2017 in Animated Features

Well, 2017 is here, and that means a new year for new movies. However, there will unfortunately be no new features from Walt Disney Animation Studios. For those who don't know the 56 animated Disney features, here they are below.

1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

2. Pinocchio (1940)

3. Fantasia (1940)

4. Dumbo (1941)

5. Bambi (1942)

6. Saludos Amigos (1943)

7. The Three Cabalerros (1945)

8. Make Mine Music (1946)

9. Fun and Fancy Free (1947)

10. Melody Time (1948)

11. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

12. Cinderella (1950)

13. Alice in Wonderland (1951)

14. Peter Pan (1953)

15. Lady and the Tramp (1955)

16. Sleeping Beauty (1959)

17. 101 Dalmatians (1961)

18. The Sword in the Stone (1963)

19. The Jungle Book (1967)

20. The Aristocats (1970)

21. Robin Hood (1973)

22. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)

23. The Rescuers (1977)

24. The Fox and the Hound (1981)

25. The Black Cauldron (1985)

26. The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

27. Oliver and Company (1988)

28. The Little Mermaid (1989)

29. The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

30. Beauty and the Beast (1991)

31. Aladdin (1992)

32. The Lion King (1994)

33. Pocahontas (1995)

34. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

35. Hercules (1997)

36. Mulan (1998)

37. Tarzan (1999)

38. Fantasia 2000 (either 1999 or 2000)

39. Dinosaur (2000)

40. The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

41. Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

42. Lilo & Stitch (2002)

43. Treasure Planet (2002)

44. Brother Bear (2003)

45. Home on the Range (2004)

46. Chicken Little (2005)

47. Meet the Robinsons (2007)

48. Bolt (2008)

49. The Princess and the Frog (2009)

50. Tangled (2010)

51. Winnie the Pooh (2011)

52. Wreck-it Ralph (2012)

53. Frozen (2013)

54. Big Hero 6 (2014)

55. Zootopia (2016)

56. Moana (2016)

However, in 2018, there are scheduled to be two new movies from Walt Disney Animation Studios: Wreck-it Ralph 2 and Gigantic.

Wreck-it Ralph 2, directed by Rich Moore and Phil Johnston, will feature the return of Ralph, Fix-it Felix Jr, Vanellope, and the rest of the gang in a new adventure into online video games, rather than just arcade games.

Wreck-it Ralph 2 will be released in theaters March 2018.

Gigantic, directed by Tangled co-director Nathan Greno, will be about a man who falls in love with a 60-foot woman. It will be a twist on Jack and the Beanstalk.

Gigantic will be released in theaters November 2018.

For those who haven't been keeping up to date with Disney, there's a nod to Gigantic in Zootopia, in which a bootleg of Gigantic starring a giraffe and a fox, titled 'Giraffic', appears as one of the movies Duke Weaselton sells.

Anyway, let's see what 2017 has in store for us in animated features!

In January, there will be the US release of Studio Ghibli's newest film The Red Turtle, which was co-produced in France. It will hopefully be released in theaters in Massachusetts, which is where I live.

In February, The LEGO Batman Movie will premiere. It will be a bit of a parody of the Batman films, but with humor from The LEGO Movie. I just hope it will appeal to non-Batman fans, and that it won't feel like a feature-length episode of Teen Titans Go.

In March, there will be two new animated films. The first is a French-Canadian CGI film called 'Leap!' (Though the original title was Ballerina). The movie will  concern a poor orphan girl who dreams of becoming a ballerina and gets a chance to audition for the celebrated school of the Paris Opera Ballet. It actually premiered last month in both France and Canada, but hopefully, Leap! Will be released in American theaters, and Massachusetts will be one of the lucky states.

Next in March, DreamWorks will release their 31st animated feature (excluding the Aardman films) Boss Baby. I'm honestly not looking forward to this movie, and it reminds me a bit of 1999's Baby Geniuses.

In April, the Smurfs will appear in a new film called 'Smurfs: The Lost Village'. Instead of having CGI Smurfs interacting with live-action backgrounds and humans, like in previous films, it will be all CGI, and will hopefully stay truer to the original Smurfs. I can't believe I'm saying this, but for once, I'm excited for a Smurfs film.

In May, there will be The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature. I did not like the original Nut Job, and I'll explain later this month in a new countdown, so count me out for the sequel.

In June, there will be three new features from three different studios. First, from DreamWorks, is Captain Underpants, based on the books by Dav Pilkey.

Next in June, is Pixar's 18th animated feature, Cars 3. I honestly don't know whether to see it or not, as I'm not the biggest Cars fan.

And finally for June, from Illumination Entertainment, is the highly-anticipated Despicable Me 3. In this film, Gru and Lucy will face off against a new villain named Balthazar Bad (Trey Parker), a former 80s child star who turned bad. Gru will also discover his long-lost twin brother Dru, like Gru, voiced by Steve Carall.

In August, from Sony Pictures Animation, the studio behind films like Open Season, Surf's Up, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 1 and 2, and the Hotel Transylvania Films, is The Emoji Movie. Judging from the trailer and online synopses, it reminds me of Disney's Wreck-it Ralph and Disney•Pixar's Inside Out.

In November, from Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich, is Disney•Pixar's Coco, which will be about The Day of the Dead. It will be a bit of a debacle because there's already been a CG animated film about Day of the Dead: Reel FX's The Book of Life, released back in 2014.

And finally, in December, from Blue Sky Studios, the people behind the Ice Age films, Horton Hears a Who, the Rio films, and The Peanuts Movie, among others, is their 12th animated feature simply called 'Ferdinand'. It will be based on the children's book by Munro Leaf. Hopefully, more information will be revealed as the year progresses.

Well, that's all I have for today. There will be more animated films than the ones listed above that will premiere this year, but these were the ones I wanted to cover.
On January 10th, I will start posting Top 30 Worst CGI Movies of All Time. But you've been warned: I will not be kind to most of these movies.