CircleCity Worldwide

CircleCity Worldwide is a 2004 American adult animated action-comedy film based on the animated series CircleCity. Directed by series creator Dab-mcgee, the film stars the regular television cast of Nolan North, Rob Paulsen, Vicki Lewis, Dee Bradley Baker, Wayne Knight, Curtis Armstrong & Nicole Sullivan.

The film follows series protagonists Lloyd Donovan & Benny O'Riley becoming intertwined in the middle of an international conspiracy involving the removal of culture being a front for the planet's denizens being brainwashed into becoming terrorists. The film provides commentary on American society in a post 9/11 world, as well as its foreign policy, whilst also serving as a parody of action-thriller and espionage films.

CircleCity Worldwide was released on April 16, 2004 by Paramount Pictures, and grossed $63 million worldwide on a budget of $10 million, receiving mixed to positive reception from critics. Despite the film's modest success, the show itself would later be canceled by Comedy Central due to budget concerns, before eventually being revived on Vision in 2012. A stand-alone sequel titled CircleCity: Civil War was released on June 3, 2016.

Premise
After fear of terrorism has plagued the planet, a new world order is spearheaded by President George Bush - comprised of respected world leaders and people in power - under the guise that they have found a way to finally attain world peace: the enforced removal of culture. With no real saying in the matter, the denizens of the planet are forced to strip themselves of any substance or character for the greater good. After discovering that the removal of their cultural identity is secretly a guise for brainwashing the masses, Lloyd (Nolan North) and Benny (Rob Paulsen) find themselves on the run and must get to the bottom of the conspiracy before the planet becomes brainwashed Al-Qaeda zombies.

Plot
In a desolate, war-torn America, a fearful and remorseful George Bush grovels in defeat and mourns in despair over the destruction of his once powerful nation. Down on his knees, he suddenly feels a tap on his shoulder, and turns around to be greeted with the smirking face of Al-Qaeda ringleader Osama Bin Laden, who whispers "made you look" in his ear as Bush screams and is jolted awake from this nightmare. In cold sweat, he attempts to calm his nerves by watching television, which unfortunately for him is displaying news of multiple terrorist attacks on American soil. He ultimately finds himself stumped by one news outlet displaying an attack carried out by an American, then orders his assistant to get all of the world leaders on the phone immediately

In CircleCity, where the attack perpetrated by an American took place, the denizens go about their daily routine whilst ogling at the sight of destruction. Inside the apartment complex, Lloyd, seeing news about the attack everywhere, laments how its not that atypical for the city and that their entire culture is criminal and violent in nature. Benny scoffs and laments that when you boil it down, every culture has the potential to explode into something much more aggressive, and its about how these people choose to take their beliefs that ultimately decides their view in the public eye; commentating that Lloyd himself has very little identity or culture within him because of his constant misguided attempts at seeking purpose. Lloyd, willing to challenge him on that, plot plot plot writing writing first act set up.

At George Bush's secret clubhouse under the sea, a United Nations meeting is being held regarding the recent sling of terrorist attacks. Acknowledging that people aren't born terrorists, Bush and the others lament for a solution for their troubles before anybody else with an agenda gets ideas, when Bush remembers a very important detail about his day: before he attended the meeting, he discovered the way he found out about the terrorist attack was by watching television. In his words, he was directly exposed to terrorist culture with a simple click of a remote, and then ponders the many other ways people are able to access new ideas and information, before coming to the conclusion that the way culture works is to blame, and that for the sake of world peace, any substance or character must be eliminated for the greater good. While everyone is the room laughs at him, eccentric and totally not disguised billionaire Osama Billionaire Laden enters the scene, completely willing to fund Bush's project to remove culture. Ignoring the rest of the world's opinions, Bush and Billionaire set out to enforce a ban on culture.

With new regulations being set in around the world, respective cultures meet their fate as everyone is now forced to follow along the Bush Bible; with everything inherently "controversial" and "unconventional" being replaced by safe, bland propaganda. Everyone must have the same opinion, watch the same television shows, piss at the exact same time, all for the sake of world peace and the end of terrorism. It's working, to everyone's dismay, and eventually everyone has completely given in and accepted, if not embraced, their new positions, almost as if they're in a trance and have completely forgotten about their previously cultured lifestyles. And they sure aren't batting an eye at the new, aggressive propaganda on display.

After Lloyd accidentally discovers a thesaurus behind the toilet, he begins to remember culture and is snapped out of the trance, starting to notice the strange new propaganda being displayed in place of Bush's safe, fluffy spiels that encourage peace and no booboos. Using a broken beer bottle, he manages to snap Benny back to normality as well, and discovers that the new propaganda is encouraging everyone to purchase firearms, bombs and various assortments of weaponry. Feeling unsafe in the city, Lloyd and Benny attempt an escape via a vehicle, only for everyone else in the city to take notice and begin an attack. Eventually coming onto an airport, the two take control of a private jet and make haste. With no actual plan, the two direct the jet to Washington D.C. in hopes of confronting Bush about what's been going on, only to find themselves in Berlin, Germany; where everyone has just kind of ignored Bush's culture regulations and have been living as themselves.

At the White House, Bush grows wise of whats been happening and attempts to confront Billionaire Laden about it, whom promptly has Bush apprehended and locked in the White House bowling alley. Billionaire Laden reveals himself to be none other than Osama Bin Laden; Bush's mortal enemy. Knowing of Bush's anxieties and fears regarding his terrorist activity, he took full advantage of it by secretly instigating the terrorist attack in CircleCity; wherein he could then influence him to remove culture. He reveals the rest of his master plan; now that American culture has been fully destroyed, he can use the country's influence on the rest of the world to slowly but surely influence the rest of the world into his terrorist hivemind.

Baba Booey

Cast

 * as Lloyd
 * as Benny
 * as Government Officiated Antagonist
 * Ralf Hat as George Bush
 * Roy Rogers as Osama Bin Laden
 * as Madison
 * as Nancy
 * as Moe
 * as Fat Bob
 * as Dr. Hurt
 * as Dustin

Music
The film's score was composed by, as regular series composer Ralf Hat had prior commitments related to the film. A soundtrack containing songs and related music from the film was released on April 13, 2004.

Release
The film was released on April 16 alongside martial arts film , action film The Punisher and comedy film Connie and Carla

Box office
The film grossed $5,402,156 on opening day, debuting at #2 behind Kill Bill Vol. 2, and remained at #2 throughout the weekend with a total gross of $14,878,117. It went on to gross $42 million in North America and $21 million in foreign territories, with a worldwide gross of $63 million.

Critical reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 69%, based on 91 reviews, and an average rating of 6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "CircleCity Worldwide humorously sheds light on real-world issues and will ultimately appeal to its built-in fanbase - even if it doesn't do as much as it should with its concept." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.