Sony Animation's 2016 Film… Unveiled?

Earlier this year, after Disney and Fox announced their big animation slates, Sony Pictures Animation quietly put it out there that they had two untitled films scheduled for release in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

Since they have so many projects in development, one could've only wondered which one would move forward. Would it be something safe like ALF or Manimal? Or would it be something surprising and unexpected? Would they have put an original story like Instant Karma in the 2016 spot?

For a while, I thought that the film in question would be the abruptly delayed Popeye, the one that Genndy Tartakovsky was supposed to direct. With Sony Animation having two animated films - The Smurfs 3 and Hotel Transylvania - ready for release in 2015, it seemed likely. But word on Popeye is scarce nowadays, though it is possible that it'll show up sometime soon. However, I think we now have a good idea of what Sony Animation's September 2016 release is going to be…

Kazorn & The Unicorn…

An original film directed by Kelly Asbury, longtime animation veteran who was the director of Gnomeo & Juliet and Shrek 2, it was announced a year and a half ago. It seemed like it would be one of those projects that would just sit there, because a few of the big studios are announcing that all of these projects are in development and yet many of them just don't move forward. Look at DreamWorks. They announced stuff like Dinotrux and Maintenance way back in 2009/2010-ish, no word on what's going on with them. They just secure these things for the future, meaning we'll see those movies sometime in… I don't know, 2019? 2020? 2021? 2022?

My Rotoscoper comrade Morgan Stradling found this when perusing Sony Animation's website…

She also pointed out that Asbury was now part of the filmmakers page on the site. Notice how Kazorn is next to Hotel Transylvania 2, the latest film to have a release date set in stone on Sony's slate…

But also… Popeye is on there, and it's before The Smurfs 3 and Hotel Transylvania 2, so apparently it's still holding up. It's not in limbo, it's not nearing cancellation. After all, they wouldn't want to screw Tartakovsky out of a potential smash. Tartakovsky is an animation mastermind, and he salvaged Hotel Transylvania and it was a big hit - their biggest at the domestic box office, actually. Popeye, especially under his wing, would be too good to throw out. Cartoon Network screwed him over twice, first canceling Samurai Jack and then pulling the plug on Sym-Bionic Titan nearly a decade later; Sony better not make that same mistake! Having Tartakovsky on board to direct features for you is nothing to take too lightly.

Now I wonder…

Will Sony release two films - Popeye and Kazorn - in 2016? Or will Sony have Kazorn ready for 2016, and Popeye ready for 2017? Or vice versa?

It's also interesting to note that Kazorn & The Unicorn will be produced by Sam Raimi, and its co-director is Troy Quane, longtime animator and storyboard artist who has worked on films such as Osmosis Jones, Enchanted and 9. It intrigues me because it's their first all-original film (not counting Aardman's Arthur Christmas) since 2007's Surf's Up… Wow! Color me excited, I'm glad Sony is willing to step out of the sequel/Smurfs pool for a minute and try out something cool. Hey, it worked for Surf's Up and Cloudy!

Hopefully we'll see some of the more off-the-wall stuff on their development docket move forward as well. What do you think?

October Animation Tidbits [#2]

Tidbit time...

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Willem Dafoe recently talked about Finding Dory. Recording sessions have begun, which indicates that the script is already in great shape. Dafoe confirmed the other day that he is indeed returning to voice Gill, and he also said "It's even better than the first. It’s fantastic. It’s good to say I think it’s going to be better than the first; that’s good advertising!"

To hear him (he recently criticized reboot The Amazing Spider-Man, a film he has not even seen, for being a "cynical approach to making money") be enthusiastic about a sequel that many are having a hard time warming up to is something of a good sign, don't you think? Or is it just PR sugarcoating?

Finding Dory can very well be like Toy Story 2, folks. Just because Cars 2 (which obviously wasn't going to be fantastic to begin with) and Monsters University didn't fully deliver as sequels/prequels doesn't mean Finding Dory can't. Andrew Stanton and crew may just surprise us all.

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Disney Animators' Instagram unveiled this...

If that's Big Hero 6's official logo, then that's great. I already love the look of it, very Marvel-esque but also anime-esque. It perfectly describes the "big" scope and the Japanese flair of this upcoming Walt Disney Animation Studios film. Now hopefully we'll get some sort of official logo reveal some time soon!

