Legend of MYCUN

"This year, our favorite heroes are back and they are ready to kick some monkey butt."

- Tagline

Legend of MYCUN is a 2008 American computer-animated comedy crossover film and a sequel to the 2005 film MYCUN: The Movie. It was directed by Taylor Grodin and Mike Moon, and produced by Geo G. at MYCUN Studios and CGI Entertainment. It is also CGI Entertainment's second film. The screenplay is written by Jon Vitti, Josh Klausner, Darren Lemke, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. Most of the cast – Anne Hathaway, Steve Carell, Pierre Coffin, Sachi Matsumoto, C. Elbourn, and Jodelle Ferland – reprised their roles, with the exception of Spencer Klein, Christina Ricci, and Gus Lewis, who were replaced by Elijah Wood, Dakota Fanning, and Kodi Smit-McPhee, respectively. Supporting cast members include Toby Kebbell, Andy Serkis, Moisés Arias, Tim Whintall, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Evan Sabara, Scott Adsit, Aaron Lohr, Max Casella, Nick Thurston, Karin Konoval, Terry Notary and Judy Greer. Legend of MYCUN takes place three years after the first.

The producers were confident enough in MYCUN: The Movie that they started planning for the sequel before production had completed. Gordin, the executive producer of the first film, was on board to direct the film. Unlike its predecessor which was traditionally animated, this film is fully animated and rendered in computer-generated imagery (CGI), which is handled by CGI Entertainment, a computer-animation company founded by Geo G., the director of the first film and the producer of the sequel. The production of the film began in August 2006 and finished in November 2007.

Legend of MYCUN premiered in Reading, Pennsylvania on January 13, 2008, and was released on February 1, 2008, by 20th Century Fox in North America and Universal Pictures in other countries. Like its predecessor, Legend of MYCUN received positive reviews upon its release. Legend of MYCUN has opened in 4,296 theaters, grossing $22.7 million on its opening day and $70.6 million on its opening weekend, resulting in the number one position at the box office. The film became MYCUN Studios' most successful film to date and the highest grossing animated film of the year worldwide until Kung Fu Panda. It also became the highest grossing MYCUN Studios film overall. A third film, titled MYCUN and the Mystery to New York, was released on June 15, 2012, and a fourth film, titled MYCUN Forever, was released on May 30, 2016.

Plot
Two years after the first film, Gabriel Garza, now a grown man, and Red Puckett are married, with Gabriel leading and governing a colony with the MYCUNs located in MYCUN Village, Gabriel's newly built village near his city, MYCUN City, at his Imaginary World. One year later, after Red gave birth to a baby boy named Carn, the colony is oppressed by a gang of apes with guns, Evil Minions, Caillou and his clones, and bad nursery rhyme characters, led by Koba, the scarred bonobo who formerly experimented on at Gen-Sys and holds a grudge against humans for his mistreatment, that arrive demanding the village. Later, when Gabriel and the MYCUNs talk about Koba on Gabriel's ceremonial rock, they start a plan to track down Koba and his henchmen, where they will wait for Koba and his henchmen to come out of Koba's lair, defeat them, then Gabriel will call the police on Koba, after the call, the police will arrest Koba, and then they will send him to jail forever. The other MYCUNs agree on Gabriel's new plan.

Meanwhile at Koba's lair, he reveals to his henchmen that they'll order to make their new plan which they'll stay here while Koba, Grey, Stone, and Koba's "only human son", Antonio Perez, will try to catch Gabriel and the MYCUNs, but Antonio doesn't want his father to go with him since he can go by himself. So Antonio then travels into MYCUN Village, but is captured by gorilla guards, who bring him to Gabriel. After a tense discussion, Antonio try to tell the truth, but the MYCUNs think he's "lying" which this made them to grab Antonio to a pit of lava. However, Gabriel stopped the MYCUNs and Antonio finally told the truth that he will be staying at MYCUN Village. After Koba tried to look for Antonio, he starts a new plan, where he and his henchmen capture Gabriel and his friendly apes, then they'll find Antonio, and finally they'll take over Gabriel's Imaginary World.

