Marlton Movie Sequel (The Sequel)

Marlton Movie Sequel (The Sequel) is an American animated/live-action satirical comedy drama film based on the Kingson animated series Marlton, as well as the second film based on the series. Directed and written by series creator Michael Argot and series co-writer Dab Mcgee, the film features the regular cast of Brandon Soo Hoo, Jorge Diaz, Ralf Hat, Jeremy Shada, Jack DeSena; while Alan Tudyk reprises his role as recurring antagonist Wacky Pal. The film serves as a narrative conclusion to the series. In the film, the Marlton boys are brought together again years after they've grown apart from each other and must save themselves from the ambitions of the reality-warping Wacky Pal and the Kingson executives after they learn the true nature of their reality as an animated television franchise. In contrast to the first film, which parodied the film industry as a whole, Sequel satirizes the existence of Marlton in itself; nostalgia and its effect on media, as well as the relationship between media corporations, creatives and their audience. The film was released on July 15, 2022 and received positive reviews from critics.

Synopsis
Set over 10 years after the events of the series, the Marlton boys are all college-aged and have since gone their separate ways. They are all in different places in life and satisfied with who they have become; all except for Steven, who is disillusioned with his future and longing for the memories he had at Marlton Intermediate. He comes across the long since forgotten Wacky Pal and makes a deal with him to make things exactly the way they used to be many years ago. Unbeknownst to him, however, this deal is exactly what Wacky Pal needed to take full advantage of his self-awareness; and uses his reality warping abilities to ensure that Steven's vision of Marlton will continue forever, the true nature of which is now revealed to everyone. With their reality falling apart literally and figuratively, the Marlton boys, aided by the now functioning film camera, will have to make up for lost time and shatter the fourth wall once and for all to save their past, present and future from the looming threat of Wacky Pal and the higher Executive gods who all seek to remain stuck in the past Steven thinks so highly of.

Plot
Following the breaking and subsequent sealing of the fourth wall, Steven remains quiet about what he saw on the other end and thinks nothing of it as he and his friends enter high school. Over the years, they begin to drift apart as conflicting interests and friend groups take priority. Years later, now in his senior year of college, Steven is unsatisfied with his life, disillusioned with his future and longs to relive the past. His senior project is selected to be shown at the very same film festival in Marlton that he and his friends entered years ago, and is excited at the opportunity to potentially see them again. However, he opts not to involve himself when he sees the only two friends still living in Marlton, Jefferson and Ryan, satisfied with their lives without his presence.

Before the festival, Steven visits his parents and comes across the very same film camera that caused the reality oddities so many years ago. Replaying footage, he notices that most of them now feature Wacky Pal - Whitey's reality-warping imaginary friend, whom Steven realizes has been taking refuge inside the camera. Freeing him, Wacky Pal laments how Whitey achieved enlightenment and removed him from his psyche, rendering his abilities useless without a human connection. Following some hesitation on Steven's end, the two realize they have a common desire to relive the past. Wacky Pal offers to displace everyone in the past and make it last forever, but needs Steven's cooperation to make it so. Connecting himself to Steven's psyche, Wacky Pal regains his powers and reverses time to 10 years prior - but with everyone fully aware of what has happened. Wacky Pal reveals to all of Marlton the nature of their reality as an animated television series and that once the "episode" is finished, their minds will revert back to that of their younger selves permanently as the show continues on.

Simultaneously in the real world, the inhuman Kingson executives, led by the charismatic John Kingson have kidnapped Marlton creator Michael Argot following years of attempts to convince him to renew the show. Pressured by their ideas for a multi-media franchise revival, and a loaded gun, Argot reluctantly involves himself but still plots to take it down.

Steven and his friends reunite but all are enraged at his direct involvement in Wacky Pal's plan. Steven insists that things will be better this way and that their opposition won't matter once the episode ends. Scrambling for ideas before the episode can begin, Jefferson hypothesizes that if they're in a television show, there must be some way to literally break the fourth wall. Connecting the dots that that's exactly what happened 10 years ago, the boys further direct their ire at Steven for knowing the nature of their reality and keeping quiet. The babbling noise of their arguing triggers the film camera to activate, all realizing that that's their ticket to the fourth wall: using its reality-warping properties to direct the episode in their favor.

