What if Fantasmical World was founded in 1946?/Filmography/Gum Girl: The Curse of the Ninja-Wolf (Film)

Gum Girl: The Curse of the Ninja-Wolf is a 2004 American direct-to-video live-action/animated superhero comedy film directed by Stephen Hillenburg, based on the comic series, The Gumazing Gum Girl!. In this film, Franken-Gum-Wad devises a plan to discredit Principal Eskenas, steal the secret formula and take over the world by stealing Ninja-Rina's mother's tiara and framing Eskenas for the crime. Gum Girl and Bubble Boy team up to retrieve the tiara from Shell City to save Eskenas from King Gumbale's wrath and the world from Franken-Gum-Wad's rule.

Plot
A group of pirates find tickets to the Gum Girl movie in a treasure chest and enter a theater to watch the film after raiding the concession stand.

The movie begins with Bubble Boy having nightmares of meeting the Ninja-Wolf, leading to him wake up screaming in fear. Gabby and Dr. Gomez conclude that Rico's been watching too many horror films at night. Rico says that it is because their new neighbor creeps him out and speculates that he is hiding something. Ninja-Rina is having trouble with Natalie and will not go to the principal for help. However, Gabby sticks up for him. Meanwhile, Franken-Gum-Wad, complains about her failures to her computer, Frankenbase, being unable to steal the formula. When her computer points out plan "Z", a scheme which she has yet to attempt, Franken-Gum-Wad decides to implement it.

That night, Gabby drowns her sorrows in ice cream with Rico. Elsewhere, Franken-Gum-Wad steals Ninja-Rina's Mom's tiara, leaving false evidence to frame Principal Eskenas for the crime, and sends the tiara to the distant land of Shell City. The next morning, King Gumbale, Ninja-Rina's Mom, the squire and Princess Gumlina barges into the Fillmore Elementary School 2 and threatens Eskenas for his alleged thievery. Gum Girl and Bubble Boy arrive and chastises Eskenas under the influence of an ice cream headache, but seeing the principal's life at risk shocks Gum Girl back to her senses and he promises Ninja-Rina's Mom that she will retrieve the crown from Shell City. Gumbale is convinced by his daughter Gumlina to spare Eskenas for the time being and freezes him instead, ordering Gum Girl and Bubble Boy to return with the crown in six days. Soon after Gum Girl and Bubble Boy leave for Shell City, Franken-Gum-Wad steals the formula and uses it to produce and sell food at her castle. She also gives away free "Franken-Gum-Wad Helmets" to customers, which are actually mind-control devices that Franken-Gum-Wad activates to control Fillmore's residents and take over the city and renames it, Frankenopolis

As their journey continues, when Gum Girl and Bubble Boy reach a dangerous, monster-filled trench. Coming to the conclusion that they cannot complete their quest due to their immaturity, they tearfully give up. Gumlina however, arrives at the trench and tells the gang of Franken-Gum-Wad's plan. She pretends to magically turn them into super gum by giving them chicle. With their confidence boosted, they brave the trench ("Now That We're Gum") but are confronted by Danzel, a hitman hired by Franken-Gum-Wad to murder them. Danzel is stepped on by a friendly Cyclops, who leads them to his toy store, revealed to be Shell City.

In the store, the gang find the crown, but are frozen by Ninja-Wolf and die. Their tears short circuit the store, reviving them and the toys intended to be sold as the children's toys. As the vengeful toys and Cyclops attack and overwhelm Ninja-Wolf, Gum Girl and Bubble Boy take the crown and head for the beach, where David Hasselhoff appears and offers them a ride. He swims from the beach to the portal, which leads to Stockton, carrying them on his back. Dennis catches up to them but is knocked by a catamaran back into the sea.

At the Fillmore School 2, King Gumbale arrives to execute Eskenas, but the gang return with the crown just before he is able to do so. They confront Franken-Gum-Wad, who drops a mind-control bucket on Ninja-Rina's mother and Gumbale, enslaving them. Before Franken-Gum-Wad can direct Ninja-Rina's mom and Gumbale to kill them, Gum Girl and Bubble Boy accept their childlike nature and hires the very powerful toy robot named Iron Tin to burst into a song called "Iron Tin" (a parody of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man"). He shoots lasers from his guitar, destroying the mind-controlling helmets and freeing Gumbale, Ninja-Rina's Mom and Stockton's residents from Franken Gum Wad's rule. Franken-Gum-Wad tries to escape, but is stepped on and crushed by other citizens. Franken-Gum-Wad is arrested and Gumbale thanks Gum Girl and Bubble Boy for their bravery. Gumbale thaws out Eskenas. After that, Mr. Hansen and Dr. Gomez thanks Gum Girl and Bubble Boy too.