The next day, Red and Norman Babcock take Antonio to Koba's lair so they could spy on Koba and his henchmen. But as they make a sound which made Koba and his henchmen notice them, Agatha Prenderghast helps to hide Red, Norman, and Antonio from Koba and his henchmen and she took them back to MYCUN Village. Then Antonio wonders around the village, and he meets up with Hiro Hamada and Norman talked about Carrie Underwood with them for a while. After that, Gabriel and Red take Antonio to guide around MYCUN City. The next day, Antonio proceeds to try to help train the MYCUNs to fight Koba and his minions.

Amid the training, Antonio leads Gabriel and Red to his camping site to tell the story of Koba how he, Stone, and the other bad apes got resurrected from the dead by Carrie Underwood (from the first film). Gabriel and Red are understanding and Antonio develops respect for his knowledge. Meanwhile back at Koba's lair, Koba and his henchmen miss Antonio but Koba had a test tube where it makes him grow bigger and stronger and become a giant bonobo. After Koba took a sip out of the potion, they hide a hole. Then one of The Wacky Pack members Leno jumps into the hole but ends up getting flicked across the region by Koba before Koba turns back to normal and start their new plan now.

After Gabriel and Red turn on the neon for their house, the MYCUNs hold a large party to dance around, but when the power goes out, Gabriel and the MYCUNs saw Koba and his henchmen kidnapping Gabriel's friendly apes, and Antonio stays with Koba. Then Koba captures Gabriel, bounds and gags him, and Koba and his henchmen took Gabriel to the shipping containers from Koba's lair where they put him in one container. Norman is able to save Gabriel and helps him to escape, but Koba eventually injures Norman where he slowly "dies." After that, Gabriel finds Antonio in his room to escape but Koba appears and gets out of their way, which made Gabriel leave the lair and never save Antonio ever again.

The next day at Norman's funeral outside of MYCUN Village, Red betrays and divorces Gabriel for thinking that Carrie Underwood was the most beautiful country pop singer in the world since ever Norman died. This leaves Gabriel heartbroken because Red betrays him and he cannot find the courage to let Red forgive him. Instead, Gabriel started to hate her which made her a traitor to Gabriel. Meanwhile, Koba orders his henchmen to destroy MYCUN City and take over the world. Later, Gabriel and the MYCUNs are depressed. Caesar the altered chimpanzee tries to cheer the MYCUNs up but they end up on a fight. As Gabriel tells the MYCUNs they still have no plans yet, the Wacky Pack offer the contents of their piggy bank to fund the plan. The Minions and the apes then hand over their own savings, too, leading Gabriel to the idea of creating an airplane to flee Koba and his henchmen.

While the MYCUNs are working on their new plane, Gabriel went to pick up iron from the docks, but when he gets out of Gabriel's house, he met a man named Jarquanzela, who is the founder, owner, and mayor of Jarquanzetopia. Gabriel orders Jarquanzela to pick up some iron from Sodor. So Jarquanzela dashed to the docks to fetch some iron and gave them to Gabriel. Then Gabriel went back to his house, and went upstairs to his room, only to find out that there's trash and junk all over Gabriel's room. Gabriel was very cross when he found that Koba is responsible for trashing Gabriel's room. When Jarquanzela dashed back to Gabriel with tons of loads of iron before he leaves out of Gabriel's house, Koba, who is hiding in a bush, using binoculars to spy on Gabriel, was very angry since Gabriel cleaned his room after Koba trashed it. Then Koba met Jarquanzela, who is hiding in the bush with him, but just as Jarquanzela thinks that Koba is "the screaming bonobo that got bitten by a rabid raccoon," Koba roars and snarls at Jarquanzela, which made him scream and dashed away.

Later that night, Koba and his henchmen decide to wreak havoc at MYCUN City. While Gabriel wakes up and went to the city to spy on Koba and his henchmen, the police, the FBI, the CIA, and the SWAT came to arrest Koba and his henchmen but Koba pulls out a minigun to destroy them. When Antonio refuses Koba's orders to kill the citizens of MYCUN City, citing Gabriel's teachings, Grey and Stone capture Antonio and imprison all those known to be loyal to Gabriel. Later, Red returns back to MYCUN Village and walks over to Norman's coffin since she realizes that she wants to be with Gabriel again because she changed her mind being a Carrie Underwood fan. At Norman's coffin, Red gave Norman something to eat if he was alive. Then Koba arrives and thinks that Red is telling the truth that Red is still a Carrie Underwood fan, but he realized that she is lying to him, and he captures her. Fortunately, Norman, who is barely alive, calls and informs Gabriel, and to rescue Red, Gabriel and the MYCUNs visit Koba along with Caesar and the apes. Meanwhile, one of Koba's gorilla henchmen, Abe, breaks into MYCUN Village which surprise, terrorize and scare the other newcomers, but Norman intentionally kills Abe with an Newell Atomic 5 Pistol he brought, which Norman leds his allies to the other weapons he made and brought.

