Tidbits: Ralphie's Title, STX Animation & 'Leap!' Leaps Again

Two of today's bits come from CinemaCon, one didn't...

Walt Disney Animation Studios' sequel to their 2012 video game adventure Wreck-It Ralph finally has title...

It is...

Next year, he's gonna break it 👊. Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 opens in theatres on March 9, 2018. pic.twitter.com/u1qQn7TUUI

— Disney Animation (@DisneyAnimation) March 29, 2017

Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2...

Ummm... I don't know what to think of this title. Right now, I'm thinking, take off the "Wreck-It Ralph 2" subtitle, or move it to the front, and it's a bit better. The placement is what's bothering me, not so much the title. The logo is also giving me an Emoji Movie feel, which isn't... Quite... Good...

But this is from Disney Animation. This is from Rich Moore and Phil Johnston. They've been working on this for a while, so... A title is just a title. I still think it could be better, though.

Someone also happened to snap a photo of the big slate Disney showed off during their presentation, which looks exactly like the one they showed roughly two years ago...

So now we know what The Incredibles 2's logo looks like. No more Roman numeral. Disney Animation's second 2018 release, Gigantic, didn't see a logo change. I say they should stick with it. Interesting that the "untitled fairy tale" slated for 7/28/2017 is still on there... It's less than four months away, and no title, no info, no this, no that. What could it even be? I thought it was going to be this currently-filming pic called Magic Camp, but I hear that's not it. Hmmm...

Next up... STX has their animation plan...

Earlier, STX - quietly making the waves as a distributor amongst the heavies - went over some animation plans. For a while, we've known that they've been planning an animated film based on the Uglydolls toyline. Illumination was once set to do that film, but after abandoning it, STX got a hold of it. Simply titled Uglydolls, STX plans to release it on May 10, 2019. Robert Rodriguez is set to direct it... A very interesting choice! Rodriguez has quite the resume, though not all of his family films were winners.

Anyways, I still think it's quite the pick. I have few feelings about this project, being something based on a toyline and all. The dolls themselves are certainly odd-looking, and it's a nice break from the typical character designs you see. It looks like something Illumination would've sunk their teeth into, but... I'm interesting to see how Rodriguez pulls this off.

STX also has an original animated movie on the docket, one starring Eddie Murphy. Apparently titled Bo the Bull, all we know is this: It's about a bull who wants to be a clown.

Another animated picture on their slate is a planned adaptation of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, the nearly 50-year-old stage musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. A psychedelic update of the Biblical story of Joseph, it falls in line with STX's apparent need to make family-friendly animated features. Of course, we animation fans know that Rice got around long after this production... Doing such minuscule things like... Writing the lyrics for Aladdin and The Lion King's songs...

Not the most thrilling slate, as I was kind of (naively) hoping that STX would break the mold and do bolder animated pictures... But it looks like they'll playing the same game everyone else is in on. I still wish them luck, though.

Lastly, the Weinstein Company - to no one's surprise - has delayed Leap! yet again.

The film, delayed for the second time, will now debut on August 30, 2017. No real compelling reason was given, it's probably just an excuse for Harvey Weinstein to further destroy the film. That's nothing new in the world of Weinstein. It probably would've been so much easier for them if they had just left Ballerina (the original film) alone, and just released that here back in March, like they had initially planned to do. As far as I'm concerned, Leap! really ain't Ballerina... Just like how Doogal ain't The Magic Roundabout. I don't understand how the guy doesn't get it...

All of the non-American animated films he has hacked up have sunk like stones. The one family film he didn't destroy, Paddington, did pretty well at the domestic box office. It was leggy, it got outstanding reviews by US critics, how could he not learn from that? How could he not learn from Arabian Knight and Doogal?

Anyways, Leap! is looking to be Underdogs Deux. Underdogs is his "re-imagined" version of the Argentinian animated film Metegol, which already got a halfway-decent English dub (released in the UK) before he got his hands on it. It was delayed roughly four times, and then it just went straight to video. I think Leap! will suffer the same fate... Of course, they wouldn't ask themselves, "Was the 're-imagining' of it even necessary?"

Well, if ya had only left it alone...

Mountain Splat: Paramount Animation Launches New Nick-Heavy Slate [UPDATE]

During their presentation at CinemaCon earlier today, Paramount revealed some big changes to their animated movie slate...

Their animation presentation was overall pretty short, but footage from next year's Amusement Park was shown. Reactions seemed rather mixed, some said it looked like kids-only fluff, others said it looks like it could have some substance. The release date is now August 10, 2018. It used to be July 13, 2018. The change was obviously going to happen. Hotel Transylvania 3 recently landed in the mid-July slot. Smart move, Paramount.

Paramount will team up with Nickelodeon to do more animated pictures, no shock there. Ever since they established the animation label in 2012, Paramount's plan always included lots of Nick-based features. They started on a Nick-based movie, the successful Sponge out of Water. A third SpongeBob movie has been on the slate for quite a while, it is no longer opening the same exact day as The Lego Movie Sequel. It's now set for August 2, 2019. Another smart move right there...

They have also announced a movie based on the current Nick hit, The Loud House. I'm sure that will raise the roof somewhere... That film is currently set for February 7, 2020. Will it be a traditionally animated picture? Or a CG'ed take on the show? Hopefully the former, even if its success won't mean anything for 2D's future here in America outside of TV show adaptations.

The plan is to release six animated movies between 2018 and 2020. So far, that's four...: Sherlock Gnomes (1/12/2018), Amusement Park, SpongeBob 3, and The Loud House.

The next two? They will also be Nick pics (slated for 3/22/2019 and 7/31/2020, respectively), and the sixth? Probably one of the films they announced some time ago, like Beastlies, The New Kid, Shedd, or maybe something else. Hopefully something original and/or fresh.

I'd say it's a smart strategy, because if they do the Nick films in 2D, it won't cost them too much. They can make easy profits off of those, and save the $70 million+ budgets (should they go that high) for the more "event"-type pictures. One thing is for certain, Paramount Animation is not a studio. It's a group, with various studios doing different features for them. Just like Warner Animation Group!

That all being said, what will the other two Nick movies be? My guess... One of them will be The Fairly Oddparents, as that show is still going. Like SpongeBob, it just won't stop, and it's now their second longest-running animated show. In terms of currently-airing shows, maybe Rabbids? An animated Rabbids movie was talked about before, but Sony was set to do that. I kind of doubt Pig Goat Banana Cricket is a candidate, because that show seems like it's on ice these days.

