2015... The Real Big Year

Earlier in the year, I talked about how 2014 would not only be a better year for animation than this year, but also just a great one in general. The best one since the bursting-with-goodness 2010...

Things have changed since then, with some big changes taking place recently. It seems like 2015 is now going to be that great year (and such a big year for blockbusters and must-see movies in general), but 2014 is not without merit. Many potentially fine films are opening that year: How To Train Your Dragon 2, The BoxTrolls, Book of Life, Big Hero 6. The likes of Mr. Peabody & Sherman and Home also sound good, there's some of the usual (Rio 2), and then some potentially poor by-the-books stuff (The Nut Job).

It's just that the year was kind of gutted, mostly because of Pixar's The Good Dinosaur's migration to the autumn 2015 spot and Sony Animation's Popeye going to the TBD pit. Minions was pushed to 2015, Disney's long-gestating Phineas and Ferb film went from a potential 2014 release to an undecided one. Losing the Pixar film did a good number on the year, losing Popeye, for me, was also disappointing. Minions? I'm okay with that film moving, and I hope the Phineas and Ferb film finds a date soon. (Show co-creator Jeff "Swampy" Marsh says it's just "on hold".)

Anyways, what does 2015 have to offer?

The Big Studio Offerings

For starters, the Emeryville crew will release two original films...

Many people are disheartened that Pixar doesn't have a film ready for release next year, but the good thing is, two films in one year will more than make up for it... Two original films...

Of course, we all know that The Good Dinosaur (opening November 25, 2015) ran into some major problems. The director had to be removed, the producer left the project and things seemed to going haywire at Pixar. But instead of hastily getting it ready for next May, Pixar opted to delay the film to the autumn of 2015 so they can not only get a new director but also fix the problems that they have with it. With more than two years to do that, we may actually get an excellent film in the end.

Pete Docter's Inside Out remains in the summer 2015 spot - June 19th to be exact. Sequel Finding Dory originally had The Good Dinosaur's current release date, but now that's been moved to make way for the recouping dinosaur film. People may say the studio is on the decline, but what would be a better "comeback" than two back-to-back great, original, non-sequel films? These two films don't sound like what we've seen before: A world where dinosaurs don't go extinct and what goes on inside your mind? Pure Pixar...

Pixar has made 2015 a much bigger year than it was for animation.

What's next?

DreamWorks has three projects ready for 2015. The Penguins of Madagascar (opening March 27, 2015) is probably the least interesting of the trio for me, since it's really just a cash grab though a full-length Penguins film could deliver a lot of fun. I just hope that it's a one-time thing, because I really can't see the Penguins being part of a big, enthralling story. It's pretty much a franchise film in my eyes, but since Madagascar 3 was marked improvement over the first two, anything is possible.

B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations (opening June 5, 2015) should be another good original story, one that suggests a more spooky atmosphere than the other DreamWorks films. Maybe it won't be some giddy, goofy comedy about ghosts... But rather something better. Horror is so well done in animation, and recent examples like ParaNorman prove that... But B.O.O. is probably just going to be a comedy "for fun" kind of film, but it's possible that it may dip into some darker waters. Kung Fu Panda 2 wasn't afraid to do so, then again Guillermo del Toro was working on that film.

Kung Fu Panda 3 is the one I'm really anticipating, given the quality of the second film and how much potential it has. I'm sure DreamWorks will make it a grand finale, unless a second trilogy is a go. With how big the sequel was in scope in comparison to the original will ensure that this will be even bigger, and hopefully it's a little darker much like how the second film. Raise the stakes, develop Po more and even give the Furious Five some major development (something I felt was kind of lacking in the second film), balance the humor and drama, and you'll have a fine third entry. I think DreamWorks can do it.

Of course, with DreamWorks, something could change. Their schedule is always shuffling and changing, so I wouldn't be surprised if one of these films ended up in 2016 with a 2016 film ending up in 2015. You never know, but for now, that's a decent trio of films.

But the other big studios don't have much to offer in my eyes.

Blue Sky's Peanuts? Pass for now, because I fear they'll go the Chipmunks/Smurfs route with it, only spitting on the beloved creations of Charles Schulz. Paramount Animation enters the ring with SpongeBob SquarePants 2 and Monster Trucks. Neither one really piques my interest, because another SpongeBob film seems too safe and the other one (for now) sounds like a commercial for a toyline, though Chris Wedge is directing the latter. I'll be surprised if Monster Trucks ends up sounding like something cool. Illumination's got Minions, I'm not really interested in that one either, or most of their upcoming films in general. Sony Animation? The Smurfs 3 and Hotel Transylvania 2. *yawn*

Walt Disney Animation Studios is sitting out for the year, as 2014's Big Hero 6 will be followed by Zootopia in March 2016.

