Nepola's Odyssey II

Nepola's Odyssey II is a 2014 American 3D computer-animated fantasy comedy-adventure film produced by Universal Animation Studios. It is the sequel to the 2011 film Nepola's Odyssey and the studio's first film to have a sequel outside of their existing Computeropolis franchise. The film was directed by Geo G. from a screenplay by Geo, Peter Baynham, Erica Rivinoja, and Brian Lynch, and a story by Geo. Sarah Jessica Parker, Elijah Wood, Seth Rogen, Peter Dinklage, Julia Roberts, Zachary Gordon, Chloë Grace Moretz, Alex Borstein, and Jack McBrayer reprised their roles, joined by new cast members including Max Charles, Isla Fisher, David Tennant, Jake T. Austin, Rob Corddry, Chris Parnell, Bobby Moynihan, and Kenan Thompson, with Kristen Schaal replacing Kari Wahlgren as Pandora. Sometime after the first film, Nepola, Perseus, and their new son Mestor go visit Nepola's childhood friend, the goddess of the rainbow Iris, along with her family. But the reunion quickly takes a bizarre turn when Nepola's rival Pandora comes in, with emerging plans to unleash her cursed box with her miseries to get rid of Nepola.

Nepola's Odyssey II premiered on November 29, 2014, at the Regency Village Theater, and was released by Universal Pictures in the United States on December 12, 2014. It was met with mixed reviews from critics and grossed $554 million worldwide. The film was nominated for the 2015 Annie Award for Best Animated Feature but lost to Disney's Big Hero 6. Although not successful enough to be followed by a third film, its television spin-off, premiered on Universal Kids in 2017, served as the follow-up to the sequel.

Plot
After the events of the first film, Nepola, now the goddess of everything, and her new fiancé Perseus are finally married and are living happily together with the gods in Mount Olympus alongside rodent friend Deimos. Nepola later finds out that she is pregnant and later, she gives birth to a baby boy named Mestor. Her rival Pandora becomes jealous and disapproval of Nepola being a much powerful goddess and living with the other gods due to the fact that she wasn't created by Zeus and was born down in the valley before she became a goddess. Realizing that Nepola does not fit with the gods, Pandora attempts to get rid of her by using her cursed box of three miseries—Greed, Meany, and Selfish—who receive Pandora a mythical scepter to help her become powerful.

As Nepola and Perseus soon believe that Mestor is too young to become a god, Zeus and Hera insist they take their son to Iris, the goddess of the rainbow who happens to be Nepola's childhood friend, so she can teach him how to act like a god and become one like his mother. This in turn causes Pandora and the miseries, who overheard the conversation, to follow them without the other gods knowing. Iris welcomes Nepola and her family to her home, where they meet her husband, the god of west wind Zephyrus, and their son Pothos, who immediately befriends Mestor.

During their journey to track down Nepola, Pandora attracts the attention of the god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses Poseidon, not before Greed manipulates him into believing that Pandora should help him scheme the plan to stop Nepola. However, this attempt fails when Poseidon inadvertently summons a tidal wave during a conversation, causing Pandora to lose her contact with Poseidon and get marooned on an island with the miseries. Meanwhile, Nepola and Iris spend the night together, and Iris reveals that she, like Nepola, also went on a long journey to find the Realm of Gods where she became a goddess, much to Nepola's delight.

Pandora and the miseries continue to find Nepola but find themselves lost in a temple. There, Pandora discovers that the scepter allows her to see anything she wishes to see on it, so she uses it to see Nepola in Iris' home, where she overhears her say some of the gods including Pandora made fun of her and did not want to be in Mount Olympus even if she is a powerful goddess, as well as overhearing Deimos say that he'd be extremely shocked if Pandora were more powerful than Nepola. As a result, this leads Pandora to have a new, better plan to oust Nepola with her miseries.

Nepola and her family and friends including her mother Astydameia and the siblings Eric and Lilas later attend an annual party in Mount Olympus, with Iris and her family being invited. While seeking help to make her son powerful like a god, Nepola is then confronted by Pandora, who insists that Nepola challenge with her to show off who is the best goddess in Mount Olympus. As the contest begins, the miseries (who are disguised as humans) manipulate Pandora into letting her win and become powerful and stronger, thus resulting in Nepola's humiliating defeat. Eventually, a dejected Nepola is then stripped of her powers and her god license and is banished from Mount Olympus by Zeus and Hera, while Pandora takes her place as the goddess of everything.

