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I have been watching how SINNERS has been doing, yeah.

Last weekend's really quiet drop, just phenomenal really. I caught the movie the other day and found a lot to like in it, but that scene in the middle? When Miles Caton's Sammy character starts belting out that song in the juke joint? Without spoiling much, that scene right there... That's what cinema is aaaaall about. I want to see it again, there are plenty of layers and details to this Ryan Coogler film that warrant multiple looks. A big release movie that's popular, that's the talk of the town, but is built different from your usual #1 big opening fare.

The audience I was with was pretty engaged with it, too, which is always a positive. Had at least one audible reaction to a scene that actually enhanced the viewing, rather than distracted from it.

I think some might be wondering what its success means going forward. It's not every day you see a live-action original movie like this really, really scoring. With its fantastic word-of-mouth and little competition other than blockbusters taking away its premium screens (like THUNDERBOLTS* is doing this weekend), it's primed to make $200m domestically alone. Again, off of a $48m opening weekend? More than 4x the opening?

Fantastic! I predict my theater will have it 'til at least mid-June.

Naturally, the press had some hissy-fits over whether it'd ACTUALLY be profitable or not. I hadn't seen this much finger-wagging and scrutiny over a midbudget movie before, like yeah, we know why all those rags who are all owned by the same company are "questioning" whether this movie is a success or not. Both reasons, it's indeed the racism, and it's also the fact that Coogler has more ownership over this movie than the studio. Unprecedented, more his than Warner Bros.' or any big movie conglomerate for that matter. The success of this movie - which many predicted would open with $40m MAX - has them shaking in their boots, and that's why they're coming up w/ all these bullshit "now, now" stories... Like, it's so apparent, it's hilariously obvious.

But yeah, with the whole success thing... Is this some anomaly in a sea of MINECRAFTs? Or is there a clear hunger from audiences to see adult movies, films unshackled to larger franchise aspirations and IPs? Or is SINNERS some planets-aligning movie that tons of people see, make into a big blockbuster, but then don't show up for a lot of similar movies?

I think if movies were more affordable and the experience was less likely to suck, then maybe. SINNERS had that special something, though, to get many out to see it despite those drawbacks that come w/ going to the movies. It also helps that franchises have become less of a priority for people to see than they were in, say, 2015. THUNDERBOLTS* would probably be opening higher if released a little prior to COVID-19, but after the ups and downs of the MCU post-ENDGAME, it's not really prime material now. For every NO WAY HOME and DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, there's a QUANTUMANIA or MARVELS. Like it's not locked to cruise past $100-150m this weekend, but a more modest - for an MCU movie - $70-90m. (Which could be good for the movie, if the legs are good and audiences like it as much as a lot of critics did. Its gotta make back a $180m budget, so it doesn't have that high of a mountain to scale.)

Plus I think a good chunk of SINNERS' adult audience wasn't really game to see something like that, or A MINECRAFT MOVIE, or any other "family" tentpole opening between this past February and the end of May.

One thing I think DOES happen, however, is a new Coogler pic being a guaranteed good-sized opener. Much in the way Christopher Nolan and Jordan Peele, auteurs, can get people in on name/track record alone. Unlike Nolan, Peele hadn't directed a franchise/tentpole-type movie to break himself into features, it was his comedy and acting resume and it was his original movie GET OUT that did it. And then US and NOPE continued that, and I'm sure his next movie will be a big hit as well. Nolan was around well before BATMAN BEGINS, but I feel the phenomenon that was THE DARK KNIGHT paved the way to INCEPTION - an original big budget mindbender-type thriller - being the huge hit that it was in 2010. Helped that it looked really cool from the previews, too, and then being an audience favorite throughout the mid-summer. Every Nolan movie since, barring COVID release TENET, was a big hit. TENET probably would've made blockbuster numbers everywhere if Nolan and WB had waited and released it in 2021/22. I'm sure THE ODYSSEY next year will be as huge as its scope, too.

Coogler already has FRUITVALE STATION, CREED, and the BLACK PANTHER movies behind him, with a third one in the hopper, so it's not like he's some newbie. But I do think, much like INCEPTION was for Nolan post-DARK KNIGHT, it establishes him as a must-see director. Whenever he gets something new out that isn't a Marvel movie, it'll likely open good because "From the director of BLACK PANTHER and SINNERS" will get butts in seats.

But for the wider movie landscape, I have no idea. Things probably go back to regular for the time being. Blockbusters be blockbustering, horror movies will do their usual, midlevel action thrillers do fine, and most films like SINNERS probably don't light things ablaze. They'll likely come out of A24, NEON, etc. Again, I think it makes Coogler a draw, more so than changes anything on a larger level. I do think there is a slight turning of the tides, but I think it's more audiences migrating from MCU/superhero movies to video game movies. MARIO, MINECRAFT, SONIC, etc. The kinds of movies that'll spam up the Top 10 over the next few years (unless a lot of them really end up unsatisfactory, like BORDERLANDS-level bad), with some more interesting big budget films in-between. Again, the likes of SINNERS, OPPENHEIMER, BARBIE, NOPE, etc. And then your reliables, like animated movie sequels and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE-types and AVATAR and stuff like that.

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From a few days back...

Sony will give a new Mamoru Hosoda film, titled SCARLET, an international release including here in the states. Toho handles distribution of the space/time-traveling warrior princess epic in Japan.

The 12/12/2025 slot, as noted elsewhere, is not dissimilar to where GKIDS opened Hayao Miyazaki's THE BOY AND THE HERON domestically, and presumably this will have just as wide of a release, which is great for a new anime film. A decade or so ago, the best you could get with one of these films - even a Ghibli - was a roughly 500-theater limited release, and if you didn't live by one of those theaters? The small screen it was.

This would also presumably best the 1,300+ run that Hosoda's BELLE enjoyed as a GKIDS release back in early 2022.

