Alpha and Omega (2010)

Two young wolves at opposite ends of their pack's social order are thrown together into a foreign land and need each other to return home, but love complicates everything.

Directors:

Anthony Bell, Ben Gluck

Writers:

Chris Denk (screenplay), Ben Gluck (additional screenplay),

Stars:

Hayden Panettiere, Christina Ricci, Justin Long

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Justin Long	...	Humphrey (voice)
Hayden Panettiere	...	Kate (voice)
Dennis Hopper	...	Tony (voice)
Danny Glover	...	Winston (voice)
Larry Miller	...	Marcel (voice)
Eric Price	...	Paddy / Mooch (voice)
Vicki Lewis	...	Eve (voice)
Christina Ricci	...	Lilly (voice)
Chris Carmack	...	Garth (voice)
Brian Donovan	...	Salty (voice)
Kevin Sussman	...	Shakey (voice)
Maya Kay	...	Bear Cub (voice) (as Maya Feltheimer)
Christine Lakin	...	Reba (voice)
Marilyn Tokuda	...	Claws / Janice (voice)
Eric Lopez	...	Can-do (voice)

Storyline

In Jasper National Park, the wolves, Kate and Humphrey, have known each other since puppyhood, but they are on the oppose ends of the Western Pack's social structure with Kate as the energetic Alpha daughter of the pack leader and Humphrey being the good humoured Omega. That social structure forces Kate to accept an arranged marriage with Garth of the Eastern Pack to unite the packs for peace, regardless of Humphrey's hopeless attraction for her. Before that union can occur, Kate and Humphrey are captured by the park's rangers and sent to an Idaho park as part of a wolf repopulation project. Mindful of her duties, Kate is determined to return to Jasper and Humphrey offers to help with the assistance of two odd geese. However, as this disparate pair struggle through the dangers to get home, a growing mutual appreciation of their talents and then a deeper love threatens to disastrously complicate everything if they make it back.

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Plot Keywords:

park | idaho | geese | national park | arranged marriage | 

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Taglines:

A Pawsome 3D Adventure

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Romance

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Belgium]

Country:

USA India

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 September 2010 (Canada)

Also Known As:

Alpha & Omega

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£643,425 (UK) (22 October 2010)

Gross:

£2,996,462 (UK) (3 December 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lions Gate Family Entertainment, Crest Animation Productions, Relativity Media

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The first film of a series of five movies released in a seven-month period that set the record of the worst debut for a 3D movie. This movie debuted to $9.1 million, setting the then-record, losing it to My Soul to Take (2010) ($6.8 million) three weeks later, which lost it to Gulliver's Travels (2010) ($6.3 million) 11 weeks later, which lost it to Drive Angry (2011) ($5.2 million) 10 weeks later, which lost it to Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (2011) ($4.1 million) nine weeks later.

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Goofs

When Kate and Humphrey land in the boxcar, both doors are open, but when the train is nearing Jasper Park, only one door is open; the one facing the park.

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Quotes

Humphrey: Guys, honestly, caribou is overrated.
Kate: Hmph.
Humphrey: Now instead, keep an open mind, I just want you to keep an open mind here. We bring you, berries!
[Wolves growl]
Humphrey: Oh, heh heh, how about squirrels?
[Wolves drool and the squirrels scream]
Humphrey: Oh, bad joke, flying squirrels ha ha.

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Connections

Followed by Alpha and Omega 2: A Howl-iday Adventure (2013)

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Soundtracks

Two is Better Than One
(uncredited)
Written by Martin Johnson
Performed by Boys Like Girls featuring Taylor Swift
Produced by Brian Howes

User Reviews

A Decent Film

The story in Alpha and Omega was rather traditional but it still retained enough originality to be entertaining. Most of the originality comes into play with the script which I found had plenty of laughs for both children and adults. The subtle and frequent sexual innuendos caught me by surprise and made me laughing out loud several times throughout the film. It appears as if, judging by other reviews om IMDb, most people overlooked this humor. Even the jokes aimed at children were fairly tolerable most of the time. I actually enjoyed the voice acting and dialog in Alpha and Omega more than Toy Story 3.

The Achilles heel of Alpha and Omega comes into play with the animation which would be better suited for a slap stick weekly Nickelodeon cartoon show. This, combined with the questionable art direction of the wolves overly human stature, added a very child-like feel that distracted me from the well written dialog. The poor animation quality is particularly evident in the "howling" scene which left a lot more to be desired design wise.

I enjoyed the film enough to watch "The Making of" featurette which indirectly explained why the animation was so horrible... it turns out that all of the animation was outsourced to India. I was extremely disappointed when I found out. Art is the last thing that needs to be outsourced when there are so many ready and willing production facilities in America to take the business. American companies outsource far too many products already, lets not let them outsource our films.

All-in-all I liked the movie but the fact that the creators completely ignored the quality of the CG is unforgivable. I'm being a little optimistic with my rating of a 7, it was that distracting.