As for an older Nicktoon? Maybe, although Hey Arnold!'s long-delayed "Jungle Movie" is going to be a two-part TV movie this coming fall. Some Nick classics like Rocko's Modern Life are coming back, but will they get the theatrical movie treatment? Who knows, who knows... Maybe it'll be that rumored Nicktoons team-up movie, apparently the thing was indeed pitched, but never made it past that stage. Or maybe... It's possible that it'll be a feature-length pilot for an upcoming Nick series.

Maybe it won't even concern a TV show. Nick's name has been attached to numerous family movies released by Paramount, including the likes of Rango and The Adventures of Tintin... So one of those pictures maybe is not a Nick show-based movie. Amusement Park looks to carry the Nick name, and will get a Nick show next year, so yeah...

UPDATE (3/29/2017)

BoxOfficeMojo lists the untitled 7/31/2020 Paramount/Nick film as a "Hybrid", while the 3/22/2019 Paramount/Nick flick is labelled as "Animation"... So the 2020 film is a live-action/animation hybrid? Welp, so much for Paramount being done with those. They said they'd move on from those because of how badly Monster Trucks turned out, but hey... Maybe it'll be a live-action/unreal animation hybrid. Still boring to me, but it's what they want to do.


What say you?

Rock-Solid: 'Early Man' Teaser Debuts

Alrighty! A teaser for Aardman's next stop-motion animated picture has arrived!


As expected, the teaser displays Aardman's wit, their sense of humor, and some lovely visuals. It's a nice little poke at how some trailers for big blockbusters are, and I especially liked the little Monty Python and the Holy Grail hat-tip. From everything we've seen plus this new teaser, I think the movie looks like it'll be a fun, eccentric good time.

Of course, I'm a rather impatient American. No American distributor has picked this one up yet, and it's due out in Europe in January. Will it get a US distributor soon? Or will we have to wait like last time? Aardman's previous film was Shaun the Sheep Movie, when that entered production they had ended their partnership with Sony Pictures Animation. Sony, like former partner DreamWorks, would release the films around the same time they were released in Europe. Shaun the Sheep Movie didn't land a US distributor until after its European debut in February 2015, Lionsgate picked up the film and then dumped it that following August.

Something tells me that this one will get picked up before it comes out overseas. Shaun the Sheep Movie was based on a fluffy little TV series (made by Aardman themselves, of course) that was barely shown here in America, whereas this is an original movie. Perhaps distributors will find this one to be an easier sell? Plus there's dialogue, Shaun the Sheep Movie was mainly silent.

Who knows. Aardman only scored one domestic smash hit, and that was their first feature-length film: Chicken Run. For a little while, it was actually the highest-earning non-Disney/non-Pixar animated feature until the release of Shrek. Wallace & Gromit did okay business here at best, the rest of their films did even worse. Overseas totals and low budgets keep the future features afloat... But I myself would like to see Aardman score another good-sized hit here in the states. Maybe Early Man is it, maybe it isn't.

What say you?

Coaster Construction: First Look at 'Amusement Park'

What is Amusement Park?

If you didn't know, Amusement Park is an upcoming animated feature from the Spanish studio Ilion, who also made Planet 51. This picture is part of the Paramount Animation label, for Paramount doesn't have an animation studio, they're basically wide-releasing films from multiple studios. Just like Warner Animation Group. Sponge out of Water is a Nickelodeon/United Plankton film, Monster Trucks was done by Disruption Entertainment, January's Sherlock Gnomes is a Rocket Pictures/Mikros/MGM movie.

Paramount Animation vowed at one point to be very secretive about their stuff, but this movie - due out on July 13, 2018 - seems to be an exception. We know most of the cast, we know it's being directed by former Pixar animation Dylan Brown, and now we know what it looks like!

Nickelodeon presented this at an event because they are set to do a TV show based on it, which will begin airing in 2019.

From the looks of it, the film appears to be about a kid and some animals on an island, or in a jungle, that houses an amusement park. Has it already been there and was abandoned years ago? That's what I'm thinking.

I'm interested to see where they go with this one, not to mention I want to see Paramount establish themselves as a big animation player again. No more details were revealed, but I reckon we'll learn more by the end of the year, because this thing is still far off. I think a release date change will come, too, for Sony Pictures Animation recently dropped Hotel Transylvania 3 in that same exact slot.

What say you?

Shufflin' Sony: 'Hotel Transylvania 3' Moves Up

Look at that, more release date shuffling!

Not too long after their recent slate roll out, Sony has announced that one of their animated pictures is moving up a few months. That film would happen to be Hotel Transylvania 3, which was originally set to open on the same day as Warner Animation Group's S.C.O.O.B. - September 21, 2018. The picture, which is about Dracula and the gang on a cruise ship, is now slated to open on July 13, 2018...

But that's the same day as Paramount Animation's Amusement Park, their first all-original, all-animated movie. The very movie that could be the one that establishes them as a legitimate player again. Methinks Paramount moves it yet again... But to where? Well, maybe early August. Two weeks after Mission: Impossible VI, maybe?

Sony filled Hotel Transylvania 3's old date with Goosebumps 2, which will likely come with the Sony Animation logo attached, despite it and the first one not being Sony Animation productions. January 2018 seemed a bit too soon, so it's cool to see it easing back into the pre-Halloween field... But why against S.C.O.O.B.? Both go for the families and are spooky-themed. Maybe one moves to mid-October, who knows.

It'll be settled eventually,  I think.

What say you?

Filling Up: Open Road Picks Up 'Arctic Justice'

Do any of you guys remember Arctic Justice: Thunder Squad?

The project is from a Canadian production company called AMBI Group. It's set to be directed by former DreamWorks animator Dimos Vrysellas, and the scribes are Bob Barlen and Cal Brunker (The Nut Job 2, Escape from Planet Earth). It even has a full cast, and was floating around for a long while. The picture looks to be very cartoony and madcap, but I'm not quite sure about it. The writers' resume isn't the best, though like I said a while back, we can't assume that film's downfall was due to just the writers. Like most of these sillier animated titles, it could go either way.