Later at MYCUN City, Gabriel confronts Koba at the MYCUN City Church where Koba is hiding at, but when Gabriel called Koba a "stupid monkey," this made Koba really enraged as just they began to battle. When Gabriel and his gang reached the top of the church to keep away from Koba's henchmen, the airplane that the MYCUNs made arrived led by Norman and are able to defeat Koba's henchmen. Fighting alongside Norman, the newcomers, Gabriel's favorite other characters, the Wacky Pack (including Loy and the Lars), and even Jarquanzela, Gabriel later led the plane and he and his team shoot and attack Koba's henchmen around MYCUN City and they rescued Gabriel's other apes at Koba's lair during the battle. Koba then takes a sip out of the growth potion himself, but Gabriel and Norman overcome him using Lucy's lipstick Taser and the Newell Atomic 5 Pistol.

Gabriel sees Red strapped to a TNT-loaded shark rocket and starts to untie her, but Caillou launches the rocket, sending the rocket flying towards a bomb/TNT island. Red accepts Gabriel's apologies, and the pair dive into the ocean seconds before the rocket enters the island. After Koba and his henchmen are finally arrested by the police thanks to Gabriel and the MYCUNs, they rescued Antonio and they went back home. Antonio receives a honorary knighthood from Gabriel with his sword to live here at MYCUN Village while the Minions and the apes build Antonio a new home right before Gabriel and the MYCUNs celebrate.

