Wario (2003 film)

Wario is an 2003 American computer-animated comedy film loosely based on the video game character, Wario by Nintendo. Directed by Chris Columbus (in feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by Kelly Asbury, J. David Stem, and David N. Weiss, it is the first installment in the Wario film series. The film stars Charles Martinet, Zach Braff, Robin Williams, Sam Neill, Edward Asner and Jeff Goldblum. The plot are two greedy buddies, Wario and Waluigi (Martinet) has some lots of adventures in Goring, United Kingdom trying to escape her classmates and from the evil Iggy Koopa (Zach Braff) and his minions.

After premiering in Canness on June 24, 2003, the film was theatrically released in the United States by DreamWorks Pictures on July 4, 2003. The film received mostly positive reviews, with critics alike praising the animation, plot, storyline, characters, directorial by Chris Columbus, Charles Martinet's vocal performance as Wario and Waluigi, humor, and musical score by John Debney. Wario was nominated at the Kids' Choice Awards for Best Trios From an Animated Movie. It was a box office success, grossing over $489.1 million, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of 2003 and the highest-grossing animated film of 2003. Two sequels have been released Wario 2: The City of New York (2014), and Wario 3: Ghostwinked! (2022).

Plot
TBA

Voice cast

 * Charles Martinet as Wario and Waluigi, an main protagonist of the film.
 * Zach Braff as Iggy Koopa, an main villain from the film.
 * Jeff Goldblum as Bowser Junior, Bowser's evil and greedy son.
 * Sam Neill as the Shy Guys, an masked-like midget creatures.
 * Edward Asner as Bowser, Bowser Junior's cruel and evilly father.
 * Brittany Murphy as the female Koopa Troopa

Development
Development on Wario started in 1997 after the release of The Peacemaker. DreamWorks 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 1999 and was planning to be wrapped up in January 2001 with a planned release date of April 9, 2001. However, the plans were scrapped around November 2000.

Behind the scenes during production, Kelly Asbury had been working with DreamWorks Animation. Stephen Hillenburg wrote the story and started planning the storyboard on December 29, 1997. Chris Columbus served as director and John H. Williams and Brad Lewis served as producer. Storyboarding wrapped up on September 28, 1998.

Voice casting
TBA

Animation
The film was animated entirely in Pacific Data Images animation software.

Music
The music was composed by John Debney.

Soundtrack
The film's music was composed by John Debney, with original songs by American rock band Aerosmith (along with Dream On) and Smash Mouth (along with Walkin' On The Sun). The score album was released on July 3, 2000 through DreamWorks Records, while the soundtrack album with songs by Aerosmith & Smash Mouth was released on July 6, 2003 through Mercury Records.

Release
The film premiered on June 24, 2003 in Cannes, before having its wide theatrical release in the United States on July 4, 2003 by DreamWorks Pictures. The film was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for some rude humor and mild language.

Marketing
The first trailer for the film was released on September 27, 2002 along with The Tuxedo. The second trailer for the film was released on December 14, 2002 along with 14 TV spots and the third trailer for the film was released on May 24, 2003. Hasbro, MacFarlane Toys & Mattel are making a toy line. On March 2, 2003, promotional tie-ins on every channel consist of bumpers.

Box office
Purple Squirrel grossed $581 million in the United States, and $642 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $489 million to become a box-office success.

Critical response
Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports the film a 92% approval rating based on the 129 reviews, and its average rating is 7.85/10. The critical consensus reads, "Pretty funny, greedy and very humorous, Wario is an prime example of an family entertainment, Charles Martinet really gives it his all in this one." Metacritic assigns the film a score of 85 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore assigned the film an average grade of "A" on its A+ to F scale.

Home media
Wario was released on DVD and VHS on November 21, 2003 by DreamWorks Home Entertainment, and on Blu-Ray on June 19, 2011.

Video game
Main article: Wario (video game)

A tie-in video game was developed by DreamWorks Interactive 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
TBA

Television Series
Main article: Wario: The Series

A television series based on the film franchise, titled Wario: The Series, aired on February 15, 2004. It aired its first episode on Nickelodeon on February 14, and aired its final episode on July 11, 2013, after airing for 9 years. The show was produced in association with 1492 Television and DreamWorks Television (also known as DreamWorks Animation Television) with animation provided by Rough Draft Studios.

Trivia
TBA