In a post-credits scene, the pirates which have been watching the film are told by an usher to leave the theater, which they begrudgingly do.

Cast

 * Kathleen Herles as Gabby Gomez/Gum Girl and Franken-Gum-Wad
 * Audrey Wasilewski as Rico Gomez/Bubble Boy
 * Mila Kunis as Ninja-Rina and Ninja-Wolf
 * Kath Soucie as Natalie Gooch/Brainstormer
 * Tim Conway as Dr. Gomez and Principal Eskenas
 * Esai Morales as Mrs. Gomez
 * Matthew Lillard as Jeffery Hansen
 * Jeffrey Tambor as King Gumbale
 * Scarlett Johansson as Princess Gumlina
 * Alec Baldwin as Danzel
 * David Hasselhoff as himself
 * Stephen Root as Frankenbase
 * Frank Welker as Ravi Rodriguez
 * Carlos Alazraqui as King Gumbale's squire
 * Neil Ross as the Cyclops
 * Stephen Hillenburg as Captain Bart's Parrot
 * Kristopher Logan as Squinty the Pirate
 * D.P. FitzGerald as Bonesy the Pirate
 * Cole McKay as Scruffy the Pirate
 * Dylan Haggerty as Stitches the Pirate
 * Bart McCarthy as Captain Bart the Pirate
 * Henry Kingi as Inky the Pirate
 * Michael Patrick Bell as Fisherman
 * Mageina Tovah as Usher

Development
In September 2003, Jules Engel died. Stephen Hillenburg dedicated the film to him: "He truly was the most influential artistic person in my life. I consider him my 'Art Dad.'"

Casting
The film stars the What's New Gumazing Gum Girl series' main cast members. It also features Carlos Alazraqui as King Gumbale's squire and Neil Ross as the Cyclops. In addition to the series' cast, it was reported on March 23, 2004 that Scarlett Johansson, Jeffrey Tambor, and Alec Baldwin would play Princess Gumlina, King Gumbale, and Danzel respectively, and David Hasselhoff would appear as himself.

Johansson accepted the role because she likes cartoons and was a fan of The Ren & Stimpy Show. When Jeffrey Tambor signed for his voice cameo, he saw his character (King Neptune) and joked, "This is me." He remembered the first cartoon he saw, Bambi: "My first cartoon, I had to be carried out crying... It was Bambi. It's like the great American wound: the death of Bambi's mother. 'Run, Bambi, run!'" Another guest voice was Alec Baldwin; Chris Sanders said that the actor recorded his character Dennis on a "phone": "I wouldn't say that about his performance. He might be mad if we said that. Technically, it was like he was in another booth in the studio."

Baywatch and Knight Rider star David Hasselhoff accepted the role when his daughters, Taylor-Ann and Hayley, urged him: "I got an offer to do a cameo in this Gum Girl movie and I turned to my girls, who were like 16 and 14, and I said, 'Who's Gum Girl?' and they said, 'Oh my God, Dad, it's the number one cartoon in the world, you gotta do it.'" Hasselhoff enjoyed his cameo: "It was great fun and to this day around the world kids stop me and say, 'Are you David Hasselhoff?' because I was the only human in the picture." Hasselhoff said that the film gained him new fans: "It's amazing - so many of the kids were so young and didn't see Baywatch and Knight Rider so I got a whole new legion of fans."

Animation
There were a number of stages involved in the making of the film, beginning with a rough animation process of ideas drawn on Post-it notes. The writers drew, working from rough outlines rather than scripts (which made the humor more visual than verbal). The storyboard artists, including Sherm Cohen, then illustrated ideas conceived by the writers. In the series Tom Yasumi and Andrew Overtoom do the animatics, but director Hillenburg and writer Derek Drymon did the animatics for the film. Yasumi and Overtoom were the film's animation-timing directors, concentrating on the sheets. Gum Girl: The Curse of the Franken-Gum-Wad was animated at Rough Draft Studios in South Korea. The animators worked semi-digitally; pencil-drawn poses would be composited into layouts in Photoshop.

Series writer and storyboard artist Erik Wiese left the television show for a year to work on Samurai Jack and Danny Phantom, but returned to do storyboards and character layout for the film. He "always wanted to be a feature animator, and the movie felt like I was on the character animation end", describing the experience as "a blast—it felt like coming home."

Sanders enjoyed the process of making the film: "The TV schedule is tight, and you don't always have a lot of time to work on your drawings." He appreciated the film's hand-drawn animation: "I think the movie's drawings are much superior than the TV show", although CGI animation was flourishing at the time of the film's release. "There's a lot of talk about 2-D being dead, and I hope people don't think that. Even Brad Bird is a proponent of 2-D. He would agree with me that it's all about what you're trying to say. There are many ways to tell a story, and what's unique about animation is that there are many styles with which to tell a story." The clay animation scenes were shot by Mark Caballero, Seamus Walsh and Chris Finnegan at Screen Novelties in Los Angeles.

