Alpha and Omega

Alpha and Omega
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Anthony Bell Ben Gluck
Produced by	Ken Katsumoto Steve Moore Richard Rich
Screenplay by	Chris Denk Steve Moore Ben Gluck
Story by	Steve Moore Ben Gluck
Starring	Justin Long Hayden Panettiere Dennis Hopper Danny Glover Christina Ricci
Music by	Chris P. Bacon
Editing by	Scott Anderson Joe Campana
Studio	Crest Animation Productions
Distributed by	Lionsgate
Release date(s)	17 September 2010 (2010-09-17)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$20,000,000[1]
Box office	$50,507,267[2]

Alpha and Omega is a 2010 3D American computer animated comedy drama film produced by Crest Animation Productions and Richard Rich. The film is directed by Anthony Bell and Ben Gluck, starring the voices of Justin Long, Hayden Panettiere, Dennis Hopper (in his last film appearance), Danny Glover and Christina Ricci. It is also based on a story by Steve Moore and Ben Gluck. Despite being a critical failure, the film was declared a box office success, making it the most highest-grossing film from Lionsgate.

The film was released in 3-D (and also in 2-D) on September 17, 2010 to 2,625 theaters nationwide by Lions Gate.^[3]

The film was also dedicated to Dennis Hopper, being his final work.

Plot

Humphrey (Justin Long) and Kate (Hayden Panettiere) are two wolves from the same pack in Canada’s Jasper National Park but on opposite ends of the social order. Kate, daughter of the main Alpha male Winston (Danny Glover) and his mate Eve (Vicki Lewis), is herself an Alpha and takes her duty to the pack seriously. Humphrey, on the other hand, is an Omega wolf, the lowest of the pack, and spends his days making fun with his other Omega friends. Despite his low rank in the pack, Humphrey falls in love with Kate and is valued in the pack as a peacemaker by virtue of his affable nature.

During her youth, Kate left to begin Alpha school with her father. She returns as a fully trained Alpha but on her first hunt (the Alphas are the ones responsible for providing food for the pack), two members of the Eastern pack cross into Western pack territory due to the lack of caribou in their own land. The hunt is ruined and the packs are nearly at war with each other. The two packs have had a bitter rivalry ever since Tony (Dennis Hopper), the Alpha male of the Eastern pack, commanded his wolves to cross over into Western territory (against pack law) in order to hunt, to prevent their pack from starving. Winston and Tony meet up one night and arrange for Kate to marry Garth (Chris Carmack), Tony's son. Kate, having a sense of responsibility and duty, wearily agrees for the good of the pack and she meets Garth at the Howling Rock.

Garth is also an Alpha and appears perfect at first in every way, until Kate hears his howl. Kate, taken back by Garth's terrible howl, leaves the scene to "get water". Humphrey then notices Kate and surprises her. The two then talk about Garth, when suddenly, they get tranquilized by some men in the butts and taken away to Idaho. The two wolves wake up at Sawtooth National Recreation Area and meet a French-Canadian goose named Marcel (Larry Miller) who has an avid interest in golf and his caddy, a duck named Paddy (Eric Price). Humphrey and Kate learn that they were relocated to repopulate the species. Marcel and Paddy agree to help the wolves return home to Jasper.

Trouble brews back at Jasper as the two packs discover that Kate has gone missing. Tony warns Winston that on the next full moon if Kate doesn’t return to marry Garth, he and his pack will declare war for their territory. Lilly (Christina Ricci), an Omega wolf who is Kate’s younger sister, has a crush on Garth and suggests that she shows him around.

After a failed attempt to get home (in which the wolves hid in the back of a van), Kate finds a ravine and attempts to cross it. She slips down the cliff, but Humphrey saves her life. After that the two find a den for the night.

The next morning, Marcel and Paddy find the wolves and direct them to a train over a snowy mountain that will take them to Jasper. Climbing the mountain, Humphrey meets a bear cub who is unfamiliar with wolves. When they are playing, the cub gets hurt when a snowball is thrown at him. This angers a trio of bears (most likely the cub's family) who think that Humphrey was trying to harm the cub. When Kate realizes that Humphrey is in danger, she rushes in to help him, causing them to slide down the other side of the mountain. Humphrey saves Kate, and, as the train passes by, the two wolves manage to get into a boxcar just in time.

Meanwhile Lilly and Garth are bonding. At the midnight howl, Lilly is not deterred by Garth's less than perfect howl and teaches him to howl with his heart. At the same time, Humphrey and Kate begin to howl together as well on the train. Both couples sing in perfect unison. By this time, the full moon has come and the packs declare war against one another.

Shortly after, as the train passes by Jasper, Humphrey attempts to tell Kate how he feels about her, but the sight of the packs fighting causes her to jump off the train before he can finish. Kate stops the fight by announcing that she will marry Garth for the good of the packs, much to Humphrey and Lilly's dismay.