And... I might be too hopeful here, but I'd love to see a teaser before Frozen... Heck, use that test scene as the teaser and get the word out! C'mon Disney marketing.

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Two directors have been attached to the 2016 Angry Birds animated film...

Disney veteran/supervising animator Clay Katis is one of them, who was the supervising animator on Bolt and Tangled. He also worked on several other films during his 19-year tenure at the studio.

Veteran storyboard artist Fergal Reilly is the other, his credits include The Iron Giant, Spider-Man 2 and most of Sony Animation's films... This leads me to believe that this film - which is being distributed by Sony - will be a partial Sony Pictures Animation production. Maybe. Summer 2016 is blank right now, usually they release two films in a calendar year and one around this time. According to Cartoon Brew, Rovio is producing it in-house (they're based in Finland), but it's possible that Sony Animation could work on some of it. But come to think of it, you would've heard something early on by Sony Animation themselves...

That's a strong line-up there. The screenwritter, Jon Vitti... Well... Simpsons veteran, but he wrote the two Alvin and the Chipmunks movies. Good choice for a film like this though, because we all know it won't be anything spectacular - it'll be a diversion for the kiddies. Solid choice for the script, if there is much of a script. (A silent film would be interesting, but that probably won't happen.)

I'm not excited for it, but I'm sure a lot of kids and fans will be. That's who they are probably aiming for with this film... But will Angry Birds still be popular with young'uns three years from now?

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What do you think of Dafoe's comments on Finding Dory? What do you think of the Big Hero 6 logo? Do you think that'll be the final one? Or do you think it's just a prototype? What's your take on the Angry Birds movie? What do you think of the fact that they got those two animation veterans to direct it?

Sound off below!

The Popeye Problem

Sony Pictures Animation has a computer animated film based on Popeye in the works, I'm sure you've read about it somewhere. This film was originally scheduled for a fall 2014 release, September 26th to be specific. Genndy Tartakovsky, animation genius and director of the studio's highly successful Hotel Transylvania, is directing it. With how successful Hotel Transylvania was - a project that he salvaged with very little time - it seemed like this film would definitely hit theaters next autumn, right?

Wrong.

This past May, Sony Animation announced that film was delayed. To what date? All they said was 2015, so the exact date is to be determined. Sony Animation has two films coming out in 2015: The Smurfs 3 (which was recently moved from July 24 to August 14) and Hotel Transylvania 2 (September 25). Sony Animation has never had three films ready for release in a calendar year, only DreamWorks has achieved that feat.

This initially lead me to believe that Popeye would be Sony Animation's currently untitled fall 2016 release, but... It's also possible that Popeye will end up making one of the 2015 releases move. Plans always change when it comes to feature animation and scheduling.

• Popeye will take The Smurfs 3's August 2015 spot and send that unnecessary sequel to August 2016. Sony Animation may have only one film announced for a 2016 release right now, but they can always add another one. Not like anyone really wants The Smurfs 3 anyway...
• Hotel Transylvania 2 may end up moving, because Popeye is apparently far enough along to be completed in time for a fall 2015 release. Hotel Transylvania 2? We've heard very little about it; a director hasn't even been attached yet.
• None of the 2015 films will move. Popeye will end up coming out sometime in 2016 - either fall or late summer.
• Sony will go big and release Popeye in 2015 alongside The Smurfs 3 and Hotel Transylvania 2. 3 in a year!
• The project is in real trouble, and Sony won't have it completed for a long while. After all, The Familiars - once set for early 2014 - has been off of their slate for a while with no sign of it being completed any time soon since the director is handling another project somewhere else.

What do you think? Cast your vote in the latest poll!

A Relaunch for Adult Animation?

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's upcoming animated comedy Sausage Party can bring a lot of things to the table. The American animation industry both needs it and kind of doesn't it...

This is the first wide-release R-rated animated film since South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was released in 1999. It's a wide-release adult-oriented animated film. Period. We need much more of those. It seems like it'll be funny, given the duo's other films, especially the wickedly hilarious This Is The End.

In addition to the talent behind it and the lower budget they're shooting for, this looks to be something of a send-up of Pixar films. I mean, it's about a talking sausage (and talking food) searching for the meaning of his existence. It's like that line from American Dad!, mentioning a Pixar film called "Clothes" featuring John Ratzenberger as a tie!

