Cruise is a 2020 animated musical film produced by Bloxy Animation Productions and released by Universal Pictures. The second film produced by the studio, it was directed by John Stevens, who also co-wrote the story with Madison Thomas, Kohen Petty, and Yandel Emerson, based on an original screenplay by Abby Barker and Scott Marsh and produced by Aaron Harvey. Its musical score was composed by the duo Jay Jones and Joshua Carr, with the Broadway-inspired songs written by the songwriter Emma Riley. The voice cast principally consists of Bobby Smith, Kourtney O'Neal, Madison Ferguson, Heidi McDonald, Jamie Cooper, and Amelia York as the six leading protagonists, with Audriana Charles, Sadie Baird, and Brodie Brennan in supporting roles. Cruise follows a group of young adults, Oliver, Olivia, Emma, Daniel, Thomas, and Bella, who go on a luxury cruise line on vacation, led by the over-the-top, yet well-mannered Captain Smith, until something strange starts to happen.
In January 2017, Cruise was among the first concepts that were pitched for a potential feature film, as the studio was expanding toward motion pictures. The idea was inspired by Stevens’s troubled experience on a cruise during a vacation, previously in June 2013.
Cruise was released in the United States of Robloxia on November 20, 2020, to generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the animation, story and humor. It was a commercial success at the box office, grossing $398 million worldwide.
Voice cast
- Bobby Smith as Oliver, a truthful person and the leader of the group, though he sometimes re-evaluate his decisions. During early development, Frankie’s traits were described as “similar” to the film’s director Stevens.
- Kourtney O'Neal as Olivia, an eighteen-year old and is Frankie’s love interest.
- Madison Ferguson as Emma, a nineteen-year old and dreams of becoming a captain herself. Early on, Emma was originally written as the film’s comic relief character. However, as she was given more character development and a bigger role than previous versions, Emma went through a rewrite, to fit the story “perfectly”.
- Heidi Mcdonald as Daniel, a temper and curious twenty-year old, who is the oldest member in the group, though experiences motion sickness while on the cruise. He was inspired by screenwriter Scott Marsh.
Production
Development
Beginning in November 2016, Bloxy Animation Productions announced that they intended to expand into feature films. Two months later, in late January 2017, during a five-hour meeting with Universal Pictures executives, animators, writers, and directors, primarily from the television series Robloxians (2013-2026), were asked to pitch ideas for the studio's first film; they had been given more than a month to discuss concepts since December 2016. Among the various ideas was to create an original Fairytale film, which was rejected by the executives because it was "too boring"; an animated adaptation of the books Telamonia and The Bloxdifyers, which were originally in development but were later scrapped due to story issues. John Stevens then pitched a concept about a group of people on an expensive cruise who notice something strange about their captain, which was deemed "interesting" and shortly after, began early development under Universal Pictures; though Stevens wanted the film to be computer-animated, the studio believed that traditional animation was a "better idea and was much more satisfying," and was reportedly given a budget of $50 million.
Stevens had been thinking about the idea since July 2015 and had written several treatments, the majority of which remained unfinished due to his busy schedule with other projects. The concept was inspired by his previous experiences on a cruise line in June 2013. Following that, in December 2016, Stevens was approached by several writers, including Abby Barker and Thiago Wade, to discuss several concepts for the studio's debut film. During that meeting, Stevens considered his cruise concept and proposed that a group of adults go on a cruise, with the main antagonist being a twist-villain with "this over-the-top personality and one that cares for everyone no matter what". He also planned a concept in which workers were forced to be happy in order to avoid punishment and "hide their feelings". Though Stevens' idea initially did not pique the two's interest, as the former believed it "would be a generic story," Stevens' idea eventually persuaded them to join the project.
Stevens agreed with Barker and Wade that early on, the project would be a comedy film. They were inspired by Adoption (1983) to include horror elements, but toned down to make it more accessible to all groups of people. However, when creating the villain, who was originally named John, they realized that Josh was becoming "more of a theatrical villain" shortly after writing a early demo called "My Hearts for You" and decided that the film needed to be a musical, to fit the tone of what John was meant to be, along with the concept of the songs giving the characters "self-development in how who they were truly are," including adding foreshadowing, being inspired by personal experiences, and "driving the story forward" with its emotional impact. Stevens stated that another reason the film was a musical was that they had difficulty finding a well-structured story without "thinking of adding a musical number," as well as the fact that Universal Pictures learned about the project and wanted it to be a musical, following the major successes of their previous musical films, on the condition that it be inspired by Broadway performances and fit the Revues genre.