It's big news altogether, I feel. It's a nice alternative to the SpongeBob movie coming out a week after. More animated movies of different aims, genres, audiences, opening anywhere and anytime I feel is a good thing. I'll be very curious to see how it performs, too, for BOY AND THE HERON did pretty solidly for what it is. Held its own against any of the holiday biggies that year, no matter if said biggies - like Disney Animation's WISH - flopped or not.

So yeah, more wide-release anime movies... And from one of the big studios, no less!

And heck, watch this be an Oscar frontrunner come this winter.

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The fun part about having an interest in Disney history is that every week, you seem to learn something new, you find something you never knew existed in this company's century-long story...

Disney did A LOT of animation work for educational films when not making features and shorts, especially during the relatively dry periods of the '70s.

MAN, MONSTERS AND MYSTERIES showed up around the same time as the featurette WINNIE THE POOH AND TIGGER TOO. It has a Nessie depiction that looooong predates the 2011 short THE BALLAD OF NESSIE, and it displays some of the more loose and scrunkly design that wouldn't have made it into a feature around that point in time. Definitely leans more MARS AND BEYOND than ROBIN HOOD.

Directed by Les Clark and featuring a very late-era performance from Sterling Holloway (a few years after doing his final Disney animated feature voice, Roquefort in THE ARISTOCATS), narration by regular Sebastian Cabot, and sporting some work done by Disney who's-whos (like Cliff Nordberg, Kendall O'Connor, and Jack Boyd)... Yeah, this one slipped by my radar. It was available years ago on the 2001 DVD of PETE'S DRAGON, which I never owned. But it's nice little nugget from a period that seems synonymous w/ only a few features, but no, there was other stuff out there too.

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Animated movies crawl back to sleepytown during a weekend where... An original midbudget R-rated movie fell about 5-6% from its already pretty great opening weekend take, and a re-release of a 20-year-old STAR WARS film from the much-criticized Prequel Trilogy took 2nd place with a whopping $25m... Like, already much more than what THE PHANTOM MENACE re-release from last year took in, and waaay more than what the RETURN OF THE JEDI re-release - given a much more limited release - scored in 2023.

If anything, it's telling me just how strong 2000s nostalgia is. A lot of kids who grew up on the Prequels, the STAR WARS movies that were theirs in a way... Yeah, they came out, along with fans and families. It's kinda fun working at the theater seeing parents pass down their STAR WARS love to their kids after watching one of the older movies. This one auditorium I stood in on for PHANTOM MENACE last year, a dad was explaining various lore to his two kids when the credits were rolling... Then he said something to the tune "I first saw this movie in the theater, when I was in college. I didn't like it back then. But watching it with you two, I like it better!"

I thought that was kinda nice, ya know?

I wish they'd wide re-release more classic movies, really. Disney did give THE LION KING a 30th anniversary re-release last year that collected only $3m and lasted less than a month, and every once in a while the 1993 spooky season Disney movie train comes into town (referring to HOCUS POCUS and THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS), Fathom Events gave us a CORALINE re-release after years of special engagements... but I'd love to see more actual re-releases of movies from years back. (Also of note, HAPPY GILMOUR returned to 800 or so cinemas for its 30th anniversary, and PINK FLOYD: LIVE AT POMPEII, a filming of a late 1971 MEDDLE-era concert, had a few screenings this weekend. Wish I had the time to have caught the latter, dang it!)

Anyways, what animated movie charted the highest this weekend?

#6, THE KING OF KINGS. Now that the Sunday School crowd has seen it and Easter is in the rearview mirror, the movie had a sharp 76% drop despite only losing around 360 theaters. Well, again, that particular audience has shown up, so it'll blow away. To date, it has made $54m domestically, $59m worldwide, covering its $15m budget. I'm sure Angel Studios will get another animated Biblical movie out into theaters in a few years or so. They curiously removed, recently, an animated film called DAVID from their release calendar. Likely re-routing that one for next year or so.

Out of the Top 10, there's COLORFUL STAGE! THE MOVIE: A MIKU WHO CAN'T SING. Fell 93%, lost 500 or so theaters, $3m DOM / $10m WW.

SNEAKS lost over 1,000 theaters, and fell 85%. Hasn't made $1m stateside.

The PRINCESS MONONOKE re-issue slips further away, too. FLOW remains somewhere, having steady drops, well after winning the Oscar. I haven't seen a peep whatsoever on THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP for this weekend. I think it could be out of all cinemas now, as it is on digital at the moment. I pre-ordered my Blu-ray a while back, as that'll release at the end of next month.

I'll probably hold off on box office chit-chat until ELIO comes out, honestly, because we're in domestic no-man's-land now lol.

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Sony Animation's KPOP DEMON HUNTERS, right around the corner.

Dropping on Netflix June 20th, same day ELIO hits theaters. Much like how Netflix released ULTRAMAN: RISING the same day as INSIDE OUT 2, or LEO one day before as WISH. Don't got the money to see the new Disney-released animated movie and you got Netflix? Well stay home then, lol.

Both of them got their PG ratings as well, along with Netflix's other 2025 animated release, THE TWITS. Indicates that it's closer to release, or simply just finished and they may release it near Christmas.

Other remaining undated Netflix animated films: Skydance's POOKOO (from TANGLED director Nathan Greno), and IN YOUR DREAMS. Probably a few other ones in the cracks and whatnot.

But yeah... The Sony Animation line-up: This, FIXED (August 13th), GOAT (2/13/2026), SPIDER-MAN: BEYOND THE SPIDER-VERSE (6/4/2027)... Boom.

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The next big Disney movie might just be a success?

THUNDERBOLTS* currently tracks in the $63-77m region for domestic opening weekend, there's considerable buzz from what I see (reactions to the trailers and seeing my cinema customers reacting to the posters/displays, what my co-workers think), early reactions call it one of the better post-ENDGAME MCU movies...

