Smallfoot (film)

A village of Yetis lives in isolation on the top of a mountain in the Himalayas,[6] above the clouds and hidden away from sight. Migo is a yeti who abides by the law of the ancient stones held by the Stonekeeper, the yetis' leader. Migo's father, Dorgle, projects himself through the air each morning to hit a gong with his head, as the yetis believe this wakes up the sun. While learning how to ring the gong, Migo is distracted by the Stonekeeper's daughter, Meechee, whom he has a crush on, and misses the gong, landing outside the village. There, Migo witnesses a plane crash and finds a "smallfoot" (human), whom the yetis believe is mythical. Migo runs back to inform the villagers, but he lacks proof, and Stonekeeper claims he is lying and banishes him from the village. Migo is suddenly visited by rejected yetis Gwangi, Kolka, and Fleem who bring him to the Smallfoot Evidentiary Society (S.E.S.), which is led by Meechee. She convinces Migo to travel below the clouds despite the stones telling them that there is nothing underneath. After some hesitation, Migo agrees to go, but his rope snaps and Migo falls, where he discovers land.

Percy Patterson is a British human filmmaker of wildlife documentaries who has lost most of his viewership. He meets the pilot who saw Migo, and in an attempt to regain his fame, tries unsuccessfully to convince his assistant, Brenda, to dress up as a yeti for filming. Migo arrives and unknowingly scares Percy when trying to communicate with him. Migo takes Percy with him and they stop in a cave to wait out a blizzard. Percy films and uploads a video of Migo narrating that the Yeti plans to eat him, before attempting to escape. While chasing Percy, Migo's toe becomes caught in a bear trap and Percy takes pity on him by removing the trap and bandaging Migo's wound. Percy agrees to go with Migo and they head back up the mountain, where they reunite with the S.E.S.

The villagers are confused by Percy's appearance, but happily accept him and learn about his culture, much to Stonekeeper's dismay. Afterwards, Stonekeeper takes Migo inside the palace and reveals the truth: yetis used to live below the clouds, but were forced into hiding by the humans who attacked them. To keep them safe, they created the stones, and the clouds are actually steam made by the yetis' daily tasks to keep them hidden. In order to protect the village, Migo agrees to continue the lie by telling the yetis that Percy, who is experiencing high altitude sickness, is just a hairless wild yak. Stonekeeper takes Percy and locks him in a box, so Percy will be unable to alert other humans of the yetis' whereabouts. Migo later discovers that Meechee took Percy away to return him home, and jumps down the mountain with Gwangi and Kolka following suit.

Percy recovers and discovers that his video of Migo has generated public excitement, but then notices that Meechee has become distracted by the wonders in Kathmandu and accidentally causes a disruption. Meechee is attacked by the police, but is rescued by Gwangi, Kolka and Migo. The yetis try to make it back to the mountain, but are chased by a SWAT helicopter that Stonekeeper takes down using his stones. Migo attempts to divert the police away from the other yetis, when Percy arrives on his snowmobile and shoots Migo with a tranquilizer gun to save him. The police chase and capture Percy in his yeti suit, and arrest him for public disturbance and fraud.

Back at the village, inside the palace, Migo explains the truth to the yetis and apologizes for lying to them. He tells the others that even though humans may still be scared of the yetis, they should try to communicate with them. The yetis leave the village, and when Percy and Brenda notice them, they emerge from the crowd and stand up for the yetis. The rest of the humans slowly welcome the yetis and accept them into their lives.

• Channing Tatum as Migo, a young male yeti who is determined to prove the existence of the Smallfoot.
• James Corden as Percy Patterson, a British human filmmaker of wildlife documentaries trying to get back in the spotlight, who becomes Migo's Smallfoot best friend.
• Zendaya as Meechee, a young female yeti, the Stonekeeper's daughter, Thorp's younger sister, the leader of S.E.S., and Migo's love interest.
• Common as Stonekeeper, the condescending yeti chief and father of Thorp and Meechee.
• LeBron James as Gwangi, a large purple male yeti who is part of the S.E.S.
• Gina Rodriguez as Kolka, a female yeti who is part of the S.E.S.
• Danny DeVito as Dorgle, a short male yeti who is the village gong ringer and Migo's widowed father.
• Yara Shahidi as Brenda, Percy's morally conscious assistant, who does not believe in yetis until the end of the film.
• Ely Henry as Fleem, a small male yeti who is part of the S.E.S.
• Jimmy Tatro as Thorp, a slow-witted male yeti who is the Stonekeeper's son and Meechee's older brother.
• Patricia Heaton as Mama Bear, a himalayan brown bear Migo and Percy encounter in a cave while waiting out a blizzard. In the UK release, the part of Mama Bear was performed by Emma Bunton.
• Justin Roiland as Garry, a paranoid male yeti.
• Jack Quaid as Pilot, a human airplane pilot who crashes on the mountain and who Migo first meets.
• Jonathan Kite and Jessica Tuck as Additional Voices
• Niall Horan performed the opening song, "Finally free".

The legend of the Yeti and an original idea by Sergio Pablos inspired the story.

Writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa conceived of Smallfoot, interested in a story about Yeti or Bigfoot; they drew inspiration from an original idea by Sergio Pablos.[7]

The concept for Smallfoot was in development before director Karey Kirkpatrick joined the project in July 2016; he viewed an animatic in which Percy was a "ski bum type" with no motivation on his personality in the first drafts of the script and repetitive gag lines, and so they added more elements in his later revisions by giving arc and depth to his character. Kirkpatrick also said Meechee was undeveloped, and she was made head of the S.E.S. in rewrites.[8] Observing Brexit and a rise in nationalism, Kirkpatrick also drew inspiration:

Truth was under attack ... certainly phrases like alternative facts were being thrown around. So, it became an age of misinformation fueled by agendas that are often fueled by fear. And like, 'I want this result, and so I am skewing the truth.' That is just in the zeitgeist.[9]

On May 11, 2017, it was announced that the film was in-production with Channing Tatum, Zendaya, and Gina Rodriguez providing the lead voice roles.[10] Ely Henry was originally hired as a scratch vocal for the film four years before its release, however was later invited to join the cast and subsequently voiced Fleem in the final product.[11] The film was animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks, who had also provided animation for the Warner Animation Group's Storks,[12] and utilized Autodesk Maya for the animation process.[13] Ryan O'Loughlin, a DreamWorks Animation veteran, was originally the film's director, but was replaced by Kirkpatrick.[14]

The film was released on September 28, 2018.[20]

Writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have expressed hope for a sequel, with Requa stating that they "could make a whole other movie just on that shtick that we came up with". Ficarra added "Hopefully, we are lucky enough to be in that position. But you have to wait for the world to digest it to a certain extent... We have a myriad of ideas. Just in the discarded notions that we have entertained over the last 6 years."[36]

• The Son of Bigfoot
• Missing Link
• Abominable

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Smallfoot (film)

• Official website
• Smallfoot at IMDb