Though it certainly isn’t among the franchises fans think of first when they look at the stuff Disney acquired in its purchase of 20th Century Fox, the Night at the Museum series had a very healthy and very lucrative run from 2006 to 2014. The three live-action movies, starring Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, and the late Robin Williams, in a tale of a museum full of antiquities that come to life at night, grossed more than $1.3 billion worldwide.
It’s been eight years since the series stalled out following Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. The latest sequel finds a workaround to the fact that WIlliams (who played a living statue of U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt) passed away in 2014, and the fact that Stiller (who played a night watchmen at the museum) mostly directs these days, by making an animated movie. Thomas Lennon, one of the franchise’s longtime writers, now voices Teddy Roosevelt, while Zachary Levi replaces Stiller as Larry Daley.
This time, it’s Larry’s son Nick who becomes the museum’s new night watchmen. As the subtitle Kahmunrah Rises Again indicates, the antagonist of the second live-action film (Battle at the Smithsonian) returns in this sequel. Here is the trailer for the movie:
Here is the film’s official synopsis:
The Original Movie is about the mischief that takes place every night at the American Museum of Natural History when the sun goes down. Nick Daley’s summer gig as night watchman at the museum is a challenging job for a high school student, but he is following in his father’s footsteps and is determined not to let him down. Luckily, he is familiar with the museum’s ancient tablet that brings everything to life when the sun goes down and is happy to see his old friends, including Jedediah, Octavius, and Sacagawea, when he arrives. But when the maniacal ruler Kahmunrah escapes with plans to unlock the Egyptian underworld and free its Army of the Dead, it is up to Nick to stop the demented overlord and save the museum once and for all.
Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again debuts on Disney+ on December 9.
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