I'm surprised, honestly. From the trailers I thought it just looked like more gray murk, more of the same, actors probably will carry the thing, a discount SUICIDE SQUAD... But no? Apparently this one's well-written and the character dynamics are really good and the direction from Jake Schreier (ROBOT & FRANK, PAPER TOWNS) is a cut above the usual MCU look and feel? That it's in line with Phase One MCU, even?

Thing is... What was the budget on this movie? If the usual Marvel $185-200m, it's got a steep hill to climb, which CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD - at around $414m worldwide - fell short of. We have some familiar players like Bucky and Yelena, and some past antagonists mostly from shows (John Walker/U.S. Agent, for example) or movies that did good but not amazingly (ANT-MAN AND THE WASP), but I think the success of the movie depends on how likable these characters are and how they carry the story, and I also think it could be one of those superhero movies where it's not super-frontloaded but it surprises over the weekend due to walk-ups. Which basically means, people showing up opening weekend who didn't buy tickets well in advance like a lot of dedicated fans do. It's a Friday night and "Oh hey, that Thunderbolts movie is out, it's not too crowded, let's go see that."

I think LILO & STITCH Remake is Disney's guaranteed blockbuster of the summer season this year, with the new FANTASTIC 4 behind it, buuuut maybe THUNDERBOLTS* does surprise... Who knows, it could be the end of July and I could be posting about how amazingly ELIO is doing. One can dream, right?

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I think I can easily predict next year's box office Top 10. No actuals or estimates, just an idea. In release order. This is all based on what's on the calendar/has been announced/etc.

THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE 2 - Self-explanatory, really. Illumination's SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE made over a billion and is one of the biggest movies, let alone video game movies of all time.

AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY - While the recent MCU offerings have been hit or miss, this brings back several key players - in and outside of the MCU - and may just do big business on the account of it being a team-up movie. It likely isn't reaching the heights of INFINITY WAR and ENDGAME, but I assume it does really great just the same. If Marvel Studios pulls it off and makes it a satisfactory movie, some audiences might come back, much like they did for DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE.

THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU - THE MANDALORIAN is arguably the most popular thing to have come out of STAR WARS since the end of the Sequel Trilogy, I mean, in case you lived under a rock, Grogu ("Baby Yoda") was an explosion in merch and memes and everything inbetween. It's possible that will have really worn off by 2026, but I think it'll be enough - plus it being a new SW adventure not set before the OT like ROGUE ONE and SOLO - to propel it to big big numbers.

TOY STORY 5 - 3 & 4 individually made a billion worldwide. 'Nuff said. The Internet may declare TOY STORY 5 is "unnecessary", but I think most casual audiences will flock to it regardless.

MINIONS 3 - The MINIONS movies alone are huge, among the biggest of the DESPICABLE MEs... So yeah, another easy billion, or if it doesn't get there, it'll come close.

MOANA (Remake) - Not every Disney remake takes off, but more of them do than not. LILO & STITCH likely makes SNOW WHITE's performance look even more embarrassing. MOANA's not too old of a movie, the original will almost be 10 by the time it's out. I think it'll simply do big numbers because it's more MOANA, the brand, ya know? Audiences like the same car in a new coat of point, sometimes.

THE ODYSSEY - Christopher Nolan and epic Greek mythology, fantastic cast too. If OPPENHEIMER can make near a billion, this won't have any trouble getting close to it, either.

SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY - Two of the three MCU Spider-Man movies made a billion, so this is primed to swing high.

DUNE MESSIAH - If this is indeed the untitled Denis Villeneuve movie set for Christmas 2026, then yeah. DUNE: PART TWO made over $700m worldwide, this should also be huge.

SHREK 5 - Also self-explanatory. The first SHREK proper, not PUSS IN BOOTS movie since the fourth SHREK, which will be over 16 years old by the time it's set to release. Definitely gonna get the nostalgic millennials and zoomers, too. (Also, this movie, TOY STORY 5, and MINIONS 3? And a new Nolan movie? Is it 2010 all over again?)

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Funnily enough, I sometimes remember that MADAGASCAR and ZOOTOPIA have some fun similarities... Ya know, outside of the talking animals aspect. One was made at DreamWorks and came out in 2005, the other at Disney Animation, came out in 2016.

Like the whole "seemingly human/civilized animals" becoming more like wild animals, the carnivores becoming a threat to their herbivorous friends...

"Savage", even... Hey, Mort says that when Alex starts craving Marty chops towards the end of the movie!

Oh, and how about these bits during their respective climactic scenes? The two misdirect parts, where a carnivore threatens to eat the herbivore until revealing it's an act, are almost verbatim the same scene...

Then you have one movie having the word "zoo" in the title yet there are no zoos in the movie, and the other being set in a zoo in the first third of the movie.

Of course ZOOTOPIA uses "zoo" in the zoological sense, relating to animals and whatnot. An all-animals world that's a bit like Earth, just populated by humanoid animals.

MADAGASCAR happens to be set on Earth, in a zoo - Central Park Zoo to be exact, and the animal characters start out as zoo animals 'til they become globetrotting freewheeling animals.

I think that's pretty neat.

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Before we get to the box... Here's another update from the toy box.

Combat Carl returns in TOY STORY 5, he'll be voiced by Ernie Hudson. Carl Weathers previously voiced him, but he passed away a year ago. Pixar usually nails it in casting, and that's a good get for the character(s). Will it be the same mini ones seen in TOY STORY 4? The one we met at the motel in TOY STORY OF TERROR!? Maybe all of them? A new one? Either way, you gotta have Combat Carl. He was a big part of Jessie's little arc in OF TERROR! - my favorite TOY STORY anything to have come out of this franchise since the release of the third film, and Jessie is said to be the focus of TOY STORY 5... So, makes sense!

The closer we get to the movie existing, the more trickles out.

Box office...

Third place is THE KING OF KINGS, which tracks, because it was Easter weekend. I expect a hefty drop afterwards, but the film slipped 9% and has made $45m to date here and $49m everywhere. Cost $15m to make, so I imagine a lot more Biblical animated movies will come from Angel. Complete w/ QR code PSAs trying once more to astroturf their sales!