The next day, a heartbroken Humphrey decides to leave Jasper and travel on his own and shares his goodbyes with Kate, Marcel and Paddy (who have arrived and decided to stay). Yet Kate feels heartbroken too after realizing how she feels about Humphrey. During the ceremony Kate decides not to marry Garth, declaring her love for Humphrey. Garth declares his own love for Lilly. Winston is confused while Tony is revolted that his son is in love with an Omega, which goes against pack customs. His pack starts to fight the other pack out of anger, but the conflict is cut short when a massive stampede of caribou interrupts the scene. Winston and Tony get caught in the stampede and Kate and Humphrey (who decide to return) rush in to save them. Kate is hit and Humphrey shields her with his body, and Winston and Tony growl at the passing caribou in order to protect Humphrey from getting hit. After the stampede passes, it appears that Kate has been trampled to death. Upon her seemingly apparent death, the wolves of both packs begin to howl in mourning sadness, but she wakes up to the joy and relief of the packs. Now, at long last, Humphrey and Kate reveal their feelings for each other. Winston and Tony then decide to unite the packs and decide to retire. When they wonder what do do, Marcel says, "Gentleman, may I interest you in golf?" and shoots a golf ball at the screen.

Later at the Moonlight Howl, all the wolves celebrate the marriages of Kate & Humphrey and Garth & Lilly. The film ends with Humphrey and Kate singing a beautiful duet.

Voice cast

• Justin Long as Humphrey – An Omega wolf, the main protagonist, and Kate's love interest. He is the leader among his group of Omega friends, and like them, he likes to have fun and has a laid-back attitude. He falls in love with Kate, but he's heartbroken when he finds out that she has to marry Garth, but in the end, Kate returns his feelings and they get married.
• Hayden Panettiere as Kate – An Alpha wolf, the deuteragonist, and Humphrey's love interest. She is the eldest daughter of Eve and Winston, the lead Alpha's of the pack. Kate takes responsibility seriously, which explains why she doesn't like Humphrey's apparent disregard for the well-being of the pack. But she starts to fall in love with him as they make their way back to Jasper. At first, she's engaged to Garth, but later, she declares her feelings for Humphrey and they get married at the end of the movie.
• Dennis Hopper as Tony – The Alpha male of the Eastern pack and the main antagonist, who turns good at the end.
• Chris Carmack as Garth – An Alpha wolf from the Eastern Wolf pack and Lilly's love interest. He is the son of Tony, and at first, is engaged to Kate, but falls in love with Lilly after spending time with her. He has a bad howl at first, but it improves later in the film after Lilly teaches him.
• Christina Ricci as Lilly – An Omega wolf and Garth's love interest. She is the youngest daughter of Winston and Eve, and though the rest of her family are Alphas, she is rejected to the Omega position because she has leucism. She usually wears her hair over her eyes, but later wears it back when Garth comments that she looks beautiful this way. She falls for Garth, and he later returns her feelings, allowing them to marry and unite the packs.
• Danny Glover as Winston – Kate and Lilly's father and the Alpha male of the Western pack.
• Vicki Lewis as Eve – Winston's mate, and Kate and Lilly's mother.
• Larry Miller as Marcel – A golf-playing French-Canadian goose.
• Eric Price as Paddy – A duck and Marcel's caddy. Price also plays Mooch, an overweight Omega wolf and one of Humphrey's friends.
• Kevin Sussman as Shakey – An Omega wolf and another one of Humphrey's friends.
• Brian Donovan as Salty – An Omega wolf and another one of Humphrey's friends.
• Paul Nakauchi as Hutch – An extremely loyal Beta wolf who readily reports urgent news to Winston.
• Maya Feltheimer as the bear cub – A small, innocent rascal who plays with Humphrey.
• Frank Welker as Additional Voices (uncredited).
• Ben Gluck as Voice in the radio (uncredited).