The animation community first heard about it back in mid-2015, though I was not one of those folks! I first heard of it in April of last year, when a boatload of images and concept art pieces were unearthed. For a while, it didn't have a distributor. The reports said that the crew were looking to release the film in early 2018. Now, Open Road Films has fattened up their animation slate. They will be distributing the film, plus everything ToonBox/Red Rover has in the works. The recently-delayed Blazing Samurai will also be released by them. The more the merrier...

No concrete date has been inked. It and Blazing Samurai are TBD 2018 releases, though I'm sure they'll get dates once things fall into place.

The plot seems to have stayed the same too, but one of Open Road's heads decided to emphasize how topical the film is going to be, since it's about arctic critters taking on an evil walrus who wants to melt the polar ice caps and take over the world.

Now that could either work, or it could be unsubtle and forced. There's nothing wrong with a little environmental message or two, but the execution really matters. You could be subtle about it and weave it into your story in a meaningful way (WALL-E, I'll argue, tries not to hammer it), or you could be insincere about it (looking at you, Lorax!) and treat the audience like they're dumb. Some movies do that, unfortunately. Plus, your movie in question should be entertainment with something to say, not a boring, on-the-nose seminar.

All of that aside, this is one of those "who knows" kinda movies for me. The premise seems cool, and I dug a lot of the concept art, but how the writing will add up remains to be seen and heard.

What say you?

Laying Down the Bricks: 'Wreck-It Ralph 2' Cast Details Surface

The sequel to Walt Disney Animation Studios' video game adventure Wreck-It Ralph is almost just a year away from hitting theaters. As expected, some new details are oozing out...

Wreck-It Ralph 2, unsurprisingly, will bring back its four main players: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jane Lynch, and Jack McBrayer. When the film was first announced this past summer, some were worried that the two latter two wouldn't come back, but I had a feeling all along that they'd be in numero due. I mean, why scrap two major characters in the first one? I guess it was all based on the concept art and the plot synopsis mentioning just Ralph and Vanellope.

Today, it was revealed that two good-sized names are part of the cast. First up is the voice of Ariel herself, Jodi Benson. This will be Benson's second Disney Animation role ever, as he hadn't lent a voice to anything produced by the studio after The Little Mermaid debuted in 1989. Benson mostly did voice work for Disney's direct-to-video sequels and TV shows in the 90s and 00s, and also voiced Barbie in cousin studio Pixar's Toy Story sequels. It's a bit unusual to me that Benson wasn't in any Disney animated films for nearly 30 years, but it's great to see her return to the house. I can only imagine what kind of character she'll be playing in this film.

The other new arrival is also no stranger to voice acting, James Corden. Corden's animated resume may not be great (Norm of the North, the English dub of Animals United, yeesh!), but he must have the chops, for the studio barely ever miscasts in my opinion. Give him the right script and he'd probably nail it. When you're given something like Norm of the North, what the heck are you supposed to do?

Now according to Den of Geek, John C. Reilly might be voicing other characters in the film. They also suggested the possibility of Ralph meeting other versions of himself, which is what I've been speculating for a long while. I love the idea of Ralph - who comes from a 1982 arcade game - meeting a mid-90s, more-detailed, console game version of Ralph, or a really detailed, hyper-realistic PS4/Xbox One-like Ralph.

This is played with in the first film, as the three game worlds are all visually very different from each other. There are little details and such that enhance this, such as the Nicelanders in Ralph's home world having limited movements and very simplistic, shape-based character designs. I have a feeling they won't pass that opportunity up. I think it'd be fun to see these 80s video game characters meeting future versions of themselves, and perhaps meet characters that were introduced in later games. Did Fix-It Felix, Jr. become some sort of big Mario-like adventure series in the mid 80s? Who knows!

I have a feeling some breaking news will come about in a month, because the film opens in March of next year. This year is basically 2015 all over again, because two Pixar films are opening, hogging up the usual November slot Disney Animation likes to take. So I guess we'll hear some real news on March 9th, some time before that. As for a teaser? Since the movie is a March release, and Pixar's got a film hitting in the summer... I think that's when we'll get our teaser. Zootopia's teaser debuted before Inside Out in summer 2015, so I see a similar roll-out for this one.

What say you?

Dropping In: Paramount Moves 'Amusement Park' to Summer 2018

It looks like the wait time to get on the roller coaster has shortened...

Yesterday, Illumination left the July 13, 2018 slot vacant when they moved their Secret Life of Pets sequel to the summer of 2019. That slot isn't being filled by another Illumination production. Instead, the mountain folk surprisingly decided to swoop right in...

Yes, that's right, Paramount Animation's cryptic Amusement Park is now set to open on July 13, 2018. The original date for the picture was March 22, 2019, and now I suspect that the third SpongeBob movie will take that slot because its current date - February 8, 2019 - pits it against Warner's Lego Movie Sequel. Any second now...

In their report of the release date change, Deadline revealed a nice-sized nugget. This film will be former Pixar animator Dylan Brown's directorial debut. Brown had actually moved to the ill-fated Pixar Canada unit and was a creative director on the Toy Story Toon short Small Fry (my favorite of the bunch), and was a top dog on several Pixar classics. I'm excited to see what he brings to table. Former Pixarians Teddy Newton and John Kahrs (who also had a stint at Disney Animation, directing their short Paperman) had also moved to work for Paramount Animation, but we've heard little to nothing on their respective projects. Are they still set to do projects for them?

The previously-announced cast consists of Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Garner, Jeffrey Tambor, Kenan Thompson, Ken Jeong, Mila Kunis, and John Oliver. The animation is being done at the Spanish studio Ilion, the people behind Planet 51 and Mortadelo and Filemon: Mission Implausible. Paramount Animation, for those who may not know, essentially operates like Warner Animation Group. Nothing is done in house, various different studios do the films for them. Monster Trucks was a Disruption film, SpongeBob 2 and 3 are Nickelodeon/United Plankton Pictures movies, and Gnomeo and Juliet's sequel is being done by Rocket Pictures, MGM, and Mikros.

I think this move shows that they're confident. I mean, moving right into a prime summer date after a big competitor left it? I think they've got some faith in this one, and it has taken a while for Paramount Animation to get off the ground. That was all due to former executives making very questionable decisions, and all kinds of muck-ups. See, I think Amusement Park is the very movie that will give us an idea of where Paramount Animation will be heading now that the proverbial band-aids have been ripped. Now with this switch, I get the sense that they want to really launch themselves as a viable competitor... And soon.