7th place goes to GKIDS' release of COLORFUL STAGE! THE MOVIE: A MIKU WHO CAN'T SING. $2.8m from 800 locations, $10m everywhere.

New opener SNEAKS - seemingly TOY STORY but with footwear... Shoe Story... From distributor Briarcliff Entertainment, fell outside of the Top 10. Playing in around 1,500 cinemas, SNEAKS only took in $530k... Woof... My cinema didn't get the movie, and I've heard from some that it's unfortunately a misfire. It had some great people involved (Rob Edwards and Chris Jenkins directed, they have solid resumes), in fact it was almost helmed by Pixar vet and frequent Brad Bird collaborator Teddy Newton. I still await a feature film directed by him, for he was supposed to do this pretty edgy picture for Pixar that entered development around 2012, but never got formally announced by Disney or Pixar, nor went anywhere. Then he was at Paramount Animation for a bit, Warner too, hopped around some, but has never done a feature. Only his pretty solid 2D/CG hybrid Pixar short DAY & NIGHT that ran before TOY STORY 3... And also BOYS NIGHT OUT, a 2003 short that was apparently a re-cooked deleted scene from THE IRON GIANT.

Anyways, SNEAKS looks to come and go, and will rotate on a streamer somewhere.

The PRINCESS MONONOKE re-release dropped 69%, has made $17m to date, plays in 40 theaters.

THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP plays in 42 theaters, having lost 43 this week. 67% drop, $8.8m domestic / $11m worldwide.

FLOW, still floating somewhere. $26m+ worldwide. Looks like MOANA 2 and MUFASA finally packed their bags and left.

Again, it's relative quiet time until ELIO gets here, and honestly, that may be a quiet opener too. I certainly hope it's a big hit, we need to see a Pixar original/non-sequel actually make back its ridiculous budget in a post-COVID breakout era. Even a $350m-ish gross, great for a sub-$100m DreamWorks movie like THE WILD ROBOT, would be considered a failure for ELIO. $496m was called just that for ELEMENTAL. Ludicrous curve these things are graded on. The Walt Disney Company really needs to adjust to the field here.

A good solution for Disney and Pixar is to simply not blow $200m+ on these things. A sequel, maybe, but something less familiar? Nah. A lower budget doesn't HAVE to be a bad thing. In fact, one could take more risks with less, so long as it's not a crunchy production made under screwy regulations or lack thereof. (Like what happens, in say, Vancouver's animation sphere.) Think Disney Animation Florida making LILO & STITCH for $80m in comparison to the main unit in Burbank sinking $140m into TREASURE PLANET. L&S did well in theaters, exploded on home video, and is beloved to this day, TREASURE PLANET bombed hard but it did get a deserved following afterwards. I love both movies, myself.

Like, why can't Pixar - and WDAS for that matter - just have solid units outside of California making smaller, lower budget, quirkier movies that don't need to climb Mount Everest in order to turn a profit? I know why, but it's a nice thought to have.

Because this just isn't sustainable. ELIO looks to be the first Pixar original movie that is scrubbed of anything "autobiographical"... Supposedly the thing that caused SOUL, LUCA, TURNING RED, and ELEMENTAL to "flop"... Never mind that three of those movies never saw a proper theatrical release, couldn't because of a literal deadly virus... As in one that opens wide, and lasts for months...

I heard through the trenches that the original version of ELIO that was being directed by Adrian Molina mirrored what it was like for him growing up gay - a kid who feels alone on Earth and finds community with aliens... Like yeah, and that was the "autobiographical" thing that had to be pulled from the film to make it more "universal". Now, what happens if that movie fails? What are Disney bean counters going to blame it on then?

They'll come up with something. No "space movies", no "alien movies". Remember how MARS NEEDS MOMS flopping - way back in 2011 - convinced Disney heads that people won't see movies about Mars, and that lead to JOHN CARTER OF MARS losing the OF MARS? To now just being a guy's name? And then some 4 years later, Fox released THE MARTIAN - before being bought by Disney - and it did really really well? Dingus corporate stooges spending too much money on movies that they try way too hard to sand off for an audience that would probably hate it for other reasons because that's just where we are right now lol. And if those tariffs really go into affect, Disney's not gonna have the Chinese box office that they so need for a $200m+ endeavor to break even... So, yeah, as you could tell, I think Disney is stuck in a weird self-destructing cycle that someone with guts has got to break them out of. Make me the CEO, then!

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SINNERS looks to open big. An original horror movie, R-rated and for adults, reasonably budgeted. They're projecting somewhere in the $40-50m range for opening weekend, which is GREAT. Looks to topple MINECRAFT in its 3rd frame, too.

See? It's not all dire in movie-dom. The theater doesn't just belong to franchise/IP tentpoles.

Whatever went right w/ this movie's marketing and road to release, went right... The same, I feel, can happen with other films like it. Imagine an original animated movie w/ a big budget opening like this again, in the post-outbreak era... Like they used to... Back when $45-65m-ish were the norm for these things... Fun to think about.

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Tim Allen recently revealed a few interesting developments about TOY STORY 5, due out in over a year from now.

In addition to saying that the opening scene involves the army of "play mode" Buzzes that were highlighted at last fall's D23 presentation, Allen also revealed that TOY STORY 5 would focus a lot more on Jessie...

"I can tell you that it’s a lot about Jessie. Tom [Hanks] and I do — Woody and I — do realign. And there’s an unbelievable opening scene with Buzz Lightyears. I can give you that, but I can’t give you much more."

I reckon in the movie, Woody will pay visits to Bonnie's room to catch up with the gang whenever the carnival comes into town, in that he's not really gone for good. Just living his new life, like how a friend grows apart from another when they meet someone and/or settle down elsewhere.