Cast

 * Elijah Wood as Gabriel Garza, an 18-year-old brave man and the leader of the MYCUN residents. He was previously voiced by Spencer Klein in the original film.
 * Toby Kebbell as Koba, a bonobo who tries to kill Gabriel and take over the MYCUN universe.
 * Andy Serkis as Caesar, a common chimpanzee and leader of the apes.
 * Anne Hathaway as Red Puckett-Garza, an 18-year-old red hooded woman and Gabriel's wife, mother of Carn.
 * Moisés Arias as Antonio Pérez, a Hispanic boy and Koba's only human son.
 * Kodi Smit-McPhee as Norman Babcock, an 11-year-old boy and Gabriel's best friend and advisor. He was previously voiced by Gus Lewis in the original film.
 * Steve Carell as Felonious Gru, a former villain and Gabriel's friend and advisor.
 * Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud as the Minions, Gru's small, yellow, cylindrical henchmen.
 * Sachi Matsumoto as Toon Link, a cartoon version of Link from The Legend of Zelda series and a legendary hero and swordsman.
 * C. Elbourn as Ico, a horned boy.
 * Lauren Tom as Yorda.
 * Dakota Fanning as Coraline Jones, an 11-year-old girl with dark blue hair. She was previously voiced by Christina Ricci in the original film.
 * Tim Whintall as Bernard, a curious polar bear who doesn't speak, but he does communicate through guttural sounds.
 * Johnny Depp as Victor Van Dort, a shy and gawky young man who is engaged to Victoria Everglot for social and financial reasons. He is a very good pianist.
 * Helena Bonham Carter as Emily, the Corpse Bride, a beautiful and charismatic young woman with a passion for music and dance.
 * Emily Watson as Victoria Everglot, Victor Van Dort's pretty, sweet-natured, yet timid fiancee. She is kind and shy, yet determined when she puts her mind to it.
 * Evan Sabara as Hiro Hamada, a 14-year-old robotics prodigy.
 * Scott Adsit as Baymax, an inflatable robot built by Tadashi as a medical assistant.
 * Aaron Lohr as Jak, a silent 15-year-old boy and Daxter's best friend.
 * Max Casella as Daxter, Jak's best friend who was accidentally transformed into an ottsel (half otter, half weasel).
 * Nick Thurston as Blue Eyes, a common chimpanzee, Caesar and Cornelia's first son.
 * Karin Konoval as Maurice, a Bornean orangutan and Caesar's friend and advisor.
 * Terry Notary as Rocket, a common chimpanzee and Caesar's friend and Ash's father.
 * Judy Greer as Cornelia, a common chimpanzee and Caesar's wife, mother of Blue Eyes and a newborn son named Milo.
 * Scott Lang as Luca, a western lowland gorilla and the leader of the gorillas guarding the MYCUN Gate.
 * Jodelle Ferland as Agatha "Aggie" Prenderghast, a Puritan girl who lived in the 1700s.
 * Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson, one of the main characters from the Fox animated series The Simpsons.
 * Lee Ross as Grey, a common chimpanzee and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Richard King as Stone, a common chimpanzee and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Kristen Wiig as Lucy Wilde, an Anti-Villain League agent and Gru's love interest/new partner.
 * Grey DeLisle as Margo Gru, the oldest of Gru's three girls and the most overprotective of the trio.
 * Grey DeLisle also voices Annie, one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Cathy Cavadini as Edith Gru, the middle and tomboy of Gru's three girls.
 * Tara Strong as Agnes Gru, the youngest child of Gru's three girls, who is obsessed with unicorns.
 * Tara Strong also voices Caillou, a 4-year-old spoiled brat and one of Koba's henchmen and the leader of the Caillou clones.
 * Russell Brand as Dr. Nefario, Gru's elderly, hearing impaired gadget man.
 * John Alexander as Abe, a western lowland gorilla and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Cree Summer as Teddy Bear, a stuffed sun bear of the Mother Goose Club and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Jeremy Shada as Eep the Mouse, the youngest of the Mother Goose gang and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Hynden Walch as Baa Baa Sheep, a super bubbly sheep and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Stephanie D'Abruzzo as Mary Quite Contrary, Jack B. Nimble's wife and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Alexander Gould as Jack B. Nimble, Mary Quite Contrary's husband and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Annie Potts as Little Bo Peep, one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Bill Fagerbakke as Ben the Dog, Annie's pet dog and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Brian Koch as Mango, a living anthropomorphic monkey and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Jess Harnell as Billy Beaver, a beaver from Busy Beavers and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Jess Harnell also voices Jarquanzela, a man who is created by WazzoTV.
 * Debi Derryberry as Betty Beaver a beaver from Busy Beavers and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * John DiMaggio as Baby Panda, a panda bear from Little Baby Bum and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as LBB Cow, a cow from Little Baby Bum and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Kevin Michael Richardson also voices Chief Grizzly, a police chief who is always on task during a crime and doesn't like jokes or unnecessary talk during work.
 * Carlos Alazraqui as LBB Pig, a pig from Little Baby Bum and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Taylor Grodin as LBB Duck, a duck from Little Baby Bum and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Adam Katz as Baa Baa Black Sheep, a black sheep from Little Baby Bum and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Ariel Winter as Mia, a little girl from Little Baby Bum and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Pamela Hayden as LBB Kitten, one of the Three Little Kittens from Little Baby Bum and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Tress MacNeille as Jacus, a little boy from Little Baby Bum and one of Koba's henchmen.
 * Tress MacNeille also voices young Gabriel.
 * Anthony Anderson as Bill Stork, a talkative and silly officer who usually annoys Chief Grizzly.
 * Glenn Close as Granny Puckett, the grandmother of Red Puckett.
 * Geo G. as Roge, the leader of Gabriel's Wacky Pack.
 * E.G. Daily as Leno, the second of Gabriel's Wacky Pack.
 * Nicky Jones as Cole, the third of Gabriel's Wacky Pack.
 * Mathew Valencia as Loy.
 * Frank Welker as Animal's vocal effects
 * Matthew Alexander Samono (Steve Samono's real life son) as Carn Garza, the newborn son of Gabriel and Red.

