Malachi: The Movie

Malachi and his pals are coming to the big screen for the first time.

Malachi: The Movie is a 1992 American animated-adventure comedy film based on the Malachi Universal franchise, created by Mala Miles. It was produced by Bear Bones Productions and Live Entertainment and distributed by Miramax Films. It was directed by series creator Mala Miles and written by Dennis Marks.

The events of the film take place during the revival series of Malachi and Friends. In this film, Juan and Soiel, along with Doom Vercetti, plan to take over Tyrusville, so Malachi goes on a journey to stop the Evil Twins from ruling Tyrusville, with the help of his friends, as well as Lotta.

The film was released in theaters on November 13, 1992. Tie-in promotions were made with several companies, including 7-Eleven, M&Ms, and, which decorated various of its franchises with 9-foot Malachi inflatable figures. The film went on to gross $13 million worldwide in theaters while produced on a modest $50 million budget, making it a critical and financial success, and it received generally positive reviews from critics, who appreciated the humorous plot. A sequel, Malachi 2: The Rise of Evil, was released on July 19, 2002.

Plot
In a stormy night, a pair of evil twins who appears to be Doom Vercetti and the Evil Twins. Upon discovering the new planet called Planet Dimensions, they plot a plan to send the minions to destroy Malachi.

On an ordinary everyday morning in Tyrusville, Malachi is seen sleeping, and his alarm clock wakes him up. He stops the alarm clock, but it would keep on making the alarm. Annoyed, he pulls the cord off the wall, and it stops for now. He gets up and replugs it in. Seeing that he woke up, his dog, Popkies decides to help, starting by running on Malachi, putting him in the wagon, and throwing him in the bath, after that, he gives him breakfast, brushes his teeth and gets ready.

While eating at Burger Joe with his friends Purple, Takashi, Jenny, Daniel, Wyatt, and Kally, Malachi imagines that he is going on an adventure on his own, but Kally says Malachi that a little insane to do that. Later that night, Malachi sits on his bed and thinks all about the adventure. Malachi doesn't care what his friends say, he goes on an adventure by himself.

Malachi says that he wants the World's Greatest Pool for his birthday, but his mother says she can't buy it because it costs too much money. Malachi then sits on his bed and thinks about the pool that Maria didn't buy him. When Pola comes into his room, she tells him she will buy the pool. Malachi imagines that he is going on an adventure, as Pola suggests. Malachi thanks her. He tells Purple, Daniel, Lignen, Edgar, Dr. Beanson, Ryan, Zaria, Wyatt, Cory, Michael, Kila, and Elijah to join his adventure. Malachi later meets Lara, a 9-year-old girl who has a doll named Tikiy. Malachi asks Lara for the doll, but she wants it. Lara sends Malachi on a mission to defeat Doom Vercetti, who plots to get revenge on Malachi's ex-girlfriend. Malachi says he doesn't know to do it. Meanwhile, Doom Vercetti's guards arrive to tell her that they saw Malachi, which angers her. The next morning, Malachi pack his stuff, and he was ready to go. But, when Planet Dimensions appears out of nowhere, Malachi thinks someone is behind this, so he jumps on and goes to Plant Dimensions. She originally planned to send the guards to destroy Mala, but Doom Vercetti comes up with a better idea to trap Malachi's ex-girlfriend and the people from Tyrusville.

Kally tells Purple, Daniel, and Elijah that Malachi goes on adventure again. Kally, Purple, Daniel, and Elijah missed Malachi, so they are gonna find him, but they don't know how they get there. Malachi enjoys taking a long walk, but he falls into cliff, until he was saved by the cyan-haired girl named Lotta. Lotta sends on a mission to defeat Evil Twins, their name is Soiel and Juan, who plots to take over Tyrusville. Malachi says he doesn't know to do it. Meanwhile, Evil Twin's robot minions arrive to tell them that they saw Malachi, which angers them. They originally planned to send the minions to destroy Malachi, but Harper comes up with a better idea to take over Tyrusville. Kally, Purple, Daniel, and Elijah want to visit Dr. Beanson's lab. When Kally, Purple, Daniel, and Elijah got to Dr. Beanson's lab, they want to use Teleportation. Kally said can they try it to find Malachi. Dr. Beanson said yes they can. Kally, Purple, Daniel, and Elijah went in the Teleportation to teleport anywhere. When they got in it, they teleported to Planet Dimensions. They said it worked. That night, Malachi is reading the Captain Turbo comic book with Lotta, and they go to bed.