Writing
Abby Barker, who helped develop the concept, and Scott Marsh were hired to write the screenplay. Thiago Wade had planned to write the story with Stevens and had written a treatment, but he chose to focus on his next project instead; he was given "story by" credit. When developing Smith, Stevens stated that while the team "had a clear idea," they were faced with problems on how to make Smith "less threatening" so that audiences believed he was "generally a good guy that wants to help the group on their trip." Stevens suggested using foreshadowing, such as shadows and lighting, to highlight Smith's future actions and transformation into a "perilous villain". Initially, the story only included Smith as the only person on the cruise, but Abby's idea was to add workers and have Smith gaslight them into believing the people that "nothing serious was taking place"; a trait that the team decided to add into the workers was to have the characters "fake smile" while being shown "close to crying". Marsh stated that the concept would give the audience a "sense that something strange and dangerous was actually happening behind the scenes".
Because the film featured six protagonists, the production team wanted the characters to have distinct traits, personalities, and goals without being too similar to one another, and to present them in a reasonable amount of time within 90 minutes. To make them more interesting, Stevens stated that the team intended to include a romantic relationship between one of the protagonists, which was originally planned to be with Emma and Oliver (originally named Frankie), but was dropped in favor of Oliver and Olivia. Emma was initially written as the comic relief character, with "no idea what she was doing" and "often messing around or bothering the other characters". However, following a test screening in which audiences disliked Emma for "trying to be funny," the writers decided to rewrite Emma and give her a much larger role in the film. Because the film was entirely set on a cruise ship, except for the first ten minutes, the team was given creative freedom to develop the character development for all six protagonists, who wrote the scripts to have them all "work together to help defeat the villain" without "siding one of them away". A plan was to have Emma develop an emotional connection with Smith about her goals and being inspired by him, with the reveal that he was the villain devastating her and making her reconsider her decision to become a captain, but this was scrapped later.
Later, during production, Emma was written to have known a cruise line employee; while originally planned to be off-screen, the story expanded to include Emma meeting the person, who was named Jamie. The production team added clues into the writing, such as objects and words, to help the story move forward in a timely and effective manner. Several gags were added in for each character, including Daniel dealing with ocean sickness; Oliver rethinking her decisions about telling her that he loved her; Olivia messing around "like a child"; Emma being a "nervous and over-the-top joy" whenever an event occurs; Thomas dealing with the allergies; and Bella, who is annoyed by the group's actions and leaves to find peace. Originally, when considering adding the horror genre, the first ideas were to have Smith transform into a ghost late in the story and the workers become zombies, but these were scrapped very early. The production team initially struggled with how Olivia would be the first person in the group to "sense something odd," including planning with Oliver and Emma, but they ultimately wrote the role for Olivia.
Casting
Following the project's announcement in April 2019, Bobby Smith and Kourtney O'Neal were confirmed to play Oliver and Olivia. When casting the two characters, Stevens stated: "We need two people who can deliver such heartfelt and powerful emotions, while also being ordinary and making it so that they actually generally love each other and will protect each other no matter what." Smith was cast as Oliver in February 2019, and Neal as Olivia in March of the same year.
Design
When developing the worldbuilding, the production team expected it to be simple, but "after working for an estimated five months," they realized that it was "much more complex," and while "not at the same level as those from Foster," a significant amount of time was spent on creating the cruise's designs. The cruise was inspired by those from Royal Fantasy Cruises, with whom the team went on a five-day research trip to gather ideas and take videos and photos of the ship. When designing the characters, they based the designs on their respective traits and personalities, with Oliver's design colors being light blue (for truthful) and orange (for rethinking). Oliver was of English descent, so the character's traits were to include a sense of humor and politeness, which the team used visual metaphors to do so.