I had also previously written about how I'd love to see the TOY STORY movies go a different direction after 3 & 4. The 3rd and 4th movies, to me, are very much the filmmakers who were instrumental in the first two TOY STORY movies saying goodbye to their adult-aged kids. They had reached middle age and their kids went off to college, and so you have these sequels that are like big autobiographical (GASP!) goodbye films smothered and sauteed in those Pixar cry juices that they just can't get enough of. What's not really well known was that TOY STORY 4 was already being kicked around by Pixar/TOY STORY long-timer Andrew Stanton before the release of the 3rd movie. Like, that was developed quietly as far back as like 2008/2009, despite TOY STORY 3 seeming like the definitive end to the movies (not so much shorts/specials). Like no, Stanton was already thinking about Bo's whereabouts when TOY STORY 3 was halfway through production.

But because animated movies take a while to make, and there were other movies in the hopper (like CARS 2, BRAVE, and MONSTERS U)... and Stanton was trying to launch a particular sci-fi movie trilogy based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter stories... Let's see, and also because of story problems and delays... TOY STORY 4 came out almost exactly 9 years after TOY STORY 3. For context, TOY STORY 3 came out approx 10 years and 7 months... Nearly 11 years, after TOY STORY 2. And now TOY STORY 5 debuts almost exactly 7 years after the fourth movie. So after JOHN CARTER released in March 2012 and bombed hard, Stanton was back at Pixar, and development on TOY STORY 4 resumed in full - now with other members of the Pixar "Brain Trust" involved - while Stanton took over directing FINDING DORY, which he was originally setting up for another person to direct (presumably former Pixarian Angus MacLane, who is billed as co-director on the movie) should he have landed on Barsoom and stayed there for half a decade. Pixar and the Disney company eventually fully revealed the movie was happening in October 2014 during shareholder call, when it was more of a solid object than it was circa 2009-2011.

Stanton now direct TOY STORY 5, a first for him with these movies. He was always story/screenplay on these movies, now he's actually directing one. And like I said, does this eschew the big epic goodbye storylines that TOY STORY 3 and TOY STORY 4 pursued? Does it circle back to the slightly edgier buddy comedy fun of TOY STORY 1 and its similarly-toned sequel? Or is it something completely new altogether?

Jessie being more at the forefront makes me wonder... It makes sense, she's been a major player in these movies since TOY STORY 2, and maybe it's time she leads one of these things. After all, Bonnie undid Woody's sheriff badge and put it on Jessie in the opening minutes of TOY STORY 4, emphasizing that Woody's leadership status was no more under a different kid. Jessie was also top dog in TOY STORY OF TERROR!, the really cool Halloween special Pixar did back in 2013, which MacLane directed. So more of that is A-OK.

I'd also imagine that the film will be drenched in the sads because of this, given Jessie's whole backstory and how it plays into her character. Like how in TOY STORY 3, she was worrying about being abandoned again once it became clear that Andy was truly all grown up, and then her conquering her delivery box phobia in TOY STORY OF TERROR! I particularly liked how they illustrated that fear in the special itself, really went the extra mile there. Perhaps Bonnie's new fixation on a tablet dredges up unfortunate memories of Emily becoming more interested in other things when growing older. Lots they can do there.

But we'll see! I like that it looks to be more about her, shaking things up a bit instead of just being another arc for Woody. I would love for the movie to ditch the goodbyes, as we had two of those in a row, and maybe be something tonally different. Again, more like the looser first two or something completely new.

It'll be some small crumbs until a teaser, I feel. The teaser, I predict, shows up in November before ZOOTOPIA 2. Pixar has a whole other movie - Daniel Chong's beaver adventure HOPPERS - to market first after ELIO opens in June.

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More cool animation news just casually dropping this week...

FIXED is getting released, finally!

Netflix has it, and has slated it for August 13th of this year. No theaters for this Genndy Tartakovsky 2D comedy, unfortunately, but... I'm just glad it didn't get sent into a black hole. I'd imagine, with proper backing, this kind of raunchy comedy about a dog's last wild night out before he's set to get neutered would kinda bring down the house in theaters, making for good legs... But alas.

Now we just need a release date for Netflix's other Sony Animation get, K-POP: DEMON HUNTERS. Probably fall, maybe earlier. We'll see. Then the current slate'll be complete, what with GOAT (2/13/2026) and BEYOND THE SPIDER-VERSE (6/4/2027) on the road ahead.

What the studio plans for 2028 and beyond, we shall see. They announced quite a few projects in and around the release of the first SPIDER-VERSE, like Genndy's own BLACK KNIGHT, Matthew A. Cherry's TUT, an adaptation of the podcast-turned-comic BUBBLE, an original film from AMPHIBIA creator Matt Braly, and plenty more. Maybe those get some kind of push, or it's something - much like GOAT prior to its announcement - that we hadn't heard of before.

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Boom bam boom, new DreamWorks non-sequel set for 9/25/2026!

And it's from, as I had predicted in the more recent months, PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH directors Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado!

FORGOTTEN ISLAND, it is titled.

It's entirely original. No details as of now, but... An island, a movie set for a fall release from DreamWorks... Just like THE WILD ROBOT. I wonder what this "forgotten island" is inhabited by... Well, it's a year and a half or so away, so we'll get there eventually. Could be anything, creatures or zombies or ghosts. Maybe completely deserted, or once had a civilization, full of secrets and mysteries.

Now, the DreamWorks hopper...

08/01/2025: THE BAD GUYS 2

09/26/2025: GABBY'S DOLLHOUSE: THE MOVIE

09/25/2026: FORGOTTEN ISLAND

12/23/2026: SHREK 5

09/22/2028: UNTITLED

Probably see some more slated for 2027 and 2028 sometime soon. I guess at this point, RONAN BOYLE is no more. It was announced back in 2020 or so w/ a director attached, but no movement since. Films like this, THE WILD ROBOT, and RUBY GILLMAN were announced after it and got to their release dates. I guess each new non-sequel is something of a hitherto-unannounced mystery pic, at this point.

That's good, keep me guessing!