And also, Pixar's "what if" approach to stories is in need of a good parody. Shrek is definitely a riff on Disney's classic animated films of the fairy tale variety, though it's also a bitter "**** you" to the company and their legacy from Jeffrey Katzenberg that tends to miss the mark. A good parody of the films from a fine studio would be welcome, and Pixar's filmography is ripe for one. Though it's possible that one day, Pixar will spoof themselves. After all, Disney did it with The Emperor's New Groove almost thirteen years ago.

So getting a potentially good R-rated animated film - a strange and bizarre one at that - so soon is a good thing, right? It's just what we need for the American feature animation industry, right?

Well, like I said earlier, a few problems may rise from this...

What kind of adult-oriented animation does well in North America?

Stuff like Seth MacFarlane's shows, stuff on Adult Swim, Fox's current ADHD block, and South Park. Over the years, failed "adult animation" blocks on other channels (Spike's CFFA immediately comes to mind - back when they were called Spike TV) showcased the same kind of animation: Raunchy, definitely not so suitable for children, and loaded with stuff that makes preteens say "Oh my god! That's sooooooo adult!" It's been a thing since the success of Family Guy, South Park and Adult Swim. From 2000 to now, most adult-oriented animated television shows follow this mold.

Now let's look at some wide-release adult-oriented animated films, Simpsons Movie excluded...

9? Not a good film to begin with despite the great art direction and style, and one that was marketed to teenagers in such a wretched marketing campaign. It failed for a good reason... Rango and Fantastic Mr. Fox? Brilliant. We need more of those. Fortunately, the former was backed by effective marketing and made some dough at the box office. Other than that? Not much. If adult-oriented animation can thrive on television, then it could very well be a viable thing in the world of theatrical animated features.  It's about time that someone is at least trying to create a market for this kind of animation at the moment...

But if this film is a big hit, what will it tell executives?

"More raunchy adult-oriented animation!"

No, they won't be saying, "Let's invest in smart adult-oriented animation now that there's a market for adult animation." They'll be saying, "Let's make more raunchy stuff!" You won't be seeing anything resembling Studio Ghibli films or something like The Triplets of Belleville produced by an American animation studio any time soon. Heck, we don't really get that kind of stuff on television, we're not going to get it in theaters anytime soon.

Now that's not to say that some of the stuff out there isn't experimental. I was once a big fan of Adult Swim when they were airing an eclectic batch of shows. Nowadays, they don't really do that in my eyes... But there was a time when Adult Swim was home to a wide variety of different animated programs despite all of them using raunchy humor or shock-value violence. Some fine examples, to me, would be Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Sealab 2021, The Venture Brothers, Robot Chicken, Metalocalypse and Superjail! Stylistically, not all of these shows were the same. Thematically? Only a few were similar, mostly the William Street riffs on Hanna-Barbera stuff (Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Sealab 2021, The Brak Show). Despite excessive gore, Metalocalypse and Superjail! aren't the same exact show while Robot Chicken is no Venture Brothers. Get what I am getting at, here?

Fox's ADHD block moves on from the Seth MacFarlane/dysfunctional family formula with shows like Axe Cop and whatnot. This is also good, as it'll show that adult-oriented animation doesn't have to be limited to screwed up sitcoms about crazy families.

But...

Adult-oriented animation is so much more than what you see on Fox, ADHD, Adult Swim, FX or Comedy Central... Just look at what's made in Europe and Japan. More of that in America, please! History repeats itself, as in the 1970s, Ralph Bakshi's works motivated people to invest in shock-value adult animated films. The animation world saw a lot of crumby knock-offs in the 1970s and 1980s, lots of films that try so hard to be a successful, but they didn't have what made Bakshi's films work.

Sausage Party will either open up a door for the American animation industry and show the bigwigs that there is a market for adult animation, thus people will seize different opportunities... Or it will only ensure the growth of raunchy, mostly immature "adult" animation with nothing smart to come out of any pore.

What do you think will happen?

Audiences Eat "Cloudy 2" Up

So movie press, is there an "animation curse"? Are audiences getting tired of animated feature films? Nope... Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 did well - as expected - over the weekend...

Taking in an estimated $35 million, this start was $2 million higher than the adjusted opening weekend total of the first film. It didn't decrease from the original like some animated sequels tend to do, but it didn't make a whole lot more either (I had predicted somewhere around $45 million).