When will we hear details on the story? Probably towards the end of the year, because even before all the Monster Trucks woes, the studio's plan was to keep things in absolute secrecy. Anyways, I want to see them score, as they're one of the few major distributors that hasn't had a big animation line-up, and because they've been behind the 8-ball for far too long.

What say you?

Despicable Sequels: Illumination Announces Sequel-Heavy Slate

Illumination Entertainment... What a well-oiled hit-making machine...

As Sing continues to hang on at the box office, the studio has rolled out a revised slate that adds two sequels to the mix.

Remember how The Secret Life of Pets 2 was set to open in July of 2018, just two years after the release of the first one? That's no more, the film has now taken the July 3, 2019 slot.

Another sequel fills their summer 2020 slot: Minions 2. That is opening July 3, 2020. When will enough be enough?

Finally, and this was totally inevitable, Sing 2 has been penciled in for Christmas Day 2020. Four years after numero uno.

No word on what will take the July 2018 slot Pets 2 left vacant, but... Yeah, sequels sequels sequels.

Forget your old complaints about DreamWorks being sequel-heavy, forget the "Pixar is a sequel factory now!" schlop. Illumination has gleefully taken the cake. Outside of an already-adapted Dr. Seuss story, their slate is sequels and franchise entries. So far, they've already released two sequels... All within the span of five years. Unless an original miraculously finds its way into July 2018, this is what we're stuck with. What the heck's going on with Johnny Express and Flanimals? So much for a push for more original stuff. PR-friendly words...

Now, nothing is ever concrete. It's very possible that Illumination will slate an original (read: something that isn't a sequel, before someone chimes in) in-between two of the three sequels. They have nothing else slated for 2019, so maybe Johnny Express can worm its way into a fall slot and give us something cool. Something to off-set the barrage of sequels. I don't dislike sequels, but three in a row? C'mon.

You could bring up the fact that DreamWorks did a three-in-a-row once... Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots (yeah yeah, spin-off! Still a franchise entry, though), and Madagascar 3. All released back-to-back, all were pretty well-received. I found all three to be strong pictures. It's a good point! To be fair, many an animation fan in 2011 looked at Puss in Boots - coming off the heels of the relatively unwanted and safe-as-vanilla Shrek Forever After - and deemed it unnecessary. Kung Fu Panda 2 was highly anticipated because of how good the first one was, whereas I think we kind of treated Madagascar 3 as an "oh well, they had to make it" kind of movie.

That being said, we got the three-in-a-row because of scheduling issues. In 2009, DreamWorks' 2010-2012 slate was a whole lot different. The same is true of Sony Pictures Animation. The Smurfs 2, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, and Hotel Transylvania 2 all opened back-to-back as well. Leave out Goosebumps, and you actually get four in a row, with Smurfs: The Lost Village. The streak is ironically going to be broken by The Emoji Movie. In Sony's case, it was two things... At one point, 2014 was supposed to house a feature called The Familiars, which would've put it between Cloudy 2 and Hotel Transylvania 2. At another time, Sony Animation's 2014 film was going to be Genndy Tartakovsky's Popeye. Second... There was a complete management overhaul not too long ago. Their slate looked a whole lot different before the late 2014 hack and subsequent switcheroos.

I think it's a me problem as well, because Illumination kind of frustrates me to be honest. I think their movies show potential and have some charm, but end up feeling very plastic and corporate. Plus their only Dr. Seuss adaptation (for now) is another issue. I like that they put out two original, half-decent movies this year, but they can do better. For a studio run by one guy that keeps its budgets down, they really play it safe. Despicable Me, as far as I'm concerned, is their only genuinely good film. But like all overhyped things, it took on a form of its own that can be somewhat annoying when crammed down your throat during a period of time. Minions, Minions, Minions... Screaming yellow tictacs, their designs so generic, yet people love them so much. So much for their "animation is for kids" attitudes, they find joy in the simplest of animated characters.

I don't hate the Minions, I think they're a lot of fun in the first Despicable Me, because they didn't overuse them in that film. In part deux, yeah, they're more prominent and the film's could've-been-great story about the kids wanting a mother takes a backseat. Despicable Me 3's teaser intrigues me because the Minions only appear for like a few seconds, the trailer's all Gru and the new villain.

I'll put aside my bias for a few seconds. Minions 2 could work if it's still set before the events of Despicable Me. The first spin-off ends with them ending up with Gru, so the sequel could be about them and their relationship with Gru throughout his childhood. I'm not saying that Gru is some hyper-compelling character who needs all this backstory (the stuff with his mother rejecting him was enough), but in this world of "everything needs a sequel", might as well salvage it in some way.

Sing 2's existence doesn't bother me, but where do they go from there? Same thing with The Secret Life of Pets 2. They could use the sequels to explore new avenues and experiment, but they didn't do that with Despicable Me 2, which leads me to believe that they'll just be business-as-usual entries that gross a billion dollars each and Universal/Comcast/Illumination goes home happy. Hey, it's business, I get it... But I still think they should even things out a little bit.

Despite the fact that these things reel in money, maybe I wouldn't be as ornery if they only announced Sing 2 and pushed Pets 2 - already a known thing - back. Minions 2 in-between both, instead of an original, kind of irks me a bit.

What say you?

Animated Future: Paramount Animation's Plans, 'Monster Trucks' Debacle Explained

Well, Paramount Animation's second film is out, and it is set to trip out of the gate.

We all know the story of Monster Trucks now. Former Paramount executive Adam Goodman, who was instrumental in the early building of Paramount's animation division, got the idea from his 3-year-old son. Originally conceived as a four-quadrant blockbuster meant to reel in Transformers crowds and spawn follow-ups, the Chris Wedge-directed (or did he really direct the finished product?) hybrid movie was delayed several times, reshoots occurred, the tone was changed to make it more kid-friendly, and it had fallen off the charts after Goodman was ousted in mid-2015. The LA Times' sources said the movie became an "orphan" after Goodman's departure.

Now the article also says that the constant delays had to do with the executives turning their attention to other projects, but if we are to believe an anonymous fellow...

