Not to be confused with Pixl.

Pixels
General information
Director	Chris Columbus
Writers	Tim Herlihy Timothy Dowling
Starring	Adam Sandler Kevin James Michelle Monaghan Peter Dinklage Josh Gad Sean Bean Brian Cox
Country of origin	United States of America
Original language	English
Translations	Japanese Catalan Czech French (Canada) French (Europe) German Hindi Hungarian Italian Korean Malay Mandarin (China) Mandarin (Taiwan) Portuguese (Brazil) Russian Spanish (Latin America) Spanish (Europe) Thai Turkish Ukrainian
Ratings	MPA: - Parental guidance thirteen years and older[1] CMP: - Parental guidance[2] MCC: - General[2] Eirin: - Guidance[3] BBFC: - Twelve years and older[4] IFCO: - Twelve years and older[4] MR: - Eleven years and older[5] KAVI: - Seven years and older[6] FSK: - Six years and older[7] NMHH: - Twelve years and older[8] Kijkwijzer: - Nine years and older[9] NMA: - Nine years and older[5] RARS: - Twelve years and older[10] JSO: - Twelve years and older[11] ICAA: - Seven years and older[12] INCAA: - Everyone[13] ClassInd: - Ten years and older[14] FCA: - Not suitable for children[15] KMRB: - Twelve years and older[16] MOC: - General audience[17] MCT: - Viewers younger than thirteen years old may watch with accompanying family members[18] ACB: - Parental guidance[19] OFLC: - Parental guidance[20] SM: 11 - Eleven years and older[21]
Production
Producers	Adam Sandler Chris Columbus Mark Radcliffe Allen Covert
Editor	Hughes Winborne
Production companies	Columbia Pictures Happy Madison Productions 1492 Pictures LStar Capital
Cinematography	Amir Mokri
Runtime	106 minutes
Budget	$88–129 million
Distribution
Distributor	Sony Pictures Releasing
Release date	July 24, 2015[22] July 16, 2015[23] July 22, 2015[23] July 22, 2015[23] July 22, 2015[23] July 22, 2015[23] July 22, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 23, 2015[23] July 24, 2015[23] July 24, 2015[23] July 24, 2015[23] July 24, 2015[23] July 24, 2015[23] July 24, 2015[23] July 24, 2015[23] July 24, 2015[23] July 24, 2015[23] July 24, 2015[23] July 25, 2015[23] July 29, 2015[23] July 29, 2015[23] July 30, 2015[23] July 30, 2015[23] July 30, 2015[23] July 30, 2015[23] July 30, 2015[23] July 31, 2015[23] July 31, 2015[23] August 7, 2015[23] August 7, 2015[23] August 12, 2015[23] August 12, 2015[23] August 13, 2015[23] August 13, 2015[23] August 13, 2015[23] August 13, 2015[23] August 14, 2015[23] August 20, 2015[23] August 20, 2015[23] August 20, 2015[23] August 20, 2015[23] August 21, 2015[23] August 23, 2015[23] August 26, 2015[23] September 10, 2015[23] September 12, 2015[23] September 14, 2015[23] September 24, 2015[23]
Box office	$244.9 million

Pixels is a science-fiction action comedy film released in 2015 and co-produced by Sony Pictures and Happy Madison Productions. Based on the 2010 short film of the same name, the film stars Adam Sandler as Sam Brenner, a down-on-his-luck former arcade champion and home theater installer who, through a series of events, is hired by the US military to train a group of old-school arcade players in fighting an alien race that is attacking Earth with technology inspired by 1980s arcade games, such as Donkey Kong and PAC-MAN.

The film was critically panned, with reviewers criticizing the performances, humor, product placement, execution, and dialogue, although the soundtrack, originality, and visuals were praised by some. The film was also a box office disappointment, grossing $245 million USD^[24] on a budget of between $88 million and $129 million USD.

Super Mario–related elements in Pixels

Donkey Kong in the climax of the film.

The film begins with Sam Brenner playing the original Donkey Kong game and losing a championship match to Eddie Plant (Peter Dinklage), who uses a cheat code (despite the fact that the actual game does not feature cheat codes and doing so would be counter-productive for an arcade game). Donkey Kong haunts Brenner as "the one game he sucks at".

When the "arcaders" are called in to train United States Navy SEALs to play arcade games, Ludlow Lamonsoff (Josh Gad) wears a shirt depicting Small Mario's jumping sprite from Super Mario Bros.

Later in the film, an alien that has taken a form based on Mario's sprite from Donkey Kong can be seen running and jumping across a street, although none of the main characters are seen interacting with him.

The film's climax has the cast face the leader of the aliens, who has taken a form based on Donkey Kong and is on a recreation of 25m, with captives on the same platform Pauline is held captive on in Donkey Kong. As Donkey Kong attacks the group, Brenner has a breakdown when he cannot figure out Donkey Kong's pattern and his insecurity over not being able to win the game gets to him. One of the captives, Matty van Patten (Matt Lintz), then reveals that Plant cheated, giving Brenner the confidence he needs to get to the top and defeat Donkey Kong using a hammer.

Production

The original script of the film did not feature Donkey Kong, but he was included after meeting with Nintendo and convincing the company Donkey Kong would be "treated with respect".^[25] A deleted post-credits scene was going to include a sequence where Mario stands on top of the Washington Monument as "the last remaining video game character/alien preparing to wreak havoc on Earth". The scene was cut because it did not test well.^[26]

Gallery

• 

  Cover for the digital release of the film
• 

  Cover for the DVD release of the film
• 

  Cover for one of the Target-exclusive lenticular Blu-ray releases
• 

  Film poster featuring PAC-MAN
• 

  Album for "Game On (feat. Good Charlotte)"
• 

  Mario's appearance in the film
• 

  25m, as seen at the climax of the film
• 

  Donkey Kong, as seen in the 2010 short film

Names in other languages

Notes

• Eddie Plant is a caricature of many well-known gamers,^[62] including Billy Mitchell, the controversial and then-current world record-holder for the arcade versions of Donkey Kong and PAC-MAN.
• One of the posters depicts Donkey Kong attacking the city despite never doing so in the film, although he does so in the short film.

References

• Films