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Some loooong Western theatrical animated movie sequel/prequel/follow-up gaps... Incomplete upon posting, probably, but will update when I feel like it.

(Largely using general/wide release dates and domestic ones at that, before anyone brings up BAMBI II opening in Russia or something.)

Also will be using the mainline movies, not so much where the spin-offs factor into that. (i.e. SHREK 5, is the first "Shrek proper" movie since SHREK FOREVER AFTER.)

2011's WINNIE THE POOH is omitted. It can be read as either a sequel to the 1977 Frankenstein-job compilation film THE MANY ADVENTURES OF WINNIE THE POOH (from Walt Disney Productions/Disney Animation), or as a sequel to the then-last theatrically released 2D Winnie the Pooh film POOH'S HEFFALUMP MOVIE (a Disneytoon production) from 2005. If the former, it's towards the top of the list (a roughly 34-year gap), if the latter, lower (a 6-year gap). The SPONGEBOB sequels will also be omitted, the timeline/canon/whatever is arguably very fluid here. Also SPIRIT: UNTAMED, based on the TV show that's a spin-off of the 2002 DreamWorks movie SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMARRON.

Red is pending, subject to change. Most of this approx, maybe some will be a day or two off from being a full year. Films without concrete dates not included until they do get them (like COCO 2, INCREDIBLES 3, FROZEN IV, etc.)

FANTASIA 2000 - 59yrs, 1 mo (11/13/1940 - 12/17/1999)

SHREK 5 - 16yrs, 7mo (5/21/2010 - 12/23/2026)

SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY - 14yrs, 8mo (11/10/1996 - 7/16/2021)

INCREDIBLES 2 - 13yrs, 7mo (11/5/2004 - 6/15/2018)

THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER - 13yrs, 5mo (6/22/1977 - 11/16/1990)

FINDING DORY - 13yrs (5/30/2003 - 6/17/2016)

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY - 11yrs, 7mo (11/2/2001 - 6/21/2013)

PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH - 11yrs, 1mo (10/28/2011 - 12/21/2022)

TOY STORY 3 - 10yrs, 7mo (11/24/1999 - 6/18/2010)

ICE AGE 6 - 10yrs, 5mo (7/22/2016 - 12/18/2026)

ZOOTOPIA 2 - 9yrs, 8mo (3/4/2016 - 11/26/2015)

TOY STORY 4 - 9yrs (6/18/2010 - 6/21/2019)

INSIDE OUT 2 - 9yrs (6/19/2015 - 6/14/2024)

KUNG FU PANDA 4 - 8yrs, 1mo (1/29/2016 - 3/8/2024)

MOANA 2 - 8yrs (11/23/2016 - 11/27/2024)

FROZEN III - 8yrs (11/22/2019 - 11/24/2027)

THE CROODS: A NEW AGE - 7yrs, 8 mo (3/22/2013 - 11/25/2020)

SHERLOCK GNOMES - 7yrs, 1mo (2/11/2011 - 3/23/2018)

MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU - 7yrs (7/10/2015 - 7/1/2022)

DESPICABLE ME 4 - 7yrs (6/30/2017 - 7/3/2024)

TOY STORY 5 - 7yrs (6/21/2019 - 6/19/2026)

ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN 2 - 6yrs, 4mo (11/17/1989 - 3/29/1996)

CARS 3 - 6yrs (6/24/2011 - 6/16/2017)

RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET - 6yrs (11/2/2012 - 11/21/2018)

FROZEN II - 6yrs (11/27/2013 - 11/22/2019)

...

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Well... Uh... Yeah, that KING OF KINGS thing went to #2 this weekend, with $19m.

I kinda believe it. At the theater I work at, most of the showings were packed, but I suspect it's mostly the church crowd seeing this movie. This is an Angel Studios movie, after all. And yeah, it did have the little money-laundering QR code at the end, like all their movies do, so who knows what kind of performance this will have.

I had to laugh at this one in particular, because when the movie ended, the QR code part of the credits had footage of random families interviewed. The kids were asked what they thought of the movie, and some of them sounded soooo monotone and bored out of their minds, like they wanted to get the hell outta there after enduring that proselytizing. You know it's a good movie when the ending has footage of random people being interviewed, telling you why the movie was high quality!

Real "Conglaturation !!! You have completed a great game" energy.

I imagine it'll have some decent legs into Easter weekend and thereafter, but it's very possible that Angel will pull a SOUND OF FREEDOM and astroturf this thing to make it look like a blockbuster when most of the auditoriums might be pretty empty in the coming weeks.

I don't know, but $19m? Not bad for a faith-based movie like that, and an animated one as well. They have an audience, for sure, but we'll see if this one actually lasts.

Way below the Top 10, the PRINCESS MONONOKE re-issue has made $17m to date.

THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP, now in only 85 cinemas domestically, fell 63%. Not as awful as I'd imagine, given that it lost around 400 or so locations. Looks like it'll just miss $9m domestically, and it remains at $11m worldwide.

DOG MAN romps around somewhere, it's at $97m here and $137m everywhere.

No major change for MUFASA, that should be out of theaters altogether very soon.

Next week, SNEAKS.

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Theatrical animated movies or movies utilizing classic-style Disney character animation and artwork, movies not made at Disney Animation or Pixar... CONTINUED!

In the last part, we left off at the 2006 release of THE WILD. That strange film marked the end of a very brief attempt by Disney to soldier on with CGI movies should they have lost Pixar, as Disney Animation was going to make around one computer-animated film for release every calendar year. THE WILD, along with the English movie VALIANT, were the only two pictures to come out of this plan. Disney eventually ousted CEO Michael Eisner, successor Bob Iger sought to repair the broken bridge with Pixar... So, those kinds of CGI movies were out...

By fall 2006, Miramax gives the French-Luxembourgian/UK co-production PARIS 2054: RENAISSANCE a limited theatrical release here in the states, shortening the title to just RENAISSANCE. This would be the last Miramax release of an animated movie under Disney.

