Noob (fictional character)

Noob (novato in Spanish) is a fictional character and the main protagonist who appears in Universal Pictures and Features Studio's 2024 animated musical film Roblox: The Feature Film. The character is voiced by adult actor Adam M. Epic, who provides both the speaking and singing voices. Child actor Mackenzie Morrison also provided vocals for the role, especially for flashback scenes and the film's opening and finale. The role is instead performed by Darragh Webb (normal voice) and Cordelia Gonzales (singing) in various media, such as short films based on the film. In the film, Noob begins off completely homeless with just a single job, however one day the antagonist transports everybody onto various planets around space in order to have a chance of destroying the whole universe and establishing himself as the supreme ruler. In an attempt to stop the evil individual, he encounters across a lot of old friends and lost Robloxians, and they as a whole accomplish their goal of preventing the bad guy from doing more damage.

Bunnicula Ryan, Hugh James, Rhoda Ortiz, and Anthony Owens worked collaboratively to develop the character's original concept and development. Before the final version of the film was made, a number of attempts to make a full-length animated film based on the video game Roblox were made, but every single one of them were discarded. One of them got as far as development under the concept name Noob in the Magic World!, but the project was then canceled after the studio was sued. The character that had been originally intended to be replaced with a Guest was added back after the movie had undergone its first rewrite by director John "Blox" Madson in an effort to honor the "earlier ideas" and pay respect to them. However, as the proposal was reworked, it became clear that the character was difficult to develop because John insisted that the role need to be afraid "about something" but producers and the crew team wanted him to be "brave". Prospero Medina, an animator, proposed the notion that during the entire movie, he is shown to blame himself a lot. The character was eventually developed and designed after two years of animation and four years of writing.

Noob had been positively received by critics, audience and fans of the video game. Many commended the character's bravery while being frightened, friendliness, charisma, and rich characterisation with most of them dubbed the character the most outstanding in the whole film. Some people even described Adam M. Epic's singing voice as "breathtaking," especially when he sang the song "I Wish This Never, Never Happen." Adam M. Epic has also received accolades for his singing talent in the role.

Development

Origins, design and writing

A full-length animated feature based on the Roblox video game was attempted multiple times before the character was established. When Tiana was expelled from the firm after one of her most recent films once again tanked at the box office, she presented a studio a concept about a heroine traveling between several worlds and attempting to stop a villain. This is when the earlier of them started. After hearing about the initiative, the producers had mixed feelings, but they eventually loved the concept and gave the project the go-ahead a year later. The film had a working title when it was first being developed, which was Noob in the Magic World!. However, as it was being made, the crew came up with numerous plot ideas and made some significant changes. Ultimately, the movie was cancelled in 2011 after the studio was sued. A second effort was made a year later, with Tom altering the majority of the plot. This time, the film made it as far as early production, but it was canceled for unspecified reasons.

When they first started working on the project, Tiana and Tom had originally intended for the main character to be a Guest rather than a Noob. However, because the character was receiving negative feedback at the time, they decided to switch to a different, more well-liked character. However, a few days later, they went back to the original plan. When John reworked the project into a movie that "would change animation forever," he wanted to include the Noob. However, unlike the two writers' earlier draft of the script, he wanted the character to have a major focus. Despite his fears that the character would be despised, John still chose to go with the character to at least be as respectful to the early version of the movie as possible. He wanted the character to cope with a problem that had never been depicted in earlier movies, so he rewrote the script to reflect this. John wanted the character to have "sort of a fear" of anything horrible but the other members of the film team thought it would be ideal to have the character be "brave" throughout the screenplay revision process. According to John, "a character doesn't relate to the audience if they don't have dread in them. But if you do have a person, an animal, a monster, or anything else that conveys terror, then others may relate to it since it's possible that you once had fear and overcame it.

