Mistress Masham's Repose

Mistress Masham's Repose is a 2000 American animated fantasy film produced by Universal Feature Animation for Universal Pictures. Based on the 1946 novel of the same name by T. H. White, it was directed by Michael Wildshill and written by Karey Kirkpatrick, Michael J. Wilson, and Noni White, and stars the voices of Anna Popplewell, Albert Finney, Jennifer Saunders, Susan Sarandon, and Robin Williams. The film follows Maria, a ten-year-old orphan who lives on a derelict family estate. When she discovers a group of Lilliputians hiding in exile within the estate, Maria attempts to protect them from her wicked guardians.

Mistress Masham's Repose was released on December 20, 2000 to positive reviews from critics, many of whom pointed to the art direction, script, and Patrick Doyle's score. However, while grossing $96 million worldwide on its $65 million budget, the film underperformed at the box office, forcing a writedown of $57.3 million for Universal.

Plot
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Voice cast
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 * Anna Popplewell as Miss Maria
 * Albert Finney as Mr. Hater
 * Jennifer Saunders as Miss Brown
 * Susan Sarandon as Miss Noakes
 * Robin Williams as Trapper
 * Dan Castellaneta as the Professor
 * Ian McKellen as Lord Admiral
 * Jim Cummings as a Lilliputian schoolteacher
 * Frank Welker as Captain

Additional voices

 * Steve Alterman
 * Tom Amundsen
 * Jeff Bennett
 * Catherine Cavadini
 * Kat Cressida
 * John DeMita
 * Holly Dorff
 * Jeff Fischer
 * Barbara Iley
 * Daamen Krall
 * Melissa MacKay
 * David McCharen
 * Jason Pace
 * Patrick Pinney
 * Paige Pollack
 * Phil Proctor
 * Evan Sabara
 * Brianne Siddall
 * Kath Soucie
 * Claudette Wells

Production
The Walt Disney Company first attempted to develop an animated film based on Mistress Masham's Repose in the 1980s. Before the release of The Black Cauldron in 1985, producer Joe Hale and his production team were working on an adaptation of the novel. While Roy E. Disney supported the project, Jeffrey Katzenberg disliked it. Eventually, Hale and most of the team were fired, and the project languished.

In the 1990s, Universal Pictures acquired the novel's rights to produce an animated film based on it via Universal Feature Animation. Many of the elements were based on the undeveloped Disney version. In 1994, Universal Feature Animation announced its first animated slate, including Mistress Masham's Repose.

Marketing
The film was accompanied with a promotional campaign with licensees including Burger King and Mattel.

Box office
Mistress Masham's Repose was projected to gross $75-$80 million from 2,654 theaters in its opening day. It grossed $3.9 million on opening weekend ranking second behind Cast Away. Universal Feature Animation head John Cohen called these results terribly disappointing and caused the studio to rearrange their management team.

In its second weekend, the film declined by a huge margin of 64%, grossing $6.9 million and dropped to No. 6. The third weekend suffered a less severe drop declining by 11% and grossed $6.1 while remaining in sixth. It ended up earning $39,712,314 in the United States and $57,132,602 from international markets for a worldwide total of $96,844,916. Despite grossing $96.8 million over its $65 million budget, the film was deemed a box office failure due to high marketing costs of $250-$300 million and falling short of the break even point of $400 million. Director Michael Wildshill attributed the film's underperformance to poor audience reactions and releasing it on the same week as Cast Away which was more hyped up.

Critical reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Mistress Masham's Repose holds a 75% "Fresh" rating based on 154 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. Its consensus states, "The studio behind Ama and the Mysterious Crystal offers a book-to-film adaptation that truly shows their knack for material drama and painterly detail." On Metacritic, it holds a score of 64 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of A– on an A+ to F scale.

Home media
The film was released on VHS and DVD on May 15, 2001. On October 26, 2010, it was re-released as a 10th anniversary edition Blu-ray/DVD combo. On March 17, 2020, it was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray for its 20th anniversary.

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

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