Catching Up

Looks Paramount Animation has a clear idea of what they're going to do...

The studio has either been dormant for over a year, or they just wanted to keep things a secret. All we heard from March 2012 to now was that they had a couple projects in the works: A SpongeBob SquarePants movie sequel, The New Kid (based on a webcomic) and Beastlies (J. J. Abrams' project, based on a line of hand-sculpted toys). It was also revealed recently that live action portions of the SpongeBob film were being shot. Other than that, it seemed like Paramount Animation was taking a little while to enter the ring.

Now they have announced the release dates for the SpongeBob sequel and a film called Monster Trucks...

Labeled SpongeBob SquarePants 2 on Box Office Mojo, the film is slated for February 13, 2015. Smart, smart move. Originally, Paramount announced that the film would open in November 2014, but over the months we started seeing heavy competition migrating to that month: Big Hero 6, Home, Tomorrowland, Into The Woods and Night at the Museum 3. It would've had no room to breathe. I thought they were going to move it anyway.

Monster Trucks, as reported by Deadline, is said to be a live-action/animation hybrid and it might be directed by none other than Chris Wedge (Ice Age, Epic). The film will open on May 29, 2015. That's right ahead of DreamWorks' B.O.O., but it's opening after 2015's giants - namely Avengers: Age of Ultron and Star Wars Episode VII. Mary Parent, as expected, is producing and the script will be penned by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, the duo who brought you Kung Fu Panda's script. Apparently Paramount Animation is expecting this to be a franchise starter...

Other than that, this news doesn't exactly thrill me though I'm glad to see Paramount Animation getting started. Hopefully, like I've said many times here before, they will try to be bold and take cues from the film that partially motivated the distributor to find an in-house animation studio: Rango. From where I currently stand, their slate seems rather safe. SpongeBob SquarePants 2 is fine for a debut film, being a guaranteed success but... Beastlies sounds like a derivative of cutesy animated films (can't believe that this is Abrams' project!) and this Monster Trucks also sounds kind of bland.

But maybe I'm judging books by their covers. Monster Trucks and Beastlies could be quite different, or maybe not. Who knows. Out of all their projects, The New Kid piques my interest. Again, Paramount executive Adam Goodman talked about secrecy so maybe Paramount Animation has something in store for us... Or maybe they just want to cash in on other studio's successes by making safe surefire hits. Who knows.

What do you think?

Looking Back on Twenty-Twelve

2012 was quite a year for animation, wasn't it? As we are now in a new year, let's pause and remember the best of last year...

- Rango, Gore Verbinski's incredibly risky animated Western tale, rightfully took home many accolades and proved to the industry that you can in fact pull off big risks.

- Rich Ross, the controversial man who was the Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, got the boot. The seasoned and film-savvy Alan Horn took his place. Disney is back on track after a relatively downer period.

- The year had three animated films that grossed $200 million at the domestic box office. While the quality of some of the films are debatable, it's still good to see animation doing fine.

- Three impressive stop-motion films graced the silver screen: Aardman's The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Laika's ParaNorman and Tim Burton's Frankenweenie.

- Pixar proved to critics that one film couldn't stop them. Brave, despite getting a good number of negative reviews, was still a well-received film.

- Pixar also announced many new things: Two untitled upcoming films (one of which is being directed by Teddy Newton), the title of Bob Peterson's dinosaur film and Lee Unkrich's upcoming "Dia De Los Muertos" film.

- Wreck-It Ralph became another runaway success for Disney, showing that Tangled wouldn't be their only big hit. They are here to stay.

- Paperman, the ethereal short film attached to Wreck-It Ralph, certainly made quite a splash. It was a six-minute miracle of innovation and technological breakthrough in the medium. That's what Disney is known for, right?

- Disney also seemed enthusiastic about the upcoming films for Walt Disney Animation Studios, such as Big Hero 6 and Ron Clements and John Musker's untitled hand-drawn project.

- Many good animated television shows continued to run successfully, and impressive new entries came in as well.

- DreamWorks kept releasing critically acclaimed films, and also scoring their first big box office blockbuster domestically (in over two years) with Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.

- Paramount announced more plans with their in-house animation studio, and are very enthusiastic about competing with the heavies.

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Well, with all that being said... Happy New Year everyone! What was your favorite animation moment of 2012?

J.J. Abrams Gets Animated

Paramount certainly made a wise decision by setting up their own animation studio last summer. They'll be able to compete with the big guns after the deal with DreamWorks comes to an end while also making a name for themselves. Early on, I was hoping that the then-new studio would tackle projects like Rango, films that were unconventional and bold.

Until today, we only knew that a sequel to The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie was in the works along with an adaptation of the short-lived Penny Arcade webcomic, The New Kid, which is to be directed by long-time executive and producer Mary Parent alongside Cale Boyter. Gary Whitta (The Book of Eli) will pen the script.

