I still believe this movie should have just been called "Regular Movie" (and the 3DS game should have been "Regular Game" by the way).
You know what time is it? It's CARTOON NETWORK TIME:
Adventure Time
Adventure Time Vol. 1 - Vol. 2 - Vol. 3 - Vol. 4
Sugary Shorts Vol. 1
Marceline and the Scream Queens / Fionna & Cake / Candy Capers / The Flip Side
AT Original Graphic Novels: Vol.1 Playing With Fire - Vol. 2 Pixel Princesses - Vol. 3: Seeing Red
Hey Ice King! Why'd you steal our garbage?!!
Bravest Warriors Vol. 1 - Vol. 2
Adventure Time Vol. 1 - Vol. 2 - Vol. 3 - Vol. 4
Sugary Shorts Vol. 1
Marceline and the Scream Queens / Fionna & Cake / Candy Capers / The Flip Side
AT Original Graphic Novels: Vol.1 Playing With Fire - Vol. 2 Pixel Princesses - Vol. 3: Seeing Red
Hey Ice King! Why'd you steal our garbage?!!
Bravest Warriors Vol. 1 - Vol. 2
Movie: Regular Show: The Movie
Directed by J. G. Quintel
Release date 2015 Genre Action/Adventure/Comedy/Science-fiction animated film
Country USA
You know what time it is? It's REGULAR TIME! Wait. No. That didn't sound as good as I thought it would.
Anyways, by now most cartoon fans are probably familiar with Regular Show. Alongside Adventure Time and Steven Universe it's probably one of the best current shows of this Cartoon Network renaissance.
Created by cartoonist J. G. Quintel, if there's one show that perfectly captured what it's like to be a 20-something slacker who grew up on obscure movies and retro games, it's Regular Show! And it's anything but regular!
Written and directed by Quintel along several recurrent writers from the show, Regular Show: The Movie is a collaborative effort between Cartoon Network Studios and Saerom Animation. The film was distributed through Warner Bros. Pictures.
Hype for the Regular Show movie began with a trailer for the film first show at Comic Con 2015. The film finally had a theatrical premiere in August in Los Angeles, then it was digitally released on September 1 and on home video DVD this past October 13. The film finally just aired on Cartoon Network at last.
It was dedicated to Christine Cavanaugh, who was best known for her voice work as Chuckie Finster on Nickelodeon's Rugrats and Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory.
The film revolves around the friendship between our main characters Mordecai and Rigby. Oh, and time travel. Lots of it.
Anyone catching just a glimpse of the show knows those two have known each other forever. But things could have been much different...
It all begins in the distant future. Somehow things went bad. Like really, really bad. And now Mordecai and Rigby find themselves on opposite sides. All because back in High School they ruined some lab experiment from the evil high school coach Mr. Ross!
Now there's a huge Timenado, a tornado threatening the very fabric of space and time!
Everyone's favorite slackers are forced to go back in time to fix things, make it right, save their friendship and the universe at stake!
But Mr. Ross followed them to make sure all of time is destroyed for good...
If you've never seen Regular Show before, don't worry. The movie goes easy and it's quite friendly to newcomers. As with the show the story is quite unique. Regular Show has such a unique 80s slacker vibe, and the show made sure to map it up a notch.
The story is a great mix of time travel adventure and space opera. It all starts simple enough but it quickly gets a lot more ridiculous and over-the-top from there (in a good way). The hijinks they go through are kind of reminiscent of 80s films such as Back To The Future and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
This Regular Movie plays like an extended episode of the show. It has plenty of comedy, action, adventure and science-fiction! My only real problem with it? I kinda wish it was longer - it's a 68-minute animated feature film.
What is surprising is that this marks the first Cartoon Network feature film based on a show since Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show back in 2009.
The Regular Show movie was imagined as early as 2013. The idea for a film first came up during the production of Season 4. At first CN was interested in making a 40-minute special, but J. G. Quintel turned them down and he wanted to make a movie instead. Thanks to the show's immense success it was quickly accepted and put in development. Due to the film the 6th Season was only 31 episode-long instead of the 40 planned. The story is set in between Season 6 and 7 (but you don't really need to watch the show to enjoy the film).
The movie sees the return of all our favorite main characters and their respective voice actors. J. G. voices as Mordecai and Hi-Five Ghost as usual, William Salyers plays Rigby, Sam Marin voices everyone's favorite angry park manage Benson, Pops and Muscle Man, before you see him in Episode 7 Mark Hamill plays here one of his few roles as a good guy and his current role in an ongoing series Skips. Comedian Jason Mantzoukas voices our main villain Mr. Ross, and he kind of steals the show in every scene he's in. His sense of humor and tone really works well with Regular Show. The movie also guest stars David Koechner as the school principal. There's a few other familiar voices from the cartoon scene; Roger Craig Smith, Paul F. Tompkins, and many more.
I just love how well this bizarre cast of characters came together, after 7+ Seasons (and an Emmy)!
It's a really fun movie that builds our expectations for an epic climax. The final act gets fairly unpredictably as well.
The movie is very true to the spirit of Regular Show. With great interaction between the character. The story, the ending, the comedy it all comes together nicely. The animation was pretty on pair with the show but it looked a bit better and smoother around the edges than usual. It's all the little details here and there. The movie also used some CGi 3D models for a few spaces scenes which isn't usual for the show.
It's a great movie with plenty of action and even some emotional bits! If you're fairly familiar with the show you will find the same type of drama and comedy in the movie.
The music is as epic as it gets. The movie sees the return of all three composers behind the show, Mark Mothersbaugh, John Enroth and Albert Fox. And just like a great 80s comedy it even includes a few real-life songs such as "March of the Swivel Heads" (as heard in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"), "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" and "Pale Blue Eyes". And it makes a great use of those songs for a few scenes. I'm guessing Quintel always wanted to use those on the show and he could finally afford them for a feature film!
The home release came with a few bonus features including a great audio commentary by J.G. and the crew that worked on the film, animatics, early sketches and storyboards and the fantastic video of the "original board pitch".
Speaking off the movie is about to get a little proper theatrical release in a select few "Alamo Drafthouse" theaters in the US.
Overall, Regular Show The Movie is a great addition to the series. Will I came in not expecting much from this little made-for-TV movie at first, it surprised me a lot in a good way.
Whenever one of my all-time favorite cartoons gets a movie, it rarely produces anything good, often straying too far off what made the cartoons good in the first place (and let's not even mention the "live action" adaptations..). But Regular Show received a great treatment. Of course it could have been even better and bigger, with a proper international theatrical release and a bigger movie budget, but I'm glad they kept it small. It stayed in the hands of its creator who's still in control of the show that way.
The movie was just a blast! It comes Highly Recommended to any fans of the show, cartoons in general and 80s culture fans, it also works great as an entry point for this not-so-regular show and perfectly showcases why the series is awesome.
It's simple, to be honest it even renewed my interest in this funny quirky show.
I give it:
2.5 / 3 Felixes!
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