Back at Nepola's birth village in the mortal world, Astydameia notices that Nepola is still depressed about no longer being a goddess and tells her daughter to talk to Pandora, admitting that she was afraid of her as a goddess. Pandora shows up and tells everyone that she is their powerful goddess before she reveals her miseries from her box, which causes everyone in the village to flee. During the chaos, Greed, Meany, and Selfish kidnap Mestor, Pothos, Eric and Lilas and take them to Pandora. As the children are taken, Nepola, Perseus, Deimos, Astydameia, Iris, Zephyrus, and the rest of the gods including Poseidon rescue the children, but Nepola realizes that she still has a lack of powers and isn't a goddess anymore. Zeus and Hera then appear from the skies, revealing to Nepola that they have been brainwashed by Pandora's miseries into banishing her just before they give her powers back as an apology. This made Nepola realize that the miseries are making Pandora do bad things.

Meanwhile, Pandora and the miseries take the children, now tied up, to Methana Volcano where they attempt to throw them into a pit of lava, but just as they are about to do this, Nepola and the others show up to rescue the children. Nepola warns Pandora that her miseries are manipulating her into doing bad things, restoring her confidence. As Pandora realizes Nepola is right, the livid miseries betray Pandora and threaten to throw the children into the lava but Nepola quickly rescues them. While the others manage to escape from Methana Volcano, Nepola and Pandora ride on the latter's scepter (which also has the ability to fly), but the miseries catch up to them where they engage in a long battle. The women successfully defeat the miseries by throwing them off the scepter with their powers.

Nepola, Pandora and the others head back to the village where Pandora apologies to everyone and admits that the miseries have been manipulating her all along. Having been won over by Nepola's claim, Pandora puts her miseries back into her box and tells her never to bother her friends again right before she throws the box into a river. The group then returns to Mount Olympus where Pandora offers Nepola the scepter, but she declines. The two become best friends, and they celebrate with their friends and family in Mount Olympus, with Poseidon becoming Pandora's mate.

In a mid-credit scene, a man discovers Pandora's box near a beach and as he opens it, the miseries show up.

Voice cast

 * Further information: List of Nepola's Odyssey characters


 * Sarah Jessica Parker as Nepola, the goddess of anything and Perseus' wife.
 * Kristen Schaal as Pandora, Nepola's rival (and later best friend) who was created by Zeus. She was previously voiced by Kari Wahlgren in the first film.
 * Elijah Wood as Perseus, Nepola's husband.
 * Max Charles as Mestor, Nepola and Perseus' son.
 * Isla Fisher as Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, Nepola's childhood friend and Zephyrus' wife.
 * David Tennant as Zephyrus, the god of west wind and Iris' wife.
 * Jake T. Austin as Pothos, Iris and Zephyrus' son.
 * Seth Rogen as Deimos, Nepola's wise-cracking rodent friend.
 * Peter Dinklage as Zeus, the ruler of the Greek gods.
 * Julia Roberts as Hera, Zeus' wife and assistant.
 * Rob Corddry as Poseidon, Pandora's crush.
 * Chris Parnell as Greed, the leader of Pandora's miseries.
 * Bobby Moynihan as Meany, one of the miseries from Pandora's box.
 * Kenan Thompson as Selfish, one of the miseries from Pandora's box.
 * Zachary Gordon and Chloë Grace Moretz as Eric and Lilas respectively, a pair of siblings who look up to Nepola.
 * Alex Borstein as Astydameia, Nepola's mother.
 * Jack McBrayer as Hades, the god of the underworld.
 * Gary Hall as Apollo
 * Jim Cummings as the Cyclops
 * Geo G. and Michael Wildshill as Phobos and Deimos
 * Frank Welker as Cerberus
 * Harland Williams as Hermes
 * John Cohen as Eddie
 * Erica Rivinoja as an old lady
 * Elizabeth Banks (uncredited) as Medusa in a cameo via flashback

