Thomas & Mike: The Movie

Thomas & Mike: The Movie is a 2003 American traditionally-animated comedy film based Chance S.' comic strip Thomas & Mike, produced by 20th Century Fox Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by David Silverman and Aaron Springer with a story by Springer, series creator Chance S., and TBA, and features a cast with the voices of Billy West, Zach Galifianakis, Will Forte, Tom Kenny, Jim Carrey, Hynden Walch, Zach Braff and Matthew Broderick, and revolves around Thomas, Mike, Cole, and Tyler going on an adventure to find out how to return the town of Tuckerdale to normal after another, unknown reality begins to merge with the real world, causing paranormal events to happen.

Thomas & Mike: The Movie premiered on August 1, 2003 at the Fox Village Theater in Los Angeles, and went into general release on August 8. The film received positive reviews from critics who praised the animation, score, plot, voice acting, and faithfulness to the source material. The film was a box office success, grossing $549 million worldwide against a $50 million budget and receiving a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the 31st Annie Awards, and was also nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score at the 76th Academy Awards. Two sequels were released, one in 2010 and one in 2017.

Plot
TBA

Cast

 * Billy West as Thomas Shamowski
 * Zach Galifianakis as Mike Whitman
 * Will Forte as Cole Seltzer
 * Tom Kenny as Michael Hansen
 * Jim Carrey as Henki
 * Hynden Walch as Vida
 * Zach Braff as Seth
 * Matthew Broderick as Lord Spligoombli

Production
Following the comic's premiere in 1996, several film studios attempted to acquire the rights to adapt it into a feature film. Universal Pictures pitched a live-action adaptation in 1998 that was set to be directed by Brian Levant, but plans ultimately fell through. The plot for Levant's pitch was ultimately released in 2019, which involves Thomas, Mike, Cole, and Tyler coming to the real world.

Later, in 2000, 20th Century Fox eventually won the rights to adapt the comic, set to be an animated film produced under 20th Century Fox Animation. Originally, TBA was set to direct, but later dropped out due to creative differences, being replaced by David Silverman and Aaron Springer.

Animation
Due to TCFA's Century City division being busy at the time, they decided to outsource the animation to several studios. Those being Yowza! Animation, A. Film A/S, Saerom Animation, Tama Productions and Wang Film Productions.

Music
The film's score was composed by John Powell and James L. Venable. The soundtrack was released on August 12, 2003 by Varèse Sarabande.

Home media
The DVD and VHS were both released on January 4th, 2004. The DVD includes interactive games, deleted scenes, and other bonus features. Both the DVD and VHS also include an original short animated film based on the film, titled Cole's Crush.

Marketing
20th Century Fox released a teaser trailer and poster in November 2002 and was attached into Nessy: Tale of the Sea Monster in theaters.

On March 1, 2003, The film's official poster was released, along with the film's official trailer and was attached into Puyo Puyo, The Whackems: One Big Movie, Finding Nemo, Rugrats Go Wild and Jeremy Monroe: The Biggest Movie Ever in theaters.

Burger King promoted the film with a set of 7 kids' meal toys featuring the characters from the film.

Video game
A video game based on the film was released on September 5, 2003 on PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance,PC, and Macintosh. It features a different plot from the film.

Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 84% based on 186 reviews, with an average rating of 8.37/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on 23 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.