Imagine That

Imagine That is a 2009 American comedy film starring Eddie Murphy.

The film centers on the relationship between a workaholic father and his young daughter whose imaginary world becomes the solution to her father's success.

Plot
Evan Danielson (Eddie Murphy) is a very successful financial advisor, who had been working at the same securities firm for eight years as their top account manager, that is until Johnny Whitefeather (Thomas Haden Church) was hired as his rival.

Whitefeather seems to have the whole company under some spell as he spiels his nonsensical idioms filled with Native American mumbo jumbo. These top executives seem more content with chanting Indian style noises rather than listen to how they can make money through sound investments.

When Evan finally discovers that his daughter, Olivia (Yara Shahidi) is somehow able to tell the future within the financial world by using her "goo-gaa" comfort blanket and her imaginary friends (Queen Qwali and Princesses Kupida, Sopida and Mopida), he discovers he has an invaluable upper hand now at the office.

In order for Evan to ask these imaginary friends any question, he must travel through the imaginary world, through a dense forest, past a dragon, through caves and even walk through France.

Before, Evan (who is a part-time father really had no time for his daughter) is forced to play with her and by her rules. After only a couple of days with her, he rediscovers the inner child within himself and genuinely has a lot of fun playing these imaginary games with Olivia.

Whitefeather becomes suspicious and begins to search for Evan's secret. When he finds out that Evan was just playing with a blanket, he purchased a six thousand dollar blanket and forces his son to tell him the "future" and making him extremely hyperactive by making him drink many cans of Red Bull.

Whitefeather and Evan are now competing for the position of heading the Western division of the company D.D.E. In order to be prepared for the most important presentation of his life, Evan must once again invoke the use of the Goo-Gaa blanket and meet up with the princesses.

The only problem is that Olivia is spending the night at her friend's house and there is no way for Evan to obtain the Goo-Gaa without taking it from her. Also, the presentations will be held on the day of Olivia's class play.

Evan manages to get Olivia to give him the Goo-Gaa, but she is soon seen crying because he seems to care only about the blanket, not her. Evan returns home and tries to get the princesses' attention. Then, Evan starts working on his presentation. As hours pass, he stretches and the Goo-Gaa falls on the floor, but he continues working without noticing.

Evan decides to go to the presentation instead of Olivia's class play. Johnny gives his presentation, but his idea is too crazy for the owner of the company. Then it's Evan's turn. When he is about to present, he suddenly decides to go to Olivia's class play and leaves the presentation.

As Evan drives over, he changes into his king costume. Back at the class play, Olivia is about to sing her solo part & then all of a sudden, Evan appears dressed as a king and Olivia starts singing, delighted to see him.

After the class play, Evan starts talking to Olivia about how sorry he is for misusing her blanket, not caring about her and for using the princesses for the wrong reason.

Meanwhile, the owner of the company, D.D.E. appears, and wants to talk to Evan. He and Evan talk & he decides to give the position to Evan because of how much he cares about his family & Evan accepts.

Evan goes back to Olivia, for whom it is time to say good-bye to the princesses. They both start waving and as a gust of wind blows, some leaves form into the shape of a person then fly off into the sky. Evan, Olivia's mother and Olivia leave happily.

Box Office
On its opening weekend, the film opened #6 grossing $5,503,519 in 3,008 theaters with an $1,830 average. As of August 9, 2009, the film has grossed $22,985,194 worldwide, making this a box office bomb.

This opened similar to Eddie Murphy's previous summer movie, Meet Dave (which also had a lackluster opening week). However, "Meet Dave" received worse reviews than "Imagine That."

Critical Reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics.

Rotten Tomatoes reported that 40% of critics gave positive reviews based on 116 reviews with an average score of 5.1/10.

Another review aggregator, Metacritic (which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics), the film has received an average of 53% based on 22 reviews.