Adopt Me (film)

Adopt Me is a 2024 animated musical comedy-drama film produced by Bloxy Animation Productions and released by Universal Pictures. The fourth film produced by the studio, it was directed and produced by Georgia Simpson, who also co-wrote the story with Graysen Dorsey and Aaron Martinez, based on an original screenplay by Caitlin Stewart and Yasmin Cunningham, whom the latter composed its musical score, with songs written by Christopher Lowe. The voice cast consists of Rebecca Fraser, Sage Garrison, Frederick Griffiths, Karen Clemons, Johan Meyer, Christina James, Alan Flowers, Davis Tate, Courtney Henderson, and Ross Mayo, with Yasmin Anderson providing the sounds of the animals. The film tells the story of Elizabeth (Fraser), who deals with the grief of her pet, until she meets a unicorn that who is lost from its family, and the former must go on an adventure to find its parents.

Development on Adopt Me began development in January 2020, when Georgia, Dorsey and Martinez pitched a story treatment, under the working title Adopt the Pets. However, by March of that year, Stewart's version of the screenplay was rewritten under the recommendation of Georgia, who invited Cunningham, who had previously worked with her in March 2019 with the grief of her dog Mia, to whom the film is dedicated. Continuing the studio's tradition of using hand-drawn animation, the production team visited Uplift City in November 2020 to explore various concepts and use them as inspiration. They also watched various children's shows and used their animation style as a reference for production. The creatures were originally designed to resemble aliens before being transformed into pets based on real-life animals.

Adopt Me premiered at the Rensselaer Theater in Rensselaer County, New Bloxia, on November 3, 2024, and was theatrically released in the United States on November 21 of that year. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and audiences, who praised its animation, writing, humor, and charm. It was a commercial success, grossing $653.7 million worldwide, becoming both the fourth-highest grossing animated film and overall, the tenth-highest grossing film of that year.

Plot

Elizabeth, a young independent but nervous and peculiar female, lives in a poor house with her parents and has little money, dealing with the grief of her only pet, who was killed by a "unknown person". To make herself happy, she makes and plays with a dog doll. However, while outside, a group of wealthy girls approaches and takes the doll from her before destroying it. Elizabeth, devastated, yells at them, explaining that she made the doll in her dog's honor. Mocking her animal's death, the leader threatens to beat her up, in which she flees in tears. Angered, Elizabeth decides to get one for herself. However, while on her way, everyone and Elizabeth notices a unicorn falling from the sky, landing in the middle of the city. Elizabeth pretended to be the unicorn's owner before fleeing with it. Hiding near a wooden house, the unicorn panics but calms down when he sees how Elizabeth truly is. Because the pet is unable to speak, Elizabeth is perplexed and unsure what to do. However, the unicorn grabs a nearby stick and uses it as a "drawing board" to confirm what has occurred: a "very strong gust" blew him away from his family during a flying session.

Seeing this, Elizabeth decided to assist the unicorn, who is unsure where he came from. With the former's assistance, the unicorn eventually discovers a tall cliff. However, due to the fall from before, it is unable to fly. Worried, Elizabeth decided to hold it, eventually making it to the top. They come across a Camping Shop and spend some time there before becoming concerned about the people inside. Elizabeth, on the other hand, met Oscar by chance when she crashed into him. After she told him what was going on, Oscar, an adventurer, agreed to help her, and they both traveled. Because it is getting late, Oscar brings Elizabeth and her unicorn inside his house, which is themed as a Safari Home. After putting the unicorn to sleep, the two begin to talk to one another. Oscar hides his feelings for Elizabeth as she blushes at him. Oscar tearfully tells him her story, revealing that as a child, he dealt with the loss of various pets due to a "unknown evil person". Elizabeth calmed him down by saying that they are "in a better place"; the unicorn overheard them and cry himself to sleep. In the morning, Oscar and Elizabeth begin to prepare to leave, but are informed that someone has been "stealing pets around the world," including people.