Warner Bros. Animation may or may not have Storks ready for 2015, their second film from their revived feature animation studio. To be directed by former Pixarian Doug Sweetland, it sounds like it has potential, but very little is known about it. Will it make it to 2015?

It's also likely that DisneyToon will make a third Planes for a summer 2015 release. Ugh...

Most of 2015's most exciting animation releases, for me, are the ones from the smaller studios and the ones that aren't the big guns.

Aardman returns - with a stop-motion film no less - with Shaun the Sheep. Aardman's never made a poor quality film, even Flushed Away managed to be good despite the DreamWorks meddling. Their last film The Pirates! Band of Misfits was an irreverent, overlooked treat. Arthur Christmas was also very good, a fine Christmas film and a fine film overall. Shaun the Sheep should be another charmer from the studio, plus it'll probably be silent for the most part. Another plus!

Sony wants the Ratchet and Clank movie out in 2015, and that has so much potential being based on the long-running video game series. (Personally, I'd like to see someone make a Jak and Daxter animated film!) They'll get away with a lot too since the games aren't exactly family-friendly. Again, we need more adult-oriented animation like this. Other than that, so much potential lies in this because the games do call for an animated feature adaptation. It should do what several live action films based on video games have failed to do, and then some.

If Reel FX Creative Studios has a "one-film-a-year" plan, then Beasts of Burden should be out in 2015 as well. Based on the graphic novel of the same name, it'll be very different and not like your usual animated fare. More animated horror, and one that'll certainly not be for all ages! Their 2014 offering, Book of Life, also sounds very fresh and exciting. Reel FX plans to take some big risks for their future endeavors, and I like that.

Paul McCartney recently announced an animated feature based on a children's book he wrote with two others: High in the Clouds. That's expected to be released in 2015, and since Paul is no stranger to animation, this ought to be great. And of course, different and original. A lot of the animation that Paul has been involved with in his post-Beatles career is fresh, unique and exciting to 21st century eyes. Imagine a whole film based around his ideas and music? Just... Awesome...

The Adventures of Tintin's sequel should also arrive in 2015 as well, since Peter Jackson will be done with The Hobbit by late 2014. One can hope, right? The first film was a solid fine action film that was rooted in classic Spielberg escapism and it was also definitely more on the adult-oriented side. Thankfully it did recoup its costs with its big overseas grosses. I'm all for another round of good old-fashioned action-adventure fun, but of course another round of the hilarious Captain Haddock and various hijinks.

Then we have Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's R-rated comedy Sausage Party, which could either open up the door for more theatrical adult-oriented animation or it will only inspire suits to invest in similarly raunch fare that sets adult animation back 15 years. Either way, the film itself sounds like it could be weirdly hilarious and perhaps a send-up of Pixar's approach to filmmaking. This Is The End was rip-roaringly hilarious and fresh, this ought to be as well.

Now this last film is a possibility... Henry Selick's The Shadow King was canned by Disney when it was halfway done, and LAIKA sadly rejected the half-complete stop motion film. It was acquired by K5 International earlier in the year, and it doesn't seem like it'll come out in 2014 (The BoxTrolls and Book of Life occupy the ideal spots for this film). Maybe 2015, perhaps?

Since a lot of these films don't have release dates, it's possible that not all of them will debut in 2015, but it seems likely that they will at the moment.

So... In 2015, we'll be getting some good/great stuff along with some competent and unexciting stuff from the big studios - the usual. It looks like the smaller studios will rule the creative roost, but will their efforts pay off at the box office? I sure hope so! Last year gave us three rather unconventional stop-motion films, this year will give us more than three eclectic films.

Do you think 2015 will be that big year for animation? Does it excite you? What films are you looking forward to?

Sound off below!

A New Player?

The feature film field of the American animation industry is getting bigger? Why? A 20-year-old special effects company wants in!

