CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS: THE FIRST EPIC MOVIE

Title : Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

Language : English

Release Date : May 21, 2017 (Regency Village Theater)

June 2, 2017 (United States)

Directed By : David Soren

Distributed By : 20th Century Fox

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is a 2017 American computer-animated comedy film based on the children's novel series of the same name by Dav Pilkey. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation and Scholastic Entertainment, with animation production provided by Mikros Image Montreal. It was directed by David Soren from a screenplay by Nicholas Stoller, and stars the voices of Kevin Hart, Ed Helms, Thomas Middleditch, Nick Kroll, Jordan Peele, and Kristen Schaal. The plot follows two imaginative elementary school pranksters named George Beard and Harold Hutchins (Hart and Middleditch) who hypnotize their mean-spirited principal, Mr. Krupp (Helms), into thinking he is Captain Underpants, a superhero who fights crime while wearing only underwear and a cape who George and Harold write comic books about.

The film premiered on May 21, 2017 at the Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles, and was released in the United States on June 2, 2017 in 3D and 2D. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and has grossed $104 million worldwide against a budget of $38 million, making it the lowest-budgeted computer-animated feature of DreamWorks Animation's history. This was the last DreamWorks Animation film distributed by 20th Century Fox, before Universal Pictures will take over distribution in 2019 with How to Train Your Dragon 3.

Plot

In Piqua, Ohio, George Beard (Kevin Hart) and Harold Hutchins (Thomas Middleditch) are two fourth-grade friends and next-door neighbors who often express their sense of humor at their school, bringing joy and laughter to Jerome Horwitz Elementary School. The duo frequently prank the cruel teachers at the school, especially the ill-mannered misanthropic principal, Benjamin "Benny" Krupp (Ed Helms), which puts them at odds with him. The duo also create comic books about Captain Underpants, a superhero who fights crime while wearing only underwear and a cape. They sell these to their schoolmates through a comic company called Treehouse Comix Inc, housed in their treehouse. George and Harold's pranks come to an apparent end after they tamper with a toilet invention called the Turbo Toilet 2000 made by the school's local snitch, intellectual Melvin Sneedly (Jordan Peele), who shows Krupp footage recorded by the Tattle Turtle 200, a stuffed turtle with a nanny cam hidden inside of its head. This causes Krupp to decide to put the boys in separate classes and annihilate their friendship.

To prevent this, George hypnotizes Krupp with a 3D Hypno Ring he received out of a cereal box. Seeing that that Krupp bears a resemblance to Captain Underpants without his toupee, they command him to be Captain Underpants. The boys soon learn the severity of their acts when Captain Underpants begins causing trouble around Piqua and take him to their treehouse. There they discover that they can turn Captain Underpants back into Krupp by splashing water on him and can turn him back by snapping their fingers. Believing that Krupp will continue with his plan to separate them, they decide to settle with Captain Underpants but insist that he be dressed up as Krupp under the pretense of a secret identity to which Captain Underpants agrees. His sudden personality change even manages to attract the attention and affection of the school's shy and clumsy lunch lady, Edith (Kristen Schaal).

Just when George and Harold believe that their troubles have ended, Jerome Horwitz Elementary School is visited by an odd, German-accented scientist named Professor P. (Nick Kroll). Captain Underpants (disguised as Krupp) immediately hires him to be a new teacher, but George and Harold are suspicious of him. As it turns out, his full name is Professor Pee-Pee Diarrheastein Poopypants, Esq., and he is seeking to get rid of laughter altogether, due to the fact that people have made fun of his name for years. He recruits Melvin to help him and soon finds out his brain is incapable of having fun.

George and Harold attempt to make the school fun by having Captain Underpants orchestrate a concert with whoopee cushions and reopen an art program shut down by Krupp long ago. Soon, the boys discover that Underpants ordered a carnival and put the teachers in detention. The boys try to keep Captain Underpants from getting splashed by water, but it starts to rain and Captain Underpants turns back into Krupp. He sees the chaos that occurred from the carnival, and finally separates the boys.

Soon, Professor Poopypants tries to take over the town with a giant version of the Turbo Toilet 2000, fueled by the school cafeteria's rotten leftovers left out by Edith, and uses Melvin's brain to turn the children into glum, humorless zombies. Captain Underpants tries to stop the villain, but due to having no actual superpowers, is effortlessly defeated and thrown into the toilet. George and Harold are captured and turned into zombies, but begin laughing upon Professor Poopypants mentioning Uranus and gas giants as planets he would remove laughter from later. Due to this, they are able to break the trance and escape when their excessive laughter damages the Turbo Toilet 2000's computer. Upon consuming the mutated leftovers, Captain Underpants acquires superpowers. He manages to confiscate a shrinking and enlarging ray used by Professor Poopypants, and shrinks him, though he escapes shortly thereafter on a bee.

Knowing that they cannot control Captain Underpants, George and Harold destroy the Hypno Ring in an attempt to permanently change him back into Krupp and agree to maintain their friendship. Feeling that Krupp would be nicer if he had friends, the boys set him and lovesick Edith up on a date, thus making Krupp have a change of heart; he returns the comics he took away from George and Harold, and even admits their comics are funny. However, the toxic waste from the Turbo Toilet 2000 transforms all the toilets into vicious monsters that attack the restaurant at which Mr. Krupp and Edith are dining. Upon snapping his fingers, Mr. Krupp once again becomes Captain Underpants and flies away, carrying George and Harold away to help him fight them.

In a mid-credits scene, George and Harold realize that the secretary, Miss Anthrope (Grey Griffin), who they put on the phone earlier by faking a $1 billion contest has been on hold for the whole movie. After Miss Anthrope accidentally hangs up and gets mad, George and Harold make a new comic based on her reaction titled "Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Stuck On Hold Woman".