Wacky Pal counts down and the episode begins. Under Pal's influence, most of the denizens are lobotomized into the episode structure, while the boys are unaffected. In the real world, Argot is penning the script for the first episode of the revival. The episode itself is set during their first day of high school, which happened after the show itself concluded - enticing Steven.

Cast

 * Brandon Soo Hoo as Steven Nguyen
 * Bobby Lee as Adult Steven
 * Alan Tudyk as Wacky Pal
 * Jorge Diaz as Chester Jefferson
 * Ralf Hat as Mike Aski and Paltu "Whitey" Rasheed
 * Jeremy Shada as Ryan Pearce
 * Jack DeSena as Eli Miller
 * Michael Argot as a fictionalized version of himself.
 * Will Arnett as John Kingson, the CEO of the Kingson channel.
 * Jason Statham as a fictionalized version of himself.
 * Kristen Schaal as Silly Friend

Development
Following the release of the first film, Argot and Mcgee had already envisioned a concept for a sequel which was to tackle the oversaturation of sequels and the creation of media franchises. However, distributor Warner Bros. was initially uninterested in producing another Marlton film due to the first film's niche audience and resultingly modest box office returns. Despite this, Argot and Mcgee were still interested in the project, which went through many rewrites and revisions in hopes of gaining the distributor's approval. During this time, Argot also had plans to conclude Marlton in the near future, a decision that would ironically gain Warner Bros. attention. After more negotiations, the previously planned television finale was reworked into a sequel film, scheduled for July 2022. The film was officially announced in May 2020, under the working title Marlton Movie 2. According to Argot, many titles were tossed around before the crew settled on the tongue-in-cheek Marlton Movie Again, which Warner Bros vetoed in fear of the film appearing indistinguishable from the first.

Writing
Originally conceived as a more direct follow up to Motion Picture, Argot and Mcgee initially wanted to tackle sequel oversaturation with a storyline that followed the boys making a follow up to Steven's film for monetary gain rather than for fun after a shady film CEO pressures them. After negotiations with Warner Bros, the pitch was scrapped entirely as it was now to be written as a conclusion to the series. Wanting to further develop the meta storyline the first film introduced and taking advantage of its nature as a finale, Argot and Mcgee felt it necessary to "completely jump the shark" and have the story revolve around the characters realizing their true nature as a television series. While satisfied with this pitch, they felt the film lacked a core emotional theme befitting for a proper sendoff to the characters. Noting how resurrected franchises often employ nostalgia in both marketing and story tactics, the duo applied that to the Marlton franchise itself as the basis for the film's story and emotional theme. Co-director Dab Mcgee further based the film's pitch on a particular anecdote from his life, wherein he visited the school district he attended as a child and found that most everything about it had changed.

Animation
Animation was handled by [placeholder incorporated], the same production studio behind the television series and the prior film. The film contains several brief sequences featuring differing animation styles, including stylized CGI done by Sony Pictures Imageworks and an anime-inspired sequence provided by Trigger.

Marketing
The film's first trailer was released on February 8, 2022. A second trailer was released on May 24, 2022.

Box office
In the United States and Canada, Marlton Movie Sequel (The Sequel) was released alongside Where the Crawdads Sing, Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank and Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris and was initially projected to gross around $10 million from 3,402 theaters in its opening weekend. The film grossed $5.8 million on opening day (including $1.6 million from Thursday night previews), debuting in fourth place. The film remained in fourth place for the overall weekend with a gross of $13 million, less than the $15 million made by its predecessor.

Critical reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 83%, based on 140 reviews, and an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Though ambitious to a fault, the Marlton Movie Sequel nevertheless remains true to the show's brand of humor and satire whilst also serving as a clever and satisfying conclusion." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".