The Proud Family Movie is a 2005 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Village Roadshow Pictures and Jambalaya Studio and based on the studio's animated television series of the same name. As the second feature film to be based on a Warner Bros. Animation television series, it was directed by series creator Bruce W. Smith. The film stars the regular television cast of Kyla Pratt, Tommy Davidson, Paula Jai Parker, Jo Marie Payton, Tara Strong, Orlando Brown, Soleil Moon Frye, and Jeff Bennett. In the film, The Proud Family go on a trip and sees Penny's cousin, Leo and he had some cool things in the world and 15 Cent had a plan to kidnap Penny's family and destroy The Proud Family and Leo. So, The Proud Family and Leo are going to save Penny's family.
The Proud Family Movie was initially set to be released as a direct-to-video film, but was instead theatrically on August 19, 2005 by Warner Bros. Pictures, and received mainly mixed to negative reviews from critics. It earned over $89 million worldwide on its $60 million budget, and was a box office bomb. It fell short of Warner Bros' financial expectations. This film served as the series finale of the original Proud Family series, as no further episodes were made, resulting in the closure of Smith's Jambalaya Studios. However, the series will be rebooted in 2021 with a computer animated film of the same name.
Plot[]
The film opens with a man named Dr. Carver trying to generate a super Gnome Warrior, but it disintegrates. It then turns to Penny Proud, who is celebrating her 16th birthday, and fails her driver's ed. She and her friends are excited to be a part of 15 Cent's (Sticky's cousin and parody of 50 Cent) dance group, Spare Change. When 15 Cent drives her home, Oscar Proud, her overprotective father, gets mad when he finds them kissing. An infuriated Oscar gives her the worst grounding of her life, by cancelling her birthday party and essentially forbids her from ever becoming an adult. Penny then wishes he wasn't her father, to which he states he wished he never had her as a daughter. This marks the culmination of their relationship as seen over the entire series. To the shock of Penny, Trudy agrees with Oscar stating it won't be the end of the world if she doesn't have a party when she tries to comfort Penny, which was ironic due to the upcoming scenes.
Oscar creates a everlasting multiplying formula that was supposed to make his Proud Snacks tastier, but it instead causes the snack to expand and explode. As he is hauled away from his presentation, he proclaims that his formula has no expiration date. Dr. Carver, the great-grandson of George Washington Carver, overhears Oscar's ranting. Carver has been trying to create an army of humanoid peanuts, but has never gotten his formula stabilized and plots to get Oscar's. Disguising himself, Carver invites the Proud family to Legume Island. Trudy forces Oscar, Suga Mama, and Penny to go in hopes they will re-bond. The family meets the inhabitants of the island, short peanut creatures called the G-nomes. During this, Trudy presents a cake to Penny telling to make a wish. She does and it's to dance with 15 Cent. Oscar refuses and Penny wishes she was away from this stupid island and that her family would just go away.
Later tries to negotiate obtaining the formula from Oscar by offering him $10 million. However, a G-nome named Wally convinces Oscar not to. When Oscar refuses (who doesn't have the formula with him), Carver constructs evil peanut clones of his family from DNA snatched from them while they were partying. Oscar runs away and tries explaining to his family, but they don't believe him. The clones get a mix-up when the real Penny comes with them back to the mainland to search for the formula; Penny's clone remains with the original family. Penny soon enjoy the free life which the clones allowed her, in spite of their bizarre personalities and Oscar's clone becoming a celebrity, but quickly tires of it. She discovers that Cashew, a G-nome she befriended earlier on the island, had stowed away; he wanted to see what it was like to have a 'real family'. He also reveals to her the true nature of the clones.
At that moment, Wally leads the Prouds and the Penny clone on a perilous journey to the other side of the island. Wally tells them that there is someone who can answer their questions. Along the way, the Penny clone proves to be the kind of daughter Oscar desires – an obedient mindless drone with no free will. When they meet the person Wally wanted them to meet, he turns out to be the real Dr. Carver. Dr. Carver explains that he created a clone of himself out of a peanut. Unfortunately, the clone went sizzling crisp from the sun one day and turned to evil. Donning a disguise of his original form, the clone took over the island and the Cashews and turns Carver's peanut research for evil. Oscar realizes his formula is the key and tells the family he had left it in a locket for Penny's birthday, which she opened back home. Her clone informs the other clones, who take the formula. Penny and Cashew gathers her friends to go back to Legume and rescue their family. They steal 15 Cent's yacht to get there, but Penny accidentally sinks it.
Unfortunately, the Carver clone has already prepared to leave to take over the world with his Super G-nomes. The clones attack Penny and her friends and family, but she convinces the Oscar clone to help - by bribing him with hot dogs which he had become obsessed with earlier - and he defeats the rest of the clones. Dr. Carver unleashes a sea creature on them, but the original Dr. Carver recognizes the monster as a former experiment that went bad convinces it to being good. Seeing the Carver clone making his getaway, the original Dr. Carver reveals a possible solution - a container of gas that could instantly turn solid peanuts into peanut butter. Penny takes the gas, boards the clone's airship, and battles him with help from Oscar, who para-sails up using one of Sugar Mama's giant underwear. Just as Penny is on the verge of releasing the gas, Dr. Carver offers her to join him and live a free life, without rules or responsibilities. However, Penny retorts that, even though they aren't the perfect one, her family is who she cares about and unleashes the gas, foiling the clone's plot and destroying the army. The clone, having only been hit slightly by the gas, turns back into a peanut and falls into the ocean. Oscar then gives Penny her birthday necklace, stating that he now knows she's mature enough that she is ready to make her own decisions, and finally accepts her for who she is, and they then make up on national TV.
