Well, 2023 is over, and 2024 has just begun! With Bob Iger back in charge, Disney has slowly been recovering with The Little Mermaid (depending on who you ask) and Elemental. Illumination has finally made a movie that appealed to the fans of its source material with The Super Mario Bros Movie. Sony and Marvel's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse broke many records, including the longest-running American animated film, the animated movie with the most people working on it (at least 1,000 animators working on 6 different universes and 240 characters!), and the highest-grossing animated movie from the studio. With all that said, let's see what 2024 has to offer for animated movies!
The year will be kicked off with two streaming-exclusive animated movies in February, and even the same day. First, from Paramount Animation comes The Tiger's Apprentice. Based on the book by Laurence Yep, the movie will be about a boy named Tom who teams up with a shapeshifting tiger to raise a rare Phoenix egg. Instead of being released in theaters, The Tiger's Apprentice will be a Paramount+ exclusive.
Next, for the first time since 2021, DreamWorks will release two movies within a month of each other. First is the Netflix-exclusive Orion and the Dark. This movie will be about a boy named Orion who encounters a character known as the Dark, who teaches him that there's nothing to fear but fear itself. Similar to Captain Underpants and Spirit: Untamed, 'Orion' will have the animation outsourced to Mikros Images in France.
Next in March, Po will appear in his first movie in nearly a decade, Kung Fu Panda 4. This movie will be about Po trying to find a new Dragon Warrior while facing a new villain, the Chameleon. Instead of Jennifer Yuh Nelson directing the project, Mike Mitchell, director of Sky High, Shrek Forever After, Trolls, and The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, will direct the movie. This movie better be a success, since Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken was a box-office failure and cost the company 80 million dollars.
In May, the famous Monday-hating lasagna-loving cat will return for his first theatrical animated movie, The Garfield Movie. This will also be the first movie in nearly 20 years to be directed by Mark Dindal, who nearly left the animation industry after the critical failure of Chicken Little.
In June, Pixar will release their first sequel that will have no involvement of John Lasseter, Inside Out 2. This movie will continue the adventures of Joy and the gang with Riley going through puberty. Instead of Pete Docter directing the film, Kelsey Mann, who was a story supervisor for Monsters University, The Good Dinosaur, and Onward, will helm the project. My main concern is that I don't want Inside Out 2 to be like Turning Red but with no pandas.
In July, whether you like it or not, Gru and his Minions will return for another adventure with Despicable Me 4. I'm only seeing this movie if the girls have been aged up, has a story that matches the quality of the first two Despicable Mes, and the Minions have less screentime. To quote the Simpsons 'at first they were funny and cute, but now they're annoying'.
In September, the famous giant robots will appear in their first animated movie in over 35 years, Transformers One. This movie will be an origin story set on the robot planet CyberTron, and the focus will be on the relationship between Optimus Prime and Megatron. Toy Story 4 director Josh Cooley will direct the project, while the animation will be done at Industrial Lights and Magic.
And finally, in December from Warner Bros Animation (but not WAG), there will be the very first animated Lord of the Rings movie since the 70s, Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim. This movie will take place 183 years before the events of The Two Towers and will tell the story of Helm Hammerhand, a legendary king who must fight an army of Dunlendings. This movie was going to be released in April, but was pushed to December because of the writer's strike.
Of all these films, I'm most excited for Inside Out 2, since I love the original. I also want to give The Garfield Movie a try when the date claws closer.
Once again, there will be more animated movies than the ones listed here, but these were ones I wanted to talk about.
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