Either way, it was supposed to come out as far back as May 29, 2015. The first delay pushed it to Christmas Day, but Paramount pushed it not too long after Star Wars: The Force Awakens officially got a near-holiday release date. Then it was pushed out of March 18, 2016, to today. The Little Prince briefly took the March 2016 slot until Paramount - at the very last second - dropped the film, Netflix swooped in and took it.

Yes, Paramount Animation has had a rocky start. Not much is expected of the movie now, as it looks to open with $10 million tops. Paramount took the write-down way back in August, an unprecedented move to say the least. You could tell from that point onward that this movie was going to be a "rip the band-aid" moment for them.

The studio's president, Marc Evans, didn't say much about Monster Trucks but did express enthusiasm for the next two announced projects: Sherlock Gnomes (the belated sequel to Gnomeo & Juliet) and Amusement Park. Of course, future Paramount Animation productions will be done by other studios, similar to Warner Animation Group. Rocket Pictures, Mikros, and MGM are doing Gnomes, and Spanish studio Ilion is handling Amusement Park.

He also mentioned that upcoming films will mostly be "conventional" animated movies, basically animated movies that know they are animated. Not live-action movies with hyper-real CGI elements in them, not movies like Monster Trucks. That's good, because I want to see what Paramount has up their sleeves in this field. It's been too long of a wait, and it's good to see some projects finally getting off the ground that aren't Nickelodeon-based.

Currently, Paramount Animation has three projects dated: The aforementioned Sherlock Gnomes and Amusement Park hit in January 2018 and March 2019 respectively, a third SpongeBob movie is penciled in for February 8, 2019, but that's likely going to move since WAG has The Lego Movie Sequel in that slot now. The budgets for these films should be reasonable, as the first Gnomeo cost only $36 million, Ilion's Planet 51 cost $70 million. Sponge out of Water, a mixed-media kinda picture, cost $74 million to make. Certainly much better than Monster Trucks and its unnecessarily gargantuan $125 million budget.

With that said, what's going on with previously-announced projects of theirs? What's going on with John Kahrs' Shedd? Or Beastlies? Or The New Kid? Or Trey Parker/Matt Stone's Giant Monsters Attack Japan?

What say you?

Road Trip Detours: Open Road Shuffles Animation Slate

Sometimes, even the smaller folk do some shifting in animation-land...

Open Road Films is the distributor of ToonBox Entertainment's films, scoring a modest success with The Nut Job some two years ago around this time. The Nut Job 2 was originally set to open in January of last year, but it ended up being pushed to this coming May... Well, it has been pushed again, even though a trailer for this thing is ready.

The new date is August 18, 2017.

The distributor is also handling the feature Blazing Samurai, a family-friendly cats-and-dogs in feudal Japan story inspired by Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks is involved, too!), and that was originally set for August 4th of this year. The same day as Sony Animation's *gag* Emoji Movie. That is now without a concrete release date, but fear not! It isn't in the "to be determined" black hole. Now, it's expected to hit some time in 2018.

ToonBox's other upcoming, completed film Spark is currently set to open on April 14th... Just about a full year after its screening at a festival in Toronto. It has not moved, though I think it should take advantage of the space The Nut Job 2 left vacant. Not like it's going to be a big blockbuster to begin with, might as well move it away from The Boss Baby (opening 3/31) and Smurfs: The Lost Village (opening 4/7), give it a little breathing room. Not saying animated films cannibalize each other, but I think for best possible results, it should get a new date.

Anyways, I hope all works out for Blazing Samurai. One of the companies behind it - Arc Productions  - went bankrupt, but said company got bought by Jam Filled Toronto, so it's still a go as far as I'm concerned.

What say you?

ChangeWorks: New Universal/DreamWorks Slate Unveiled

Well, it has finally happened...

DreamWorks' slate has been reconfigured. It was only a matter weeks, after we heard about layoffs and Universal's desire to restructure the studio. The shuttering of The Croods 2 came first, then the reports about DreamWorks cutting ties with the Indian unit (DDI), and then the talk of the slate being changed up...

Exhibitor Relations broke the news...

DreamWorks Animation's HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 3 has been pushed back--March 1, 2019 instead of May 18, 2018.

— Exhibitor Relations (@ERCboxoffice) December 5, 2016

Oriental DreamWorks' animated film, EVEREST, climbs into theaters September 27, 2019. Tim Johnson (HOME, OVER THE HEDGE) directs.

— Exhibitor Relations (@ERCboxoffice) December 5, 2016

How To Train Your Dragon 3 has been delayed yet again...

At this point, I say "Whatever it takes, that's all that matters." Better that than cancellation, because one could argue that it could've been on the chopping block following the acquisition. The same goes for Larrikins, which curiously hasn't gotten a new date...

Yet? Is it keeping the current February 16, 2018 slot? Or is that going somewhere else?

Now we know what Oriental DreamWorks' mystery feature is, the "young girl and a yeti" story that Jill Culton (formerly of Pixar, director of Sony Animation's Open Season) pitched a while back. It will be that very Oriental DreamWorks project that was teased back at the beginning of 2015, that very mystery project. It now has a concrete release date: September 27, 2019. Culton, shockingly, isn't directing. Tim Johnson - director of DreamWorks' own Antz, Over the Hedge, and Home - will direct instead.

Some takeaways...

What's going on with Larrikins? Does that stay in 2018? Why the hush-hush? I thought that film was being "pulled back into story".

Everest was a project that I suspected would be the ODW mystery film, given the setting and the fact that it was announced rather close to all the ODW news. I assume ODW will make significantly smaller films, films that won't require $100 million+ budgets, so I can only imagine how this will look and feel.

Nothing on Shadows and Shrek 5, films that were eying 2019.

It looks like Universal will keep it down. One new Glendale-made movie will be released every calendar year. Oriental DreamWorks will probably make one every other year, so DreamWorks can still have their cake and eat it too, similar to how they outsourced Captain Underpants to Mikros. I wonder if they'll outsource to them again if that movie does well next summer.

So now from the looks of it...

Larrikins - February 16, 2018?
How To Train Your Dragon 3 - March 1, 2019
Everest - September 27, 2019
Shrek 5 - 2020?
Shadows - ??

Perhaps we'll get some more concrete info soon...

Add-on: Focus Features, being part of Comcast, moved the untitled LAIKA film previously set for 4/4/2018 to Dragon 3's old date. Good move on their part, the older date would've pitted it against Disney's A Wrinkle in Time...

