Cartoon's Game

Cartoon's Game is a 2008 American supernatural horror film directed by Joe Clark and written by Jason Ward. It is the first film in the Cartoon's Game franchise and the first to feature the antagonist in the series Skinny. It stars Jacob Grant, Julie Robles, Mark Casey, and Jason Ward as the titular character. Its plot revolves around two scientists who bring animated characters from Cartoon Network, to make them feel more comfortable, Daniel buys a skeleton model, unaware it possesses the soul of a serial killer.

Cartoon's Game was released in the United States on October 31, 2008, under an R rating by the MPAA by Warner Bros. Pictures. It grossed $95.6 million against a production budget of $41 million.

The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its unique premise and character acting but criticized its runtime and over violent scenes especially because it mixes live-action and animation. Four sequels leading up to 2022 were made beginning with Cartoon's Game II in 2012.

Plot

In downtown New York City, fugitive serial killer Robert Ingram is being chased by Detective Mark Williams. To escape Mark, Ray enters a joke shop and finds a skeleton model nicknamed a Skeletoy Spooktacular. Ingram chants some Latin words which cause a massive explosion in the store. Mark eventually finds Ingram’s lifeless body; unaware he has transferred it into the skeleton.

Meanwhile, husband and wife scientist duo Daniel and Stacy Frontman perform a scientific experiment that allows animated characters to enter the real world. Their experiment succeeds and a pack of characters from Cartoon Network enter their laboratory. Robert wakes up in the skeleton body, finding out it worked, and he is now called “Skinny”. He sees the supernatural science from the Frontman’s house and is reminded from his voodoo teacher about how to deal with similar stuff like his transfer. Skinny leaves the store to find the Frontman’s. Mark suspects that Ingram killed himself to escape arrestation and leaves with a paramedic.

Daniel introduces the male cartoons to the real world, discovering that they are clones and need training. Stacy shows the female cartoons what makeup is. The cartoons are largely confused. Daniel leaves to find something to cheer the toons up, he finds Skinny who has been found by a homeless person, and he buys him from the homeless person for $45. He returns home to present it to the toons, but Stacy worries that it will scare them, but they end up warming to the toy model.

The next day, Stacy goes to work at a convenience store at a local mall. Her boss warns her to do a better job, or she will be fired. That night, Stacy’s best friend, Lisa Santos, watches over the Cartoons as they are sleeping but is attacked by Skinny, causing her to fall out of the window to her death. Police arrive at the scene and Mark quickly suspects the Cartoons as the killers, despite Daniel and Stacy’s protests. The Cartoons claim that Skinny was the one who killed Lisa who also told them his real name was “Robert Ingram”.

The next morning, Skinny orders the Cartoons to skip school and take a train into New York City. While the Cartoons get distracted by a squirrel, Skinny sneaks into the home of his former accomplice, Jack Criswell, and kills by making shoot a live boiler which causes the house to explode. The Cartoons are considered suspects again and are admitted to an FBI research facility after claiming that Skinny is the culprit. Stacy returns home with Skinny, finding out that Daniel is fast asleep, she discovers the batteries in the model’s box. Frightened, she lights up an oven and threatens to burn Skinny, who violently comes alive in her arms and attacks her before leaving before Daniel or Stacy can catch him. They both go to the police; Mark doesn’t believe them. Daniel goes to the man who sold him the skeleton and asks for more information. The man tries to attack Daniel, but Mark arrives and shoots the man in the leg. Mark forces the man to admit he stole the model and the rubbles of the joke shop.

Daniel tries to convince Mark that the model is alive, but he still refuses to believe it, insisting that he was the one who killed Ingram. After bringing the two home, he is attacked by Skinny, and in the fight he shoots Skinny in the leg which causes pain and bleeding. Skinny escapes to his former voodoo instructor David, who informs him that the longer his soul remains in the model, the more “human” the model becomes. Skinny demands that David help him reverse the spell, but he refuses, opting to kill Skinny instead to stop him from murdering people. Skinny tortures David with a voodoo doll, forcing him to reveal that to escape the skeleton’s body, Skinny must transfer his soul to the first human he revealed his identity too - Dexter (Dexter’s Laboratory). Skinny stabs the voodoo doll in the chest, which wounds David, and escapes. Daniel, Stacy, and Mark arrive shortly after. Before bleeding to death, David tells them that to kill Skinny, they must strike him at his metaphorical heart.

Skinny arrives at the FBI center where the Cartoons are being held and murders a doctor by electrocuting him with an exposed cable. In the chaos, the Cartoons escape and flee back to their portal location, but Skinny follows closely behind them and chases them around the house and eventually knocking Dexter out and tying the others with some rope he grabbed earlier. As Skinny prepares to possess him with the voodoo chant, Daniel, Stacy, and Mark arrive. Skinny shoots Mark in both the legs but Stacy shoots him back, Skinny chases Stacy into the living room, and Daniel traps him in the fireplace and set him on fire, appearing to kill him. Daniel, Stacy, and the rest of the Cartoons leave to help Mark, but a charred Skinny escapes from the fireplace and chases Dexter into a separate room where his big sister Dee Dee is cut on the hand by a knife that Skinny slams into a door. Stacy shoots Skinny repetitively, blowing him to pieces. Mark’s partner Mason arrives at the house, initially refusing to believe the story about the skeleton being alive. Skinny’s body suddenly bursts through a vent to strangle Mason. Mark manages to metaphorically shoot Skinny’s body through the invisible heart, finally killing him.

Mason states that nobody will believe them before leaving the room with Mark, Daniel, Stacy, and the Cartoons, who are traumatized by what they have witnessed.