Jane Hoop Elementary: The Cyber Escape (film)

Jane Hoop Elementary: The Cyber Escape is a 2001 superhero film directed by Steven Spielberg and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is based on the novel with the same name by Rita Christensen. The film, which is the second installment in the Jane Hoop Elementary film franchise, is written by Brian Clark and produced by Spielberg, Derek Todd and Drake Jones. The story follows five young heroes in their second year as the heroes explores inside their reality video game where it has gotten a threat by Catwoman whom is using it to take over the world. The film stars Blake Brown, Ben Linkin, Amy Tammie, Brandon Simpson and Bloom Dee as young children as superheroes. It is a sequel to Jane Hoop Elementary: The First and was followed by Jane Hoop Elementary: Goldenman's Revenge.

The film, which was released on November 9, 2001, was praised positively by critics and was a huge box office success, grossing $875 million worldwide. It is the 43rd highest-grossing film of all-time, as well as 2001's second most successful film worldwide behind only Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and the seventh highest-grossing Jane Hoop Elementary installment to date. It was nominated for three Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in 2002, but won only one as well as the Academy Awards.

Plot
Kirk Waters lives with his rude family at home. To clear his mind off about it, plays his Jane Hoop Elementary video game that were created by them, and gets attacked and threaten by a virus hacker that threats to destroy the game. Meanwhile, he asked his fans inside the video game world to stay and keep their world safe when rescues the audiences from the game world from attack as he can manage to return back to his real world and than return back inside the game to keep the world. After rescuing the video game for Jane Hoop Elementary, he became a the new hero. Jane Hoop Elementary started their promotion for their famous Jane Hoop Elementary video game, a video game where any use can go inside and explore throughout the levels. However, with her heartred with their popularity, Dr. Catwoman has hacked the entire video game and is threaten to destroy them all in which she found that any users loses, they can return back to their real world but their bodies will be swamp up and will be possesed forever. Danny and his friends discovers that their longtime friend Kirk Water is the most popular player in the game has gone missing.

While battling against Catwoman, Danny and his friends Rebecca, Alec, Cory and Jaquille were being transported inside the video game and were trying to save the game and destroy the virus. Catwoman, Shego and Monkeyman also came trying to stop them. There are ten levels in the game and have three lives each. If they lose all of them, they will remain back to their world but their bodies will be switched by a evil demon's sprits and remain posessed forever. Throughout the levels, Danny and his friends discovers that the most popular and powerful player in the world named Kirk Waters is trapped in the game forever and will never return to his real world battles. While also trying to save their game, but will also have to rescue the most popular player ever to bring the player home. During that, they battle against one of Catwoman's army of virus.

The player's parents has apperently appered in the game to search for their lost son Kirk. They joined along with them to search for Kirk. When they found the player, however, Kirk is seen possessed and attacking them. Leaving him behind, they apperently found is the real Kirk, who has remember his parents and also remembers Jane Hoop Elementary where they were longtime friends. In the tenth and final level, they met up their Cyber versions of Jane Hoop Elementary and asked them to help them save the game.

Before they can complete the final level, Catwoman and her army begins to attack where they were unable to defeat the virus and save the game. Kirk and the Evil Kirk battles against each other and eventually killed his parents. They died and remained trapped in the game forever. As the final battle ended, Catwoman, Shego, Monkeyman returned back to the real world, Danny destroys the virus and saved the gameworld. Jane Hoop Elementary are returning home, Kirk tries to come back, but Evil Kirk pulls him in. While Danny is trying to reach up to them, Kirk decided to stay because living in the video game is the only place he can live. They than completed the game and returned back to the real world. They think Kirk is the most powerful player he is and they deserve him to stay there as his home.

