| Ramona and Beezus | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Elizabeth Allen |
| Produced by | Denise Di Novi Alison Greenspan[1] |
| Written by |
Laurie Craig |
| Starring | Joey L. King Selena Gomez Hutch Dano Ginnifer Goodwin John Corbett Bridget Moynahan Josh Duhamel Sandra Oh |
| Music by | Mark Mothersbaugh |
| Cinematography | John Bailey |
| Editing by | Jane Moran |
| Studio | Di Novi Pictures Walden Media |
| Distributed by | Fox 2000 Pictures |
| Release date(s) | July 23, 2010 |
| Running time | 103 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15 million[2] |
| Box office | $27,293,743[3] |
Ramona and Beezus is a 2010 Fox-Walden film adaptation of the Ramona series of novels by Beverly Cleary.[4][5] The film's title derives from Beezus and Ramona, the first of Cleary's Ramona books, though the plot is mostly based on the sequels, particularly Ramona Forever and Ramona's World.
Contents |
The film opens with adventurous and creative third grader Ramona Quimby (Joey King) playing on the monkey bars during recess along with her best friend, Howie Kemp (Jason Spevack). Ramona echoes Howie's name as if she were above the Grand Canyon. When Ramona becomes frightened by the height of the monkey bars, she sticks her feet in two rings and lets go with her hands. Howie runs to find their teacher, Mrs. Meacham (Sandra Oh), while Ramona yells for help. Dorothy Quimby (Bridget Moynahan), Ramona's mother, asks Ramona to set the table and add another plate for Aunt Beatrice (Ginnifer Goodwin). Ramona's older sister, Beatrice, nicknamed Beezus (Selena Gomez), takes Ramona's task and does so herself. Report cards are in and Robert Quimby (John Corbett), Ramona's father, inspects Beezus' card, which is overall good. When he asks Ramona about hers, it seems that she hid it in the freezer and hesitantly decides to give it to her father. When Aunt Bea arrives, she finds Ramona sitting on a tree branch, where Ramona tells her she wants to become a train conductor when she's older. Meanwhile, Howie tells Ramona that his uncle, Hobart (Josh Duhamel), is coming to live with him. It is revealed that Bea and Hobart had feelings for each other when they were younger. The next day at school, Ramona is trying to describe something that happened to her the following week. She says that construction workers came to her home and broke a big hole in the side of her house for a new room. Although this is true, Mrs. Meacham does not believe her, despite Ramona's claim that Howie did it, which Howie denies. The following day, Ramona's father loses his job and they are in debt of their home. Ramona overhears her parents' conversation and decides she's going to sell lemonade. Beezus sees Henry Huggins (Hutch Dano), the paper boy, and spits lemonade in his face due to a fly landing in her glass of lemonade and gets angry at Ramona. After that mistake, she decides to sell "delishus car wash $20", but that backfires also.
After accidentally painting Hobart's 1996 Range Rover multiple colors, she retires. The next day, Ramona's father accidentally gives her a raw egg in her lunch, and after cracking the egg on her head, gets it in her hair. Her teacher tries to take the raw egg out of her hair, but most of it remains stuck in her hair. Instead of the photographer saying "cheese", he says "peas", causing Ramona to interrupt with a great big "Ew!", ruining her portrait. The next day in music class, Ramona throws up on the drums, causing her to be picked up by her father. She then stays at home with Beezus. After trying to make dinner for her parents, the pan catches fire. Ramona interrupts Beezus on the phone with Henry, so Beezus yells at Ramona for always being a little pest and ruining her love life. Shocked, Ramona questions Beezus that she has a love life, but neither of them realize that Henry is still on the phone and has overheard their whole conversation. When Ramona goes to feed her cat, Picky-Picky, in the basement later that night, she sees him lying in his basket, dead. Ramona runs upstairs to tell Beezus to come to the basement. They then hold a private funeral in their backyard. In their prayers, they say that Picky-Picky will always be with them. The girls become closer and nicer to each other. That night Ramona's father returns from a job interview and happily tells the family he got the job, but would have to relocate the family to eastern Oregon and sell the house. Soon after, the family begins to prepare their home for an open house.