Today, /Film revealed that Paramount Animation added a new production to its upcoming slate, and it will be directed by none other than J.J. Abrams, the creator of Lost and the director of Star Trek. Knowing Abrams, we probably won't know much about it until a trailer shows up. The sequel to The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is set to open sometime in late 2014, so we can only imagine when Abrams' project will be released. It'll probably kept in great secrecy, which Paramount executive Adam Goodman is encouraging. Goodman stated, "the longer-than-average development time for animated films requires some level of secrecy to ensure the kind of original ideas being developed here are protected, so holding back on specific announcements enables us to reveal projects when they are further along in the creative process."

Certainly a smart idea, and one that will keep the animation community guessing and speculating. Though I will admit I am not that familiar with Lost, Abrams did a fine job with Star Trek. He also produced a personal favorite of mine, Matt Reeves' Cloverfield. I am certainly looking forward to what he has in store for us. With that, it looks like Paramount Animation isn't going to take things lightly. Rango was certainly a watershed event for mainstream animation, so it seems as if they are looking to aim high while also making bank with safer projects like the SpongeBob film.

What's your take on this? Are you excited to see an animated film directed by J.J. Abrams? Are you looking forward to Paramount Animation's upcoming projects? Sound off!

Thoughts on "SpongeBob SquarePants 2" and Paramount's Future in Animation

A couple of weeks ago, Paramount Pictures announced the first production from their in-house animation studio: A second SpongeBob SquarePants film. It's supposed to be released sometime in 2014, approximately eight years after the first film came out. Paramount launched their in-house animation studio after the success of Gore Verbinski's Rango in 2011, a co-production between GK Films, Blind Wink and Industrial Light & Magic. Another reason why they launched this studio is because they are losing DreamWorks soon because the contract is expiring in December.

Rango might not have appealed to family audiences, but the risky Western adventure grossed $123 million domestically and $245 million worldwide. It also took home the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature of 2011. (If you ask me, being someone who believes animated films should be recognized alongside live action films, it should've been up for Best Picture, but I'll save that for a rant) Paramount is probably more than happy. When I heard that Paramount was launching their own animation studio, I was excited about the possibilities, but instead their first project will be a SpongeBob movie.

I'm a bit disappointed by this. I understand that Rango was a risky production that they picked up, but I was hoping Paramount's first in-house animated film would be something similar to Rango. A daring risk of sorts, something original. A SpongeBob sequel? There's really no ambition in that project, and it just feels safe. This could be a mere test, though. Paramount probably hopes that a movie based on the hit Nickelodeon series will be a safe start, a surefire hit. If it's a hit, Paramount will probably go forward with more ambitious projects. One project that's in the works is a film adaptation of The New Kid, a Penny Arcade webcomic about a young boy who is the only human in an intergalactic high school. (There's a lot of potential in that project)

Animated films based on animated television shows usually don't make much at the box office, and the only films in this category to cross $100 million were The Rugrats Movie and The Simpsons Movie, in 1998 and 2007 respectively. When The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie debuted in November 2004, it had a good-sized opening weekend ($32 million) and decent reviews, but the film ended up making $85 million domestically. That was over seven years ago, and now, since SpongeBob is still running, perhaps the film could out-gross its predecessor. The show recently became Nickelodeon's longest running original show, beating the original record held by Rugrats.

Paramount probably hopes that something like this could kick their in-house animation division off to a good start, but personally, I was hoping that they would do something original and not a sequel to an animated film based on a hit TV show. It just seems like a safe move, but if its success leads to ambitious projects, then I'm all for it. SpongeBob might be on a network that calls itself a "kid's" network, but SpongeBob has a lot of older fans as well. However, I don't expect this to be a huge blockbuster, but a profitable film that will give Paramount confidence in feature animation since the first film wasn't that big of a hit but it still made its small budget back.

Aside from the in-house animation division, Paramount also has the upcoming sequels to Steven Spielberg's performance capture adaptation of the classic comics by Herge, The Adventures of Tintin. Since the first one was a hit overseas, they have another success on their hands. A sequel to Tintin is expected for 2014, so that will probably do very well overseas. (It's too bad it wasn't a blockbuster success stateside) Perhaps Industrial Light & Magic could produce another animated film for them, so Paramount will be getting animated films from three sources: Their own in-house studio, the studios behind Tintin (Amblin, WingNut, etc.) and ILM. Now this may or may not happen, but it's something to look into.

Anyways, how much do you think the sequel to The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie will make? (Or will it be a reboot and have no connection to the first?) Do you think it will be a smash hit? Or a disappointment? What are your thoughts on Paramount's animation division starting off with a SpongeBob movie? Also, do you think it will be a hand-drawn film or a CGI film?