The Kidriends

The Kidriends is a 1994 American animated musical-comedy film produced by Bear Bones Productions and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film revolves around a group of elementary school kids going on a journey to save the world from Lord De.

The film was released on March 18, 1994, by Columbia Pictures to critical and financial success, earning $302 million on a $53 million budget. In addition to home media releases and theatrical re-releases, Material has run the gamut from toys, video games, theme park attractions, spin-offs, merchandise, and three sequels—The Kidriends 2 (1996), The Kidriends: Future of Growin’ In (2005) and The Kidriends: The Child-coming (2010)—all of which have garnered commercial success.

On May 1, 2014, Maloing Entertainment and Sony Pictures Animation released a computer-animated reboot film under the same name.

Plot
He sleeping while the alarm clock, Joshua slams on the alarm clock, turning it off, then Joshua leaps out of bed, leading us to a quick montage of Joshua getting ready for the last day of school.

Joshua and his friends are heading into elementary school. But, Lord De is seeking revenge on Joshua, his friends, his family, and their friends, and it's up to Joshua and his friends to save the world.

A new student coming, Ms. Tripper and Mr. Pample said. This new student's name is Samuel. Bob looks at the schedule and now was time for recess, he’s ringing, Now the kids running for recess.

Now back to the school and last day of school, Nick and Eleana on each other, while Willa plans to ruin their show, but she fails. After her failure, Willa furiously yells that she reveals that she will transfer Samuel and Paintboy away from this school and make school all day. Unbeknownst to her, Willa was fired from school as principal. After school, Joshua and Samuel prepare to leave school and still talking. Bob ringing and Tripper's announcer talking for a new female student, and Joshua and Samuel share a worried smile.

Voice cast

 * Dana Hill as Joshua, a brave 9-year-old boy.
 * Kath Soucie as Samuel, Joshua's classmate and best friend.
 * Mala Miles as Paintboy, a creature made of paint and art supplies.
 * Ziggy Miles as Nick, Joshua's shy, innocent, and joyful classmate.
 * Tom Kenny as Andrew, Joshua's crazy and easily excited classmate.
 * Anna Chlumsky as Eleana, Joshua's smart classmate.
 * Gary LeRoi Gray as Jaxon, Joshua's Africa-American classmate.
 * Carlos Alazraqui as Kayson, Joshua's funny classmate.
 * Billy West as Darwin, Joshua’s classmate.
 * Aria Curzon as Alexis, Joshua’s classmate.
 * Christine Cavanaugh as Kenna, Joshua's classmate.
 * Tress MacNeille as Molly, Joshua's mother.
 * Rob Paulsen as Hank, Joshua's messy classmate.
 * Jeannie Elias as Maya, Joshua's cute classmate.
 * Cree Summer as Rita, an African-American Joshua's classmate.
 * June Foray as Ringer Bob, who rings the bell for classes.
 * E.G. Daily as Waylon, Joshua's greedy and fat classmate.
 * Candi Milo as Grace, Joshua's goth classmate.
 * Christina Ricci as Layla, a happy classmate.
 * Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen as Roni and Poni, twin students.
 * Travis Tedford as Albert, a student who likes to tell jokes.
 * Courtland Mead as Puffy, a cheerful student.
 * Raven-Symoné as Renee, a classmate who has a taste in hip-hop.
 * Adam Wylie as Joseph, an artistic student.
 * Debi Derryberry as Milia, Joshua's famous girl classmate.
 * Tim Curry as Lord De, the main antagonist.
 * Quinton Flynn as Demony, Lord De's henchmen
 * Charlie Adler as Ko-Ko, Joshua's pet parrot.
 * Jim Cummings as Officer Hucker, a school security guard
 * April Winchell as Principal Willa, a cruel school principal who is obsessed over good grades and soon believes that longer school hours are the solution.
 * Maurice LaMarche as Principal Kicker, a currently principal school
 * Gail Matthius as Ms. Tripper, Joshua's teacher.
 * Jeff Bennett as Mr. Pample, Joshua's secondary teacher
 * Frank Welker as Willers, Joshua's pet dog.

Development
In 1977, the film was originally produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and directed by Joseph Barbera and William Hanna, but in 1984, when Mala Miles Productions split from Taft Entertainment, the company took over the film from Hanna-Barbera, and Mala Miles was set to direct the film.

