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Movie News

Finally Starting to Get Crabby

Oct 27th, 2023
by rodney.
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So to speak… We’ve been hearing about the new CGI film Under The Boardwalk for a while, but mostly about its release getting delayed again and again. (Seems to be a trend these days.) Now thanks to Cartoon Brew we found out it’s actually coming out — in a rather rushed manner, with almost no advertising. The movie will be coming to Paramount+ streaming in a few days, and today it begins a limited run in theaters… while also today, Paramount released the very first trailer to the Internet. ““When timid Jersey crab Armen meets bold tourist sea crab Ramona, it causes shell-shocking tension in the community. But when the duo are swept away by a storm, they embark on an epic journey to find home. Their courage unites their families, paving the way for great summers to come, Under the Boardwalk.” Director David Soren is known for animated films like Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie and Turbo.

image c. 2023 Paramount Pictures

Dancing to the Net

Oct 25th, 2023
by rodney.
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Remember Luck? Skydance Animations first feature film premiered on Apple TV+ in 2022. Now, from what we found on Animation World Network, it seems that Skydance have inked a distribution deal with Netflix for their upcoming slate of new animated films. First up is Spellbound, which we’ve been hearing about for some time. Now it’s scheduled for release in 2024. “Spellbound follows the adventures of Ellian, the tenacious princess who must go on a daring quest to save her family and kingdom after a mysterious spell transforms her parents, the King and Queen of Lumbria, into monsters.” Even more interesting is Pookoo, looking for release in 2025. “Pookoo is a buddy comedy about a small woodland creature and a majestic bird, two natural sworn enemies of The Valley, that magically trade places and set off on an adventure of a lifetime.” And check out this bit of news: “Future films include Ray Gunn, directed by Brad Bird (Ratatouille, The Iron Giant), and an untitled Jack and the Beanstalk project directed by Rich Moore (Zootopia, Wreck-It Ralph).” The return of Gigantic?

image c. 2023 Skydance Animation

Boo-ology

Oct 21st, 2023
by rodney.
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Halloween season is the time for monster movies — even if they’re only in production now. Deadline told us about Night of the Zoopocalypse, a new family-comedy CGI animated feature set to premiere in 2024. Here’s the official synopsis: “One night, a meteor crashes into Colepepper Zoo unleashing a virus that transforms the animals into strange and hilarious slobbering zombie mutants. Gracie, a young quirky wolf, teams up with a gruff and fearsome mountain lion to find a way back to her pack. As the zoo is overrun, they must come up with a plan to get all the animals back to normal. Together with the help of a motley crew of survivors – Xavier the movie-obsessed lemur, Frida the fiery capybara, Ash the sarcastic, fabulous ostrich, and Felix the treacherous monkey – they embark on a perilous mission to rescue the zoo and defeat Bunny Zero, the deranged mutant-king, determined to spread the virus beyond the zoo walls.” Interesting note about the directors: “The film is co-directed by veteran animators and story artists Ricardo Curtis (The Incredibles) and Rodrigo Perez-Castro (Ferdinand) whose combined credits, in various roles, include hits such as the Ice Age films, Rio, and The Angry Birds Movie through animation pre-production studio House of Cool (Paw Patrol), where they serve, respectively, as Creative Director and VP of Creative.” Impressive.

image c. 2023 Anton and Charades

Ruffled Feather Clean-Up On Aisle Four

Oct 7th, 2023
by rodney.
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Recently we stumbled across a trailer for this, and now here’s an exciting announcement from Animation Magazine: “Global anime destination Crunchyroll announced today that it has acquired the North American rights for the new animated feature film The Concierge. The film is set to be released by Aniplex in Japan on October 20 and expected to come to Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures territories in 2024. Adapted from Tsuchika Nishimura’s manga The Concierge at Hokkyoku Department Store, the film follows a trainee concierge at a very special store where the customers are all animals, and the most valued among them are extinct species.” The official synopsis goes like this: “Akino is a trainee concierge at the Hokkyoku Department Store, an unusual department store that caters exclusively to animals. Under the watchful eyes of the floor manager and senior concierges, Akino runs around to fulfill the wishes of customers with a myriad of needs and problems in her pursuit to become a full-fledged concierge.” This is the first feature film from director Yoshimi Itazu.

image c. 2023 Aniplex

Fly, Little Pre-Bird

May 24th, 2023
by rodney.
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This showed up recently at Animation World Network: “No Fat Ego’s Niels Juul has teamed with Sherman Theatrical Entertainment to adapt Inkas the Ramferinkas into an animated musical. The film, which follows a small flying dinosaur, pulls from a decades-long project from the Sherman Brothers, best known for their musical contributions to multiple Disney classics, including The Jungle Book and Mary Poppins. The upcoming film marks the only musical from the late Robert B. Sherman and his brother Richard M. Sherman. Before teaming with Disney, the brothers were focused on adapting Inkas, which began as a children’s record from 1951, into a film. In the mid-2000s, Robert’s son Robbie optioned the rights to the Inkas IP and worked with his father and uncle to pen a feature-length script.” The project has been on hold since 2008, but it’s back in production now. No release date yet, but we’ll let you know more when we do!