Cast

 * Mala Miles as Malachi / Purple / William Milez / Metal Malachi / Jarek
 * Tress MacNeille as Maria Milez / Destiny
 * Frank Welker as Takashi / Wyatt / Freddy / Popkies / Jake / Ratchet / Chewy / Scott Pig
 * Mary Kay Bergman as Jenny / Aqua / Hilda Cat
 * Anndi McAfee as Lotta
 * Gregg Berger as Dr. Wilfil
 * Susan Blu as Tiana
 * B.J. Ward as Riley / Tina / Sarah
 * Casey Kasem as Nate
 * Kath Soucie as Darlene / Alimee / Tanya
 * E.G. Daily as Kally / Zaria
 * Debi Derryberry as Lara
 * Russi Taylor as Tikiy / Lolly / Daisy
 * Jeannie Elias as Lola / Hosla / Kayla
 * Joe Alaskey as Daniel
 * Doug Lawrence as Lignen
 * Jack Angel as Dr. Beanson
 * Patric Zimmerman as Bob / Pingux
 * Jim Cummings as Gree / Oscar / Old Man
 * Candi Milo as Michael
 * Scott Menville as Red
 * Rob Paulsen as Sebastian / Eddie / Juan / Felix
 * Alan Oppenheimer as Volkbot
 * Jeff Bennett as Jules / Polar
 * Mona Marshall as Annalise
 * Michael Bell as Elijah / Kayson
 * Charlie Adler as Antty / Deshean / Patrick
 * Sherry Lynn as Soiel
 * Maurice LaMarche as Sharptooth
 * Hamilton Camp as Hydercore
 * Cree Summer as Kila / Gwen
 * David Kaufman as Ryan
 * Jason Marsden as Marc
 * Dana Hill as Sid and Dick
 * June Foray as Emma and Ethan Bird
 * Jim Ward as Jumbo the Elephant
 * Philece Sampler as Melissa D.
 * Gary Owens as Captain Turbo
 * Dan Castellaneta as Christopher
 * Michael McConnohie as Dr. Doom
 * Billy West as Cory / Santed Sailor
 * Brad Garrett as Gangster Sailor
 * Don Messick as Edgar / Jay / Robert
 * Dana Delany as Doom Vercetti
 * Mark Hamill as Maximum Tipe

Development
Development of Malachi: The Movie began in 1984, Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears had an idea to make a movie based on Malachi and Friends. In 1985, the film was originally planned as a direct-to-video release under the working title Malachi's Amazing Movie, but in 1986, the title was changed to Malachi: The Movie. Production on the film was put on hold when Bear Bones split from Taft Entertainment and became independent. Impressed by the success of the first season of Malachi and Friends revival series on Fox, independent company Live Entertainment as well as Miramax Films agreed to provide Bear Bones Productions with financing to write a story for a feature-length animated film. The animation was outsourced to Wang Film Productions and Cuckoo's Nest Studio in Taipei, Taiwan.

Animation
The film began animation production in November 1990. The team of animation directors was supervised by Syo Tortellini, Chris Cuddington, Joe Ruby, Ken Spears, and Oliver Callahan, lead by Craig McCracken, Fred Wolf, Genndy Tartakovsky, Robert Alvarez, and directed by Frank Andrina, Zeon Davush, Robert Alvarez, John Rice, Allen Wilzbach and Joanna Romersa, all animation directors for the series. The layouts for the movie were done at Bardel Entertainment in Canada. Computer animation for the film was provided by Kroyer Films.

The film was originally to be scheduled for release on January 30, 1992, but it was moved to November 13.

Trailers

 * A teaser trailer for the film was released on March 22, 1991 and was attached to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, What About Bob? and Rock-a-Doodle.
 * The first theatrical trailer for the film was released on August 2, 1991, and was attached to Rover Dangerfield, Beauty and the Beast, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.
 * The second trailer was released on April 10, 1992, and was attached to the re-release of FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Batman Returns, Beethoven, Bébé's Kids, and Cool World.
 * The third trailer was released on October 2, 1992, and was attached to The Mighty Ducks.
 * A TV spot was also aired on September 20, 1992.

Release
The film was originally scheduled to be released on January 30, 1992, but in March 1991, the date was moved to November 13, 1992 in order for the production team to work more on the story and animation.

Marketing
On October 15, 1992, Burger King began promotions for the film, giving out a selection of nine exclusive Candy Caddies based on the characters in Kids Club Meal and Meal orders. Playmates Toys released a line of action figures based on the film. M&Ms released packages of the characters and came with a code for the video game of the same name. This was to support the film's VHS release. Ralston released an vanilla–flavored puffs with star marshmallow Malachi cereal.

Home media
The film was originally released onto VHS on July 21, 1993, by Miramax Home Entertainment in the United States, The VHS tape was reprinted and re-released throughout the 1990s and 2000s. The DVD was released on September 2, 2001 with in separate widescreen and fullscreen two-disc editions, 5 Malachi and Friends episodes, galleries, a feature showing the making of the film, a short film Takashi Goes Nuts, and a sneak preview of Malachi 2. The home media releases were accompanied with an exclusive animated short film Takashi Goes Nuts. In February 2005, the film was re-released under the Miramax Collectors Series banner, featuring a newly recorded audio commentary from the leading actresses (as well as the commentary from the laserdisc), and a making of featurette. The film was also released on UMD for the Sony PSP on June 23, 2005. It was also released on Blu-ray + DVD combo pack on March 13, 2009. On September 6, 2015, the movie was re-released as part of Happy 35 Years: Malachi Universal DVD pack, along with Malachi 2: The Rise of Evil and various Malachi direct-to-video films.

The film was released on March 13, 2009, on Blu-ray, featuring the same extras as the DVD release. The Blu-ray was re-released by Lionsgate in 2011, and by Paramount in 2021. A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release, with a new restoration supervised by Miles and Tortellini, was released on September 23, 2022 by Paramount, the current rights holder of the film via the Miramax back-catalog. As of September 2022, the film is available to stream on Paramount+ along with Malachi 2: The Rise of Evil.

A 3D version of the film was released on Blu-ray 3D on March 18, 2014.

Video game
A video game based on the film was released in the same year. It was developed and published by Konami, and was released on the Sega Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

Soundtrack
Two soundtrack albums were released. The first one was Music From the Movie and More, and the other is a score album by Thomas Chase Jones and Steve Rucker.

Box office
Coming soon!

Critical reception
The film received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 82%.

Sequel
A sequel, titled Malachi 2: The Rise of Evil, was released on July 19, 2002. It was directed by Mala Miles, Syo Tortellini, and Sid John.