Realizing how serious the situation was, they decided that after assisting the unicorn in reuniting with its parents, they needed to look for the kidnapped pets. Walking together, they come across a town whose residents are shocked that their pets have gone missing. Meanwhile, Sincere hangs out in his castle, brutally playing with the pets and planning on "ripping them apart" with a machine to create food. Sincere then decided to send out missions to kidnap more pets. Back with Elizabeth and Oscar, the two discover various pet furs leading into a nearby cave, as well as footsteps of other people. At the same time, Elizabeth and Oscar discover a Pet Zoo, where the employees are concerned. During a performance with the animals, the missions launched their first attacks on the Zoo, causing widespread panic and destruction; Elizabeth and Oscar attempt to save the animals by placing them in a box, but one of the minions grabs it, and Oscar is sent flying as he holds on, with the flying ship taking off. Elizabeth holds on but falls, injuring herself; the unicorn also falls, landing on water.

Voice cast

• Rebecca Fraser as Elizabeth, a 16-year old female.
• Sage Garrison as Oscar, Elizabeth's love interest and upon meeting each other, travel with her on the adventure.
• Frederick Griffiths as Michael, who is Elizabeth's father.
• Karen Clemons as Alicia, who is Elizabeth's mother.
• Johan Meyer as Sincere, Adopt Me's villain.
• Christina James
• Alan Flowers
• Davis Tate
• Courtney Henderson

Production

Development

Georgia Simpson, who had just lost her dog Mia a month before, rediscovered old photos of herself and Mia when they were younger in March 2019. Having previously created an animated short film titled My Heaven Dog, she decided to begin developing ideas for her first film, which was dedicated to Mia as the "key core" of the film. After writing a 30-page treatment inspired by Georgia's experience in Adopt Me! (also known as Uplift City) in July of last year, she pitched the idea to Universal Pictures, who initially rejected the concept and ordered her to write a "much more complex script". Georgie invited several people, including Graysen Dorsey and Aaron Martinez, to help her develop the story treatments because she did not want to make it as "complex as possible" and was suffering from writer's block as a direct result. They developed the idea of the main character assisting a dog in its search for its parents, but Georgie suggested replacing the dog with a unicorn, believing that they were meant to represent "magic and healing"; the latter topic would become one of the traits for Elizabeth, who was originally named Amelia in earlier drafts.

After finishing the script, the team created storyboards for a story reel over a four-month period to give executives a "basic idea" of the film. After seeing the story reel with the working title Adopt the Pets, Universal Pictures accepted the film and greenlit it by December 2019, though they ordered them to change the title, with them choosing the title Adopt Me. Shortly after, Georgia invited Caitlin Stewart, who was working on an original fairy tale film, to work on the screenplay. Stewart was initially hesitant to join the project, but after reading the film's outline, which he described as "sweet and simple," he joined the production team. Universal Pictures announced Adopt Me in a press release on March 8, 2023, as well as Georgia's confirmation as director and producer; the film being confirmed to use hand-drawn animation, and shortly thereafter, a slide show of various concepts and storyboards from the film was shown, with composer and songwriter Yasmin Cunningham and Christopher Lowe performing the film's opening number to a positive reception from audiences.

Script rewrite and research

During development, which began the following month in January 2020, Stewart created several new characters, including Oscar, who was originally written as a "much tougher boy" for the film, as the previous version only had four who were important to the story. Originally, Elizabeth was set to be a "rich young woman" who was characterized as "individualistic and overindulgent." In earlier scripts, Elizabeth, who had anger issues, got annoyed over the over-the-top personality of the unicorn and screamed at the animal. However, following a story reel in early March 2020, Georgia "absolutely hated" the version and demanded that the script needed to be reworked completely, especially Elizabeth, her design, and her traits, to fit those of a young teenager.

To redevelop the story and its main character, George requested writer Yasmin Cunningham to work on the project with her and the production team after noticing that she was an expert in dogs, cats, and others, including horses and cows, having worked with them for over twenty years; another factor was that she significantly supported her during her grief following Mia's death and worked on My Heaven Dog, while handling her a study guide about pets, as a way to comfort her. Cunningham shared various ideas and concepts with Georgia and Stewart, advising the latter to avoid "making Elizabeth as realistic and overly similar to those of 20s and 30s women."

Her and Stewart's version of the screenplay included reworking Elizabeth into a "softer and more curious type of teenager," adding a conflict where the character dealt with the death of her pet, and writing Oscar into Elizabeth's eventual love interest and a "relaxed person" who, similar to her, lost his various pets over the years.