It has all of October to itself to grow legs and gross over $100 million domestically - the first animated film since Despicable Me 2 to do so. Of course, we all know that Turbo, The Smurfs 2 and Planes missed that threshold for multiple reasons. Of course, our press bends over backwards and just assumes that there's a glut of animated features, or that audiences are tired of animation and that it's becoming box office poison. Of course, they probably never really considered animation to be anything more than kids stuff so they wouldn't know...

Anyways, it's a decent opening and the film will make back that $78 million budget in no time. Win-win for Sony, win-win for the American animation industry at the box office and win-win for those who saw it and enjoyed it.

I just find it surprising that it couldn't outgross non-sequel Hotel Transylvania's opening weekend take. That film keeps the crown for biggest September opening, I was thinking that this would easily beat that. Regardless, $35 million is still a solid start for this film.

Update: The actual gross is $34 million. Still solid...

So Much Space...

In this age of digital means of watching films and entertainment, some have worried (myself included) that physical media would be on its way out by around 2015. Blu-ray Disc has been around since 2006, but it's battled with the likes of Netflix and Vudu recently. Now, as an avid Disney fanatic, I've been noticing a decline in the quality of their Blu-ray releases... Even the prestigious Diamond Editions have been lacking in some way.

In 2011, we started seeing releases where an animated classic would be paired with its cash-grab direct-to-video sequel, taking up space and in some cases, possibly compromising the image quality of the first film whilst leaving not so much room for bonus features. It didn't help that they were titles that Disney didn't really give the tip-top bonus features treatment either.

Then slowly but surely, Disney put out some double-packs that had no bonus features at all such as The Emperor's New Groove and Lilo & Stitch's two-movie collections... You had to pop in the included DVDs to see some bonus features... Because the DVDs weren't updated! They were the same masters from the previous release! For instance, New Groove last hit DVD in 2005... The DVD in the combo pack has that version of the film, complete with previews from the era! Disney probably does this because DVD-only versions of films are becoming more and more of a rarity, so they figure... "Who is going to buy The Emperor's New Groove on DVD if Cinderella and Brave didn't sell enough units?"

Picture quality on the individual titles was erratic too, as evidenced by some recent releases and the right-around-the-corner release of The Sword in the Stone. Live action titles? Some have received very poor transfers, a lot of the sets just come off as cheap. Disney has been cranking so many films out left and right, but at the expense of good quality. Disney did do this for a good batch of films during the DVD era, but I've been thinking that Disney knows something that we don't know...

Enter Sony and Panasonic, who are working on a new physical media format... One that'll specialize in discs that can hold 300GB! That's right, discs holding 300GB! That trumps Blu-ray's usual 50GB with a lead hammer! Now... Think of how much Disney can cram onto a single disc for one of their animated features. Just think about it for a second...

Maybe Disney has been slacking on their recent Blu-rays because of this. Maybe they knew of this format for a little while, or had predicted that a greater physical media format would come about in the next couple of years.

On the other hand, Disney can put a ton of films on the same disc, which I really hope they don't do. I'd rather buy The Emperor's New Groove with boatloads of bonuses and The Sweatbox (pipe dream) than "The Emperor's New Groove plus 2-3 other movies!" That would just be cheap, and it won't make the individual classics or films stand-out.

Another opportunity they can take... Their television shows. Complete series of the Disney Afternoon shows, all of them! Wouldn't be it awesome to not only own all of DuckTales (and possibly the movie, which can only be obtained on a Region 1 DVD through the Disney Movie Club?) on one set, but also the other Disney Afternoon cartoons you never got on DVD? Or how about programming that's never seen a physical release? Archives? The list goes on and on... And on...

So much potential... Like cracking open a treasure chest...

Focusing On The Now

Kevin Feige, President of Production of Marvel Studios, recently said that any more announcements concerning the third phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe won't be made until next year at the earliest...

To me, I think Feige is simply saying, "Let's focus on what's going on now. Phase 3? We'll save all of that for later." So far, all we know about Phase 3 is that Ant-Man (from the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy director Edgar Wright) is penciled in for a November 6, 2015 release. We also know that three more projects are scheduled for May 6, 2016, July 8, 2016 and May 5, 2017. Doctor Strange is certainly in the cards, Black Panther may be as well. Everything else is up in the air at the moment, though Marvel has expressed interest in characters like Vision, Cable, Iron Fist, Nighthawk and a few others for solo films.

