Regular Show: The Movie

Plot

In the distant future, Rigby leads Benson, Skips, Hi-Five Ghost, Muscle Man, and Pops against an half human-half cyborg named Mr. Ross who is erasing time. They find Mr. Ross' weapon is guarded by a cyborg version of Mordecai, who attempts to kill Rigby for a transgression he did in the past. Benson sacrifices himself so that Rigby can use a space ship/time-machine to reach the past to stop the chaos. Rigby does so, but not before Mordecai shoots him with a plasma shotgun.

In the present, Mordecai and Rigby barely convince Benson not to fire them after running late. When the spaceship/time machine crash lands in the park, future Rigby tells Mordecai, Rigby and their co-workers that when Mordecai and Rigby were in high school, they created a time machine that backfired and created a "Time-nado", a tornado with the ability to travel through space and time, which was harnessed and weaponized by their former science teacher and volleyball coach, Mr. Ross, who was held responsible and sent to prison. Before dying, future Rigby also reveals future Mordecai shot him, and says Rigby must "tell the truth" in order to save the universe, even if it costs him his friendship with Mordecai. When questioned for details, Mordecai explains they created the time machine because Rigby got into their dream college, College University, but Mordecai did not. Benson tries to convince everyone the whole thing is a hoax, until Muscle Man finds future Mordecai's plasma shotgun and accidentally blows up Benson's car with it, leaving Benson in shock.

After preparing for the mission, the employees use the ship to reach Mordecai and Rigby's high school days, but damage the ship's engines in the process. Skips, Muscle Man and Hi-Five Ghost stay behind to repair the ship's engines while Benson and Pops follow Mordecai and Rigby to the science lab to find the time machine that past Mordecai and past Rigby were working on with past Mr. Ross, who is angry at Rigby for costing the volleyball team the championship but was forced to let him do an extra credit assignment to pass his class. However, the volleyball team attack them and make them separate, forcing Mordecai and Rigby to get help from their past selves.

After convincing past Rigby to make a model volcano instead, the group destroy the time machine and return to the spaceship/time machine only to find the repairs stalled due to an encounter with Muscle Man and Hi-Five Ghost's past selves. Complicating matters further is that temporal ruptures begin appearing just as the repairs are finished. Rigby, who had slipped away earlier, alerts them that past Mordecai and past Rigby are heading to the high school to finish a second time machine future Mr. Ross planted. The employees race back to the science lab, but are held up by Mr. Ross and future Mordecai, allowing past Mordecai and past Rigby to botch the time machine and create the Time-nado. Mr. Ross then forces Rigby to admit the truth while holding Mordecai hostage: he never got into College U but Mordecai did and he created Mordecai's fake rejection letter in order to maintain their friendship. Mr. Ross tries to kill Mordecai with a volleyball bomb in the confusion, but future Mordecai jumps into the bomb's path, taking a heavy wound and forcing Mr. Ross to retreat.

Upset over the duplicity, Mordecai angrily ends his friendship with Rigby, forcing Rigby to run off with the spaceship/time machine. Before dying, future Mordecai gives his present version his timeship and instructs him to patch things up, saying what Rigby did was no excuse to side with Mr. Ross. As the group tries to rebound, a distress call from future Gene the Vending Machine prompts them to help out. Meanwhile, after a failed suicide attempt to fly into the sun, Rigby encounters Father Time, who is falling apart due to the Time-nado and convinces Rigby to apologize to Mordecai. Rigby heads to the future and races back to the timenado space station , but gets intercepted along with Mordecai by Mr. Ross at the temporal crystal power core. With Techmo's help, the duo manages to decapitate Mr. Ross and, after they restore their friendship, they use the plutonium in Mordecai's ship to destroy the timenado. They later convince past Rigby apologizes to past Mr. Ross before he's arrested by Mr. Dean, thus ending the issues between them and altering the future.

In the present, Mordecai and Rigby agree that, despite how cool their future selves turned out, they won't let their friendship degrade into trying to kill each other, thus erasing their future selves from the timeline. The next day, as Benson catches them out of the park, the pair race back in the spaceship/time machine at a fast food place with Rigby saying they'll "never be late again".

Voice Cast

Development

The movie was first announced in February 2015 during the Cartoon Network upfront. Series creator J.G. Quintel announced on June 11, 2015 via Twitter that production of the movie has been completed. A trailer for the movie was shown at the 2015 Comic Con International event on July 10, 2015 and was later released online on July 12, 2015. Despite the movie being announced in February 2015 it began production in 2014.

During production of the fourth season, the network asked the creator if they'd like to do a forty-minute special episode, Quintel turned it down and asked to do a movie instead, the network agreed. The idea was then put into development.

Quintel confirmed that the movie is canon and is set in the middle of season six and season seven.

The sixth season of Regular Show was affected by the movie. It was set to have 40 episodes, but due to the production of the movie, only 31 were produced. Season seven will feature the regular 40 episodes per season.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the film featured three real-life songs including, "March of the Swivel Heads", "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" and "Pale Blue Eyes".

Theatrical release

The movie first screened at the L.A. Downtown Independent on August 14, 2015 and continued to screen until August 20, 2015. The movie also screened at select Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas across the United States and it had a select showtime at the SVA Theatre of New York and at the Cinema Montrereal CANADA during October 2015.

Television premiere

Regular Show: The Movie premiered on November 25, 2015 in the United States on Cartoon Network and premiered on Cartoon Network in the United Kingdom and Ireland and Cartoon Network in Australia and New Zealand on November 28, 2015. The film premiered in Asia (including Philippines) on November 30, 2015. The film premiered in Central and Latin America on December 7, 2015. The movie premiered on Cartoon Network in Canada on November 25, 2015.

Home media release

The film was released to digital on platforms such as iTunes and Google Play Movies & TV on September 1, 2015. The movie was later released to DVD by Warner Home Video on October 13, 2015. The movie has grossed $101,840 in domestic DVD sales.

Critical response

Regular Show: The Movie received positive reviews from both critics and audiences alike. Although it doesn't have yet a critical response from Rotten Tomatoes, the film does have an 86% rating from audiences. It has also earned a 7.4/10 on IMDb.

Ratings

The movie was watched by 2.17 million viewers and received a 0.5 rating in adults 18-49.