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Movie News

This Kitty Is Foul

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

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

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?

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

Say, Geronimo!

Got this directly from Animation Magazine: “Radar Pictures has secured the feature film rights for Italian children’s book favorite Geronimo Stilton, which follows the adventures of the eponymous mouse, a newspaper editor on New Mouse Island. Award-winning filmmaker David Soren (Turbo, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, the upcoming Under the Boardwalk) has been attached to adapt the beloved series into an animated feature and direct. Geronimo Stilton, created by Italian author Elisabetta Dami, has been featured in over 300 books translated into over 50 languages, which have sold over 180 million copies in 150 countries, making it one of the best-selling book series of all time. The intrepid rodent has also appeared in graphic novels, an animated series, eight live stage productions, video games, toys and more.” And the plot? “Longing to be taken seriously as a journalist and move beyond the cheesy puff pieces he’s usually assigned, Geronimo stumbles onto a conspiracy far bigger than anyone expected. He’s out of his league and with his eccentric family always up in his business, Geronimo’s problems seem insurmountable. But, working together, they might stand a chance as long as they can stay one step ahead of his foes in this explosive game of cat and mouse.” Stay tooned!

image c. 2023 Radar Pictures

Y’old Lizard, You

Cartoon Brew recently pointed us at a new upcoming animated film called Leo, being created for Netflix by Adam Sandler and his production company. “Netflix describes the film as ‘a coming-of-age animated musical comedy about the last year of elementary school – as seen through the eyes of a class pet. Jaded 74-year-old lizard Leo has been stuck in the same Florida classroom for decades with his terrarium-mate turtle. When he learns he only has one year left to live, he plans to escape to experience life on the outside, but instead gets caught up in the problems of his anxious students – including an impossibly mean substitute teacher. It ends up being the strangest but most rewarding bucket list ever…’ Leo’s animation is being produced by Netflix Animation and Animal Logic (The Lego Movie, DC League of Super-Pets)”. Look for it streaming on November 22nd.

image c. 2023 Netflix

The Annie Award Nominations for 2022

Recently ASIFA-Hollywood announced the nominations for the Annie Awards, celebrating the best in animation for the year 2022. The Annies are recognized world-wide as “the Oscars of animation”, chosen by folks in the animation industry from a host of disciplines. This year Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio leads the pack in nominations: Seven, including Best Animated Feature, Best Character Animation, Best Directing, Best Music, Best Production Design, and Best Editing. That’s followed close behind by Pixar’s Turning Red, Dreamworks’ Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, and The Sea Beast on Netflix, with six nominations each in various categories — including Best Animated Feature. Furry-fan-favorite The Bad Guys is up for four awards… but interestingly, not for Best Animated Feature. Marcel, The Shell With Shoes On and My Father’s Dragon are both nominated for Best Independent Feature and Best Directing, with Marcel also up for Best Writing and Best Voice Acting. (The little shell that could, sheesh!) The House (which is 2/3 furry…) and The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse are both nominated for Special Production, for projects longer than a short but shorter than a feature. And that’s just a sampling! We don’t even have room to talk about all the nominations for TV series, games, commercials, and more. Check out the Annie Awards web page for a complete list of nominees. The awards will be handed out on February 25th. (And hey, while you’re at it: Don’t forget that nominations have opened for the 2023 Ursa Major Awards too!)

image c. 2023 Netflix

It’s A Lost Art

There’s no stopping the Transformers movie series, it seems, but now something new has definitely been added — Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, due next year, is based on none other than the 90’s animated series Transformers: Beast Wars, where the whole series went severely furry for a time. Nerdist has the teaser trailer. Good old Optimus Primal is prominently featured (voiced this time by Ron Perlman), but look swiftly and you’ll see Cheetor, Rinox, Dinobot, and Airazor. No sign of Rat Trap yet, but who knows? The film is due in theaters in June of 2023.

image c. 2022 Paramount Pictures

Four Souls of a Trickster

Well this is interesting: Four Souls of Coyote is a new animated feature film currently in production at Cinemon Entertainment in Hungary. Animation World Network showed us the teaser trailer. “Inspired by Native American folklore, the film retells the story of the universe’s creation. Billed as a call to live in harmony with the environment and save the earth, the film features adventures with animals, magic, hunger, greed, and the sacred circle of all creations… The film comes to Hungarian cinemas in 2023.” No word yet on a North American release, but the film is being produced with an English-speaking voice cast.

image c. 2022 Cinemon Entertainment