The Unexpected Twist of the Spring Valley Mall!

Merry Larry and the True Light of Christmas: The Unexpected Twist of the Spring Valley Mall! (also known as Merry Larry and the Unexpected Twist of the Spring Valley Mall) is a American animated musical comedy-adventure film that would've been released on March 17, 2001. Produced by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies and this film will be rated G. This has a lesson in facing hardships.

Plot
When Alister Cashberger goes off to Iran (formerly Persia) for a business trip one morning, he puts his nephew, Lawrence, otherwise known as Merry Larry, in charge of the mall. Much to the displeasure of Philip Fleagle, Lawrence gets more and more rich. While Merry Larry was playing an arcade game at a casino, three children talk about why the people had to built a statue to honor Merry Larry. He knew he would have saved a ton of money if he were to replace all the mall shoppers and employees with robots! So, on his twelfth birthday, Lawrence explains the mall shoppers about a dream he had by presenting some of Philip's own "home movies", which were basically just Merry Larry inserting himself into popular movies. This dream was about Lawrence in his early days, when he was a pop star and was adored by fans. Christina and TBot liked it. The people hated the dream. One of them even yelled that Lawrence was trying to rule over them. So they decided to make them go to Tootanny. Roadie Reggie, disguising himself as space pirate Luntar, goes after them. And Philip Fleagle went to the Seville house. He told the maids about an unfortunate event, thinking Merry Larry was killed by a wild, ferocious beast. He angrily threw Lawrence's harmonica out one of the windows. Then, the narrator told the kids to not try that at home.

In Tootanny, Lawrence met a few people, including Melvin, a former friend of his. As they went to Luntar's lair, Lawrence put on a pair of Groucho Marx glasses and entertains Luntar with his antics he used to do back when he was a chipmunk, including the impersonation of an egg roll. Even the blue space woman Luna, Luntar's second-in-command cracks up. As the Groucho Marx glasses flies off Lawrence's face, and he flies across the lair and gets tangled up in Luntar's ship, the Super Grabber, two INTERPOL agents and Luna said things about Merry Larry that weren't true. Luntar hated it so much, he threw them into prison! One night, while Tootanny was sleeping, two prisoners had dreams. They explained to Lawrence what those dreams meant. Merry Larry explained to the chief crewman that he would be set free, and to the chief mate that he would be killed. Then two days passed, and Luntar the Looter had a dream. Just like Merry Larry's, Luntar's dream was also about his early days when he was adored by people! Lawrence explained to Luntar that for 6 months, people would be living in music harmony. People would put on concerts, too.

Merry Larry lived in Tootanny for six months. One day, when he goes back to Spring Valley, he, Christina and TBot were taken captive by some soldiers. They were tied to a tree, and Lawrence knew that this was such a bad idea. When the guards forced to give them "the slap of no return", Lawrence sings a parody of Lady GaGa's "Bad Romance" that causes Luntar to go deliberately insane. In a desperate attempt to delay their own deaths, a few tourists and retirees untied them. Thanks to the hardships Merry Larry had faced and endured in his whole life, Luntar takes off his disguise, and it reveals to be nothing but Roadie Reggie.

After a high energy chase, Reggie, Lawrence, Christina and TBot were forced into a car. Alister returns home and gave Lawrence a 20,000 pound bag of music albums that were performed by the Chipmunks from years ago. Lawrence knew that sometimes bad things happened to good people, but God can work all things out for good.

Cast

 * Tom Kenny - Merry Larry
 * Rob Paulsen - Philip
 * Antonio Banderas - Roadie Reggie
 * Kristen Bell - Christina
 * Carly Henderson - T-Bot
 * Cam Clarke - Luntar
 * Dany Boon - Henry
 * Michel Bouquet - Miles
 * Ian McKellen - Alister Cashberger
 * Carolyn Lawrence - Luna
 * Clancy Brown - Melvin
 * Alan Tudyk - George, Sam
 * Rodger Bumpass - INTERPOL Agent 1
 * John Cleese - INTERPOL Agent 2
 * Ralph Bakshi, Zachary Gordon, John Lasseter, Larry the Cable Guy, Janice Karman, Don Rickles - Luntar's Space Guards
 * Tom Hanks, Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., Tom Kenny, James Street, Jeff Garcia, Tim Allen, E.G. Daily, Tara Strong, Debi Derryberry - Spring Valley Mall Workers
 * Noah Johnston, Jake T. Austin, Stevey Joy Ru Chapman, Max Neuwirth, Charlie Bright, Dylan Sprouse, Zachary Gordon - Spring Valley Mall Children

Trivia

 * This is a loose parody of The Chipmunk Adventure.

Production
Shortly after the theatrical release of Chicken Run, there are rumors that the film will have Merry Larry, Christina and T-Bot going to the Tootanny system (spoof of Tatooine) and showing up before a group of silly sunlight-stealing space pirates uninvited. Eventually, the rumors were proven right. According to Paramount, the movie was going to be more like the 1987 movie "The Chipmunk Adventure", but 95% of the film was changed by studio meddling.

In an interview with TV Guide, it was said that it would have similar elements to those in the story of Joseph (i.e., people being betrayed by their friends and families, people having the ability to interpret dreams, people being thrown into jail after servants lied about them).

Production started after MacLarry in: Pompous Strikes Back! was released. Originally, this would've been released Thanksgiving 1999, but was pushed for Fall 2000, to avoid competition with Toy Story 2. But after Rugrats in Paris: The Movie came to theaters, one of the crew members of Nickelodeon had a bright idea of setting "Merry Larry and the Unexpected Twist of the Spring Valley Mall" for a Spring 2001 release.

Music
The music was composed by John Debney, featuring songs arranged by Quincy Jones.

Soundtrack

 * 1) "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield
 * 2) "That's the Story of My Life"
 * 3) "Happy Ki-Yi Birthday"
 * 4) "Merry Larry's Dream"
 * 5) "Oh Lawrence!"
 * 6) "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65 (performed in this movie as "I'm Boo")
 * 7) "Oh Lawrence II"
 * 8) "Good for the Grabbing"
 * 9) "Luntar's Dream"
 * 10) "Oh Lawrence III" (Instrumental)
 * 11) "No Defense!"
 * 12) "This Love" by Maroon 5

Release
Ironically, this film "Merry Larry and the Unexcepted Twist of the Spring Valley Mall" was released both theatrically, and during a St. Patrick's Day party.

Home media
This should have been released on VHS and DVD in September 14, 2001. A Blu-Ray release of this may have been released October 27, 2013. This, along with MacLarry in: Pompous Strikes Back! and Antonio and the Great Escape, was released in a triple DVD pack called Adventures of the Good Guys! released October 12, 2010.