Rough Transitioning: DreamWorks To Lay Off 170 Staff Members, More Delays?

It looks like the moon boy studio is being hit again...

More layoffs.

This was inevitable after strong rumors surfaced, ones that said DreamWorks would significantly downsize following the Comcast acquisition. It is official now, the Glendale studio will lay off roughly 170 people next month. According to the reports, some of this has to do with the recent cancellation of The Croods 2. The TAG Blog reveals more reasons...

Namely the release dates for two particular pictures in the pipeline. Mr. Hulett says that the timetables for these films - I'm guessing 2018's Larrikins and How To Train Your Dragon 3, previously rumored to be on the move - have changed, and that the films have no "hard and fast" release dates. So, to be determined? There was talk of the dragon threequel being moving back a bit, to probably the third or fourth quarter of 2018. Larrikins apparently was being "pulled back into story", indicating that we would have to wait until 2019 for that one. Other rumors suggested that DreamWorks is aiming to do just one picture every calendar year, as opposed to two.

It's a shame, but if it needs to be done, so be it. As long as we get these films, and in the best shape too, the waits will be worth it. I understand the possibility of How To Train Your Dragon 3 being pushed back *yet* again is a sore spot for some, I'm particularly miffed, but the reason I'm not as upset is because I'm more worried about possible cancellation than a delay. I'd rather wait than not have it at all, you know? How To Train Your Dragon 2 did very well at the overseas box office, but it wasn't quite the domestic champion, and DreamWorks let some of their staff go when the movie opened to underwhelming numbers.

As long as these two films still happen, that's all I care about at this point. As long as Universal heads allow DreamWorks to do what they please and take some risks, I'll be fine... But we don't know what Universal wants out of DreamWorks. While Illumination is headed up by a CEO with a clear vision of where to go (whether we like that particular vision or not), DreamWorks is currently headed up by these guys. Will they beg for more mindless, kid-friendly things and franchise stuff? Or will they back off and let them do their thing?

Who knows, but it appears that these heads want DreamWorks to really scale down. It makes sense, because unlike Illumination, DreamWorks mostly operates out of California and overspends on their films. While Trolls is doing quite well here in the states, it seems to be slogging overseas, which isn't good for a film that cost $125 million to make. What they need to do, to me, is find a way to keep those budgets under control because not every PG-rated family-friendly CGI film is going to make serious coin at the box office. You can't just expect things like Trolls and Boss Baby to be locked for $400 million worldwide grosses. You can't just pull $400 million out of a hat, magically.

The plot continues to thicken...

Aliens and Mutants: Fox Updates Tentpole Slate, 'Avatar 2' Dated?

20th Century Fox has re-shuffled their line-up of tentpoles...

The biggest gasp here is the inclusion of an Untitled Fox/Lightstorm Film...

Lightstorm is James Cameron's studio. What has Mr. Cameron been working on all these years? No, not Alita: Battle Angel. He's producing that, while Robert Rodriguez directs. That's also already set for July 2018. If the answer wasn't obvious... Avatar 2...

Word on the street is that James Cameron is playing nice with Disney, and the reason makes sense... Pandora - The World of Avatar in Disney's Animal Kingdom. Some rumors from earlier in the week suggested that Disney was going to move the untitled Han Solo Anthology film to the mid-December slot, but it looks like the smuggler will remain in the traditional mid-May station. It adds up, since the first Avatar was a big December release back in 2009.

I mean, what else could it be? A long-awaited sequel to The Abyss?

Several other Fox biggies moved around.

Alien: Covenant has sort-of traded places with Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Alien: Covenant is now set to open on May 19, 2017, Kingsman: The Golden Circle is set for October 6, 2017. Slight bummer on the latter.

The Marvel side of things saw big updates. The 10/6/2017 Fox/Marvel film is now off the slate. Their slate now...

03/02/2018 *previously scheduled*
06/29/2018 *previously scheduled*
11/02/2018 *new addition*
02/14/2019 *new addition*

The Fox/Marvel slate has been something of a jumble these days. Deadpool 2 lost director Tim Miller, Fox hastily got his replacement. New Mutants has been on the table, X-Force has been teased, and Gambit has been on-and-off. I'm thinking Deadpool 2 nabs the Valentine's Day 2019 slot, much like its predecessor. Not sure about the other dates.

Interestingly, Paramount scheduled an untitled "event" film for 11/2/2018. So it'll be duking it out with an untitled Fox/Marvel film and Disney's live-action Mulan. I have a feeling it's going to be hauling its way out of that slot.

Anyways...

Alien: Covenant? Could be good, but I kinda want Alien 5 more. Kingsman: The Golden Circle? I adored the first one, I'm there day one. Avatar 2? I don't dislike the first film, if two has more of a story and fleshes out characters, I'll check it out. All the upcoming Fox/Marvels? I'm interested to see what direction they go in, because Deadpool was like a turbo shot, Logan looks great, and we'll see a new beginning after we bid the old X-Men crew adieu.

What say you?

Army Dog: Mikros To Produce Fun Academy's 'Sgt. Stubby'

A newcomer studio is coming around the bend...

Fun Academy Motion Pictures is the name of the studio in question. Their debut feature? Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero.

Sgt. Stubby was real. A stray who was assigned to the 26th Yankee division during World War I, he was supposedly the first dog to ever be designated "sergeant". The film adaptation is aiming for a spring 2018 release, the centennial of World War I's ending. The dog was known for saving units from mustard gas attacks, even holding a German soldier in his place until US soldiers arrived.

The film has been known in some circles for a little while, now the studio has joined forces with Mikros Image to bring it to the big screen. Mikros is little by little making it big in the features world, as they have done the animation for DreamWorks' Captain Underpants and will do the animation for Paramount/Rocket Pictures' Sherlock Gnomes. They also did work on The Little Prince.

Helena Bonham Carter and Gerard Depardieu are currently set to provide their voices. The director is former Disney and DreamWorks animator Dan St. Pierre, who directed Everyone's Hero (remember that? It was that film about Babe Ruth's baseball and the 1932 World Series featuring a talking baseball and baseball bat) and the superb Legend of Oz: Dorothy's Return. Of course, we can't hold that against him... Those movies were undone by their writing and other behind-the-scenes issues. Perhaps St. Pierre will really prove himself with this picture.

