in the United States on March 26, 2000 by Buddy Studios. Prior to the film's release, it had a release in France on March 1, 2000, followed by a release in Spain on March 4, a release in Germany on March 6, a release on March 9 in Norway and Iceland, a release on March 11 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, a release of March 15 in Africa, a release of March 16 in Japan and South Korea, and a release of March 19 in Eastern Europe. It had its premiere at the Dolby Theater on March 21, 2000.

Marketing
The first trailer for the film was released on January 17, 2000. The second trailer for the film was released on February 14, 2000 along with 14 TV spots. Funko, Moose Toys & Mattel are making a toy line. On March 2, 2000, promotional tie-ins on every channel consist of bumpers.

Box office
Purple Squirrel grossed $420 million in the United States, and $632 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $840 million, making the first Buddy Studios film to become a box-office success.

Critical response
Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports the film a 100% approval rating based on the 129 reviews, and its average rating is 8.7/10. The critical consensus reads, "Sweet, charming and adventurous, as well as comedic, Purple Squirrel is a film that is for sure to make the kids laugh and giggle." Metacritic assigns the film a score of 97 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore assigned the film a rare grade of "A+" on its A+ to F scale.

Home media
Purple Squirrel was released on DVD and VHS on May 4, 2000 by Buddy Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment, and on Blu-Ray on June 29, 2010.

Video game
Main article: Purple Squirrel (video game)

A tie-in video game was developed by Buddy Games and published by Activision for Microsoft Windows, Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox. The voice cast of the film reprises their roles for the video game. The game holds an aggregate ranking of 93% on GameRankings and 96/100 on Metacritic.

Sequels
Main article: Purple Squirrel (franchise)

Since the release of Purple Squirrel, several sequels have followed. Purple Squirrel Returns, the first sequel, was released on February 14, 2002. A third installment, Purple Squirrel Three, was released on September 17, 2005, followed by a fourth film, Purple Squirrel: The Reckoning, on January 1, 2010. The fifth installment, Purple Squirrel: Five To Five, was released on June 19, 2020. The sixth and latest installment, Purple Squirrel: The Sixth Universe, was announced with a theatrical release date of February 26, 2025. With the announcement of The Sixth Universe, the Purple Squirrel series became the first animated movie franchise to house six theatrical installments.

Television Series
Main article: Purple Squirrel: The Series

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Trivia
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