Dallas-based Reel FX started out in the animation world in the early 2000s by producing short films and direct-to-video productions whilst contributing to several theatrical animated films such as The Wild, Everyone's Hero and TMNT. One of their most notable works was William Joyce's short The Man on the Moon, which was what DreamWorks' Rise of the Guardians was partially based on. They also did work on the Kung Fu Panda short Secrets of the Furious Five along with the recent Looney Tunes computer animated shorts. Their direct-to-video work includes the likes of two G.I. Joe films and the two Open Season sequels. Now, they plan on entering the world of animated feature film production. It was a shocking move for its time, considering what was going on earlier this year with the VFX and animation industries. Studios like Rhythm & Hues and Digital Domain filed for bankruptcy, layoffs happened (DreamWorks' laid off over 350 people!), protests ensued... And yet an FX house decides to go big and make animated feature-length films to compete with the heavy-hitters. Admirable.

We've heard a few things about Reel FX's plans to enter the feature animation business last autumn when it was announced that Relativity Media would distribute their debut theatrical animated feature film, the long-gestating Free Birds. Apparently this project, formerly known as Turkeys, has had trouble getting off the ground over the years. I remember hearing the name of it for quite a while now... Animation historian Jerry Beck always had it on his animated features list too.

Funny how Owen Wilson's character isn't the red one...

I haven't written much about this film, other than the fact that it was oddly moved from its planned November 2014 release date to this November back in February, because apparently it's really close to completion! When I read the synopsis for this film, I was not intrigued... In fact I was rather annoyed with it. The film is about two turkeys who team up to go back in time and prevent people from eating turkey for dinner every Thanksgiving. To me, it sounded like an animated film commissioned by PETA (no, not that one!) but without the shock value.

It's possible that the writers could pull this off in a fun way. Perhaps if Free Birds goes the Chicken Run route, it could actually be *gasp* good! Maybe what the turkeys do on their adventure might bring some good laughs, maybe the time machine throws them somewhere else entirely and they end up failing the mission. The film is being touted as irreverent, so are we going to get fresh jokes and ones that aren't... Well... Stale? Will it be a dark comedy of sorts? What if the turkeys succeed in their mission and yet screw up the world because of what they did? There's potentially good stuff in the "succeed in the mission/screw the future" idea, and I'd actually like to see them go that route. It would be interesting, you know?

I know I'm probably speculating a little too much about this film, but apparently Reel FX is really confident in it. Marketing has already kicked off, but no trailer has surfaced yet. It's possible that we'll get one very soon, perhaps before Epic or Monsters University, because the film is not too far away. If the team makes a film that's actually funny and enjoyable, and not anti-meat, then it'll be okay in my book. Then again, who am I kidding? This is a wide release mainstream family-friendly animated film, 95% chance they won't make it that way.

If Reel FX's people say that they want a slate of "quality" animated films, then I guess Free Birds could be pretty decent. Again, it's an irreverent and there a few things that could really work. I'm just not confident in this one yet, but I want it to succeed because the two films that Reel FX has in their pipeline really intrigue me... More so than a lot of animated films that are coming out in the next few years: Book of Life and Beasts or Burden.

We don't know much about Book of Life other than the fact that it's a Dia De Los Muertos-flavored Romeo & Juliet story that's being produced by Guillermo del Toro himself. It will be directed by Jorge Gutierrez, the creator of Nickelodeon's short-lived El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera. We also know that it does have a release date - October 10, 2014. It'll also be computer animated, much like Free Birds. That's it, though... But the idea already sounds promising because with its Day of the Dead setting, it'll probably be more in line with the work of Tim Burton and Henry Selick. I kind of expect it to be a sort of computer animated LAIKA-esque film, but with its own unique style of course!

What's also interesting is that Fox Animation Studios will work with Reel FX on the film, the once defunct studio that was revived for the production of Fantastic Mr. Fox. 20th Century Fox keeps that studio alive for work like this. The film is also a real 180 from Free Birds, which is pretty much a buddy comedy with cutesy, funny fowl characters. See, this is what I like. Studios experimenting and trying new things with each new film. What this film will be like, I have no idea. All I can say is this: Day of the Dead setting, unconventional subject matter and spooky themes? Count me in!

There's one other project that's currently in the works, but no release date is set... Beasts of Burden.

Seriously, this film should be
done in hand-drawn animation!

Based on the horror-themed comic book series by Evan Dorkin, Beasts of Burden is about five dogs and a cat who battle paranormal and supernatural threats to protect their suburban home. I have not read the comics, but from what I've read about them, they certainly aren't family friendly in any sense. I've kept an eye out for this film because it could be another (mainstream) stab at adult-oriented feature animation. There have been so many failed attempts over the decades, so I'm hoping this one will turn out to be something of a success. Shane Acker, the director of the not-so-family-friendly 9, will be at the helm. Andrew Adamson, the director of the first two Shrek films and the first Chronicles of Narnia film, will produce.