I have my theories as well, but nothing for Phase 3 is really set in stone yet. In fact, Ant-Man is probably going to be moved to the May 2016 date that Marvel secured over a month ago because Sony is planning to open Bond 24 the same day. There's nowhere else for Ant-Man to move, really. I can't see Disney moving it a week back, because more competition such as the final Hunger Games film stands in its way. I'd say 90% chance it moves, which would also make sense since Phase 2 kicked off nearly a year after The Avengers opened. It gives audiences a little time to breathe.

Phase 2's ambitions, I believe, are part of the reason why Marvel won't make any more big Phase 3 announcements. Feige probably feels that people should focus on the 2nd Phase, so no one really plans ahead. We may make predictions for what will come after The Avengers 3, but I think they don't even have an idea of what's coming after Ant-Man... Yet... Either that, or they do know and they just won't tell us, which could very well be the case. In the meantime, Marvel probably wants us to just focus on the Phase 2 films. But I like to predict the future, and many others do too, so...

My other theory is that Marvel and Feige might be planning (or at least thinking about) bigger things... Bigger things as in Sony collaborating with Disney/Marvel to fully bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe!

At Comic-Con, Andrew Garfield (who plays Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man) said that he'd love to see Spider-Man with the Avengers. A lot of us do, since he was an Avenger... But for the longest time, Sony seemed to want no part in any of the MCU, hoping to keep making billions off of future Spider-Man films. After all, they announced that a third and a fourth installment in this series are already planned for release in 2016 and 2018 respectively.

After discussing the studio's future with a fellow Marvel and Disney fan, PJ Campell (Twitter / Blog), it now seems likely to me that the web-slinger might be fighting alongside Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk and the like. He said...

"I fully believe that Marvel and Sony have already taken meetings to try and cross their universes. Attempting to add Oscorp Tower in The Avengers proves that there is a solid working relationship between the two, and that they’re at least open to the idea of them wanting it to happen. I think it's more a matter of when, not if."

It's very possible that Marvel and Sony are already discussing this, despite the fact that they have two more Spider-Man films planned after The Amazing Spider-Man 2. He also thinks that director Marc Webb's recent comments about the fourth film being more than a Spider-Man film definitely has something to do with the MCU... Perhaps it'll feature MCU characters in it? Or it'll be what some others are predicting, perhaps the Sinister Six? PJ also adds...

"... If Marvel and Sony strike a deal, Phase 3 will see Spider-Man’s full reveal in that universe. Either that, or a dimension crossing Spider-Man, like in Spider-Men, the Marvel comics crossover. Either way, I see him finding his way into Phase 3 of the MCU, maybe before his encounter with the Sinister Six."

Another fellow Disney and Marvel enthusiast, Tyler Kelso (Twitter / Podcast / Blog), thinks the fourth film will deal with the Sinister Six. He also had this say about Feige's recent comments and Marvel's plans...

"He's working on something BIG, many have said (I disagree) that DC knocked out Marvel with Batman/Superman at SDCC. But I think Feige won the whole of SDCC film-wise. For a year everyone thought the main baddy in Avengers 2 would be Thanos, then Joss announced Ultron, 

which proved to me that they've been planning out 5 steps ahead of where they are all along, making Thanos be like a puppet master sending pawns to Earth (first Loki w/ Chitauri, now Ultron)..."

"I think he might be waiting to confirm anything for Phase 3 beyond Ant-Man to see how the Fantastic 4 reboot goes because being a little over a month from shooting and NO confirmed casting. I think that the rights should go back to Marvel so that he'll [Feige] want to put Fantastic 4 in Phase 3. As far as the potential to add in Wolverine/X-Men & Spidey... Those are trickier to call. If you believe John Campea the odds of it are slim to none... I think if any characters currently owned by Fox and Sony were to make it in to the film it would be Wolverine and Spidey. As long as it's Hugh Jackman and Andrew Garfield, I'm happy. But I think what is more likely to happen in regard to that potential is seeing nods to those characters like having the Daily Bugle in a city scene, same with Mr. Fantastic's home in a city scape... (Like how the one for S.H.I.E.L.D. has Stark Tower in it.)

