The One and Only Ivan (film)

The One and Only Ivan, released in 2020, is an American film that mixes fantasy, comedy, and drama. Thea Sharrock directed it, and Mike White wrote the screenplay, adapting Katherine Applegate’s 2012 children’s book. The story is based on the real-life gorilla Ivan. The voice cast includes Sam Rockwell as Ivan, along with Angelina Jolie (who also co-produced with Allison Shearmur and Brigham Taylor), Danny DeVito, Helen Mirren, Brooklynn Prince, Chaka Khan, Ron Funches, Phillipa Soo, and White himself. Live-action roles are played by Ramón Rodríguez, Ariana Greenblatt, and Bryan Cranston.

The project was first announced in 2014, with production starting two years later. The cast was put together between October 2017 and May 2018. Filming took place in Florida during the summer of 2018. Originally planned for a theatrical release, the film instead streamed on Disney+ starting August 21, 2020. Critics gave it mixed reviews. It earned a BAFTA nomination for visual effects but lost to Tenet; it was not nominated for an Academy Award in that category. The film is dedicated to the memory of Allison Shearmur, who died of lung cancer on January 19, 2018.

On May 26, 2023, the film was removed from Disney+ as part of a broader content purge on Disney+ and Hulu, a cost-cutting move under CEO Bob Iger. It returned to multiple video-on-demand platforms on September 26, 2023.

**Plot**

For two decades, Ivan the gorilla has been the main attraction at the Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, a circus inside a Central Florida shopping mall run by ringmaster Mack. Ivan lives with other animal performers: wise elephant Stella, spoiled poodle Snickers, spunky chicken Henrietta (who plays baseball), rabbit Murphy (who drives a toy fire truck), anxious sea lion Frankie, and loquacious parrot Thelma. Ivan befriends a stray mutt that lives in his enclosure. George, the animals’ caretaker, often brings his daughter Julia, who bonds with Ivan. She gives him her old crayons, learns to understand his drawings, and names the stray dog Bob.

As the mall loses business, Mack buys a baby elephant named Ruby from a bankrupt circus. Ruby draws crowds and becomes the new headliner, but a jealous Ivan is slow to accept her. When Stella grows weak and can’t perform, Ivan encourages a nervous Ruby to face the crowd alone. He later explains how Mack and his wife Helen adopted him as a baby.