Since starting development, Georgia had wanted to include a villain, and after reading Cunningham's version, she felt that the story was the "right one" to create a "proper villain". The production team then created Sincere and wanted his motives to be "simple, yet brutal at the same time without scaring the younger audience"; to describe his motives in the film, the team used simple words such as "ripped them" to ensure that the older audience understood, while the younger audience did not. They also used the "show, don't tell" method by using Sincere's hands and his facial expressions to describe what he was "truly going to do to the animals"; the team also had the villain point at objects, including the machine that was set to be used to murder the pets. During early production, Cunningham gives Georgia a newborn kitten. While working, the latter frequently looked at the kitten, and after discovering that she was emotionally attached to the animals, she decided that Elizabeth needed to have a "similar trait" to her. While the idea was later abandoned due to problems, Stewart recommended that Elizabeth create an animal doll, to stand out from the rest of the other females.

Casting

Rebecca Fraser was cast as Elizabeth in June 2022, beating out 300 other female actors. Fraser, then a freshman in high school, learned about the project through a casting cell and attended various training sessions with the school team before officially auditioning for the role of Elizabeth. She said, "I remember my phone ringing. It was one of the studio members I had met with a few months prior, so I pressed the button to answer the call. He told me to go to a good location where no one would notice me. I ran to the staircase, where I learned that I was going to be in the film". Various roles were considered for Oscar; while he was written as a "tougher" guy, Reuben Hunt, Luca Watts, Ben Simpson, Ollie Cooper, Vincent Atkinson, Joseph Franco, Cayden Grimes and Blake Winters were the main contender for the role; however, as the script changed, Jordan Parry became the most likely candidate to land the role. Following several auditions, Parry was chosen as Oscar's voice.

Design and animation

Adopt Me was produced on a budget of $85 million, the lowest for the studio since Foster (2019). Like the previous films, Adopt Me uses hand-drawn animation, with few scenes animated with computer-animation. In March 2023, following Universal Pictures' announcement of the project, director Georgia stated that work on the animation had begun. During early development, in early November 2020, the production team visited the city of the same name to research various locations, including the main area, to explore concepts and inspirations for the film’s animation style. They noticed that the town was “radiant” and had “ various colors”, leading to Georgia’s idea of aiming for a new animation style that was similar to those from children’s shows like cartoony, but not as realistic and too “overly exaggerated". During production, the team considered using watercolor backgrounds for the skies in the film instead of digital ones to make them "very simple with only blue skies, yet have this sense of charm". Later, the team chose the watercolor-painted backgrounds method, to not "overspent the budget". During the animation process, the characters were hand drawn on transparent sheets known as cels. Approximately 200-300 paint bottles from the Bloxy Animation Productions studio were used, including blue ones.

Hayes Hensley oversaw the designs of the houses, which were inspired by a variety of concepts, including the natural environment. He worked with a team of approximately 40 people, the majority of whom were experts in house design. The majority of the designs were based on wooden houses and cabins; the design process took approximately nine months to complete, and they were given names in order for the team to "not get confused," such as the working title Cozy Cabin. Early on, after the script included a zoo, they visited several zoos to get a sense of what a zoo was like. Because of the water-painted backgrounds, the team devised a method for placing the buildings in the scenes without interfering with the backgrounds through computer-animation; however, due to budget constraints, the number of houses presented was reduced for less screen time.

Michael Taylor designed both the characters and the pets, working with a team of about ten people. They used ideas from the crew's trip and research to originally design the pets as "alien-like" creatures with a "highly special power," where they "could earn wings, notice what feelings a person is having, and transform themselves into other pets to confuse others." However, Georgia's idea was to redesign the creatures into "much more cute ones without being too spooky and having very few powers." As a result, the "special power" concept, as well as the idea of the animals communicating with Elizabeth, were dropped. Taylor and the team visited various pet stores to research the animals' language and emotions, as well as their overall expressions, in order to come up with ideas for "comedic, yet levelheaded" facial expressions. Because the final designs took over a month to complete and featured only "two dots" to represent the eyes, the concept was a major challenge, particularly for the unicorn, which lacked common features such as a mouth. The problem was solved when one of the designers, Hayden Pearson, proposed that the animals use their tongue as the "mouth" and have brows. Alexander Watts, Gibson Baxter, and Kaleb Mullins were the primary animators for all of the animals in the film.

