Genre: Sci-Fi | Fantasy
Air Date/Time: November 23rd at 7/6c
Network: Cartoon Network
Director: Peter Lauer
Writers: Derek Guiley and David Schneiderman
Cast: Gaelan Connell, Connor Del Rio, Jessie Usher, Aimee Carrero
Cartoon Network’s original movie Level Up is a fantastical comedy for the video game age. At night, Wyatt (Gaelan Connell), Lyle (Jessie T. Usher) and Dante (Connor del Rio) battle together as heroic avatars “Black Death,” “Sir Bickle” and “Wizza” in a massively multi-player online video game, Conqueror of All Worlds. Yet, in real life these high school classmates barely know each other’s names, let alone each other’s real identities. That all changes after they mistakenly open a portal from the game world to the real world.
Sightings of strange creatures around town force the three guys to finally meet up IRL (in real life). Now, they must toss aside their differences and come together in order to fight slimy trolls, hideous ghouls and the biggest, baddest villain of all, Maldark, whose sole mission is to take over new worlds and destroy them. All without a single cheat code to help them!
At the same time, our heroes are trying to dodge Angie (Aimee Carrero), a nosy classmate, who’s suspicious as to why these three guys are now hanging out together and acting totally weird. When Maldark’s minions kidnap the reclusive creator of the game, Max Ross, the gamers must team up with Angie for an epic battle and combine all their skills to defeat the boss villain, Maldark, and, oh yeah, save the entire world!
This was fun! Kind of a Saturday morning version of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (which I love, by the way). It’s Cartoon Network but it’s almost entirely live-action and it’s not going very dark. It’s probably suitable for ages 8 and up but like a lot of its cousins on the mostly-animated network, adults can enjoy it as well; I did. Viewers that have absolutely no familiarity with platform or online gaming will be able to follow the story but will miss a lot of the references (“expansion pack!” shouted with glee is a good example) and will therefore miss a lot of the fun, but it’s still cute. There is an underlying theme of the importance of friendship and loyalty and teamwork, and the true heroism and bravery that all gamers carry in their souls.
But if you’re a gamer with a good sense of humor, you should get a good giggle out of this, or at least some nods of recognition and a feeling of superiority, knowing that terms like “NPC” will be lost on the non-gaming viewers. There are in-jokes and winks at MMOs in particular, and not in a condescending way; more of a “nudge-nudge get-it? get-it?” way. For viewers who are non-gamers but still cool, there are also a couple of nods, intentional or not, to Ghostbusters and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Nice!
They’ve done an interesting take on the girl in this movie. Yes, she’s cute so of course she doesn’t know about games (I’m rolling my eyes here) BUT she’s not the superpopular-type either. Even better, she’s bright. Better still, once she starts helping, she sees how much fun it is. SciFi Mafia readers know that girls can be cute and smart and gamers all at the same time, but outside of games themselves, aren’t often portrayed that way in the media. It’s also nice that one of the gamers is a popular athlete, although of course he hides his gaming from his athlete friends (rolling eyes again); it’s still a nice change from the Big Bang Theory model of gamers as, well, only like them.
Head’s up – the reason the whole gaming world/real world mashup starts is explained in the very first minute of the movie; come in two minutes late and the premise will seem too silly. Since it happens so quickly, I’ll tell you vaguely – SPOILER ALERT – that it’s a lab accident that is otherwise totally unrelated to and unmentioned in the rest of the movie. Ah, the ol’ lab accident; you can’t go wrong with the classics.
It’s a likeable cast, and the effects are cheesy – there is an animated gaming sequence that’s too brief but interesting – but again, the whole thing is cheesy fun. Overall, if compared to other Saturday-original-movies-type productions, or to other shows aimed at this age group, this is easily as good if not better. Well done, Cartoon Network.
This movie is the kickoff for a series starting in 2012. I’m hoping that the episodes show more of the benefits of gaming, and maybe even a supportive parent or two, and more of that gaming animation. I’m looking forward to finding out. Level Up premieres Wednesday, November 23 at 7 p.m. (ET, PT) on Cartoon Network.
I give Level Up Four Out of Five Stars.
