CircleCity: Civil War

CircleCity: Civil War is a 2016 adult animated action comedy political satire film based off of the CircleCity television series. It is a stand-alone sequel to 2004's CircleCity Worldwide, as well as the second film based on the television series. The film stars the regular television cast consisting of Nolan North, Rob Paulsen, Vicki Lewis, Dee Bradley Baker, Wayne Knight, Nicole Sullivan & Curtis Armstrong. They are joined by Bryan Cranston and Seth Rogen, portraying new characters President John F. Freedom and Vice President Seth Rogen, respectively.

The film follows series protagonists Lloyd Donovan and Benny O'Riley and their attempts to unify the country after its separation results in a civil war for political power. The film provides commentary on the political and social issues that are affecting America as of late, particularly lampooning how American society overall functions and behaves - and is thematically a companion piece to the first film and its messages. It also acts as a parody of war films and post-apocalyptic media, particularly the Mad Max franchise.

The film was released on June 3, 2016, and received positive reviews from critics, with critics praising it's atmosphere, action sequences and voice cast, but criticizing it's unfocused commentary and overlong runtime. As of December 2016, it is the highest-grossing R-rated animated film, grossing $143 million worldwide.

Premise
Newly-elected President John F. Freedom (Bryan Cranston) enacts a system that he believes will solve all of the hardship, conflict and crime currently plaguing America: the separation of the country based upon political alignments. A nation that can "truly be free" to express their beliefs and rights - a country catered specifically to the people's individuality. The system is a surprising success and the newly named Detached States of Freedom is now the world's most model and reformed country. However, this soon changes when Freedom, after closing all borders and airways into the country, announces his sudden plan to thrust the country into a forced civil war - the political alignment that proves to survive will be selected as the de facto ideal that the new country will follow - whilst the remaining, if not already dead, will be eradicated. Facing nuclear threat if the country chooses not to participate, the denizens of the Detached States soon find themselves killing eachother for their right to live - Lloyd Donovan (Nolan North), who has all but given up on America and doesn't care about what happens to it, soon finds himself begrudgingly helping Benny (Rob Paulsen) in reuniting the country again before a new America rises from the ashes.

Plot
Presidential candidate John F. Freedom, representing his own "Freedom" party, is occupied inside of his private jet, preparing himself for the upcoming debate against his opponent, Shaquille O'Neal. As he exits, he brushes off the news reporters and journalists waiting outside, boldly entering the conference center. The debate soon begins, with Freedom's popularity and charisma clearly having an effect on the attention of the viewers and organizers. After swiftly responding to a number of questions, he soon finds himself stumped by the next one in line: "have you heard about the recent riots in CircleCity?"

Around the same time in CircleCity, Lloyd Donovan awakens and heads straight to work - passing through the violent riots as if it were an everyday occurrence. America had always considered the large metropolis as a melting pot of the worst aspects of their society, but lately it has reached a much more notorious image, which has caused it to be the talk of the nation - with everyone looking to the perspectives of the candidates as the definitive ultimatum to whoever they were going to choose to vote for. Entering his latest dead-end job as security work at city hall, Lloyd, who refuses to "acknowledge" politics and is annoyed about how much he has to endure it, laments at how nothing will change this country for the better as he is flooded with conversations about the election and riot by his friends; all of whom have a completely different perspective about each. Lloyd persists the fact that he doesn't care.

Now sitting aboard his private jet, Freedom continuously replays footage of his stumbles regarding the riot. He is encouraged by his running mate, Canadian comedian and politician Seth Rogen,to dig deeper into the situation and conjure a solution that will ensure his victory. Noting that the participants of the riot are of several different ideologies and all on several opposing sides of the conflict, Freedom laments on how this extravagant conflict is no different from any other, and expresses his opinion that America cannot work without everyone being on the same perspective. This leads to an ambitious epiphany that Freedom believes will win him the hearts of all Americans: catering to their need for validation about their many viewpoints by separating the entire country into small micro-nations; each of their own ideology, an act of "true freedom" to be your individual American. Freedom alerts the plane pilot to take a detour to CircleCity, where he plans to make a surprise speech that will gain him national attention.

Freedom and Rogen perform a song and dance number about their plan after gaining the attention of news outlets and CircleCity's citizens (still rioting), all of whom praise his plot, as does all of America soon enough. Even Lloyd appears to have high hopes for this equal segregation. After a landslide election, Freedom is now President and immediately begins the process.

Cast

 * as Lloyd
 * as Benny
 * as President John F. Freedom
 * as Vice President Seth Rogen
 * as Madison
 * as Moe
 * as Fat Bob
 * as Nancy
 * as Dustin
 * as Mayor Royam
 * as Dr. Hurt
 * as Senator Shaquille O'Neal
 * as himself

Production
Following the release of CircleCity Worldwide, any plans that could have been developed about a potential sequel film were quickly brushed aside when the show itself was abruptly canceled, despite the film's box office success. When the show was eventually revived on Vision in 2012, Dab-mcgee commented on what the crew had planned for the future, and gave light to the possibility of a sequel film if the show is proven to be very successful for the channel. More and more details about the potential film were dropped throughout the next year, including plot details and general ideas - as well as a full script ready - but they still insisted that the film being made would have to rely on the success of the show and the willingness of a distributor.

Thanks to strong ratings and fan interest, Vision announced their plans for a theatrically-released CircleCity film in June 2014, to be distributed by Warner Bros Pictures. That July, Warner Bros announced the film's full title - CircleCity: Civil War - and a release date of December 25, 2015, only to be changed to June 3, 2016 later in the year.

Animation
In a surprising deviation from its regular animation style, Civil War features highly-detailed and realistic backgrounds to intentionally contrast with the simplistic designs of the actual characters and the flatness of traditional animation the film and show utilize. Backgrounds and scenery were created and developed by Australian-based Animal Logic, whilst character animation and storyboards were handled by Rough Draft Studios in South Korea.

Marketing
The first trailer for the film was released on November 17, 2015, followed by a second trailer released on February 9, 2016.

From October 2015 to March 2016, many viral clips were uploaded to the film's official website. These clips, which parody many presidential ad campaigns, feature celebrities and characters from the show voicing their support for John F. Freedom and his plan to separate the country.

Soundtrack
A soundtrack containing the film's score (composed by Lorne Balfe) was released on May 27, 2016.

Release & reception
The film had it's world premiere showing at the Oriental Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May 27, 2016.

Box Office
Pre-release tracking suggested that the film would open in the $15-18 million range on it's opening weekend. However, the film grossed $13,184,150 on it's opening day, beating studio expectations and opening at #1 at the box office. It dropped to second place for the overall weekend with an overall gross of $32,095,614. The film dropped to the #4 spot on it's second weekend and grossed $15,501,184, a 53% decline. The film would later go onto gross $97,002,736 in the United States and $45,341,063 in foreign territories, for a worldwide total of $142,343,799, making it the highest-grossing R-rated animated film. The surprising success of the film is often attributed to its timely plot and themes, which was often highlighted in promotional material.

Critical Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 78%, based on 119 reviews, and an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "CircleCity: Civil War mostly lives up to its chaotic and satirical ambitions, even if the commentary it's getting across seems to falter at the might of its scope." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Home media
CircleCity: Civil War was released on Digital HD on October 11, 2016, and on DVD, Bluray and Ultraviolet on October 25, 2016. Vision aired the film during it's Sundown block on February 3, 2018 at 8pm, with a rating of TV-MA LSV.