"Plus it's possible that Feige wants to wait to make Phase 3 announcements until he can potentially iron out some rights agreements with Fox... Plus to be fair, we didn't know what Phase 2 would look like until the year before Avengers, yeah we knew about Iron Man 3 (we know about Ant-Man) but we didn't know it would have Thor and Cap sequels until those movies came out and I don't remember hearing about Guardians until SDCC '12, so it seems right that we'd hear more next summer. I definitely like where they are going..."

Tyler brings up a very good point. Fox surprised some at this year's Comic-Con with no hints on The Fantastic Four, which is shooting soon with no cast (Jurassic Park IV's most recent delay, anyone?) and it's set for a March 6, 2015 release.

Perhaps Feige is waiting to see how things will turn out with this somewhat-promising reboot (Chronicle director Josh Trank is at the helm, for starters), but Tyler thinks that the rights should revert back to Marvel, so that the team will be part of Phase 3. Maybe that's what Feige might be planning, since The Fantastic Four doesn't seem to show any big box office potential just yet... Plus, what if it's a rush-job? If a delay happens, we may have a new set of theories concerning this one film.

As for X-Men, PJ had this to add...

"I want to believe that Fox would want the crossover, but honestly, after this whole Quicksilver incident, I think they made their stance very clear: They want nothing to do with Marvel. They think they can exist without them. No matter how badly fans, or even Hugh Jackman want it to happen, the events of the last month scream Fox has thrown down the gauntlet, severing chances of a crossover.

Unless, somehow at the last minute, they come to terms and use the same Quicksilver from Days of Future Past in Avengers 2, but I honestly won’t hold my breath. Down the line, maybe? But for the foreseeable future, I don’t think there’s a chance of it happening."

I'd have to agree with him on Fox's current X-Men franchise not crossing over with Marvel's because the continuity of that series will contradict the MCU since the first X-Men film debuted eight years before Iron Man. That franchise and its established universe was already set in stone, with two sequels and a prequel in development before 2008. It's simply in another cinematic universe, so I can't see Fox merging that one with the MCU... Though it would be cool to see Hugh Jackman as Wolverine with the Avengers... But that would only mix things up if you ask me.

Since Fox having their X-Men film series cross over with the MCU is out of the question, what will happen if the X-Men rights eventually revert back to Marvel? PJ had this to say...

"If Marvel ever gets the rights back, the universe will be rebooted, I can almost guarantee it. I think Fox’s franchise may be waining once Jackman leaves. Without him as the face, I’m not sure their series will last."

To add to that, a full reboot would probably not occur until 2020 at the least. Fox is gung-ho with their X-Men plans, especially since X-Men: First Class and The Wolverine have gotten better reception. They're gearing up for X-Men: Days of Future Past, big time. An X-Force film and a Deadpool film are also in the cards, so they'll be making X-Men films until the franchise fatigue kicks in. The question is... When will that be? When will Hugh Jackman finally call it quits? Also, will Marvel reboot it for the MCU 5-10 years after the original Fox series wraps up? Or will it be seen as unnecessary since the X-Men film series was already big?

For the sake of comparison, the original Spider-Man film series was just a trilogy, the planned fourth film became the reboot. Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is its own special entity, but audiences probably won't mind a new Batman in the Man of Steel sequel (or is it really a sequel to that film?), because Batman has been rebooted several times with different actors. X-Men on the other hand is one big franchise that's been firing on all cylinders for nearly 13 years with one trilogy, a potential second one and two spin-offs about Wolverine... And perhaps more! So far (counting Days), we have 7 films! I'm not sure how a reboot would work out for this series since it's already so big! What do you think?

What are your theories on Marvel's plans? Do you think Sony will bring Spider-Man into the MCU? Or not? Do you think the Fantastic Four will eventually become part of the MCU? Sound off below!

Out At Sea

Sony Pictures Animation's upcoming animated film based on the legendary sailor man Popeye has been removed from their release schedule, leaving 2014 blank. The film was initially pegged for a September 26th release, which seemed perfect since they tend to occupy that spot each year when it comes to a non-Smurfs release.

I'm bummed about this because I was actually curious about this one. I know I tend to be critical of animation studios that take beloved characters from the past and modernize them, but I didn't think this was going to happen with Popeye. Genndy Tartakovsky is going to direct it, as he had salvaged Hotel Transylvania, a film that could've been much worse than it was. He successfully made the animation good and the film certainly was frenetic, I was curious to see what he would bring to the table for the Popeye film. Tartakovsky, of course, is the man who created Dexter's Laboratory and Samuari Jack and he also heavily contributed to Craig McCracken's The Powerpuff Girls.

