Jane Hoop Elementary: The Cyber Escape (film)

Jane Hoop Elementary: The Cyber Escape is a 2001 superhero adventure film based on the novel writtten by Rita Christensen. It was the second film of the Jane Hoop Elementary film series. The film is written by Brian Clark and directed by returning director James Calvin. The story follows five young heroes in their second year as superheroes exploring 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 as Danny Gorden, and Ben Linkin and Amy Tammie as Alec Gutzwiller and Rebecca Henry, his best friends and teammates. It is a sequel to Jane Hoop Elementary: The First and was followed by Jane Hoop Elementary: Goldenman's Revenge.

The film was released on November 9, 2001. Like the first film, this film was also very successful at critics and at the box office, but grossed less than the first film. Earning $876 million worldwide, it is the 37th highest-grossing film of all-time, and second highest-grossing film released in 2001 behind Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It is the seventh highest-grossing Jane Hoop Elementary installment to date. It was nominated for three Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in 2002.

Plot

 * See also: Jane Hoop Elementary: The Cyber Escape

Kirk Waters 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. Meanwhile while having a grand opening ceremany of their reality video game, Danny Gorden and his friends meets up with their friend Kirk Waters, who is the most popular video game player in the universe. They begin a promotion to their fans about their first exploring video game that fans are enjoying with. 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.

Catwoman returns to take over the world. With her heartred with their popularity, Catwoman has already made up an idea that she can truely take over the world is the help of the video game that she plans to bring them to life to the real world. She 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. Meanwhile, Danny heard a strange voice saying: "I Must Save The Game World. This Is For My Fans". Danny, Rebecca and Alec spots that their friend Kirk has gone missing and trying to find out where he went. Meanwhile, they read a message written on the Jane Hoop Elementary Base wall reading: "Kirk Waters has vanished inside the video game. And he will not return back home and will be staying inside the video game forever", which shocked Danny and his friends and his parents. The only thing they can do to save the game is to find the t-virus called The Cyber Escape is by destroying it to save the game.

Meanwhile, they found a female player named Karen came from the video game and attacking her boyfriend John. She is discovered possessed, and they are trying to think that Dr. Catwoman did something to her while seening Karen attacking Cincinnati. The take Karen to the center and arrested her to solve the problem with her and trying to rescue her soul. Mayor reveals to them that the player lost the game and the hacker takes their souls away and replace them with the devil's possession to make their bodies evil. While battling against Catwoman, Danny and his friends 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. They also get a help from their identical different-sex selves to get out of the game. 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. Rebecca is having feelings for Kirk over Danny, but she meant that she is Danny's true love and that is that. 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 and find the Cyber Escape, Catwoman and her army begins to attack where they were unable to defeat the virus and save the game, Catwoman destroys Danny's friends and returned back to the real world and got possessed, trapping and killing the cyber Jane Hoop Elementary. Kirk and the Evil Kirk battles against each other and eventually killed his parents. They died and remained trapped in the game forever. With the help of the different selves of Jane Hoop Elementary, Danny and Kirk helped each other by destroying Evil Kirk and Catwoman and her army with their ultimate power.

As the final battle ended, Catwoman, Shego, Monkeyman returned back to the real world, Danny destroys the virus, the Cyber Escape, and saved the gameworld and restore people's bodies back especially Karen and John, and his friends returned inside the video game. Before he tries to destroy the Cyber Escape, he gets distracted by his friends refusing him to destroy it struggling to ignore the comments of his evil thoughts from his friends, but he finally ignores them and destroys it. Kirk says that he wwanted to stay inside the game and have more adventure inside the says, as Danny heads home. Danny completed the game and returned back to the real world. He says to his friends that 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


 * Blake Brown as Danny Gorden, the leader of Jane Hoop Elementary.
 * Ben Linkin as Alec Gutzwiller, Danny's best friende.
 * Amy Tammie as Rebecca Henry, Danny's best friend.
 * Brandon Simpson as Cory Berning, Danny's best friend.
 * Bloom Dee as Jaquille Short, Danny's another best friend.
 * Barbara Blue as Naudia Gorden, Danny's cousin and Alec's love interest.
 * George Jones as James Watson, the mayor of Cincinnati.
 * Brooke Timer as Dr. Catwoman, the main villain 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.
 * Nathalie Richardson as Miss. Bella Watson, Mayor's wife.
 * 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.
 * Johnny Depp as Mr. Waters, Kirk's father.
 * Sandra Bullock as Mrs. Waters, Kirk's mother.
 * Amanda Seyfried as Karen, a female player who was possessed by the virus from the Hoop video game.
 * Jensen Ackles as John, Karen's boyfriend.