Production of The Kidriends began with Mala Miles planning on the film to be his studio's first production. Sid John was approached to pitch an idea for the company. John had created the characters of six names Joshua, Samuel, Eleana, Maya, Paintboy, and Lil Rio 2000 for an unsuccessful television series pitch, and developed a treatment for an animated feature featuring the characters.

Music
The musical score was composed by Thomas Chase, Steve Rucker, and Mark Mothersbaugh, while the songs were composed and written by Mala Miles and Sid John. The soundtrack features 14 songs, each evoking a familiar Broadway style. The soundtrack also parodies many familiar Disney conventions, with several songs spoofing Disney musicals such as Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. The soundtrack was released on March 15, 1994 by Columbia Records.

Musical numbers

 * 1) "Welcome to School" (The Kidriends)
 * 2) "To My The World" (Dana Hill)
 * 3) "Demon's Soul" (Tim Curry)
 * 4) "Need You" (Dana Hill and Kath Soucie)
 * 5) "Everybody Let's Go" (The Kidriends)
 * 6) "Welcome to School (Reprise)" (The Kidriends)
 * 7) "Tell Me the Truth" (Sheena Easton)

Animation
The film was animated at TMS Entertainment in Tokyo, Japan.

Theatrical
The Kidriends was initially scheduled for release on November 25, 1994, but was pushed back to March 18, 1994, to avoid competition with other films released during the Thanksgiving season. Attached to The Kidriends is the Malachi Universal short Malachi's Big Party.

Marketing
Upon release, The Kidriends was accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign which included tie-ins with Pizza Hut, Hasbro, Taco Bell, M&M's, KFC, CBS, Oreo, Nestlé, and Payless ShoeSource, accounting 186 licensed products.

Books
Ten books were released for the film: The Kidriends: The Junior Novel, The Kidriends: Sticker Activity Book, The Kidriends: The Original Storybook, The Four Evil Kids, The Revenge of Lord De, Washington Trip!, Coloring & Activity Book, The Funny Joke Book, Where's Paintboy's Blanket?, The Art of The Kidriends, and The Kidriends: Game Book.

Trailers

 * The official teaser trailer was released on May 28, 1993, and was shown before Super Mario Bros., Hocus Pocus, Dennis the Menace, Rookie of the Year, Last Action Hero, Once Upon a Forest and Free Willy.


 * A theatrical trailer was released on October 13, 1993, with The Nightmare Before Christmas, Rudy, Cool Runnings, The Beverly Hillbillies, Addams Family Values, The Three Musketeers, Mrs. Doubtfire, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Beethoven's 2nd.
 * The second theatrical trailer was released on February 3, 1994, and was shown before Iron Will, Blank Check, My Girl 2, D2: The Mighty Ducks, Thumbelina, White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf
 * There were a few television spots for the film; the first one was released on, February 5, 1994, and the second one was released on March 2, 1994.

Video game
A video game based on the film was released in North America and Europe on February 26, 1994, for Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear, Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Amiga, 3DO, and Sega CD. The game was developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Sony Imagesoft and Psygnosis.

Box office
Coming soon!

Critical reception
The Kidriends was well-received by film critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 83% based on 65 reviews with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's consensus reads, "Wonderful story, excellent animation, and amazing storytelling make The Kidriends a fresh feature-length debut for Austin's grandson, Mala Miles." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 75 out of 100 points, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Home media
The film was released on VHS and LaserDisc on August 10, 1994. It was re-released on DVD and VHS on September 28, 2004. The DVD release included an audio commentary by Miles, a 28-minute making-of documentary, a gallery of concept art, storyboards, test footage, and deleted scenes, the Wonderful Darlene short film, Safari Girl, and Eleana's Open Jar, a new short film.

On January 2, 2014, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the film. The release is a 3-disc combo pack including a Blu-ray 3D disc, Blu-ray Disc, and a DVD that includes both a DVD and digital copy of the film.

In 2016, Miles announced on his social media accounts that some of his most popular movies would see new 4K remasters, including The Kidriends. The film was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on September 16, 2016, and contains the same features as the 2004 DVD release along with a newly recorded audio commentary.

Cultural impact
Coming soon!

Sequels and spin-offs
Coming soon!

Video games
Coming soon!