According to PR Newswire, Sgt. Stubby will "directly address war for young audiences". Depardieu erroneously claimed that it will be the first animated family war movie to hit the US, but he did mention that the script will be "sensitive", will give the viewers "a feel" of the war itself, and will focus on the bonding between the dog and one of the doughboys.

While there are plenty of adult-oriented animated films about war, going the family-friendly is kind of risky to me. You can indeed keep the impact and even some of the horror intact, but in order to get that PG, you'd probably have to skirt around some areas. Skirt too much, and try too hard to get the kids laughing, you get a movie like Valiant. We certainly don't want that with Sgt. Stubby, as this dog was actually in the trenches and then some, and that kind of humor has no place in this story.

The concept art looks pretty good, it suggests that the film could be decent...

What say you?

A Shock in Time: 'A Wrinkle in 'Time Cast Locked, Filming Begins Today

What's that? More movement on a live-action Disney film that's not a dreaded remake of one of their animated classics?

If you know me well, you'll know that I'm no fan of this current "let's remake the animated classics" trend that's going on at Walt Disney Pictures. Their head honcho, Sean Bailey, has indeed found a formula that's working like gangbusters. The acclaimed The Jungle Book, a film I - no shock - did not really care for, nearly took in a big billion worldwide. Maleficent made $700 million+, Beauty and the Beast is sure to clear a billion worldwide. You get the idea, you get why more and more remakes are in the pipeline.

But it seems like anything that isn't just that doesn't have a reason to exist. Disney all but dumped films like The Finest Hours, Tomorrowland, The Lone Ranger, John Carter of Mars, and so on... But even re-imaginings didn't quite do so well, such as this year's Pete's Dragon and the sequel to Tim Burton's billion dollar smash Alice in Wonderland. See, those two films are visually and aesthetically unlike their animated (or in Pete's Dragon's case, partially animated) predecessors, so you can bet all future Disney remakes will be carbon copies of the classics in terms of their looks.

Anyways, a curious production has somehow bubbled its way up. A Wrinkle in Time, based on the sci-fi novel by Madeleine L'Engle, had landed Frozen writer-director Jennifer Lee and Selma director Ava DuVernay. That's an exciting intergalactic adventure about a teen girl who searches for her government agent father, with the help of her brother and her friend. Then a knock-out, diverse cast was announced... A few months ago, it seemed like this movie was actually going to happen! Imagine that! A live-action Disney film that's not a remake of an animated classic!

(Before you say it, yes... I'm well aware that Disney adapted this story once in 2003, for a poorly-received TV movie for their Wonderful World of Disney.)

Then I said, "Now wait a minute, remember what happened to TRON 3?" Had the cast, the script, filming was set to begin in October of last year... Disney pulled it in May 2015 after Tomorrowland bombed. It reminded me of how far George Miller's Justice League: Immortal got - whole cast, script, and everything - before Warner Bros. pulled the plug on it in 2008. Nothing to me is definite until cameras are rolling...

But apparently they are rolling. Director Ava DuVernay herself confirms, via Twitter. It's a thing, it's real! (Yes, my bitter jerk is on display today, and HOW!)

Feeling brave and strong and ready!Appreciate all the love + light! First shot up in 30. Here we go! #WRINKLEINTIME pic.twitter.com/LsF1Pbo2pQ

— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) November 2, 2016

No release date is locked, which is unusual considering that live-action Disney films without casts (*cough*Mulan*cough*) have concrete release dates. Of course, if you know a thing or two about the Mouse House's massive, no-holes-barred slate, you'll see that there's a couple 2018 slots that this movie could land in... But the confusing part is this...

When Disney announced the dates for their future live-action (or hyperreal CG, in some cases) flicks, they billed a majority of them as "Untitled Live-Action Fairy Tale". Only two were billed as just "Live-Action Film", one of them turned out to be Mary Poppins Returns. The other one is currently set for August 3, 2018.

Does Wrinkle take that slot? Seems like it could, considering that it's going to be a big $100 million+ production. (Big mistake if you ask me.) Or does it take the April 6, 2018 slot that's reserved for a "fairy tale"? It seems like "fairy tale" could mean anything to Disney these days, because Mulan is not a "fairy" tale. The live-action Mulan took the 11/2/2018 slot originally reserved for a "fairy tale". I guess you could consider A Wrinkle in Time to be a sci-fi fairy tale. Who knows with Disney. I don't think it'll make it to the currently unfilled 7/28/2017 fairy tale slot. At this rate, I think that goes to the low-budget Magic Camp that begins filming next month.

Anyways, good to know that it's actually happening. If it's a success, you'll see more, as the book got sequels. When you do think it'll hit? Do you think it will be a hit?

Cuss Yeah!: Wes Anderson's New Animated Film in Production

What's this? Wes Anderson's new stop-motion film is closer than we thought?

During an interview with Alexander Olch in GQ, Mr. Anderson let it slip that his new animated film is currently in production...

Wes Anderson, renowned auteur, entered the feature animation world with a bang with his stop-motion adaptation of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox. Definitely quirkier than most mainstream animated fare, it was beautifully done in stop-motion, had a razor-sharp script, and it just knew where it was at. There was a confidence oozing from that picture like no other, and it excelled at pretty much everything else. It's a personal favorite of mine, from the writing to the staging to the tone to the subtle but potent emotional side.

His next animated film, also a stop-motion project, involves dogs, and its cast is pretty impressive so far: Bryan Cranston, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray (obviously), Edward Norton, and Bob Balaban.

Anyways, yes... In production! That means it could show up either next year or in 2018. It's interesting that Anderson is keeping it rather secretive, which I think could indicate that it is not based on a book. Whatever it does with talking dogs, I'm intrigued. I have a feeling it'll be a bittersweet comedy like its foxy predecessor, and one of all-time great animated talking dog films. If we get it next year, it'll be one heck of a coincidence: This, Rock Dog, and Blazing Samurai, all animated, all about talking dogs.

What say you?

Dashing to the Front: 'The Incredibles 2' Moves Up!

Talk about a big switcheroo, Pixar has played musical chairs with two of their upcoming sequels.

The Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4 have swapped spots. The Incredibles 2 is now set to open on June 15, 2018, while Toy Story 4 - being pushed back for the second time - will open on June 21, 2019...