Acker's 9 was actually one of a few failed films that tried to get PG-13/R-rated animation to appeal to mainstream audiences in the recent years, but despite its dark tone and wonderful visual style, it was sadly forgettable with a paper-thin plot. Focus Features marketed it to teenagers with embarrassingly awful ads that said "This isn't your little brother's animated film!" No wonder why it failed to double its small $30 million budget! How many times does the industry have to be told the same damn thing? Don't advertise animation to summer blockbuster-loving teenaged boys. They want to see stuff like Transformers and Fast & Furious, not a quirky post-apocalyptic "cartoon" about rag dolls!

I've been saying one thing for a while: Adult-oriented theatrical animated fare needs to co-exist with family-friendly fare in the American animation industry. I've said many times before that I'm totally fine with Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks making G/PG family films, because most of them are smart and they aren't films that make anyone older than the age of 10 cringe in the theater or on the couch. I don't understand how TV-14 and TV-MA rated shows (juvenile and smart shows) can successfully thrive alongside shows on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, but a good PG-13 or R-rated animated film can't do well in theaters. The industry needs to invest in "smart" adult animation, not adult animation that tries to be "adult" with gratuitous violence, cursing and juvenile pseudo-edgy humor.

Brave director Mark Andrews has been clamoring for more adult-oriented animated feature films as of late (he wants to make a PG-13/R film at Pixar!) along with many others in the animation field, and we did see some really hard PG family films (arguable) hit theaters over the last couple of years. Gore Verbinski's brilliant and eccentric Rango was truly a bold piece of animated cinema, but with Paramount's marketing machine behind it and generally good word of mouth, it did rather well at the box office. Oh, and it got a HUGE amount of flack from angry parents. The same thing happened to LAIKA's two sterling films, Coraline and ParaNorman, both of which contained dark content that certainly frightened children and left unsuspecting parents peeved, the latter of which also had edgy humor. Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox, though not a hit, was also a good adult-oriented animated film that still could appeal to a family audience... But its tone and subject matter were definitely not kid-friendly, but not necessarily inappropriate for kids. These films really pushed the PG rating, but they did it with style. They didn't cheaply "pretend" to be more adult-oriented animated films. We need more, and filmmakers can see what they can do with the medium with a PG-13 or R rating. The possibilities are endless! A lot of great adult-oriented works from Japan and Europe have proven this.

Beasts of Burden, if done right with smart writing and no reliance on cheap gimmicks (i.e. stupid things that teens consider "mature" or "adult"), could be a very successful adult-oriented animated film that could spark a new renaissance in that kind of fare. Perhaps it could motivate Reel FX to greenlight more projects like it, because that would really spice up the competition and artists will do what the other studios -  even Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks - aren't doing! Blue Sky, Sony and Illumination pretty much can't go against the grain, as they stick to making profitable and competent family films. After all, being bold could be a threat to them anyways. They don't have a massive empire (*cough* Disney *cough*) to back them up if a wild experiment were to fail. Just look at what happened when DreamWorks took a big chance and made the risky hard sell Rise of the Guardians, they took a box office beating and then doom-and-gloom in the press followed. (Speculation that they would go under and such.) In the end, the studio heads ended up laying off over 350 (!) members of the staff, delaying one of the films and canning a project that was probably already in production. The much safer and accessible Croods made quite a profit and then some.

Reel FX's future in feature animation will probably lie within Free Birds, so that film needs to make a profit. How much did it cost to make? I'm assuming it won't have a budget that's as big as Disney, Pixar or DreamWorks' films. If anything, it's in a good spot. There's no real competition until Disney's Frozen comes out and blows it away, and by then, it could do pretty well. If it's a halfway decent film, it should be a success. Book of Life and Beasts of Burden however, are massive risks. I'll be surprised if either of them come close to $50 million at the domestic box office. Free Birds distributor Relativity's highest grossing film (domestically) made $83 million, so who knows how they'll market this and the upcoming films. That stand for Free Birds is an indicator that they want to go all out with this, after all animated films can bring them the business that their small-scale live action films aren't bringing them.

Reel FX also plans on producing live action films too, such as Danny DeVito's Honeymoon with Dad and Monument 14 (based on the young adult novel series). These productions ought to keep them going as well if they are to do well. Adamson's own production company is one of the studios behind the latter, so Adamson may be involved with other animated productions.

All in all, I'm excited about Reel FX's plans and what they might bring to the table in the future. So, do you think Reel FX has a future in theatrical animation? Do any of their upcoming projects pique your interest? Sound off below!