Additional voices

 * Ava Acres
 * Rosemary Alexander
 * Steve Apostolina
 * Kirk Baily
 * Eva Bella
 * Lola Carpenter
 * Rob Carpenter
 * Mitch Carter
 * June Christopher
 * David Cowgill
 * Brian T. Delaney
 * Eddie Frierson
 * Elisa Gabrielli
 * Jackie Gonneau
 * Nicholas Guest
 * Andrew Hall
 * Gary Hall
 * Jess Harnell
 * Carter Hastings
 * Bridget Hoffman
 * Lex Lang
 * Phil LaMarr
 * Hope Levy
 * Cynthia Marion‎‎
 * Cullen McCarthy
 * Amy McNeill
 * Laraine Newman
 * Jonathan Nichols
 * Paul Pape
 * Bryce Papenbrook
 * Carter Sand
 * Cole Sand
 * Tara Strong
 * Shane Sweet
 * Fred Tatasciore
 * Marcelo Tubert
 * Michael Wildshill
 * Skye Wildshill
 * Dave Zyler

Production
Director Geo G. commented in October 2011 on a possible sequel, stating, "Looks like we're answering the most important questions about another one. We would love to bring those characters to the big screen again, but we haven't started writing it yet. We have a bunch of other ideas." By November 2011, Universal Animation Studios announced that a sequel had been greenlit, and was set for a 2014 release. On March 20, 2012, it was announced that Erica Rivinoja had been hired to do rewrites of the original screenplay by Peter Baynham. In April 2012 during CinemaCon, Universal announced that the sequel would be titled Nepola II: The Box of Pandora, but it was later retitled as Nepola's Odyssey II in March 2013, as the market research "didn't like it".

In July 2013, Universal announced that Sarah Jessica Parker, Elijah Wood, Seth Rogen, Peter Dinklage, Julia Roberts, Zachary Gordon, Chloë Grace Moretz, Alex Borstein, and Jack McBrayer would reprise their roles in the sequel, joined by Isla Fisher, David Tennant, Kristen Schaal, and Rob Corddry.

Music
In March 2014, it was announced that Mark Mothersbaugh, who scored the first film, had signed on to score the sequel.

Release
Universal Pictures released Nepola's Odyssey II in the United States and Canada on December 12, 2014. It was originally scheduled for release on July 2, 2014, but on September 20, 2013, its release date was pushed back to December 19, 2014, the release date that was originally slated for Illumination Entertainment's Minions, which was pushed back from December 2014, to July 2015. In February 2014, the film was moved back a week earlier on December 12, 2014, to avoid competition with the following competing family films Annie and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.

The film premiered on November 29, 2014, as a special screening at the Regency Village Theater. Nepola's Odyssey II was digitally remastered into IMAX 3D format and released in select international IMAX theatres.

Marketing
Universal teamed up with marketing partners in the United States and Canada to promote the film through McDonald's Happy Meals with a set of 11 toys. The artwork book The Art of Nepola's Odyssey II was published on December 4, 2014, by authors Sharon Gosling and Adam Newell with a foreword by Geo, and shows the artwork that went into the making of the film, with storyboards, research photographs, and character sketches.

A video game based on the film was released on December 9, 2014, for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U. On January 13, 2015, a PC version of the game was released, published by Activision and developed by Exient Entertainment. A mobile game titled Nepola's Odyssey: Running Frenzy was released on December 2, 2014, for iOS and Android.

Home media
Nepola's Odyssey II was released digitally on February 17, 2015, and on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, and DVD on March 3, 2015. Both releases were accompanied by a new short film titled No More Mr. Cyclops.

Box office
Nepola's Odyssey II earned $242,951,517 in North America and $312,043,372 in other territories for a worldwide total of $554,994,889; its worldwide opening weekend totaled $214.9 million. As of 2020, it is the lowest-grossing sequel by Universal Animation.

Critical response
On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a score of 61% based on 175 reviews with a rating average of 5.94/10. The website's consensus reads: "Quirky, innovative, and maintaining the first installment's charm while admittedly feeling out of place on its story, Nepola's Odyssey II supplies an engaging sequel in its own right." On another aggregator Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average, the film has a rating score of 54 out of 100 based on 56 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Main
To see the main transcript of the film, click here.

Trailers
To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here.