Additional voices

 * Jack Angel
 * Bob Bergen
 * John Cygan
 * Butch Hartman
 * Carlos Alazraqui
 * Tress MacNeille
 * Debi Derryberry
 * Fred Tatasciore
 * Jess Harnell
 * Wally Wingert
 * Sherry Lynn
 * Danny Mann
 * Mona Marshall
 * Grey DeLisle
 * John DiMaggio
 * Laraine Newman
 * Jan Rabson
 * Yuri Lowenthal
 * Kevin Michael Richardson
 * Ariel Winter
 * David Herman
 * Kari Wahlgren
 * Jim Ward
 * April Stewart
 * Justin Chapman
 * Michael Huang
 * Cary Huang
 * Dalton Cashin
 * Kacie Chapman
 * Hailey Chapman
 * Ben Cross
 * Michael Bruzzone
 * Marco Bonomo
 * Derek Napolitano
 * Mark Katz
 * Jill Katz

Development
The sequel's villain was teased in the 2005 film. Terry Ward, one of the producers of MYCUN: The Movie, confirmed in January 2005 that MYCUN: The Movie would be the first in what is envisioned as an animated film series. In March 2005, Ward met with Geo G. and Universal Studios to discuss a MYCUN: The Movie sequel. Later that month, Geo stated that the origin story would further unfold in the second installment. Spencer Klein and Steve Carell confirmed in June 2005 that they are signed on for future films. In August 2005, Geo announced that he would not direct another film in the series: "I'm sorry, but I'm busy with other stuff. I would like to return as director, but I can't." Geo felt that different directors could bring different qualities to future films.

In October 2005, after the production of MYCUN: The Movie was wrapped up, Universal, 20th Century Fox and MYCUN Studios announced that a sequel, under the working title MYCUN: The Movie 2, was already underway, with Josh Klausner and Darren Lemke writing the script for the sequel. On November 27, 2005, it was announced Jon Vitti had been hired to do rewrites on the original screenplay by Klausner and Lemke. The next day, Geo said the series "isn't always going to be a PG-rated movie," and confirmed that the film would "get edgier than the first."

In December 2005, after the successful release of the first film, it was announced that Taylor Grodin, the executive producer of the first film, will direct the sequel with Geo as producer, and it was scheduled for release on December 14, 2007, to be distributed by Universal in the United States, with Fox handing the international rights. In January 2006, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver joined to co-write the script. That same month, it was also announced that Mike Moon had joined Grodin to co-direct the film, while Grodin confirmed that the main protagonist Gabriel Garza would be a grown, young man in the sequel, whose age is now 18.

On March 3, 2006, there were reports that Universal was considering leaving the sequel due to its concern that a December 2007 release date would not give it enough time to distribute the film in the United States properly. It was announced on March 12 that the release date for the sequel was being pushed back two months to February 1, 2008. In April, it was announced that Universal would be replaced by Fox as the domestic distributor, although Universal would held the international rights for the film.

In May 2006, Legend of MYCUN was announced as the title of the film. Grodin chose to rename the film from its previous title, MYCUN: The Movie 2, because he doesn't want a sequel that says "The Movie 2" on the title. In July 2006, MYCUN Studios reported the film's plot: "Three years after Carrie Underwood is gone for good and Gabriel Garza and Red Puckett are married together, a growing nation of the MYCUNs led by Gabriel is about to get invaded by Koba and his servants, and it's up to our heroes to stop Koba, while Koba's only human son, Antonio Perez, tries to befriend Gabriel and the MYCUNs." In December 2006, Fox revealed a first look at the film.

In April 2007, Grodin stated that the sequel won't feature Humpty Dumpty as one of Koba's henchmen in the film. "I know that the fairy tale character Humpty Dumpty was related to Nursery Rhymes," Grodin said, "but we supposed to forget that because I love Humpty Dumpty during my childhood, but we don't want him as one of Koba's minions in the movie because we don't want the egg to get hurt... with a crack." However, in July, the animators later said that they would put Humpty Dumpty in the film, as one of Koba's henchmen, ignoring Grodin's response. In the DVD commentary, Humpty Dumpty was named "Humpy Dumpy" as a Little Baby Bum character.

