Wonder Park
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 Get June Bailey some therapy for destroying property and skipping math camp all because of her "Wonder Park".
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Wonder Park is a 2019 American-Spanish 3D computer-animated adventure fantasy comedy film produced by Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Movies, with Ilion Animation Studios handling animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by former Pixar animator Dylan Brown in his directorial debut; while he was involved through most of the production period, Paramount Pictures dismissed him in January 2018, citing "inappropriate and unwanted conduct." Wonder Park was released in 2D and 3D formats in the United States on March 15, 2019 and in the Spain on April 12, 2019. A television series based on the film was scheduled to debut on Nickelodeon, making it the third animated film from Nickelodeon Movies, after Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Barnyard, to serve as the basis for an animated series on the network.
Plot
Get ready for an epic adventure where the only limit is your imagination. A young girl named June, blessed with boundless creativity, stumbles upon a wondrous discovery: the amusement park she's always dreamed of is now a reality. Brimming with the wildest rides imaginable and manned by a crew of jovial animals, the thrills are endless. However, when danger looms, June and her band of quirky animal pals embark on an extraordinary quest to rescue the park.
Why It's A Blunder Park That Should Be Shut Down For Creating the Darkness
NOTE: Quite a lot of problems are due to the fact that Dylan Brown, the director, was uncredited, due to the fact he was fired.
- The film squanders a fascinating concept. It had the potential to be a poignant story about a young girl using her imagination to cope with the harshness of reality. However, it opts to be a generic, wacky comedy that seems to borrow elements blatantly from Inside Out, Epic Mickey, and Moana.
- The film seems to shy away from its marketing name/title; the park within the movie is referred to as Wonderland, yet for marketing purposes, it's named Wonder Park. This may stem from the existence of a real-world theme park called Canada's Wonderland, prompting a title change a few months after Dylan Brown's dismissal. Additionally, the term Wonder Park is not uttered even once in the film.
- The characters come across as bland, irritating, and excessively talkative, with underdeveloped personalities, particularly the main protagonist, June, who is unamusing, dull, and generally unlikable. The animal sidekicks, with the exception of Steve, are also grating as they contribute little beyond poor comedic relief, although they do fulfill a significant functional role within the park.
- Around the 30-minute mark, nearing the second act of the film, the plot takes a wild turn. June finds herself in a dilapidated Wonderland within the lost woods after fleeing in frustration and discovering the charred blueprint of the park. This leads to a serendipitous reimagining of the park through her own imagination, sparking a pivotal chain reaction. She capitalizes on this after enlisting her friend Banky to cause a diversion on the math camp bus, allowing her to leave. However, this begins her estrangement from Wonderland.
- June avoids punishment for skipping math camp, effectively becoming a Karma Houdini.
- Although generally impressive, the cinematography in the opening montage depicting June's mother's departure is notably subpar. Some scenes are marred by awkward and cluttered close-ups.
- The conclusion of the story feels like a significant evasion, even reversing character growth. June's central journey involves her struggle with the potential loss of her mother due to illness. However, inexplicably, the film concludes with a sudden "she's alive" twist, resulting in a substantial plot inconsistency and negating June's character development.
- Terrible attempts at comedy, such as the scenes with Banky create a distraction on the bus.
- Several scenes seem to be out of sequence, as if they have been swapped. For instance, the scene that occurs just before the third act starts appears as though it would have been more appropriately placed in the middle of the second act.
- Instead of actually doing anything with the concept of cancer the film that is trying to convey, the film instead heavily focuses too much on being a generic lazy comedy, resulting the concept being wasted and ruined, even more than the entire premise, compared to other films from Paramount Animation.
- The main villains, the Chimpanzombies, are weak as the antagonist, with no exposition, and just comes out of nowhere with no real motivation, resulting the lack of characters development and felt like a plot device, rather than actual character.
- One factor reason to why the film has the poor quality is that how there isn't even a credited director for billing block as home media release and the end credits for the final cut. The director, Dylan Brown (the former Pixar animator), was fired for sexual misconduct and the project went downhill from there after multiple complaints of "inappropriate and unwanted behavior", which leading to troubled and rushed production. Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies did offer the director's credit to other key creative personnel responsible for the film, but they refused, fearing the film would be detrimental to their careers, due to various legalities and contractual obligations. But even at that, this remains the first wide-release animated instance since The Pebble and the Penguin where a movie has no credited director, which is pretty weird and, as of now, still unclear what happened.[2]
- All of the rides are either the roller coasters that look like they were made in Planet Coaster, while that game is good, it looks tacky on a $80 million film, or just things that spin anyways.
- A big continuity error where before being captured by the Chimpanzombies again, Peanut's eyes are brown in one shot. After the camera shows June escaping, his eyes revert to green.
- The film has a inconsistent and too playful tone. You would think the movie is all about the imagination, but only at the beginning and the end the film is creative. The rest of the movie is the park getting destroyed until it fixes up.
- While the animation is good and way better than expected, it rather looks like the colors are really washed out. They don't even look as too bright as they want to be.