Music

Main article: Adopt Me (soundtrack)

Adopt Me was originally intended to be a non-musical comedy film with the added goal of "being an adventure-type movie full of action and magic". However, following a major rewrite of the script, Georgia and the production team decided that Adopt Me needed to be a Broadway-inspired musical film to match the story, as the other two previous musical films, Foster and Cruise (2020), were critical successes with audiences and critics, marking the studio's third musical film. Yasmin Cunningham, who contributed to the film's screenplay, chose to work on the main score because she was an expert in creating musical scores, having worked on Broadway musicals since 1998 and retiring in 2018, a year before the film's development; she considered writing the songs herself, but ultimately decided to delegate the task to songwriter Christopher Lowe.

Release

On March 8, 2023, Adopt Me was announced as the "studio's next big production", and was scheduled to be released on October 7, 2024, by Universal Pictures; according to voice actor Johan Meyer, Adopt Me was originally scheduled for an August release date but was postponed to allow for "better working conditions". According to an executive, the decision to release the film in October rather than November was because there would be "less competition" and "allowing Adopt Me to have a wider release". By the following month, in April, a Universal Pictures spokesperson confirmed that the film was being considered for a November release date, though this had not been confirmed at the time.

Officially, by September of that year, Universal Pictures pushed Adopt Me to a November 3, 2024 release, due to story problems, before delaying it again to November 21, its current release date. Adopt Me premiered at the Rensselaer Theater in Rensselaer County, New Bloxia, on November 3, 2024, where an estimated 500 people, including the voice actors, attended before its wide release on November 21 of that year, across 3,700 theaters in the United States.

Marketing

Universal Pictures launched a major marketing campaign leading up to Adopt Me's release, primarily to entice younger audiences, including children (particularly girls), to see the film and attract the "usual family-type" groups. The teaser trailer for Adopt Me was released on November 9, 2023, coinciding with the releases of Islander, Robloxia Barbie: The Movie, Bolt 2: A Green Past, and Airplane World! (all 2023). Cerys Woods tweeted that "Adopt Me look like the film that is aimed for all ages, but mostly toward young and older girls, with its colorful world and interesting characters, as well as Elizabeth, the main character and the unicorn that joins with it". Universal Pictures intended for the unicorn to be the "central of the campaign" in the marketing campaign, but executives chose both Elizabeth and the unicorn.

Universal Pictures' ten-month promotional traveling tour, titled Adopt Me: The Magical World, began on January 1, 2024. The tour was originally scheduled to begin in late December 2023, but due to earlier that month's attacks and concerns about another attack, the tour was nearly canceled when it was planned to begin on January 2 of the following year. Several locations were used, including New Blockers City, Stepford City, Bloxico City, Ro-Toronto, Da Hood and Uplift City, where a parade (containing various performances from songwriter Christopher Lowe, plushes and others) were held at the main block of the city. On March 9, 2024, Universal Pictures released a five-minute look at the film, which included interviews with voice actors Rebecca Fraser, Sage Garrison, Frederick Griffiths, Karen Clemons, and Johan Meyer, followed by an announcement of the release of the second trailer. Adopt Me was promoted with several promotional tie-ins, including Bloxy Burgers, Happy Burger, McBloxxers, Pizza Planet and Builder Brothers Pizza. However, by August 2024, Universal Pictures executives were concerned about the film's marketing campaign, stating that "the way that the film was being marketed, which was almost looking like those for young girls, its colorful world and cartoony animation style" would most likely have an effect on the film's box office. Following the warning, the marketing campaign underwent significant changes, such as introducing Oscar, the rest of the animals and focusing more on worldbuilding, while attempting to avoid "the cringiest jokes," which were reportedly ordered to be removed from the film itself, though it never happened.

Home media

Adopt Me was first released on the streaming services Bloxflix and RBO Max on May 2, 2025. It was then released on DVD on May 24, 2025. The film was a huge success, earning around 10 million views in its first weekend between Friday and Saturday and taking first place in terms of the most-viewed film.

