Little Eggs: An African Rescue

Plot

Sometime after the events of the third film, on a peaceful morning at the "Granjas el Pollon", Toto is starting his morning routine when Tocino informs him that Di has given birth to their new eggs, Max and Uly. Their golden appearance leads La Abuelita to submit them for a ranch contest, catching the attention of La Duchess, a Russian egg collector. At first, Toto is excited until the children express desire to play in the outdoors, causing Toto to worry and immediately become over protective. He eventually allows them to play under Bibi's supervision, but uses many protective procedures along the way. Just then, two opossums Tlacua and Cuache, disguised as chickens, sneak into the farm in an attempt to eat chickens when Perro Fidencio locks them up in an empty farmhouse. This causes more concern for Toto, but after Di's advice, he promises his children playtime after the contest.

The following day, Max and Uly are declared winners at the egg contest for their golden appearance, as Duquesa offers Abuelita $200 dollars but refuses and pays her back instead. Outraged, she orders the two bandit brothers, Panzovich and Gordimitri to track the "Granjas el Pollon" farm. Meanwhile, on the way home, Toto once again becomes worried for his children after Duquesa's encounter and tears up their winning ribbons, making them afraid of him. Later that night, the remorseful Toto sits by the pond when the Russian collectors send hunting moles in mind-controlled helmets to track and kidnap Max and Uly. Bibi and Willy track down one of the moles, named Toporocho, who thanks them for freeing him from the helmet. In return, he helps Toto and his family board the cargo plane to Congo. They track the plane down and board inside.

Inside the plane, the egg children meet a variety of fellow-snatched eggs inside named jars, including those of a peacock, a Golden eagle, a parrot, a roadrunner, a quail, and returning characters including Coco, Iguano, Serp, Torti, Lagartijo, Manotas, and Huevo de Halcón. Toto and company then make it into the cargo room when a fight between the bandit brothers breaks out. Toto and Di were eventually thrown off the plane, and Willy, Bibi, Bacon, and Toporocho saved them with a parachute. As Duquesa and the bandit brothers drive off, Toto and his company were underground, splashed to river where a trio of hippopotamus give them a ride.

Upon arrival at Barón's mansion, Duquesa presented Max and Uly to the Master Chef, which he ordered all the eggs be refrigerated for two days. After introducing themselves to one another, the eggs get into an argument when Max and Uly, thanks to Di's loosening of their jar, freed them all. They then find a way to control the temperature, at which Manotas only lowered it further. This led to Serp being used to open the lock with his rattle.

Voice cast

Spanish cast

Bruno Bichir as Toto, a rooster and Di's husband and Willy's best friend. He becomes overprotective over the safety of his new children, Max and Uly, but learns how to be a real father through advice, experience, and adventure.

Maite Perroni as Di, Toto's supportive wife, and Bibi's best friend. She helps Toto with advice in caring for their newborn egg children. She goes along with Toto and their egg friends to save their children.

Carlos Espejel as Willy, a chicken egg and ex-sergeant who is Toto's best friend and Bibi's boyfriend.

Angélica Vale as Bibi, a chicken egg and Willy's girlfriend and one of Toto's friends.

Mayra Rojas as La Duchess, a leader of the Russian egg collector for Africa's food event.

Oliver Flores as Max, a newborn golden egg who is Uly's twin brother and Toto and Di's son.

Dione Riva Palacio Santacruz as Uly, a newborn golden egg. She's Max' twin sister and Toto and Di's daughter.

Ariel Miramontes as Master Chef

Héctor Lee as Panzovich

Juan Frese as Gordimitri

Jesús Ochoa as Rey León "Leonidas I", a wise lion that rules the jungle.

Freddy Ortega and Germán Ortega as El Chango Bananero and El Chango Petacón, two dim-witted vervet monkeys who acts as a comic reliefs.