- The story is really predictable and generic, with the use of many clichés.
- Like other movies, such as Illumination's Grinch, the fast padding feels unnecessary, which could be really hard to follow at times, being 85 minutes, making the scenes feel rushed. In fact of this, it is overloaded with fillers here and there, considering that the plot is very minimal.
- At one point, June destroys half of the neighborhood, and they say they will punish her with chores, which is a really weak punishment, only to immediately not punish her by helping build a model for Wonderland.
- The execution of the message and themes is lacking. A well-crafted animated film might adopt the approach of 'Inside Out', teaching children that experiencing sadness is normal, or 'The Land Before Time', which deals with loss while conveying that loved ones continue to live on in our hearts and memories. However, this film fails to do so. Instead of validating sadness, it suggests that such an emotion is destructive, as seen with June's grief leading to the downfall of Wonderland, and implies that sadness should be suppressed even in the face of a parent's potential death.
- A lot of the dialogue keeps overusing the phrase "splendiferous" to the point where it's said 20 times, which is really repetitive, nothing special, and just useless.
- Executive Meddling: Although in this case it is somewhat justified due to Dylan Brown’s behavior, the way executives handled the problem of finding a new director for the film was handled in a sloppy fashion.
Wonderfully Splendiferous Qualities
- The CGI animation is actually really good and way better than expected, especially since it was animated by the Madrid studio Ilion Animation Studios (later renamed to Skydance Animation Madrid), the same company who made the animation in 2009's Planet 51, even though the colors are really washed out and don't look too bright.
- The animal sidekicks, despite being bland and annoying, do serve a fantastic functioning role on the park, with Gus and Cooper being builders, Greta being the motivator, Steve being the safety officer, Boomer being the welcomer, and Peanut being the leading mascot.
- the side note, Steve is easier likable character, who isn't bland, obnoxious, annoying and never shut up.
- Great voice acting, despite talents being wasted, most notably John Oliver as Steve being highlighted.
- The musical score by Steven Price (who composed Gravity) is great.
- In fact, the two songs, "Hideaway" and "Wonder", are also pretty good.
- Some moments are actually funny.
- Some of the moments can be touching and emotional.
- The premise of a little girl using imagination to escape from reality, despite its wasted and ruined, as mentioned previously, is great idea and could've been used even better about touching film.
- Likewise, the film could've been a lot even better if Dylan Brown weren't fired in January 2018 in order to had some more time working on it and keep the film title Amusement Park as well as less focusing on a very generic lazy comedy movie.
Reception
Wonder Park received mixed reviews from critics and audiences, with general criticism directed towards the plot and tone, although some praised the animation and the performances of the cast. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 34% based on 108 reviews, with an average rating of 4.79/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Colorful and energetic but lacking a compelling story, Wonder Park is little more than a competently made diversion for very young viewers." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
Box office
Wonder Park grossed $45.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $74.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $119.6 million, against a production budget of around $80–100 million, becoming a box-office disappointment.
In the United States and Canada, Wonder Park was released alongside Captive State and Five Feet Apart, and was projected to gross $8–14 million from 3,838 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $5.4 million on its first day, including $700,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $16 million, which beat projections, though Deadline Hollywood said it was "[not] enough to consider this... production a success." The film fell 45% in its second weekend, grossing $8.8 million, and 43% in its third to $5.0 million.
Trivia
- This was the last film from Paramount Animation to use the normal Paramount Pictures logo, as The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run became the first film to use a proper animated logo for said company, featuring a new character nicknamed "Star Skipper".
- This was also the last film to be released under the Ilion Animation Studios name before Skydance Media acquired the studio in April 2020, and rebranded as Skydance Animation Madrid, starting with Luck steaming on Apple TV+.
- Before Ken Hudson Campbell, Jeffrey Tambor was originally planning to voice cast.
- Wonder Park started development in early 2012, with the story being written by Galaxy Quest writer Robert Gordon and production commenced in September 2014. In June 2015, it was revealed that Spain's Ilion Animation Studios would produce the fully animated 3D film. In November 2015, Paramount Animation officially announced the project, then titled Amusement Park, with former Pixar animator Dylan Brown helming. The voices in the film were set as Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Garner, Ken Hudson Campbell (originally Jeffrey Tambor), Kenan Thompson, Ken Jeong, Mila Kunis, and John Oliver. For the role of June Bailey, more than 1,500 people auditioned before 11-year-old Brianna Denski of Plymouth, Connecticut, got the role.
- Prior to the film's release, a licensed mobile game titled Wonder Park Magic Rides was released by Pixowl.
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Comments
- 2010s films
- Bad media
- Animated films
- Nickelodeon films
- Comedy films
- Family films
- Animal films
- Paramount films
- Spanish films
- Box office disappointments
- Movies that killed careers
- Computer-animated films
- "It's made for kids"
- Fantasy films
- Drama films
- Adventure films
- Boring films
- Films with misleading titles
- Obscure films
- Annoying films
- American films
- Executive meddling