Grodin, who wanted Gabriel to be different as a grown man in the sequel, explained about Gabriel's design in the sequel, saying that "We designed Gabriel in a different way in the sequel as he was made to look hot, with long hair. Even though some animators didn't like that idea, we couldn't deal with that either." During the initial development stages of the film, Gabriel's hair was originally going to be a lot longer. However, the animators had trouble with animating all the hair, and found it to look awkward. "Making Gabriel's hair more longer would've made him even more sexier but it was very hard to make so we made his hair a bit shorter," replied Grodin.

Despite the positive response the film would go on to receive, Legend of MYCUN was MYCUN Studios' only MYCUN sequel. In an interview, Geo G. said that the company stopped producing the first two films because they couldn't do anything new with the characters, and that after five years of development on a single series the team wanted to do something different. Future MYCUN films were produced by Geo LTD. Animation and distributed by Universal.

Casting
In November 2005, Spencer Klein speculated that he would not be reprising his role as Gabriel for the sequel, saying, "Sorry, but I can't do this. I thought I will not be done with the MYCUN universe, but I had to. My guess is I won't be in it." Since then, Freddie Highmore, Bill Hader, Michael J. Fox, Andy Samberg, and Ashton Kutcher were considered for the voice of Gabriel as a grown, young man in the sequel until they chose Elijah Wood, who was confirmed in February 2006 to voice Gabriel in the sequel, replacing Klein. This marks Wood's third time collaborating with Geo G, following Red (2001) and BJ and Wally (2007). Christina Ricci, the voice of Coraline in the first film, confirmed that she would not be returning for the sequel. So Dakota Fanning was confirmed as her replacement. Also, Gus Lewis was replaced by Kodi Smit-McPhee as Norman.

Anne Hathaway had also expressed hope to reprise her role, and in March 2006, it was confirmed that she would do so. In April 2006, Steve Carell, Pierre Coffin, Sachi Matsumoto, C. Elbourn, and Jodelle Ferland were later confirmed to reprise their roles in the sequel, with Toby Kebbell, Andy Serkis, Tim Whintall, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Evan Sabara, Scott Adsit, Aaron Lohr, Max Casella, Nick Thurston, Karin Konoval, Terry Notary and Judy Greer returning as supporting roles as well. In September 2006, Moisés Arias was cast as Antonio Perez during production. That same month, Lee Ross, Richard King, and John Alexander joined the cast of the sequel. This is first film that Wood and Serkis have appeared together since The Lord of the Rings film series.

Writing
In October 2005, when the sequel was announced, writers Josh Klausner and Darren Lemke wrote the first draft for the sequel which it was way different from the final version and Gabriel and Red were still young in the first script. It focused on Carrie Underwood escaping from jail and reunites her henchmen to track down Gabriel and the MYCUNs and destroy the world. She later teams up with Koba, who was still hiding from the tree from the graveyard from the first film, to take over the whole world. Fearing the world's destruction, Gabriel and his group of MYCUNs (Red, Gru, the Minions, Toon Link, Ico, Yorda, Coraline, Norman and Aggie) venture out to defeat Carrie, Koba and their henchmen and save the world. At the same time, Carrie and Koba kidnap the newcomers of the MYCUNs and Gabriel's favorite other characters.

However, at the time when Jon Vitti, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver joined the sequel between November 2005 and January 2006, the first draft was rejected because the other animators didn't like that idea. So Klausner, Lemke, Vitti, Jaffa and Silver rewrite the script for a better story for the film. The second draft, set three years after the events from the first film, focused on Gabriel and Red (who are now grown-ups) getting married together and have a child, until they heard that Gabriel's world is in trouble, and it's because Koba and his minions are taking over the world. The MYCUNs must stop Koba, before the invasion occurs.

Some of the ideas that were not used in MYCUN: The Movie appear in this film: airboarding and the shipping containers. Also, many of the elements for the sequel were dropped out in the final version due to a lack of time, development issues, etc. during the development stages of the film. Several other characters, including Eric Cartman from South Park, Crash Bandicoot, Geo Jones, The Once-ler and The Lorax, who were initially intended to appear in the sequel were dropped in the final version due to time constraints. Cartman was originally considered by his creator/voice actor Trey Parker to be a supporting character and Crash was the most wanted character in the film, and later appeared in the all following installments. Executive producer Terry Ward explained to the scrapped characters, "This could've been made the South Park fans thrilled after hearing upon Cartman to be in this film, but due to fact we don't have much time to put Cartman in the film, we took him out to his normal, raunchy home universe with his friends." Geo Guy was nearly cut from the film due to time constraints, but made a brief cameo appearance in Gabriel and Red's wedding in the opening of the final film.