Honestly, I'm not surprised that The Incredibles 2 has surged ahead in development. Director/writer Brad Bird is a lightning-fast problem solver, a skill that he probably got from his days on The Simpsons. Exhibit A is the first Incredibles, which he worked on for four years, most Pixar films take longer journeys to the big screen. Exhibit B is Ratatouille. In early 2005, the Pixar brass removed Jan Pinkava from the 5-year-old project, and that was around 2 1/2 years before the picture's summer 2007 debut. Bird turned it around so fast, and the resulting movie... You wouldn't even think for a second that it had all those troubles!

The Hollywood Reporter implied that Bird's Walt-like method was indeed the reason why these two sequels were swapped. An "accelerated production schedule", the insiders say.

Toy Story 4, with its new summer 2019 date, will nearly coincide with the 20th anniversary of Toy Story 2. Some are reading the delay as a bad sign, thinking that Toy Story 4 is having multiple story troubles and might be beyond saving. I get that a lot of us don't want Toy Story 4 (I wouldn't flinch if it were cancelled tomorrow), but I think it's simple: Incredibles 2 surged ahead, Bird knows what he's doing, and there's a huge demand for a sequel. Toy Story already got two sequels and spin-offs, this is the first Pixar-made Incredibles anything in years. They probably figure that we can wait for another Toy Story, and that a lot of folk have been waiting a long, long, long time for an Incredibles follow-up.

The old D23 poster, I know.

Toy Story 4, should it keep its current release date, will have taken 7 years to make. That's not unusual for a Pixar film. Let's keep in mind that WALL-E, counting all its early iterations, took fourteen years to get to the big screen. Some projects come together faster than others, and if Pixar needs more time to really make what is actually one of their riskiest film, that's fine. Toy Story 4 has a tall order to fill, and that's living up to one of the rare perfect trilogies, and being the follow-up to what was such a perfect ending. Maybe a whole story change is in order right now (I'll be brutally honest, I don't really dig the whole idea of Bo Peep being pushed back into the story), or they're trying their damnedest to make something impossible work.

Or maybe, as a friend of mine suggested, it's because of director John Lasseter. Lasseter, ever since the acquisition ten years ago, has been a super-busy man. Not only is he running Pixar, but also Walt Disney Animation Studios, DisneyToon Studios, and he's also a key person in the theme parks and elsewhere. I was shocked when he said he was directing the film, because he really doesn't have all the time for that... Or does he? I know he directed Cars 2 from his iPad in less than a year, and that movie was a mess. To be hands-on, he'd either have to put some duties aside, or really multi-task like a pro.

Before anyone brings it up, I'm aware that Josh Cooley is a co-director on the picture. At Pixar, however, a co-director is not necessarily a second director. It's more like the director who handles things on the lower deck of the ship. Lasseter's Walt Disney Animation Studios uses this model, but often times, more than one person is a main director. Take Zootopia for example: Main directors were Byron Howard and Rich Moore, and there was one co-director: Jared Bush. Perhaps Toy Story 4 needs a second "main" director, so why not move Cooley to the position?

Who knows.

What say you?

From Demigod to Governor: Tom Hiddleston To Voice Villain in 'Early Man'

Well would you look at that, Aardman's latest, Early Man, has added Loki to its cast.

That's right, Tom Hiddleston will be voicing the villain of this very stop-motion picture: Lord Nooth, the governor of the Bronze Age town that the Stone Age characters, including main protagonist Dug, are at odds with. The character has been described as "ridiculously pompous". It's not Hiddleston's first voice acting gig. He had played Captain Hook in DisneyToon's Tinker Bell entry The Pirate Fairy over two years ago.

Interestingly enough, Deadline's article confirms that Studiocanal - who is financing the film - plans to shop it around next month to potential American takers. Does it land a distributor anytime soon? Or will we have to wait like we did with Shaun the Sheep Movie? Hopefully not the latter, and hopefully someone decent gets their hands on it. I can see this one getting a distributor before its UK release (January 26, 2018), I reckon Shaun took forever because it's a silent film and the TV show it's based on isn't quite known here. Early Man on the other hand is an original story and boasts quite the cast already, that could lead to a bigger distributor saying yes to it.

Right now, I think potential candidates are STX, A24, Focus, and Fox. Fox is losing DreamWorks next summer, so maybe they'll try to partner up with another animation studio so that they don't have just one under their tree. I'm not sure what's going on with Reel FX, it doesn't seem like they inked a distribution pact with Fox.

Anyways, it's good to see it moving forward. We'll probably get plenty more cast announcements soon...

Nothing's Changed: Universal Gets DreamWorks' 2018 Films, Doesn't Change Dates

It took a while, but it's been confirmed...

Universal Pictures will be releasing the other two DreamWorks films that are set for release in 2018: Larrikins and How To Train Your Dragon 3. They are now officially Universal films, 20th Century Fox's deal ends next year with Captain Underpants. Old news actually, a lot of us knew that a month ago. All these reports here and there implied that the early summer release would be the last DreamWorks film to be distributed by the gold twenty.

The news here is that Universal doesn't plan to change the dates for these two films.

Larrikins will still open on February 16, 2018, exactly one week after Warner Animation Group's Smallfoot, and the same day as Marvel Studios' hotly-anticipated Black Panther.

I thought this date was likely to change... I guess not.

The bright side. Universal knows how to market animated movies, unlike Fox most of the time, as Trolls is - unsurprisingly - tracking pretty badly and will be hit by Marvel's Doctor Strange. It's set to open with $30 million tops, worse than Mr. Peabody & Sherman, and not much higher than Turbo and Penguins of Madagascar. I assume that Fox is just ripping the band-aid at this point, not caring whether the $120 million-costing pictures will make it back or not. They lose DreamWorks in the summer of 2017, so are they thinking "So what?" You would think they'd want to make the most of what they have. Trolls' reception so far doesn't seem half bad, either... You'd think Fox would try harder to make it a little hit.

The Croods 2 still hasn't locked a new date, but it's clear that it'll stay in 2018, breaking the DreamWorks "two-a-year" policy... But then again The Croods 2 is a movie that will probably feel like it belongs in 2017 - even more so if it locks a January date, so I guess it's not a big deal in the end. It needed to be delayed too, not just because of Star Wars, but because of rewrites. Wherever it lands, who knows at the moment.

What say you?