Tartakovsky wanted to go against the grain with Hotel Transylvania, going for cartoony slapstick and exaggerated takes that you would see in a Tex Avery cartoon. He respects classic Hollywood cartoons and what made them great, which was I wasn't worried about Popeye. He would definitely make it worthy of the original Fleischer Brothers cartoons while also pushing the boundaries for what you can do in computer animation. I fully believe that the medium can do the things that the classic hand-drawn cartoons did, contrary to what some might think. A lot of recent films show that you can do that with the medium.

Anyways, now that Sony Pictures Animation doesn't have a film set for release in 2014, will they add one to the line-up? The Smurfs 3 could be moved to late July/August 2014 since that slot is free, but it's already mid-2013 and it hasn't been worked on so they can't just hastily move it forward out of nowhere... Or can they? Hotel Transylvania 2? Probably not, but you never know. Maybe they'll just sit this one out. After all, they didn't have a film ready for release in 2010.

It's not off the schedule for good though, as Box Office Mojo simply has a 2015 date next to it, not TBD. I doubt that they'll release it in 2015 since The Smurfs 3 and Hotel Transylvania are already opening that year, and I don't see Sony Animation having three films ready for 2015... Heck, even DreamWorks doing that was a big feat. Popeye may end up coming out in 2016 unless one of the 2015 films is moved to either 2014 or 2016.

I just hope we don't have to wait too too long...

A Boatload of Potential

I've been thinking about this sort of thing for a while. What if the movie industry were to try adapting video games into animated films?

An animated film based on Insomniac Games' long-running and successful video game series Ratchet & Clank was just announced today complete with a promotional teaser! Sony is apparently really confident in this, as it's already on track for a 2015 release. Rainmaker Entertainment (Escape From Planet Earth) is teaming up with Blockade Entertainment to produce this computer animated adaptation of the series.



I really liked this trailer. It's a fun irreverent deconstruction of animated movie trailers that'll sure get the laughs. I certainly thought it was hilarious, but this trailer and the film itself are not what I'm going to discuss. Instead, I'll discuss what this film means for the animation industry and video game movies in general. If this film goes over successfully in 2015 then I think we'll see a new frontier in both animation and film adaptations of video games...

Up until now, many major Hollywood films based on video game franchises were done in live action. I felt that live action severely limits things for some of these video game adaptations, one example being the Mortal Kombat films (that, and poor writing). I always wanted to see an animated Mortal Kombat film that was brutal like the games yet had cool action. Animation could show off the powers that the kombatants have while also making characters like Shao Kahn or Goro believable. Super Mario Bros. is another disaster, Mario and live action simply don't go together. Only a few adaptations were fine as live action films, like the Tomb Raider films and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Unfortunately, a lot of these films just weren't good and lacked what made the source material work.

Now take a look at Disney's Wreck-It Ralph. While the film isn't based on a pre-existing video game, it has thrilling video game-style action and excitement, it does everything better than any of those live action films listed above. That's the power of animation, it could pull off what several live action films couldn't in that one film. Video games are animated, so animated films based on video games would work out so well. It is a massive risk, but I'm happy to hear that Sony is willing to take it. Ratchet & Clank also can't be done as a live action film, no way.

Now with all that being said, what could happen if this were to go over well? What if Ratchet & Clank is a box office hit? Suits will approach video game movie adaptations in a new way, one that actually works! Animated films based on video games could really be a big help to the current American animation industry, as many of these films could be adult-oriented and get audiences to see animated films that aren't family-friendly or fall into the G/PG range. Plus, there's a lot of great franchises to plunder. Ratchet & Clank is only the beginning!

I'm not saying that all video game movie adaptations should be animated. A film based on Halo or Gears of War could work perfectly in live action with the right director and screenplay, but animation is good for something like Ratchet & Clank. I don't know why this wasn't thought of earlier, because there are several video games that would make for great animated film adaptations: Super Mario Bros., Sonic The Hedgehog, Jak and Daxter, The Legend of Zelda, Mega Man, Sly Cooper... The list goes on.

What do you think of the upcoming Ratchet & Clank film? Do you think it will work out? Or do you think that one isn't necessary? Should animated films based on video games be considered? Or not?

Sound off below!