image c. 2023 No Fat Ego

This Kitty Is Foul

May 7th, 2023
by rodney.
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Years ago we stumbled across a trailer for the Turkish animated film Bad Cat, based on the graphic novel Kötu Kedi Şerafettin by Bülent Üstün. Now the film, directed by Mehmet Kurtuluş and Ayse Ünal, has been dubbed into English and picked up by Tubi. “In the film, a profane house cat must deal with the arrival of his illegitimate son, an accidental killing, his owner’s eviction, and more – all within a day of debauchery and mayhem.” As you can probably tell, this features a lot of adults-only content! Animation World Network has the trailer.

image c. 2023 Tubi

Fox and Hare Solve a Mystery

Mar 15th, 2023
by rodney.
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But not that Fox and Hare. Or that fox and… rabbit. This is something all together different. Cartoon Brew recently told us about Fox and Hare Save the Forest, a new CGI feature in production now from European director Mascha Halberstad. “The film’s screenplay was adapted by Fabie Hulsebos from the Vos en Haas en de Bosbaas book series from author Sylvia VandenHeede and illustrator Thé Tjong-Khing. Halbersted and Dutch production company Submarine previously adapted the property as an animated series in 2018… In the film, Fox and Hare become distressed when they find their friend Owl has disappeared. Together with a group of woodland creatures, they set out to track down the missing bird, but instead find that their forest has been flooded by a giant lake that wasn’t there the day before. Unsure if Owl’s disappearance and the floodwaters are somehow related, the animals must embark on a crazy adventure to find their friend before the rising water overtakes the forest.” The film-makers hope to finish production and release the film later this year. As usual, no word yet on if there will be distribution in North America.

image c. 2023 Submarine

The Annie Award Winners for 2022

Feb 27th, 2023
by rodney.
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This past Saturday the gala ceremony for the Annie Awards was held at UCLA in Southern California — the first time in three years the ceremony has been held live! The “Oscars of animation” are presented every year by ASIFA Hollywood (a division of the International Animated Film Society). This year, surprising no one at all, the stop-motion film Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio was the big winner of the night, winning in five categories including the top prize, Best Animated Feature. (Might be time to admit it — the film’s pretty much got a lock on the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at this point). Pinocchio also won in the Feature Film categories for Best Character Animation, Best Direction, Best Production Design, and Best Music. More surprising perhaps (at least to those of us who were behind the curve on the meme!) was this little film called Marcel, The Shell With Shoes On, which took home three Feature awards: Best Writing, Best Voice Acting (for Marcel’s voice and creator, Jenny Slate (Zootopia)), and the coveted Best Independent Feature. It was a complete sweep for these two though — some other (furry!) films of note were award-winners too. Over at Dreamworks, The Bad Guys got the award for Best Character Design, while Puss In Boots: The Last Wish was recognized with awards for Best Storyboarding and Best Editing. (All for features, of course.) Over in the TV categories, Dreamworks won Best TV For Children with their show Abominable and the Invisible City. Meanwhile, one of the big winners of the night was the animated video special The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse, which took four Annies home to the U.K., including Best Special Production. It was not a great night for Disney, but there was one great furry note: Maurice LaMarche (Pinky and the Brain) won Best Voice Acting in TV for his portrayal of Mr. Big in Zootopia+. Cartoon Brew has a good article about the awards and a full list of the winners. (And now we get to remind you that voting for the Ursa Major Awards opens up this week!)

image c. 2023 Netflix

Dragons are… Alive?

Feb 17th, 2023
by rodney.
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Well, well, well… now Universal Studios is getting into the act. And taking Dreamworks Animation with them. This has been making the rounds in all the Hollywood papers; we got this from the Hollywood Reporter: “Taking a massive swing, Universal Pictures has put in motion a How to Train Your Dragon live-action movie, with Dean DeBlois, the filmmaker behind the original animated trilogy, back in the saddle as writer, director and producer… The feature project is already steps into the development process. Universal has dated the feature for a March 14, 2025, release… Using the books by Cressida Cowell as a jumping-off point, How to Train Your Dragon focused on the special friendship between a young and unheroic Viking boy named Hiccup and Toothless, an injured dragon he nurses back to health. The movies chronicled Hiccup and Toothless’ quest to combat humanity’s prejudice against dragons, the ache of overcoming the loss of a parent, and first love.” In case you didn’t remember. Oh, and if you look at the article you’ll find links to news about Disney’s upcoming live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch, and also about the upcoming (fortunately CGI animated!) Kung Fu Panda 4, set for release in 2024.

image c. 2023 Dreamworks Animation

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