The film was directed by former Pixar animator Dylan Brown in his directorial debut; while he was involved through most of the production period, Paramount Pictures dismissed him in January 2018, citing "inappropriate and unwanted conduct".[1]
Wonder Park was released in the United States on March 15, 2019, by Paramount Pictures. The film received negative reviews from critics, who praised the animation and voice acting, but criticized the story, tone, and ending. The film was also a commercial failure, grossing $119 million against a budget of $80–100 million.
June Bailey, a young imaginative girl, and her mother come up with the idea of Wonderland, a magical amusement park run by a group of anthropomorphic animals: Boomer, a big blue bear who greets guests; Greta, a wild boar; Gus and Cooper, beaver brothers; Steve, a porcupine who is the park's safety manager and is in love with Greta; and Peanut, a chimpanzee who is the park's leader and has the ability to create rides by listening to June's mother's voice. Over time, June's mother starts to get sick and is sent away for recovery. As a result, June starts alienating from Wonderland and burns the blueprints of the park out of frustration.
Sometime later, June's father sends her to math camp. After misinterpreting a note from her father as a cry for help, June uses her friend Banky to create a distraction on the bus to escape and return home to help her father. Instead, she finds a real broken-down Wonderland in the woods. The park is currently being surrounded by a cloud named the Darkness; June and the animals attempt to fix Clockwork Swings, the park's mechanism, but are attacked by Chimpanzombies, the park's former plush toys that now empower the Darkness. In the chaos, June gets separated from the animals and finds herself in a floating chamber known as Zero-G Land. There, June finds Peanut hiding from the Darkness where he confesses he felt lost after he stopped hearing the voice in his head. This leads June to realize that the Darkness was created by herself as a result of her cynicism from her mom's illness. The Chimpanzombies break in and take Peanut as their prisoner, but June escapes.
June runs back to the animals to tell them she found Peanut but also confesses that she is responsible for the Darkness. Feeling upset over this revelation, they selfishly abandon her. After noticing the piece of the blueprint and realizing that she has been able to create the ideas for the park herself, June fixes one of the attractions to catch up with the animals and make it to Clockwork Swings. She also explains why she created the Darkness, and seeing that she wants to help, the animals reform the team to save Peanut and Wonderland.
The gang finds the Chimpanzombies taking Peanut to get sucked up into the Darkness. The animals fight back while June rushes to save Peanut by jumping into the void. She promises him that she will provide the voice for his imagination and that he should not let the Darkness take over him, giving him an idea to make a slide out of bendy straws to escape. While the gang and Peanut are riding the slide to avoid the Chimpanzombies, June then notices that Clockwork Swings is attached to her name written in cursive, just like the blueprint piece. With Peanut's help, they get Clockwork Swings back up and running by using her name to move the gears, and clear up Wonderland from the Darkness. A cloud remains over the park, to which June interprets as a reminder to continue to be imaginative.
June returns home, and with it, her now cured mother, and they set up a Wonderland in their backyard. June then shares with other kids the story of Wonderland.
In January 2018, it was reported that director Dylan Brown was fired from the production by Paramount Pictures, following an investigation into complaints of "inappropriate and unwanted conduct".[19] Paramount offered the director's credit to multiple key creative personnel on the film, but they refused, fearing the film would be detrimental to their careers.[20] The position went then uncredited in the film.[21][1][b] In April 2018, the title of the film was changed from Amusement ParktoWonder Park.[22]
The music for Wonder Park was scored by composer Steven Price. The album was released on March 8, 2019,[23] a week before the film was released into theatres.
In April 2018, it was reported that Rachel Platten would perform an original song for Wonder Park.[25] The single, titled "Wonder", was released in March 2019.
Wonder Park was released on March 15, 2019, by Paramount Pictures.[26][16] In January 2017, the film was moved up from its original release date, March 22, 2019, to July 13, 2018.[27][26] A few months later, it was pushed back from July 13, 2018, to August 10, 2018,[28] and by August 2017, it was pushed back for a final time to March 15, 2019.[26]
Wonder Park grossed $45.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $74.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $119.6 million, against a production budget of around $80–100 million.[9][8]
In the United States and Canada, Wonder Park was released alongside Captive State and Five Feet Apart, and was projected to gross $8–14 million from 3,838 theaters in its opening weekend.[8][7] It made $5.4 million on its first day, including $700,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $16 million, which beat projections, though Deadline Hollywood said it was "[not] enough to consider this... production a success."[21] The film fell 45% in its second weekend, grossing $8.8 million, and 43% in its third to $5.0 million.[30][31]
Onreview aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 34% based on 108 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Colorful and energetic but lacking a compelling story, Wonder Park is little more than a competently made diversion for very young viewers."[32]OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[33] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[21]
Prior to Wonder Park's release, Paramount Animation announced that a television series based on the film would debut on Nickelodeon after the film's theatrical release. This would be the third animated film from Nickelodeon Movies to have a series spin-off, after Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Barnyard, and the first animated film from Paramount Animation to inspire a series spin-off from the film.[34]
Although a trailer for the series, Adventures in Wonder Park, was attached to the Blu-ray release of the film, there have been no updates from Nickelodeon on the project since until July 25, 2024. A sizable collection of unfinished episodes, including animatics, storyboards and scripts, were posted online around December 9, 2022.[35]
^Brown was fired near the end of production; Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies subsequently did not include a director's credit in the completed film.[1]