He proposed various ideas to the team members about what dread Noob would have in him while he was trying to make the character have one. One of them first chose to have the character dread getting hurt, and John loved the concept. However, a few days later, he returned with a new suggestion, claiming that the original one "didn't make sense" and that he now wanted a character to express strong hatred of something. After some consideration, it was determined that the character would have an acute dread of "death," a concept that has been employed in several shows and films in the past. John immediately started working on further developing and constructing the character after hearing the concept. Bunnicula Ryan, Hugh James, Rhoda Ortiz, and Anthony Owens were enlisted to create the character for the first time throughout the process. The character's design was incredibly simple for the team since he was "designed in a special way as he was "squarely" and had only green, blue, and yellow colors." When Tiana learned that the character was being worked on, she asked to be the designer for it. John told her that there were already four people working on it, so he offered her the job of supervising director instead. At that point, the first look of the film was also revealed in 2020 as a way to start showcasing their plans for the movie. Universal Pictures then gave the film an expected release date of 2023, demonstrated the title as The Roblox Epic Feature-Film!, and released the following summary for the early version of Roblox: The Feature Film.

A long time ago, in the center of the city of Roblox, a person and several other people were drawn from their calm existence and into a terrifying and dangerous world that they had never seen. One individual, a Noob in actuality, must save the entire world from peril. They go out to find the admin and together, they must destroyed him once and for all with the help of his friends, Guest, and several lost Robloxians in their route.

The character underwent a number of design alterations at this point. Early on, the creators wanted the character to have green, white, and red, but the design team decided he should resemble the video game character. "They wanted the character to be respectful and stay true to the design in the video game," one of the producers said. The animated movie had eventually reached its halfway point at that point. The character in the movie was given the name Noob. G. Paul; this was partly because John wanted to give the character a legitimate name, and some of them scribbled the name "Paul" and the letter "G" into each other, which John considered as a good name. John had said that he didn't want to miss it when he originally created the character, but as the process went on, he discovered that he liked to draw characters and started to become a fan. Noob was initially intended to be a homeless man who worked at a business where the other employees treated him badly while the screenplay for the movie was being written. The video game's early issues, such as "players hating on Noobs," served as inspiration for this. John remembered "saying that the Noob were the main reason on why Roblox became popular in the first place and wanted to be nice to the designs as well."

The movie was then postponed from its initial April 11, 2023 release to the same year in March 2022, giving it a new release date of November 22, 2023. John struggled mightily to determine the proper timing for giving Noob significant character development while he was writing the book. One of the animators, Prospero Medina, devised a sequence in which the character began to hate himself and blame himself for his bad behavior while others were looking. The majority of the team, including John, who continues to play the character, appreciated the concept. After two years of animation and four years of design, the character ultimately underwent final development and design.

Voice

On July 24, 2018, Adam. M. Epic was reported to be cast by Universal Pictures for the role and singing voice of Noob. Joachim Hall and Michael Stone were supposed to contribute the character's monologues in the early drafts of the film, but once the project was put on hold those arrangements were never fulfilled. When Tom's version was in development, he wanted Harrison White, who had an illustrious track record for portraying characters from video games in the past, to play the parts. However, his version was also canceled. John didn't intend on starting casting actors for his version of the movie until he had finished developing the character. Instead, he wanted to do that before going out and finding actors to play the part. Casting began after the character was completed. When the process initially began, John envisioned the character to be performed by Jean-Pierre Robertson, a well-known actor who had worked for the production company for numerous years. However, at the time, John considered it would be best to refuse to let him be hired because he had been collaborating on several other projects. Sebastian Reynolds was among of those who were considered for the part after discovering about the endeavor and requested that he play the part. When John heard his voice, he let him go and swapped him with Michael Johnson, who John loved but also didn't think was the appropriate actor.

After months of investigating, Adam was officially selected as the character's actor. Before discovering about the project, Alex had been taking a break from performing and had been relaxing, but he then made the decision that he would go back to the studio and start acting. Alex remarked that he "always loves video game characters and wants to voice one really badly." He was delighted to learn that he would be contributing his voice to the position. Recording for the character did not begin until late 2020, nevertheless, as a result of the animation process and production schedule. However, it is said that over the two years before to recording, Alex went to the recording studio and taped his lines for the movie. One of them was a joke that ran, "Well, if you're interested in robux, then you aren't able to obtain them because those idiots are taking them all!." The producers thought the phrase was "very funny," but Alex opted to take it out of the finished product since he thought it was just a joke-making experiment. Although Alex had a sharp sense of humor before working on the movie, he didn't always use it. When he was speaking most of his lines, he remembers being "worried" that he may forget one of his jokes, but in the end, he ended up appreciating the tape he had made.

