Spark: A Space Tail

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Aaron Woodley directs. Robert Duncan scores. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in Canada, South Korea. Dialogue in English, Portuguese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Earned back only 3% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
• 2Released 10 years ago.
• 3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Portuguese.
• 4International production across 2 countries: Canada, South Korea.
• 5Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
• 6Original score by Robert Duncan. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 7Jace Norman and Jessica Biel and Susan Sarandon carry the top of the cast.
• 8Marketing tagline: "Spark a revolution!".
• 9IMDB entry: tt3228088 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 10Only 66 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Original score

Robert Duncan

Runtime

91 min · 1h 31m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$40,000,000

Box office

$1,040,689

Return

3% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

PG

IMDB

Spark: A Space Tail (2016) ↗

Also by

Aaron Woodley

• 
  Bed and Breakfast

  2000 · ★ 7.0
• 
  Glenn Martin, DDS

  2009 · ★ 6.7
• 
  The Entitled

  2011 · ★ 6.2
• 
  Arctic Dogs

  2019 · ★ 6.0
• 
  Rhinoceros Eyes

  2004 · ★ 5.9
• 
  Toronto Stories

  2008 · ★ 3.5

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Spark: A Space Tail - Official Trailer - In Theaters April 14

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Reno2017-08-10
  ★ 3/10

  Saprk: A Space Fail My rating could be a little harsh, but, come on, if you have seen it, then you know the film lacks in everything. Firstly, the production was decent, especially for non-Disney, non-Pixar and even for non-Dreamworks and Sony, it is enough. The film was aimed for little kids, so keeping them in mind, it is a better film. Secondly, the characters and its designs were okay. But the story was merely the same dystopian theme. You know, dangerous visionary tries to destroy the planet and the years ago separated family finally unite and brings all the allies together to fight the villain. The end determines the fate of the great battle everyone involved in. For me, it looked more like a television film. Or even better if it has been a television series. Because somewhat it reminds the recent 'Trollhunters'. A boy possesses the secret weapon and trains hard to fight the evil force. Each episode with a different action, adventure, it would have been a wonderful series. Anyway, despite the film failed to impress its viewers, I won't say it is that bad. Watchable film, but there's no fun, only for timepass. Even for the timepass, there are a lot better ones out there. So showing it for only young children might justify, since they can't differentiate between good and bad, except enjoying everything they see. 3/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• SH

  Shanghai Hoongman Technology Co.

• 

  GulfStream Pictures

  US

• 

  Redrover

  KR

• 

  ToonBox Entertainment

  CA

• SU

  Suning Global Media

  CN

Key crew

• StoryboardJoe Giampapa
• ProducerTracy Grant
• ProducerJung Woo-kyung
• ProducerYoungki Lee
• Additional WritingDoug Hadders
• Additional WritingRobert Reece
• Additional WritingAdam Rotstein
• ProducerZheng Jun
• ProducerHarry Linden
• Executive ProducerMike Karz
• Digital Intermediate EditorRob Gyorgy

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• black hole
• anthropomorphism
• space
• planet
• monkey
• animals
• space monster

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical (limited)2017-04-14PG
• Physical2017-07-11PG

Also known as

International titles

• SparkUS
• Särts Kosmose kangelaneEE
• Spark: Thiên Du KýVN