| Imagine That | |
|---|---|
Promotional film poster |
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| Directed by | Karey Kirkpatrick |
| Produced by | Lorenzo di Bonaventura Ed Solomon |
| Written by | Ed Solomon Christopher Matheson |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Mark Mancina |
| Cinematography | John Lindley |
| Editing by | David Moritz |
| Studio | Nickelodeon Movies |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | June 12, 2009 |
| Running time | 107 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $55 million[1] |
| Box office | $22,985,194[1] |
Imagine That is a 2009 comedy-drama film starring Eddie Murphy, Thomas Haden Church, Nicole Ari Parker, Martin Sheen, Marin Hinkle, and Yara Shahidi. Imagine That takes place in Denver, Colorado, (which can be identified by the skyline and landmarks). It centers on the relationship between a workaholic father (Eddie Murphy), and his daughter, Olivia (Yara Shahidi), whose imaginary world becomes the solution to her father's success. Among the cast is veteran actor Ronny Cox who last starred with Eddie Murphy in his blockbuster series, Beverly Hills Cop.[2] This was the last Nickelodeon movie in the 2000s, and before the logo change.
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Evan Danielson (Eddie Murphy) is a very successful corporate businessman, who had been working at the same company for eight years as the top man, that is until Johnny Whitefeather (Thomas Haden Church) was hired as his rival. Whitefeather seems to have the whole company under some spell as he spiels his nonsensical idioms filled with Native American mumbo jumbo. These top executives seem more content with chanting Indian style noises rather than listen to how they can make money through sound investments. When Evan finally discovers that his daughter, Olivia (Yara Shahidi), is somehow able to tell the future within the business world by using her 'goo-gaa' comfort blanket and her imaginary friends (Queen Qwali and Princesses Kupida, Sopida and Mopida), he discovers he has an invaluable upper hand now at the office.
In order for Evan to ask these imaginary friends any question he must travel through the imaginary world, through a dense forest, past a dragon, through caves, and even walk through France. Before, Evan who is a part-time father really had no time for his daughter, now is forced to play with her and by her rules. After only a couple of days with her, he rediscovers the inner child within himself and genuinely has a lot of fun playing these imaginary games with Olivia.
Whitefeather becomes suspicious and begins to search for Evan's secret. When he finds out that Evan was just playing with a blanket, he purchased a six thousand dollar blanket and forces his son to tell he the "future" and making him extremely hyperactive by making him drink many cans of Red Bull.
Whitefeather and Evan are now competing for the position of heading the western division of the company D.D.E. In order to be prepared for the most important presentation of his life, Evan must once again invoke the use of the Goo-Gaa blanket and meet up with the princesses. The only problem is that Olivia is spending the night at her friends house, and there is no way for Evan to obtain said Goo-Gaa. Also, the presentation showdown will be held on Saturday, the day of Olivia's class play...
The score to Imagine That was composed by Mark Mancina, who had previously worked with director Karey Kirkpatrick on Over the Hedge. He recorded his score with an 83-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage.[3]
The film is a co-production between Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies. Because Hotel for Dogs was released by DreamWorks instead of Paramount, Paramount reunited with Nickelodeon Movies to co-produce the film.
The film received mixed reviews from critics.[4] Rotten Tomatoes reported that 38% of critics gave positive reviews based on 73 reviews with an average score of 5.1/10.[5] Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average of 53% based on 22 reviews.[4]
On its opening weekend, the film opened #6 grossing $5,503,519 in 3,008 theaters with an $1,830 average.[6] As of August 9, 2009, the film has grossed $22,985,194 worldwide, making this a box office flop.[1] This opened similar to Eddie Murphy's previous summer movie Meet Dave which also opened poorly its opening week. However, Meet Dave received worse reviews than Imagine That. Murphy was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor on his work in the film.
Imagine That was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 13, 2009.[7]
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