Penny and Oscar make up on national TV. 15 Cent has Penny and her friends sing instead of acting as his back-up dancers and the crowd loves them. On Legume Island, the real Carver and his peanut people along with the Proud clones listen as a radio announcer says that Penny and her friends song has been popular for five weeks (35 days) in a row.
In an extended ending, the scene fast-forwards three days later where Cashew is now part of the Proud Family, Penny is receiving her driver's license and, unfortunately, she helps Oscar by driving through town advertising his new drink Pork-Nut-o-Rade, but Puff drank it back home earlier, turning him into a monster. He chases them around the world up to China, until Suga Mama, who also drank the concoction, takes him home.
Cast[]
- Kyla Pratt – Penny Proud
- Tommy Davidson – Oscar Proud
- Paula Jai Parker – Trudy Proud
- Jo Marie Payton – Suga Mama
- Tara Strong – Bebe Proud/Cece Proud/Cashew
- Orlando Brown – Sticky Webb
- Soleil Moon Frye – Zoey
- Alisa Reyes – LaCienega Boulevardez
- Karen Malina White – Dijonay Jones
- Omarion – 15 Cent
- LisaRaye McCoy – Choreographer
- Cedric the Entertainer – Dr. Carver/Bobby Proud
- Jeremy Suarez – Wally
- Carlos Alazraqui – Puff/Board Member
- Carlos Mencia - Felix Boulevardez
- Maria Canals - Sunset Boulevardez
- Alvaro Guttierez – Papi
- Phil LaMarr – Dr. Carver in Disguise/Board Member
- Aries Spears – Wizard Kelly/Board Member
- Keith David – Bebe Proud Clone
- Kevin Michael Richardson – Mangler Mania
- Masi Oka - Japanese Kid/Announcer
Production[]
Development[]
Rumors about a possible Proud Family film started since the beginning of the series. In September 2002, Warner Bros. officially announced that The Proud Family was to star in their own feature film.
Animation[]
The film was animated in-house by Jambalaya Studio in North Hollywood, California and by Wang Film Productions/Cuckoo's Nest Studio in Taiwan and Saerom Animation in Korea.
Release[]
The Proud Family Movie was originally set to be released as a 74-minute direct-to-video film in Fall 2005, but in February 2004, Warner Bros. announced that the film would be released theatrically.
Marketing[]
On August 9, 2005, Burger King began promotions for the film, giving out a selection of nine toys based on the characters, in Kids Meal orders. M&M's released packages of the characters and came with a code for the Proud Family Movie video game. This was to support the film's home video release. A video game based on the film was released on the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and on the PlayStation Portable. An Xbox 360 version was released on November 22, 2005.
Trailers[]
- The teaser trailer was released on November 2, 2004, and was shown before The Incredibles, The Polar Express, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, National Treasure, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Zina and the Vivid Crew, and Fat Albert.
- The first theatrical trailer was released on March 4, 2005, and was shown before The Pacifier, Robots, Ice Princess, Tj's World: The Movie, Kim Possible Movie: So The Drama, Star Wars: Episode III- Revenge of the Sith, and Madagascar.
- The second theatrical trailer was released on June 17, 2005, and was attached to Wondercolts, Herbie: Fully Loaded, M.I.S.S.I.O.N., and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
- TV spots began to air between June and July of 2005.
Home media[]
The Proud Family Movie was released on VHS and DVD on December 13, 2005, including a feature showing the making of the film, as well as trailers for Warner Bros. Pictures films. A Blu-Ray edition of the film was released on May 17, 2011.
Reception[]
Critical response[]
The Proud Family Movie received mostly mixed to negative reviews from critics and fans, praising the film's animation and humor but criticizing its story. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 38% based on 173 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The site's consensus reads: "The Proud Family Movie's sparkling self-image won't compensate for a messy story stretched way too thin to meet the theatrical-length standards." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score to reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film an average score of 44 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Box office[]
The film earned $2,129,199 on its opening day. In its opening weekend, it went on to earn $8,649,793 for a $2,227 average from 2,604 theaters, and $10,392,926 since its Wednesday start. It reached fifth place at the box office and faced early competition to Wondercolts, Madgascar, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and M.I.S.S.I.O.N., as well as facing competition with Valiant. The film closed on November 14, 2005, after earning $27,705,196 in the United States and Canada and $51,694,388 overseas, for a worldwide total of $89,851,603, making it a box office bomb.
Accolades[]
The film was nominated for the Annie Award for Outstanding Character Design in an Animated Feature Production, but lost to Wondercolts. It was also nominated for the Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Animated Movie, losing to Madagascar. Bruce W. Smith won the special award of "Worst Director Who Came Out of the Same Place as Svengoolie" at the 26th Golden Raspberry Awards, of which he accepted the award for and was nominated for a Stinkers Bad Movies Award for Worst Animated Feature, losing to Chicken Little.