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The television movie, Ben 10: Alien Swarm picks up the aged-up cast of everyday teen superheroes Ben, Gwen, and Kevin, and aims to give the children's entertainment hub another valid reason to keep pressing the Boys 6-12 demographic.
Scheduled for several theatrical screenings domestically and around the world, the live-action movie premieres on television the day before Thanksgiving.
As Ben 10: Alien Swarm begins, Ben, his cousin Gwen, and stubborn ally Kevin, embark on a routine pick-up of some alien tech on the outskirts of town. Everything proceeds as usual; Kevin (Nathan Keyes) poses as the buyer, a group of unsuspecting felons try to move some hot merchandise, and a scuffle invariably ensues. As the trio confronts the sellers on where they acquired what appear to be computer chips, Ben (Ryan Kelley) notices something amiss.... the lifted chips are high-grade tech usually locked away in a Plummer's vault somewhere. Kevin, Ben, and especially Gwen (Galadriel Stineman) are suspicious, and prod for answers.
The chips are definitely alien, but from where did they come and what are they for? The situation dramatically shifts from an everyday job to something altogether unusual when one of the sellers, an attractive girl named Elena Validus (Alyssa Diaz), unveils her true intention of sniffing out the heralded Ben Tennyson for help in case related to the alien tech. As it turns out, Elena was a Plummer's kid back in the day (and was also Ben's first crush). The girl has been searching for the Omnitrix master for some time, and now that she's finally located him, needs Ben and his team's help in locating her father, recently missing in action.
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Meanwhile, Elena's chips prove to be more destructive than initially thought, and force Ben's team to do their fair share of detective work to figure things out before it's too late.
Ben 10: Alien Swarm is Cartoon Network's next stage in the evolution of sorts for the action-adventure brand, which itself has since emerged from a typical Saturday morning item into an international licensing icon. The network's first Ben 10 live-action project, Ben 10: Race Against Time (November 2007), reigned in 13 million viewers during its premiere weekend. Ben 10: Alien Swarm makes its television premiere on Wednesday, November 25th at 7:00pm (ET). With Ben 10: Alien Force even more popular than its animated predecessor, Cartoon Network hopes it's live-action adaptation will deliver similar, if not better results.
The television movie includes a hefty amount of computer animation and visual effects, often during Ben's transformation events and other key action sequences. Contributors to Ben 10: Alien Swarm include creature design, animation, and production company Super 78 Studios (Ben 10: Race Against Time, The Chronicles of Narnia, Journey to the Center of the Earth), digital production and effects group Zoic Studios (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), and Denmark-based Ghost VFX (Hellboy II, Ninja Assassin). Ben 10: Alien Swarm will have its domestic premiere at a limited theatrical engagement on November 18th, at the Warner Bros. Steven J. Ross Theater in Burbank, CA.
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