Cast

 * List of Jane Hoop Elementary cast members

Brown, Linkin and Tammie reprised their roles as Danny, Alec and Rebecca. Other cast members such as Jones, Richardson, Blue, Timer, Dee and Johnson also reprised their roles. Nathan Kress is originally going to play as Kirk Waters, before Logan Lerman has already signed up for the role. Lerman states that this is his first time that he can play in a bigger roles in his career.
 * Blake Brown as Danny Gorden, the protagonist and leader of the heroes.
 * Ben Linkin as Alec Gutzwiller, Danny's best friend and his sidekick of the heroes.
 * Amy Tammie as Rebecca Henry, Danny's other best friend, sidekick and only female of the heroes.
 * Brandon Simpson as Cory Berning, Danny's other best friend and backup for the heroes.
 * Bloom Dee as Jaquille Short, Danny's other best friend and backup for the heroes.
 * Barbara Blue as Naudia Gorden, Danny's cousin and mentor of the heroes.
 * George Jones as James Watson, the mayor of Cincinnati and mentor of the heroes.
 * Natasha Richardson as Miss. Bella Watson, Mayor's wife and mentor of the heroes.
 * Logan Lerman as Kirk Waters, one of Jane Hoop Elementary's former friend and the most popular player of the vide ogame, was being trapped inside the game forever.
 * Brooke Timer as Dr. Catwoman, the enemy of Jane Hoop Elementary.
 * Rebecca Dee as Shego Dalma, Catwoman's best friend and assistant.
 * Stephen Johnson as Shadow the Monkeyman, Catwoman's other best friend and assistant.
 * Johnny Depp as Kevin, Kirk's father.
 * Sandra Bullock as Katherine Waters, Kirk's mother.
 * Amanda Seyfried as Karen Baker, a female player who was possessed by the virus from the Hoop video game.
 * Jensen Ackles as John Jacob, Karen's boyfriend.

Development
Following the success of the first film, Jane Hoop Elementary: The Cyber Escape has been greenlighted on October 10, 2000 by Paramount Pictures, just one month before the release of the first film in theaters, and realizes that it should be pretty much as darker as the first film. The main cast of the film are growing up, so Paramount Pictures wants the future films to be going into a further level where they wanted them to be more professional and edigier than the first film was. Paramount Pictures will bring back Steven Spielberg as director and producer again, while Brian Clark will continue to writer, while Derek Todd and Drake Jones will be producing the film once again. Paramount Pictures has made the staff members signed the contracts to be producing all of the Hoop films.

Filming
Pre-production for The Cyber Escape begin in August 2000, just two months before the release of the first film. Production has began in November 17, 2000, just a week after the previous film's release in theaters. It was shot in Cincinnati, Ohio for the location of Catwoman's Base and Jane Hoop Elementary Base. Director James Calvin returns from the previous film for directing. The video game scene of the film were shot in the green room where CGI were filming the more video game version of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Most scenes from The Cyber Escape took place in a video game, where the background scene were shot from the green screen. Director Calvin states that he wants the video game scene to feel reality, and not looking like some cheap 3D animated movie. It wrapped up throughout summer 2001, where the film spend mostly until October 2001 for post-production. It took over seven months for the film to complete filming.

Music
German composer Hans Zimmer announces that he will be back to compose the songs for the second film of the popular Jane Hoop Elementary film series. He also composed the third film, Goldenman's Revenge. It was released on November 6, 2001, three days before the film's theatrical release in theaters.

Marketing
The film's production budget is $100 million, $25 million lower than the first film, which cost $125 million to produce. The film's teaser trailer was released on January 2001, two months after the release of the first film, with the release of the film's teaser poster the following month. In July 2001, the film's full length trailer was released. A video game with the same title was released on November 8, 2001, a day before the film's released. The game was designed by EA Games. The LEGO Designs for the film were released.

Theatrical release
Jane Hoop Elementary: The Cyber Escape was released in theatrical release on November 9, 2001, one year after the release of Jane Hoop Elementary: The First. The US world premiere was held on November 1, 2001 in New York City. Worldwide, the film is released in over 60 foreign markets, the exact same numbers like the first film, on November 7, 2001, also a year after the release of the first film. Tickets went on sale in October 2001, one month ahead before the film's theatrical release into theaters. The film runs 160 minutes (2 hours and 40 minutes), making it the longest Jane Hoop Elementary film ever, and was approximately 15 minutes longer than the first film. The film premiered in the United States on October 28, 2001.

