Endgame: The Time Warped Movie

The end is near. It's game over now.

Endgame: The Time Warped Movie is a 2002 American animated action-adventure film produced by Bear Bones Productions and Film Roman and based on the studio's animated television series Time Warped. It was directed by Sid John and Dan Darlene, from a screenplay by Amile John, Jacob Navin and Finley Small, and features the series' regular voice cast consisting of Charlie Adler, Cree Summer, Carlos Alazraqui, Lauren Tom, Billy West, Pamela Adlon, Tom Kenny, Jeannie Elias, Anndi McAfee, and Cam Clarke. The film revolves around Nicolas and Siana who, along with their friends, have entered a void while messing with time, and have to get back home safely before time gets warped.

Development of Endgame began in 1998 and was set to be released as a direct-to-video film, but was instead released theatrically on December 18, 2002, by Columbia Pictures, and received mixed reviews from critics. The film fell short of Sony's financial expectations earning $52 million dollars worldwide on its $180 million budget, making it a box office bomb. It also served as the series finale of the Time Warped series, as no further episodes were made to continue from where it left off.

Plot
Siana and her friends play with Nathaniel's pocket watch, ignoring all the possible consequences of altering time, which results in time freezing. Kyle comments that all the consequences resulted in time standing still, and the kids attempt to fix the pocket watch to no avail. Frustrated, Siana breaks the pocket watch, resulting in the shattered pieces spreading the kids at various points in time, with the Hutchinson kids ending up in a white void. Aggravated at his sister frequently nearly destroying all time, Nicolas berates Siana, stating that she ruined what was a good life. A shadowy figure notices the two and kidnaps the two.

In the bottomless pit, Siana comes across several capsules containing objects that were the result of her messing with time. When she attempts to open a capsule containing a clone of Kyle, the Time Lord stops her and orders his minions to catch her brother before she finds the true object that will wish her back into existence: her teddy bear.

When Nicolas wakes up in the void, he meets up with Siana. Siana attempts to apologize for making mistakes, but Nicolas refuses to listen to her. Fed up with her tendencies of ruining his fun, Nicolas violently thrashes her around. The two villains overhear the carnage, which leads to Nicolas escaping and leaving Siana behind as the Time Lord and Time Master notice her attempting to escape. Nicolas returns to the rest of the gang and convinces them that Siana needs help.

Just as Siana is about to be thrown into a lava pit, Nicolas and the rest of the gang return to save her. The gang and the villains fight for their lives, which leads to Siana finding her teddy bear and escaping, only for the Time Lord to block her from escaping. The Time Master pulls out a gun, and Siana blocks the bullet with her teddy bear. The Time Master and Time Lord admit that they wanted Siana dead since her adoption. The Hutchinson kids and their friends defeat the Time Master and Time Lord, and they soon fix the pocket watch. Hum wipes the kids' memories wiped of the entire experience.

Back in the present, Nicolas and Siana can't shake off a feeling that they are missing something, and the film ends with him and Siana walking in the sunset.

Voice cast

 * Charlie Adler as Nicolas
 * Nancy Cartwright voices a younger Nicolas
 * Cree Summer as Siana
 * Aria Curzon voices a younger Siana
 * Carlos Alazraqui as Handy
 * Lauren Tom as Greta
 * Billy West as Kyle
 * Pamela Hayden voices a younger Kyle
 * Pamela Adlon as Kara
 * Tara Strong voices a younger Kara
 * Frank Welker as Hum
 * Jason Marsden as Sam
 * Cam Clarke as Time Master
 * Peter Renaday as Time Lord
 * Tom Kenny as Victor
 * Debi Derryberry as Ally
 * Jeannie Elias as Petra
 * Anndi McAfee as Erika

Production
The John Brothers, consisting of Sid, Ray and Amile John, wrote a treatment for a Time Warped feature film when production on the series concluded in 1999. In 2000, the brothers and the Bear Bones staff began working on a feature-length film based on Time Warped by putting their finances into Script Development. In December 2000, Bear Bones officially announced that Time Warped was to have a feature film, which was planned for release in 2001.

The film was set to be a direct-to-video film released by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, but the budget and demands from Sony executives resulted in the film being released in theaters. Executives from Sony would frequently intervene with the film, repeatedly asking Bear Bones to change certain story elements, including the scene where Nicolas violently thrashes Siana, which was toned down for the final theatrical release. These issues delayed the film to 2002.

Release
Endgame was set for release as a direct-to-video film in late 2001. This was then changed to a February 2002 release and then to a theatrical release in August and later December, where it was released against New Line Cinema's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Trailers
The teaser trailer was released on BearBones.com on April 16, 2002, and the official trailer was released on August 21, 2002.

Home media
Endgame was released on VHS and DVD on March 19, 2003, by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment. In August 2009, the film was released on Blu-ray. The film was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on March 13, 2020.

Video game
A video game tie-in was released by Ubi Soft Entertainment in November 2002.

Soundtrack
Prior to the release, the musical score to the film was released by Atlantic Records on August 7, 2002.

Box office
Coming soon!

Critical reception
The film received generally mixed reviews from critics, praising the film's animation but criticizing its humor and story. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 58% based on 73 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The site's consensus reads: "Endgame 's sparkling self-image won't compensate for an uneven story stretched way too low to meet the theatrical-length standards." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score to reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film an average score of 54 out of 100.

Claudia Puig of USA Today stated that "With so many brain-dead ideas for its story, Endgame has killed the entire Time Warped name. It feels like a one-hour series finale that should've made DVD and video instead of movie theaters." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film one star, stating, "Endgame, Bear Bones' first truly negative response, has a predictably weird plot that even tries hard enough to follow the usual wit of the show, but rather ends up being a 'last call' for the time traveling gang we all know in love." Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman said, "If it's not as charming as the show, then it is just a complete waste of time and money."

Conversely, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, saying "Endgame is a truly touching and hilarious family adventure featuring the Hutchinson kids and their friends with a blast of humor and soundtrack, as well as a comical plot from the folks at Bear Bones". Jeffrey Lyons from NBC-TV also enjoyed the film and considered it "sharp, but not witty."

Accolades
Coming soon!