During the visual development stages of the film, Koba was originally going to live in an abandoned factory as his secret lair, but after some time the writers and animators thought it was too similar to the abandoned factory from the Geo TV episode "Underrated Geo Guy: XIII", so it was changed to an Aztec temple. In addition, the Caesar-Koba battle scene that was supposed to be a scene after Gabriel was kidnapped was removed from the film due to time constraints and was reused in the Adventures of MYCUN episode "You Say Koba and I Say Caesar", in which Koba seeks revenge on Caesar and starts a battle with Koba and Caesar.

Animation
The film was animated in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, unlike the first film, which was animated in 2.35:1. Unlike its predecessor which was traditionally animated, MYCUN Studios announced in April 2006 that this film would be fully and entirely animated and rendered in computer-generated imagery (CGI), which is handled by CGI Entertainment, in co-production with MYCUN Studios. CGI also provided some computer-animated scenes in the first film. Grodin replies, "While the first film is already hand-drawn animated, the next one will be CGI animated where they have all of the characters animated in CGI. There are some reasons why the second one will be in CGI, but the main reason is because we want to see the characters in CGI, and it's way better than hand-drawn animation, and that's why CGI is pretty awesome."

As the story approached the production stage in early 2006, it was unclear whether CGI Entertainment would produce the film, as the entire team of 300 was busy working on Mister Mosquito for a 2007 release. Interactive Animation Studios, with a staff of 98, had its own animators, art department, and engineers. Under intense time pressure, they had put out two CD-ROM titles the previous year — MYCUN: The Movie - Animated Storybook and MYCUN: The Movie Activity Center. Between the two products, the group had created as much original animation as there was in MYCUN: The Movie itself. Geo G. made the decision to shut down the computer games operation and the staff became the initial core of the Legend of MYCUN production team.

Animation for the film began in August 2006, with Gabriel and Red's wedding being the first scene to be storyboarded. As the rest of the CGI team were working on Mister Mosquito only few of the animators were allocated to the sequel. The rest of the team began work on Legend of MYCUN as well after the production of Mister Mosquito was completed. Like the previous film, all ape characters were created with a mixture of motion-capture and CGI key-frame animation and Caillou and his clones had to be flat due to CGI modeling problems.

Grodin describes the "MYCUN City Chaos" scene where Koba wreaks havoc at MYCUN City as one of the hardest things the animators ever had to animate. It features several apes shooting around with guns, fogs, explosion, fire, and it took three months to complete. The scene is directed by Richard Williams with 2D animation made by Wang Film Productions and CGI animation by Blur Studio and Reel FX Creative Studios. In Gabriel's house, Gabriel and Red had a PlayStation, a PlayStation 2, a PlayStation 3, an NES, an SNES, a Nintendo 64, a GameCube, a Wii, an Xbox and an Xbox 360 in their living room. According to co-director Mike Moon in a DVD commentary for the film, there were no room for the PS1, the PS2, the NES, the SNES, the N64, the GameCube, the Xbox and the Xbox 360 so what the animators have to do is put the some of the consoles outside of the self that the PS3 and the Wii were on.

Soundtrack
On December 19, 2006, Grodin announced that Hans Zimmer would be composing the music for the film, replacing Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell, the composers of the first film. In February 2007, Heitor Pereira revealed that he would co-compose the score with Zimmer. Michael Giacchino joined in May to compose the score with Zimmer and Pereira.

Release
Legend of MYCUN made its world premiere at the IMAX Theatre in Reading, Pennsylvania on January 13, 2008, and held its European premiere on Janaury 24 at the Vue West End in London. The film was released in other territories on January 25, 2008, before it was theatrically released in the United States and Canada on February 1, 2008.

While its predecessor was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America, this film, however, was rated PG-13 for "action, violence, mild peril, rude humor, and language". This is because the production staff wanted the film to be "more edgier than the first" during the early development of the film. It aired on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim on March 13, 2009 at 9:00 pm with a TV-14-LV rating and an exclusive parental warning after each commercial break.