Before I go on, I'll make a special mention of some Disneytoon movies getting international-only theatrical releases. Such as BAMBI II, which was straight to video here in the states. Those, and a Chinese hybrid picture that Disney worked on but didn't theatrically release here, 2007's THE SECRET OF THE MAGIC GOURD.

Otherwise, we'll be focusing on domestic releases...

Disney still invested in other kinds of animated features, even with Pixar now a part of the company...

At the beginning of 2007, Disney strikes a deal with Robert Zemeckis and his ImageMovers studio, to create performance-capture CGI movies not dissimilar to his THE POLAR EXPRESS that came out in 2004, and also BEOWULF, which was opening later that year. Around the same time as our next subject... a live-action picture utilizing plenty of animation and animated Disney-style characters. I'm sure you've heard of it, ENCHANTED? The animation was done by former Disney animator James Baxter at his own studio in Pasadena, and the film was directed by A GOOFY MOVIE and TARZAN director Kevin Lima. Still, it did not involve Walt Disney Animation Studios.

In 2008, Disney handled the North American distribution of an animated Bollywood musical called ROADSIDE ROMEO, even going as far as handling distribution in India and the UK. Lasting only a few weeks in around 29 theaters, it made around half of $100k domestically... I'd imagine even the most minutiae-seeking of Disney enthusiasts have forgotten about it.

2009... We get a new Ghibli dub release from Disney, the then-recent Hayao Miyazaki endeavor PONYO... And we also saw the first of the Disney-ImageMovers collaborations, A CHRISTMAS CAROL. An all mocap retelling, with Jim Carrey as Scrooge. The costly endeavor didn't really make its money back, but apparently Disney were pleased with it enough to give the go-head to the next ImageMovers mocap movie. It wasn't the CALLING ALL ROBOTS project planned in 2008, but instead an adaptation of Berkeley Breathed's MARS NEEDS MOMS.

2010 brings another Ghibli title to theaters, Goro Miyazaki's TALES FROM EARTHSEA (an already four-year old film at this point). Briefly. This same year, Disney sells Miramax, including the distribution rights to the majority of the movies they released... But they kept an animated feature that was originally meant to be released by them: An Elton John pet project called GNOMEO & JULIET. Optioned by former Disney film chairman Dick Cook in around 2006, this production - initiated by John's Rocket Pictures - was largely handled by Starz Animation.

Disney decided to take this G-rated musical that they had little use for, and release it - unusually - as a Touchstone movie in February 2011. Touchstone by this point was still running, being fueled by a deal the studio had struck with DreamWorks SKG (the live-action studio, of course), but we were entering the twilight years of that label. GNOMEO & JULIET, surprisingly, did quite well. A lower-budget endeavor that managed to do better than the Disney Animation release that year - the thrown-out WINNIE THE POOH. Despite the film's success, Disney didn't keep it. The sequel, SHERLOCK GNOMES, would be released by Paramount 7 years later.

One month after SHERLOCK GNOMES, MARS NEEDS MOMS opens, and becomes an infamous box office bomb and critical disaster. ImageMovers and Disney's little picture deal is done-zo, one of the films that was part of the deal was a mocap remake of YELLOW SUBMARINE that got quite far. It would've released in the summer of 2012 had MARS NEEDS MOMS not self-destructed.

Ghibli comes to North American theaters again in February 2012, Disney gives their 2010 Hayao Miyazaki-written film THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY a release. Later in the year, a stop-motion film from Tim Burton - through his simply-named Tim Burton Productions, as we're a loooong way from Skellington Productions - opens: FRANKENWEENIE, in October. It doesn't make its money back theatrically, but the black-and-white melange of sci-fi and horror staples does get nominated at the Oscars for Best Animated Feature - losing to Pixar's BRAVE, so a win for Disney either way.

This same year, Disney gives a very limited run to an Indian animated film called ARJUN: THE WARRIOR PRINCE. Much like the MAGIC GOURD movie, they had some role in the film's production. The run for the sake of it being eligible for Oscar nomination, otherwise, this one really slipped through the cracks, and apparently almost got a sequel.

Curiously, upon Disney's historic acquisition of Lucasfilm in October 2012, there was a picture that they had to release. Lucasfilm's animation studio had been working on a fantasy musical for quite some time, and that was to be the first Lucasfilm picture to be distributed by Disney... NOT a STAR WARS movie! But for a while, no one seemed to really know what it was, other than the fact that sound designer/Pixar veteran Gary Rydstrom was directing it.

In an unexpected move, Disney ups a Disneytoon picture to theatrical status, even though we're firmly into the era of John Lasseter-Ed Catmull, where those former Pixar heads ran Disney Animation and Disneytoon Studio. Lasseter had put the kibosh on the 2D sequels to the classic Disney animated films, but TINKER BELL managed to get made and spawn some sequels (these played theatrically in various international territories). Then, the studio starts making spin-off films based on Pixar's CARS films... PLANES, originally intended as a direct-to-video film, is rerouted to a theatrical release which occurs in August 2013. The movie does pretty well, financially, as the sequel is all locked and ready to go for summer 2014.

Towards the end of 2013, Disney held limited engagements for Hayao Miyazaki's THE WIND RISES, so it could get nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar... And it did, but it lost to Disney Animation's FROZEN. The release of THE WIND RISES was under the Touchstone banner, and it went into wider release in February 2014. This marks the end of Disney's theatrical releasing of Studio Ghibli movies, that all eventually migrates to GKIDS.

In July 2014, PLANES: FIRE AND RESCUE makes some money, but not enough for Disney bean counters to be pleased. The plans for future movies seem to be on hold.

Starting off 2015 was the mystery Lucasfilm Animation project... STRANGE MAGIC... Which Disney unveils out of nowhere and showing a real lack confidence, releasing the film at the end of January with incomprehensible marketing. The movie unsurprisingly bombed.