Reception

Box office

In the United States, Adopt Me was projected to gross $90–100 million during its opening weekend, partially because of the extraordinary marketing campaign. The film made an estimated $9.7 million on Wednesday previews, increasing projections to $110–120 million. Adopt Me debuted to a strong opening of $25 million on its first day, the best for any Bloxy Animation Productions-produced film, raising estimates to around $130-135 million. The film eventually grossed $69.4 million domestically and $76.2 million internationally, for a global total of $145.6 million, surpassing projections and topping first place at the box office. At the time, the opening weekend results were among the best in Bloxy's history, outside from Foster (2019) and among the best for any film in general in 2024, following a poor-to-average opening debuts for films released that year, though it was surpassed by its next film, Charlotte (2025), the following year. On its second weekend, which was the Thanksgiving holiday, Adopt Me received $74.1 million domestically and $69.8 million internationally, becoming the only film in Bloxy's history to improve on its box office from the first weekend. By the third weekend, the film earned $93.5 million worldwide, a major decrease of 35 percent, yet continued to top the box office in first place and already surpassed those from Judgement Arc's $310.4 million and January 19th's $350 million (2024).

On its fourth weekend, even with a huge decrease of 41%, Adopt Me grossed $55.1 million worldwide and topped the box office. However, by the fifth weekend, the film moved from first to second place after collecting $47 million worldwide, though it was still a major success in the United States. On its sixth weekend, which was the Christmas holiday, the film collected $41.1 million worldwide, with $27.7 of those earned domestically, and remained in second place, though it was seen as a "disappointment" to some as experts at Universal Pictures expected the film to do better than its previous three weekends. However, Universal Pictures executives said that Adopt Me had already earned enough money to be considered a commercial success, with its then-$526.2 million box office, and earned $250-300 million in the United States at the box office. On its seventh weekend by January 2025, the film earned $35.7 million worldwide, including $12 million of those in the United States, and fell to fourth place, with Adopt Me doing better internationally. By the eighth weekend, Adopt Me collected $28.9 million worldwide and continued to be in fourth place. But, the following weekend, the result of an estimated $24 million resulted in Adopt Me dropping to fifth place. Analysts, who were not expecting the film to hold on strong, said it was because the film was "able to do its campaign just right and enough" to get the younger audience, mainly those of girls and women, to be interested in watching the film and that at that time of the film's release, there was barely any competition.

Critical reception

Adopt Me received generally positive reviews from critics. Rebecca Fraser was praised for her performance as Elizabeth. Reviewer Thomas Cunningham, who rated the film a B+, stated: "Fraser does a wonderful job of catching that voice with hope, restlessness and out of the ordinary voice". Millie McDonald enjoyed the film and gave it a 'A", praising it for its story and animation, stating that while the animation "looked completely different" compared to the usual "more-realistic" style that the studio done with their previous three films, the animation style was "kept simple, yet fun to watch" and added that the "facial expressions were the highlight from the characters." Archie Davies praised the film's writing and art style, stating that "it is a very simple story and nowhere near the level of the studio's previous films, yet it is entertaining and colorful for a general audience." Katherine Shaw described the film as a "breath of fresh air" for those who wanted the studio to "aim for a good-old story" and praised Oscar and Elizabeth's relationship as "cute" and "heartwarming".

Drake Alexander, who rated the film a "A", pointed out: "From the outside, it just look like a film with cute animals that is designed to only catch the attention of children with an extreme plain sailing story that is not as down-to-earth and aimed for young girls, but it is instead a film for everyone", praising Adopt Me's animation style, writing and comedy. Daisy Cunningham added, "When I saw the first few minutes of the film, I thought it was going to be the usual children's film that all parents are forced to watch, but no. It is a pretty solid film, with good-to-catchy musical numbers, a straightforward story that is easy for young children to understand, and a colorful use of humor and animation that everyone, including teenagers, should see". Critics praised the animation's use of exaggerated expressions, with Henry Richards comparing the style to "short films from the 1940s to 1960s that our children used to watch when we were younger". Allyson Hutchinson compared the expressions to those "from the classics and newer animes", with "over-the-top screams and the quick speed of a character 'freaking out'." While Emiliano Sears thought the expressions were "the most funniest, yet annoying part of the film," he praised it for "trying something new to make audiences laugh from around the world." The music also received praise for its Broadway-inspired songs. Charlotte Jordan stated that the film's musical numbers "was the most joy that she had given from watching" Adopt Me, and that "she wished that there were much more catchy songs that stand out from the rest, while creating a good experience for everyone."