While touching up the garden, Ramona reluctantly helps and grabs the water hose. While doing this, she accidentally squirts Hobart, who is next door with his family in their backyard. Hobart, believing Bea had purposely shot him with the water hose, retaliates by tossing a bucket of water on Bea, and a water fight ensues between both neighbors. During the water wars, Ramona whispers to Bea and the family retreats, only to sneak into their neighbor's backyard to set off the sprinklers. After their neighbors admit defeat, Ramona's father tries to turn off the sprinklers, but breaks the shut off valve and the pipes of the sprinklers begin to burst, flooding the backyard. As the backyard fills with water, a shoebox in a ziploc bag pops up from underground. Immediately knowing the contents of the box, Hobart rushes to retrieve it. He calls out to Bea and shows her the keepsakes from their relationship he stored inside the shoebox. Hobart pulls out a ring with a large, purple gem and gets down on one knee and proposes to Bea. She hesitantly accepts and they kiss passionately under the water still spewing from the sprinklers. Both families head into the neighbor's home to dry off, as the open house is occurring at Ramona's house. Furious that her aunt broke her promise not to get "reeled in", Ramona rushes to her house and seeks solace in the attic. The beams are unable to support her weight and break, leaving Ramona's legs dangling from the roof during the open house.
After the open house clears out Ramona's mother tends to her scratched up knees and legs in the bathroom. Ramona's father, tired of her antics, walks in and scolds her for not being mature enough. Feeling she's not wanted, Ramona goes to her room and begins packing to run away, declaring she's going to be gone "forever". Her mother tries to talk her out of it, but then devises a plan and helps her pack up a suitcase. Ramona, with her heavy suitcase in hand, heads out of the house with no one to stop her. As she is walking, she imagines traveling to far places, such as New York City, Paris, and Egypt. She finally comes to a bus stop and sits atop her suitcase. It shifts under her weight, so she opens it discovering a bowling ball and a book her father would draw doodles of Ramona and her mischievous ways. As the bus pulls up, she hears her mother's voice over a baby monitor inside the suitcase. The bus takes off without Ramona, revealing her family in their car searching for her. As the family is reunited, Ramona's mother tells her she purposely packed the bowling ball to make her suitcase heavy, so she could not have gone far.
As Aunt Bea and Hobart's wedding begins, Ramona and Beezus clasp hands as they head down the aisle as bridesmaids. During the ceremony, Howie fumbles his role as ringbearer by dropping the rings. Ramona quickly finds the rings so the ceremony can continue. Afterwards, during the reception, Beezus and Henry share a kiss and then dance. Ramona's father comes across a better job as an art teacher at Ramona's school. She excitedly thanks her teacher, telling her the family will not have to move after all, to which her teacher sarcastically replies that she is looking forward to having Ramona for the rest of the year. Before Hobart and Aunt Bea leave for their honeymoon in Alaska, Ramona runs outside to Hobart's painted Range Rover to give a gift to her Aunt Beatrice a locket with her school picture.
Ramona and Beezus was released in theaters on July 23, 2010, by 20th Century Fox and Walden Media to 2,719 theaters nationwide, and was rated "G" by MPAA, becoming the studio's fourth G-rated film after 1997's Anastasia and 2008's Horton Hears a Who! and Space Chimps, and before 2011's Rio and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.
The trailer was released on March 18, 2010, and was shown in theaters along with How to Train Your Dragon, The Last Song, Despicable Me, Toy Story 3, and 20th Century Fox's other films, including Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Marmaduke. The film premiered in New York on July 20, 2010.
It was released in Irish and British cinemas on October 22, 2010, and in France on January 15, 2011.
Ramona and Beezus earned generally positive reviews. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, gives the film an average of 6.2/10 and a rating of 70% based on 27 reviews. Dan Kois of Washington Post says, "If Ramona and Beezus fails to capture the essence of its classic source, material, it's sunny, sweet, and wholesome." Ian Buckwalter of NPR says, "Honesty about the difficulties, both large and small, of being part of a family is what Ramona and Beezus does best, even if the rough and dangerous edges have been filed down."
The film earned $3 million on opening day, and $7.8 million on its opening weekend, ranking sixth at the box office. The film ended up grossing $26.1 million domestically and $27.3 million worldwide, becoming a box office success versus its $15 million budget.
| "Live Like There's No Tomorrow" | |
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"Live Like There's No Tomorrow" cover |
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| Promotional single by Selena Gomez & the Scene from the album Ramona and Beezus and A Year Without Rain | |
| Released | July 13, 2010 |
| Format | Digital download |
| Recorded | 2010 |
| Genre | Pop rock, soft rock, ballad |
| Length | 4:07 |
| Writer | Matt Bronleewe, Nicky Chinn, Andrew Fromm, Meghan Kabir |
| Producer | Superspy |
"Live Like There's No Tomorrow" was released as a soundtrack single on July 13, 2010.[6] There is currently no music video for the single. It is performed by Selena Gomez & the Scene and also appears on their second studio album A Year Without Rain.
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