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.

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 James Calvin as director 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. It wrapped up throughout summer 2001, where the film spend mostly until October 2001 for post-production.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack with the same title was released on November 6, 2001, just three days before the film's release and two before the video game. It was composed by once again Kim Dawson from the predesessor.

Marketing
The film's production budget is $100 million. 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 158 minutes, making it the longest Jane Hoop Elementary film ever, and was approximately 13 minutes longer than the first film.

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 164 minutes, making it the second longest Jane Hoop Elementary film ever.

Critical reception

 * See also: Critical response to the Jane Hoop Elementary films

The film received generally positive reviews from critics, garnering a 83% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes,[3] and 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 third highest rated film in the film series, behind only The Final Rush - Part 2 and The Magic Ball. 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. 151 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 $79.2 million in it's opening weekend, making it the second biggest weekend debut in history behind Jane Hoop Elementary: The First ($81.2 million). In Australia, it has the second biggest weekend debut in history earning $12.05 million behind 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 ended up with a total of $876 million worldwide, below from the gross of the first film. It was the second highest-grossing film of 2001 behind Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. With $275 million in the U.S., it ranked third place behind The Philosopher's Stone and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The Cyber Escape is currently the 36th 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".

Referneces

 * 1) ^ a b c "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
 * 2) ^ 'Harry Potter Filming Locations' at Gloucestershire On Screen
 * 3) ^ "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – Greg's Preview. Yahoo! Movies[dead link]
 * 4) ^ Reiter, Amy (1 October 2001). "Hugh can't always get what you want". Salon.com. Retrieved 26 September 2007.
 * 5) ^ "Gilderoy Lockhart actor found for Potter 2". Newsround. 25 October 2001. Retrieved 26 September 2007.
 * 6) ^ Dadds, Kimberly; Miriam Zendle (9 July 2007). "Harry Potter: books vs films". Digital Spy. Retrieved 14 September 2007.
 * 7) ^ Gray, Brandon (18 November 2002). "Harry Potter Potent with $88.4 Million Weekend". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
 * 8) ^ "Potter conjures up box office record". BBC News. 18 November 2002. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
 * 9) ^ "All time box office". Sky is Falling. Retrieved 22 September 2007.[dead link]
 * 10) ^ Strowbridge, C.S. (28 January 2003). "Chamber of Secrets sneaks pasts Jurassic Park". The Numbers. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
 * 11) ^ "2002 WORLDWIDE GROSSES". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
 * 12) ^ "OVERSEAS TOTAL YEARLY BOX OFFICE". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
 * 13) ^ "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
 * 14) ^ "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets". Metacritic. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
 * 15) ^ Ebert, Roger (15 November 2002). "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets". Chicago Sun Times. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
 * 16) ^ Schwarzbaum, Lisa (13 November 2002). "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
 * 17) ^ Roeper, Robert (15 November 2002). "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets". Ebert & Roeper. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
 * 18) ^ McCarthy, Todd (15 November 2002). "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets". Variety. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
 * 19) ^ Stevens, Dana (15 November 2002). "FILM REVIEW; An Older, Wiser Wizard, But Still That Crafty Lad". New York Times. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
 * 20) ^ Travers, Peter (15 November 2002). "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
 * 21) ^ Turan, Kenneth (15 November 2002). "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets". Los Angeles Times. Archived from The original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
 * 22) ^ Kipnis, Jill (1 March 2003). "Blockbuster Sequels Ensure DVD's Sale Saga". Billboard. Retrieved 28 November 2010.
 * 23) ^ "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved 28 November 2010.
 * 24) ^ Calogne, Juan (18 September 2009). "Ultimate Editions Announced for First Two Harry Potter movies". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved 28 November 2010.