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Animation

All the Pretty Animals

This weekend we made a quick stop by the Lightbox Expo, an annual animation industry trade-show in Pasadena, California. Lots and lots of artists showing off their talents there, and lots of animation studios looking for help. Among the former was an artist all the way from France named Julie Mellan. Her specialty is traditional “funny animals” drawn in a very sweet style and colored in traditional inks and watercolors. (She even created the cover for the book The Last Rabbit by Shelley Moore Thomas, which we’ve reviewed here before.) You can see a lot of Ms. Mellan’s work at her web site — or, you can pick up her book Instants — The Art of Julie Mellan, and hold the art in your own two paws!

image c. 2023 by Julie Mellan

Finally Starting to Get Crabby

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

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

Him and All His Furry… Friends?

Lots of people have been talking about the new anime-style TV series that just recently started streaming on Netflix. “Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix is an original animated series mixing alternative Ubisoft characters from beloved franchises such as Assassin’s Creed, Rayman, and Far Cry in a highly-referenced homage to the early 90s.” The story? “Set in the year 1992, the country formerly known as the USA is now called Eden, a technocracy ruled by propaganda and corruption. Super-soldier Dolph Laserhawk has just been betrayed by the love of his life, his boyfriend Alex Taylor, and locked up in Eden’s off-the-grid maximum security prison, Supermaxx. Dolph is forced to lead a team of rebel outcasts on risky undercover missions under the order of the prison’s shadowy Warden.” What that description fails to convey is that there are lots and lots of anthropomorphic characters throughout the series, mostly bad folks but a few good-ish ones. Check out the trailer over at Animation World Network.

image c. 2023 Netflix

Boo-ology

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

Warriors of the Night Return?

Amazing news out of Disney is making the rounds. We got this report from Variety: “Gargoyles could finally be returning to television, with a live-action reboot series currently in the works at Disney+. Variety has confirmed that the Disney streaming service is working with writer Gary Dauberman and James Wan‘s Atomic Monster to develop a live-action version of the beloved animated show. Dauberman would serve as writer and executive producer with Wan also executive producing. Disney Branded Television is the studio. The current logline for the project reads: ‘Based on the cult classic Disney animated series, Goliath is the last of a heroic race of gargoyle warriors who once lived among mankind. Free from a centuries long curse that turned him into stone, Goliath struggles to solve the mystery of his past while watching over modern-day New York City alongside police detective Elisa Maza.’ ” Here’s hoping that doesn’t mean the rest of the gargoyle crew won’t be taking part in the new project!

image c. 2023 Disney TV Animation

Most Cats Just Yowl, but…

Don’t look now, but it’s time to start talking about Christmas specials! Like this one, which we found at Animation World Network: “The BBC and Magic Light Pictures have shared a first look at their upcoming 3DCG Christmas adventure, Tabby McTat, produced for BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Set on the streets of London, the show tells the story of the warm and wonderful friendship between a musical cat and a talented busker called Fred. The film is the 11th special produced by the studio, based on the work of children’s book author Julia Donaldson (The Gruffalo) and illustrator Axel Scheffler.” The special is narrated by none other than Jodie Whittaker — yes, Dr. Who herself.

image c. 2023 Magic Light Pictures

A Continental First

We found this over at Cartoon Brew: “Pan-African SVOD platform Showmax has released the trailer for its new animated series Twende, the first 2D animated Showmax Original. The producers of the series are touting this as the first 2D animated show of this scale and quality made almost entirely in Africa.” They go on to describe the new series like this: “Twende’s titular protagonist is a pangolin, an endangered species which is one of the slowest-moving animals of the savannah. He works as boda boda (motorcycle taxi) driver in a fictional East African city where his incongruous career choice and belief that life is about the journey and not the destination often cause friction with riders who just want to get where they’re going quickly.” There’s a trailer up on line as well. Showmax plans to premiere Twende across Africa this December, and they’re shopping the series around at MIPCOM and the like to try and find international distribution.

image c. 2023 Showmax

Gotta See ’em All

We came across an article at The Nerdist about the artist Joshua Dunlop. He’s been working on a project he calls Pokemon Zoology, trying to create realistic portrayals of what various well-known pokemon might look like out here in this world. To that end he’s set up a Kickstarter campaign — which has already surpassed its goal, even though it’s running through the end of this month. “My name is Joshua Dunlop; I’m a Senior Freelance Concept Artist from the UK. I’ve had the pleasure of working with some amazing companies such as Disney and Netflix, and I’ve had amazing success over the last 7 years with my personal project, Pokemon Zoology! And now I’m thrilled to present this unofficial collection of 151 realistic digital concept art pieces depicting the iconic original Pokemon from Generation 1.” Looks like it’ll be available in hardcover real soon.

image c. 2023 by Joshua Dunlop