A song about Noob not taking responsibility for his actions and wishing that "this never never happen" was presented to the recording studio by one of the composers during the songwriting process. Alex cries a little bit and immediately decided to record the song after hearing the demo version. Alex unexpectedly broke down in tears towards the conclusion of the song as it was being recorded. When he started sobbing, he remembered, "I felt like I needed to use this as a way to make my character more strong, but weak at his lowest point in his life." "I Wish This Never, Never Happen" would be the title of the song Alex had recorded.

Characterization

Physical appearance

Instead of wearing a frock or pants, Noob is depicted in the movie as merely squares, unlike the other characters—with the exception of Guest and a few Robloxians—and is colored the same way as every Noob in the video game: yellow, green, and blue. After being teleported into the Disney world, Noob is shown sporting a Mickey mouse cap later in the movie, although he is still seen without a shirt. Later, towards the very end of the movie, when everyone is freed from the antagonist, he is finally shown wearing a shirt and pants, having been dressed up for the first time in his life by Roblox in a cameo.

When Noob first appears in the short film The Noobs, he is wearing a red shirt that proclaims, "This one save our lives!" He next appears wearing his usual shirt and slacks.

Personality and traits

The film portrays a loving, kind, and primarily reserved picture of Noob. The film opens with the revelation that Noob is frequently made fun of by other people for his great shyness, which he tries desperately to overcome but simultaneously is unable to do. Additionally, he exhibits difficulties in his work because, at one point, he mistakenly believes that his mother is still alive. When he realizes that he was mistaken, he drops a plate of food and makes a mess, probably expressing his dislike for people who "see a another person and think that is their family member," which results in them crying uncontrollably, jumping for joy, or simply becoming terrified. He receives a reprimand for his inappropriate behavior as a result, and when he is asked to leave, he sobs profusely, giving the impression that he is primarily a "cry-baby" while, in fact, he is deeply down and hopeless. In spite of this, he is depicted in a flashback as "not shy at all" and feeling "happy" while his parents were still living. But after his parents were both murdered in front of him, his demeanor altered instantly, and as a result, he now struggles with severe trauma.

He later appears to be "very scared" throughout the movie after getting teleported, and he even breaks down in tears again at one point. He is depicted as "happy" while attempting to control his tears when someone sees him and helps him. Many people also consider Noob to be "average". This is partially depicted after Noob is dropped into the Roblox city world, where he witnesses several people staring at him with distaste or just staring at him, which makes him fear that "no one is going to like him." In one of the opening scenes of the movie, Noob is dealing with a screaming child. After a while, however, he had had enough and started throwing things at the child before crying and running out of the house. This scene illustrates how Noob always "exploded" when dealing with difficult situations and became easily enraged. It was later revealed that he also became "more and more hopeless" as a result of getting bullied, losing part of his sense of humor, having a child, and having these circumstances. After the villain had successfully managed to capture all of the Robloxians in the midst of the movie, Noob didn't become angry; instead, he turned sad and became even more disturbed when the Guest began blaming him.

Though Noob tries not to blame him and instead wishes that "this never, never happen," his personality peaks during the song "I Wish This Never, Never Happen." Even though he believes he is to blame for the problem, everyone has been clapping for him since one of the Disney songs, and some of his friends have even said that "they are proud" of him. He is really interested in finding a new career because he is homeless after the death of his parents. He is also terrified of awful things occurring to him and to everyone else. This is demonstrated when Noob is holding on to the villain and he notices Guest doing the same thing. Noob then begins to become very concerned that he and his friend would fall to their deaths. Some of his attributes are also related to other characters in the movie. For instance, Noob starts sobbing after one of the Robloxians sobs in one of the scenarios, and then both of them do.

Returning to his personality, it is clear that he enjoys music and dancing, as evidenced by the fact that he can be seen dancing a lot during the song "Noob, Noob." Noob is occasionally seen practicing dancing in the background at random moments. In a flashback, he explains that the reason he dances is because one of his buddies used to dance frequently, which led him to have a strong interest in dancing. However, Noob eventually reveals that he is being overly protective of Guest. One of the Robloxians, who happens to be Guest's best buddy, tries to embrace him in one of the movie's sequences, but Noob pulls him back and blocks his vision. It is revealed that after his parents passed away, he tried to shield everyone from harm, including kind individuals.

Appearances

Roblox: The Feature Film

• Main article: Roblox: The Feature Film (2024 film)

The Noobs

• Main article: The Noobs