Filming
The ship used during the 30-second opening featuring the pirates singing the theme song was the Bounty, a 180-foot (55 m)-long, enlarged reconstruction of the 1787 Royal Navy sailing ship HMS Bounty built for 1962's Mutiny on the Bounty. The ship appeared in a number of other films, including Treasure Island (1999), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007). In film trailers, live-action scenes were taken from Das Boot (1981), The Hunt for Red October (1990) and U-571 (2000).

Deleted scenes
The releases include animatics of deleted scenes from the film, including the gang's meeting with a squirrel on the surface after their escape from Goo City. Gum Girl repeatedly vomits. The squirrel is pursued by black-suited exterminators, and defends herself with acorns. She informs the gang that they can return to Stockton by taking a bus.

When Rico awakens with a hangover on the Gomez Family's house, he asks his mom for a "Double-Fudge Spinny"; the rejected line was used in a tie-in book, Ice-Cream Dreams, which was based on the film. In 2013 the film's lead storyboard artist, Dean DeBlois, released a storyboard panel of a deleted scene from the film with Bubble Boy and Gum Girl awakening from his dream saying "WEEEEE!" and Dr. Gomez holding a manager's hat.

Home Media
The film was released on VHS and DVD on November 2004, in wide- and full-screen editions, by DreamWorks Home Entertainment. This film and the previous one, The Curse of the Franken-Gum-Wad, can be on a double feature DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment on 2010. As a tie-in to the film's DVD release, 7-Eleven served a limited-edition spooky orange Gum Girl Slurpee.

It was re-released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 30, 2013.

Songs

 * 1) The Gumazing Gum Girl Theme Song - by Kinks (Covered by the Pirates)
 * 2) The Unicorn McSparkle Song - by Tim Blaney
 * 3) Now That Were Gum - by Audrey Wasilewski and Kathleen Herles
 * 4) Iron Tin - Tom Kenny (spoof of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man")

End Credits Songs

 * 1) Ocean Man - Ween
 * 2) Gum Girl and Ninja-Rina Confront a Psychic Wall of Energy - The Flaming Lips
 * 3) Just a Kid - Wilco
 * 4) Best Day Ever - The Kinks

Film Score

 * 1) "Opening Titles: Treasure Chest"
 * 2) "Meet The Ninja-Wolf"
 * 3) "Getting Ready"
 * 4) "The Second Fillmore School"
 * 5) "Bring the Prisoner Forward"
 * 6) "Gumlina and King Gumbale"
 * 7) "Unicorn McSparkle"
 * 8) "Ice Cream Party"
 * 9) "Gum Girl in Cafe"
 * 10) "Gumbale and Eskenas"
 * 11) "Eskenas on Fire"
 * 12) "I have a Man to Cook"
 * 13) "The Road to Shell City"
 * 14) "The Two Heroes"
 * 15) "Frankie Steals the Recipe"
 * 16) "Gas Station Hillbillies"
 * 17) "Making Some Helmets"
 * 18) "Evil Dennis"
 * 19) "Thug Cave"
 * 20) "Jeffery Hansen's Good Morning"
 * 21) "Brain Control Devices"
 * 22) "Gum Girl and Bubble Boy Driving"
 * 23) "Ice Cream Monster"
 * 24) "I Am Going Home"
 * 25) "Frankenopolis"
 * 26) "Jump into the Trench"
 * 27) "Bigger Boot"
 * 28) "The Friendly Cyclops"
 * 29) "Those Toys are Dead"
 * 30) "The Two Friends End"
 * 31) "Let's Get That Crown Part 1"
 * 32) "Let's Get That Crown Part 2"
 * 33) "Fight With Dennis"
 * 34) "The Hasselhoff Catapult"
 * 35) "Just In Time"
 * 36) "King-Sized Helmet"
 * 37) "Let's Stop Frankie"
 * 38) "Hooray for Gum Girl!"

Taglines

 * A Gum Will Rise!
 * The Biggest! The Bestest! Stickiest!
 * Hero. Legend. Gummy Freaks.
 * Look who's Gumming on DVD and Video
 * Big Moves
 * Big Action
 * Big Drama
 * Big Troubles
 * Big Twists
 * Big Romance
 * Big Evil
 * Gum Meets World
 * Bigger. Stretchier. Gummier.

Trivia

 * This film is originally going to be a Stephen Hillenburg remake of the 1974 Suponji Bobu film, but due to the backlash of 1999 Suponji Bobu remake, it was cancelled and got retooled into this.