Language	Humphrey	Kate	Tony	Garth	Lilly	Winston	Eve	Marcel	Paddy	Mooch	Shakey	Salty	Hutch	Sweets	Candy	Bear cub
English	Justin Long	Hayden Panettiere	Dennis Hopper	Chris Carmack	Christina Ricci	Danny Glover	Vicki Lewis	Larry Miller	Eric Price	Eric Price	Kevin Sussman	Brian Donovan	Paul Nakauchi			Maya Feltheimer
Bulgarian	Dejan Slavchev	Violeta Markovska	Emil Emilov	Ivan Petkov	Mina Kostova	Marin Yanev	Mina Kostova	Stanislav Pishtalov	Christian Fokov
Czech	Michal Holáň	Kateřina Petrová	Petr Pospíchal	Jiří Dvořák	Kateřina Hrachovcová	Pavel Rímský	Martina Hudečková	Otakar Brousek	Antonín Navrátil
Dutch	Jim Bakkum	Bettina Holwerda
French (Canada)	Hugolin Chevrette-Landesque	Aurélie Morgane	Jacques Lavallée	Philippe Martin	Eloisa Cervantes	Patrick Chouinard	Mélanie Laberge	Denis Mercier	François Sasseville	Frédéric Paquet	Bernard Fortin	Benoit Éthier
French (France)	Pierre Tessier	Kelly Marot	Bernard Tiphaine	Denis Laustriat	Marie-Eugénie Maréchal	Richard Darbois	Déborah Perret	Michel Mella	Bernard Alane		Guillaume Lebon	Thierry Ragueneau
German	Viktor Neumann	Cathlen Gawlich	Kaspar Eichel		Luisa Wietzorek	Jürgen Kluckert			Helmut Gauß		Steven Merting	Rainer Fritzsche		Ilka Teichmüller	Eva Thärichen
Polish	Waldemar Barwiński	Milena Suszyńska		Modest Rucinski	Joanna Pach	Mirosław Zbrojewicz	Agnieszka Kunikowska	Włodzimierz Bednarski	Tomasz Bednarek	James Szydlowski	Jacek Bończyk	Marek Molak
Russian	Sergey Lazarev	Lera Kudryavtseva	Igor Starosel'tsev	Alexander Gavrilin	Lina Ivanova	Vasily Bochkarev		Alexander Kljukvin	Nikita Prozorovsky

Production

Pre-production and post-production took place in Los Angeles.^[4] But production mainly took place in Toronto, Canada.^[4]

Reception

Box office

The film took in $2,288,773 on its opening day, and $9,106,906 on its opening weekend domestically, reaching fifth place at the box office. The film's opening was mildly disappointing, as it had only earned a fraction of 2010's other animated films as well as claiming the record for lowest-grossing 3D film released in at least 2,000 venues from Piranha 3D (only to lose it to My Soul to Take three weeks later). In its second weekend, due to being overshadowed by Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole for 3-D screens, the film dropped 48% to $4.8 million and eighth place. At this point, Rotten Tomatoes stated the film had only "bland visuals" to look at and that Alpha and Omega was the runt in 2010's animated litter, but after its third weekend, the film held better with a 37% drop to around $3 million and finishing in tenth place. The film ended its run on December 2, 2010 after grossing $25 million domestically and $45 million worldwide. Produced on a $20 million budget, the film has been declared a financial success, and is Lionsgate's highest-grossing animated feature to date.

Marketing

Video game

Published by Storm City Games, a video game adaptation called Alpha and Omega (based on the movie) was exclusively released for the Nintendo DS in late 2010 and is only available in North America.

Book

A book called Alpha and Omega (based on the movie of the same name) was published in 2010.^{[citation needed]}

Home media

Alpha and Omega was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 11, 2011, and the PSP version was released on February 8, 2011.

Accolades

International Premiere

Year			State	Language	Name
16	September	2010	Kazakhstan	Russian	Альфа и Омега
			Russia
17			Canada	English	Alpha and Omega
			Singapore
			United States
23			Israel	Hebrew	אלפא ואומגה
30			Czech Republic	Czech	Alfa a Omega
			Malaysia	English	Alpha and Omega
			Slovakia	Slovak	Alfa a Omega
20	October		France	French	Alpha et Oméga
21			Hungary	Hungarian	Alfa és Omega
			Kuwait	Arabic	ألفا وأوميجا
22			Ireland	English	Alpha and Omega
			United Kingdom
27			Belgium	Dutch	Alpha en Omega
			Greece	Greek
5	November		Bulgaria	Bulgarian	Алфа и Омега
			Poland	Polish	Zakochany Wilczek
1	December		Egypt	Arabic	ألفا وأوميجا
20	January	2011	Thailand	Thai	อัลฟ่าแอนด์โอเมก้า
21			Iceland
9	February		Netherlands	Dutch	Alpha en Omega
24			South Korea	Korean	알파앤 오메가
24	March		Portugal	Portuguese (Portugal)	Alpha e Omega
22	April		Turkey	Turkish	Alfa ve Omega
20	July		Finland	Finnish	Alfa ja Omega
			Norway	Norwegian	Alpha og Omega
			Sweden	Swedish	Alpha och Omega
23	September		Iran
26	October		Italy	Italian	Alpha e Omega
15	June	2012	Brazil	Portuguese (Brazil)	A Lady e o Lobo
			Japan	Japanese	アルファとオメガ

References

External links

• Official website
• Alpha and Omega at the Internet Movie Database
• Alpha and Omega at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Alpha and Omega at AllRovi
• Alpha and Omega at Rotten Tomatoes
• Alpha and Omega at Metacritic
• Alpha and Omega at Box Office Mojo