Marketing
A teaser poster for the film was released on February 27, 2007. The film's official teaser trailer first debuted on March 7, 2007 on the home media release of Dannie's Long Adventure, and it is attached to the theatrical release of TMNT. The official theatrical trailer debuted in July 2007, and it is attached to the theatrical releases for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and The Simpsons Movie. The third and final trailer has debuted in November 2007, and it is attached to the theatrical releases of Bee Movie and Alvin and the Chipmunks. The following month, TV spots were also aired.

A video game based on the film was made for the Xbox 360, Windows, Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance on January 29, 2008 in North America, on February 13, 2008 in Europe, and on March 27, 2008 in Japan. This is the last MYCUN video game to be released on the GBA.

Home media
Legend of MYCUN was released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 31, 2008. The DVD and Blu-ray combo pack features four "mini movies" titled Where's My Glasses?, Monkey Business, MYCUN of the Apes and The Minions' Missing Adventure. With 7,532,576 DVD units sold in 2008, Legend of MYCUN was the third highest-selling animated film of 2008, behind Kung Fu Panda and WALL-E.

Critical response
Legend of MYCUN received critical acclaim by a number of critics upon release, many rating it as good as its predecessor, and some rated it even better. Based on reviews collected from 325 critics by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 96% gave Legend of MYCUN a positive review, with the site's consensus stating: "Legend of MYCUN is getting more edgier than the original with adult humor, pop cultural references, and it's a fantastic sequel with way better animation and storyline." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average rating of 88 out of 100 based on 53 professional reviews published in newspapers, magazines and in highly regarded Internet sites, which indicates "universal acclaim".

Roger Ebert gave it three out of four stars saying it's "wonderous, entertaining, hilarious, and it's full with enjoyment," while Richard Corliss of Time Magazine gave a positive review and called it "laughably fun." Max Nicholson of IGN commented, "Legend of MYCUN lives up to the first groundbreaking crossover box office smash, except the plot is very familiar." James Rocchi of MSN Movies gave the film four out of five stars, calling it "a sequel that is way better and cooler than the original, with full of CGI scenes with some action and more." A.O. Scott of The New York Times praised the film for being able to balance out the action sequences and strong storytelling, writing that "Legend has a lot of better sequences than the original MYCUN, with some gags, action scenes, and it's a fully CGI animated movie instead of a hand-drawn animated movie with a mixture of CGI."

In contrast to the praise it received, even in some positive reviews, some critics said that the film wasn't as good as the original film. Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a negative review, saying "Amazing sequels like Toy Story 2 and Shrek 2 showed the laughs of more fun scenes; Legend of MYCUN doesn't quite have friendly-family gags as MYCUN: The Movie."

Box office
Legend of MYCUN topped the box office in its opening weekend, grossing $115,456,236 for a $25,664 average from 4,296 theaters and performing much better than analysts had been expecting. In its second weekend, the film retreated 44% to second place behind Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins grossing $43,650,785. It closed on August 7, 2008, grossing $634,135,542 in the United States and Canada and $522,234,356 overseas for a worldwide total of $722,521,663. Legend of MYCUN was MYCUN Studios' most successful film to date and the highest-grossing animated film of the year worldwide until Kung Fu Panda. It also became the highest-grossing film by MYCUN Studios and in the MYCUN franchise.

Main transcript
To see the main transcript of the film, click here.

Trailer transcript
To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here.

Sequels
A third film, titled MYCUN and the Mystery to New York, was released in 3D on June 15, 2012. This was the first MYCUN film not to be produced by MYCUN Studios or distributed by 20th Century Fox, released instead by Universal Pictures and produced by Geo LTD. Animation. The film's screenplay was written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, and is based on Little Guy and The Mystery to New York. It focuses on Gabriel and the MYCUNs looking for a mystery to New York and Homer and Bart Simpson, and they must stop Koba from ruling New York.

In August 2012, Steve Burke, the NBCUniversal CEO, officially confirmed that a fourth MYCUN film is in development. The film is directed by C. Elbourn and David Feiss — the first time without Taylor Grodin, produced by Geo G., written by David Silverman with Taylor Grodin, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver as executive producers. Titled MYCUN Forever, the film was released on May 30, 2016.