Home media
Jane Hoop Elementary: The Cyber Escape was released on both VHS and two disc DVD on April 26, 2002. On December 24, 2007, the film was released on Blu Ray for the first time alongside the following films. Alongside its predecessor, Jane Hoop Elementary: The First, both films were released on Ultimate Edition DVDs on June 29, 2010. The film included the extended version that includes deleted scenes from film to about 6 minutes, bringing its total runtime to 166 minutes, making it the longest Jane Hoop Elementary film ever.

Difference from the Book
The 432 page book has about several of settings for the film that have slightly a change comparing to the book to make it to look as much darker and more interest than the book than it will be. The differences are included with some characters, background and the plot of the storyline.

A character Alice Kingston made a cameo apperance when watching Jane Hoop Elementary from the book. However in the film, she is absent and didn't officially appeared in the films until Morphin the Power was released in 2007 and potrayed by Lisa Black.

Critical reception
Jane Hoop Elementary: The Cyber Escape received generally positive reviews from critics, garnering a 83% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes,[3] a score of 64 out of 100 at Metacritic representing "generally favorable reviews". Roger Ebert called The Cyber Escape "better than ever," particularly praising the visual effects used for the Battling scenes. It ranked as the fourth most favorable film in the Jane Hoop Elementary film series, behind only The Final Rush - Part 2, The Magic Ball and Goldenman's Revenge. Also, the film ranked 72% for the Top Critic and Materic of 64 reviews. However, the Yahoo! Movie give the movie an graded B+ basic on 12 reviewers.[1] Praise which was shared by both The Telegraph and Empire reviewers,[3] with Alan Morrison naming it the "stand-out sequence" of the film.[3] The sets, design, cinematography, effects and principal cast were all given praise from Kirk Honeycutt, although he deemed Kim Dawson's score "a great clanging that makes it even better than ever. The first one started out big, and this one could have never been so much bigger. 160 minutes long feels like a masterpiece." [3]

Kyle Bowling of Rolling Stones praises the film as one of 2001's most anticipated films ever, stating "Director has once again bring the story to magical life from Rita Christensen's popular selling books". Alan Foster of Entertainment Weekly praised the film: "this film has never since have become much more darker, more action packed and much more anticipated than the first one was." The Los Angeles Times reporter Dakota Foster gave the film a positive review. He praised the acting performances for Logan Lerman, saying that he is a talent young man, who will be growing up to become a handsome star. Jane Hoop Elementary: The Cyber Escape is ranked as one of 2001's most anticipated films ever, alongside Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Box Office
Jane Hoop Elementary: The Cyber Escape earned $83.2 million in it's opening weekend from 3,668 theaters, which made it the second biggest weekend debut in history behind Jane Hoop Elementary: The First ($85.2 million). In Australia, it set an all-time record as biggest weekend debut ever earning $15.05 million beating The First. It than went up to gross a total of $30.5 million alone, becoming Australia's highest-grossing 2001 film. In the United Kingdom, it has the second biggest opening in history earning £14.42 million behind The First.

The film made a total of $875 million worldwide, which made it the sixth highest-grossing film ever at that time. It was 2001's second highest-grossing film worldwide behind Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the fourth highest-grossing film in the U.S. and Canada that year with $265 million behind The Philosopher's Stone, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Shrek, and the second highest-grossing film at the non-American box office with $610 million behind The Philosopher's Stone ($657.1 million). As of 2013, The Cyber Escape is currently the 43rd highest-grossing film of all-time.

Accolades
The film was nominated for three nominations for the 2002 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. It only won one for "Favorite Movie". It was also nominated for two nominations at the BAFA Awards in 2002 such as "Best Sound" and "Best Visual Effects", where two did not win both of them. Also, the film was nominated for "Best Movie" at the 2002 MTV Movie Award, but lost to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The film won three awards; "Choice Movie: Action", "Choice Movie: Villain" and "Choice Movie: Villain".