Humberto Vélez as Barón Roncovich

Production

The film utilized full computer-generated imagery animation for the second time, following Un gallo con muchos huevos with about an expected overall increase of fifteen percent of image quality up to the fifth installment, which was in development at the time. Like Un gallo, while being produced in Mexico, the film is intended for an international outreach. "We wanted to make this film very international, without losing the Mexican identity. It has jokes and positive messages," said co-producer Ignacio Casares. The film has been in development during the COVID-19 pandemic in which many crew members, around 80 people, were working remotely from their homes. A total of 350 people from all departments have worked on the film, with an average worktime taking one month per minute. The subscription television service Sky alongside the national film fund of Mexico Eficine and food industries Grupo Herdez and Dulces Miguelito sponsored the film. The animation for the film was handled in Autodesk Maya, modelling in ZBrush and both compositing and render in Houdini.

The film's overprotective theme for Toto's father character came from co-director Rodolfo Riva Palacio Alatriste's own parenting experience with his daughter, Dione, who voiced Uli in the film. Rodolfo also explained that the theme of collecting eggs and endangered animal species for expensive food served as the basis for the screenplay, after he and his brother Gabriel read articles on the topic.

Casting

Before the animation process, much of the actors had recorded their lines for adaptation. With the film being the last role of Pepe Lavat, who died in 2018.

Music

Zacarías M. de la Riva, a Spanish composer who previously worked on Un gallo con muchos huevos, has returned to compose this film with a 75-piece orchestra performance in Bratislava.

As with Un gallo, Zacarías has faced challenges in composing music in animated films, as it required the balancing of adventure, drama and comedy. Despite this, he called it "a great joy" and "truly [marvelous] to [be working] again with directors Gabriel and Rodolfo Riva-Palacio." The composer added that the film reused some music pieces from his work in Un gallo.

The film's score soundtrack album was released digitally by MovieScore Media on August 13, 2021.

Release

The film was originally planned for a 2019 release in Mexico, and then August 2020, but has been postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The film's first poster was released in March 2020, followed by teaser trailer was released on 10 April later that year.

It was officially released in theaters in Mexico on 12 August 2021. Co-director and co-writer Rodolfo Riva Palacio Alatriste told an interviewer at M2 that being able to make four films is a "surprise", reflecting on the release of the franchise's first film released in 2006.

The film was later released in the United States in limited release on 27 August 2021 through Pantelion Films. The film's directors Gabriel and Rodolfo Riva have expressed that they will "compete against the United States" and are "capable". The film was dedicated in memory of voice actors Pepe Lavat and Lulu Morán, who died in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Internationally, the film was released as Little Eggs: An African Rescue.

Reception

Critical reception

The film opened mixed to favorable reviews in Mexico, with many praising its improving animation, humor, faithfulness to the franchise, and its messages. On Tomatazos, it has a 100% rating of positive critic reviews. Meanwhile, the film has a score of 60% "Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 5 reviews.

Monique Jones of Common Sense Media rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, praising the film's story and themes behind it, calling it "well made", while divided over its humor.

Cath Clarke of The Guardian rated the film 1 out of 5 stars, calling it "a dismal film full of garish visuals and unfunny gags".

Box office

Upon its release in Mexico, the film debuted in #3 at the box-office, grossing around MX$15 million (US$0.75 million) with an audience count of 239,400. In its second weekend, it dropped to the #4 position, earning an additional MX$8.6 million (US$0.4 million) and 147,600 audience count. Its ticket sales have made the Huevos franchise Mexico's highest-viewed film series in the national industry, surpassing the numbers of the No Manches Frida films with 11.75 million at the time. The film remained successful at its third weekend, grossing MX$5.6 million (US$0.28 million) at its #5 position and 100,200 viewers. In September, the film earned MX$3.4 million with 60,600 audiences, remaining at #4. On its fifth weekend, the film grossed MX$2.5 million pesos (US$0.12 million) with an audience count of 43,900. On its sixth, it has grossed MX$1.1 million pesos (US$0.05 million) at the #10 place, with an audience count of 41,200. To date, it has grossed MX$50 million pesos ($2.43 million) and had an audience count of over 900,000.

In the United States, the film has grossed $430,000 on its opening weekend with an average gross of $1,300 per screening in 320 locations at the time.

Sequel

A fifth installment, titled Huevitos congelados, was released on December 14, 2022 on Vix+.