Going for Gold: Netflix Plans Their First Animated Feature

Netflix is finally getting in on the animated feature action...

Their first entry will be an animated feature for...

Adults.

Not a family film, not something to rack up bucks and sell toys everywhere. No, an adults-only animated film from Archer creator Adam Reed and executive producer Matt Thompson. Thompson will direct, the script is being handled by Expendables scribe David Callaham, and the dynamic Lord-Miller duo are involved as well...

It'll be an R-rated, comedic, revisionist take on American history. It's titled America: The Motion Picture... Channing Tatum has been cast as George Washington.

While other up-and-coming studios and new-to-animation companies are starting out with tried-and-true family films, Netflix is aiming higher. They seem to know that there's an audience for adult animation here in America, good adult animation. They happen to have fostered BoJack Horseman, which is above your usual Family Guy/[adult swim] stuff, an adults-only animated series that actually is "adult," not stuff that's only "mature" if you're 12 years old.

That all being said, I'm not sure what direction America: The Motion Picture is going to take. Will it be brilliant while also being gratuitous and happily immature? Or will it really have something to say? It's clearly aiming to be comedic, and given these guys' backgrounds, I'm not expecting too, too much out of this other than some wit and some creativity. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I'd say it's a good step forward. I also don't doubt that Sausage Party's success probably helped make this a reality, among other things.

Will it not be a CG film? Probably, for Archer, Frisky Dingo, and Sealab 2021 weren't CG cartoons. I expect the art style to resemble those, but it would be cool if it was something different. All I keep thinking of, actually, is a Robot Chicken skit that meshes the Revolutionary War with 300... And ironically Zack Snyder said not too long ago that he was thinking of making just that. (This wouldn't be the first time Robot Chicken was rather prophetic about Hollywood.)

Definitely an exciting development, and I'm looking forward to seeing where Netflix goes with their original feature animation...

What say you?