Shannon Tindle is quite a name in animation.
He conceived the story for LAIKA's excellent Kubo and the Two Strings with Marc Haimes, and he served as a character designer. He had also done character design for LAIKA's debut feature, Coraline. He's also known for his work on the Cartoon Network show Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, which he won an Annie and an Emmy for. Other TV animation work of his includes Static Shock, Samurai Jack, The Proud Family, and a few others. Features? The Croods, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, and Curious George.
Quite the resume.
He's now writing and directing a project for Sony Pictures Animation, according to his twitter biography, and this...
Day 1: Crew photo with @Mr_Scribbles on my new film!!! #sonypicturesanimation pic.twitter.com/x47kK1wzuw— Shannon Tindle (@ShannonTindle_1) February 14, 2017
I've been a sourpuss when it comes to Sony Pictures Animation. I think they're a studio with great potential, and I think they showed just that with two particular features of theirs: Animated mockumentary Surf's Up and the heartfelt, zany, inventive Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Their other work has left me rather unimpressed, though some films had some interesting visual choices and such.
They're also headed up by executives who continue to hold Genndy Tartakovsky on a leash, booted Lauren Faust from Medusa, and rushed an emoji movie into production. That being said, some of the projects on their slate do excite me! Animated Spider-Man sounds like a turbo shot in the superhero movie coffee, not to mention it's about Miles Morales. The Star could be a cool take on the Nativity story that's wisely being done on a much smaller budget (it's being outsourced to CineSite). Hotel Transylvania 3 looks to be written by just Michael McCullers, and no one from the Adam Sandler camp, so it has the potential to be what its predecessors weren't. Vivo, a Lin-Manuel Miranda monkey musical, also has my interest.
It's just The Emoji Movie that can disappear (guys, I'll gladly eat crow if the thing is actually good), and I'm really on the fence about Smurfs: The Lost Village. It looks better than the hybrid movies, but not much better.
So, Mr. Tindle has a project in the works. My cynical side would say "How long till he is removed from the movie?" My more optimistic side says "Let's see what happens." Again, I can't be too harsh. Sure, these execs may have possibly diluted Medusa and greenlit Emoji Movie, but maybe they'll prove themselves with films like Tindle's, Vivo, Animated Spider-Man and others. Who knows!
All I can say is, I'm excited to see what Tindle has in store for us.
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