December 2017... Disney begins their acquisition of 21st Century Fox film and TV assets... Meaning... Owning 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures, and... Well... Any and all animated movies owned by Fox or being made by Fox... Their flagship animation studio: Blue Sky Studios. ICE AGE, RIO, FERDINAND, ya know? The acquisition won't complete for a little while, though, but it's set in stone... Whatever Blue Sky is working on, whatever's cooking elsewhere at Fox should it all survive, it's being released by Disney.

(Disney cancelled a ton of animated movies Fox was developing by the end of 2017, an arm's long list. Wes Ball's MOUSE GUARD movie among them.)

Everything from June 2015 to November 2018 was only from either Disney Animation or Pixar, except ONE movie... The remake of THE JUNGLE BOOK from spring 2016, which is an almost entirely-CG movie (albeit, photorealistic) save for the real-life actor portraying Mowgli. The movie made nearly a billion worldwide, but has yet to spawn a sequel. Director Jon Favreau decided to use similar technology for a LION KING remake.

Disneytoon had teased a new CARS spin-off at the 2017 D23 Expo involving spacecraft titled BEYOND THE SKY, and they had many more in the works... But upon John Lasseter's much-publicized exit from the company over sexual harassment, Disneytoon Studios was shut down in June 2018. The CARS spacecraft movie, which was aimed for a spring 2019 release, got knocked into a black hole.

At the end of 2018 comes a MARY POPPINS sequel, MARY POPPINS RETURNS. The film utilizes a significant amount of 2D animation done at the Duncan Studio.

July 2019 is when Favreau's photorealistic LION KING remake opens, which sparks considerable debate on what it should be considered. Either way, the film becomes the highest-grossing animated movie of all time, a record it would hold for almost five years.

The acquisition of Fox is complete by this time, Disney theatrically releases the Blue Sky film SPIES IN DISGUISE - which had been delayed a few times and reworked - in Christmas of 2019... To not-great box office, but they intend to keep Blue Sky around, as their next movie NIMONA is in the works.

Because of COVID-19's outbreak at the beginning of 2020, Pixar's ONWARD was the only film Disney released theatrically that year. Many other WDAS, Pixar, and Fox/Blue Sky movies see numerous delays, or go straight to Disney+ instead. SOUL, intended for a summer 2020 theatrical debut, ended up debuting on the then-new service by Christmas.

In February 2021, Disney shut down Blue Sky Studios, shocking the animation industry. Their future pictures are all cancelled, save for the in-production NIMONA, a picture they offload to someone else. That someone else eventually being Annapurna Pictures, who finish the movie and allow the filmmakers to make it the movie they fought to make when it was under the Disney name. (Read: An explicitly queer film, based on an equally queer graphic novel created by a trans man.) Their NIMONA is released by Netflix in June 2023 and gets nominated for Best Animated Feature. A real case of "the one that got away". (More like, threw out. Didn't know what they had.)

With vaccines slowly rolling out and the worst months in the rearview mirror, Disney tries some unlikely theatrical rollouts of their animated films. The 20th Century Studios movies, contractually, have to be theatrically released, so they'll keep getting delays instead of Disney+/Hulu-only releases. While the mainline titles either go straight to Disney+ (LUCA, TURNING RED), or have some sort of hybrid release (RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON).

This results in the muted October 2021 release of RON'S GONE WRONG, a picture made by Locksmith Animation, and the only film from them that Fox/20th Century Studios had the distribution rights to. All the other pictures went elsewhere, their second film THAT CHRISTMAS went to Netflix after a brief run through Warner Bros., their following movies BAD FAIRIES and THE LUNAR CHRONICLES are currently set to be Warner releases. (We'll see how that goes!)

THE BOB'S BURGERS MOVIE is released theatrically by Disney in May 2022, their first distributing of an animated movie based on a Fox show. Surprisingly that, and not a SIMPSONS MOVIE sequel nor a FAMILY GUY movie. The film was in the works before the acquisition, and was aiming for a spring 2020 debut before Disney pulled it from the schedule, briefly causing concern on whether it was still happening or not. COVID then cut into the production, and resulted in more delays, the movie ended up not doing great at the box office anyways.

2023 goes by without a non-WDAS/non-Pixar animated movie release from Disney. 2024 gives us the prequel/sequel to the photoreal LION KING remake, MUFASA. The movie is a leggy sleeper hit.

So, on the horizon... Outside of the WDAS and Pixar films...

Now that Disneytoon has long been gone, and that 20th Century and Searchlight have long been under the Disney roof...

Well, there's only one non-WDAS/Pixar animated movie coming from the Mouse House... And that's ICE AGE 6, the first theatrical film in the series not being made by Blue Sky. Currently penciled in for December of next year, it's likely moving because SHREK 5 now landed on that date. Whenever it may come out, it's in production, it's a thing, the cast is back...

Oh wait, there's something else... Disney's handling the North American theatrical release of the BLUEY movie, which makes sense given the stake they have in that Australian preschooler cartoon and how much of a monster it is on Disney+. That's releasing some time in 2027.

So... Two franchise movies, unsurprisingly. ICE AGE 6 and the BLUEY movie.

I don't think 20th Century or Searchlight are really going to do any non-sequel/TV-based animation for theaters, though we could be surprised one day. It'd be interesting if they did, and how 20th Century will position theirs as alternatives to the Disney-branded ones. They didn't really put much muscle into SPIES IN DISGUISE and kinda just buried it, and it'd be a different story if the films in question are for adults (which would possibly be a goldmine for Disney/20th Century if they bothered to tap into that).

For now, I think 20th Century Studios' animation future will only be in ICE AGE movies (the parts that they mined Blue Sky for, before shuttering) and TV show-based pictures. SIMPSONS MOVIE 2 and a FAMILY GUY movie are things I see happening eventually, so, those will fit the ticket. 20th Century has opted to release Dan Trachtenberg's animated PREDATOR anthology KILLER OF KILLERS to Hulu only, while his live-action PREDATOR film BADLANDS opens theatrically later this year. That sits in a similar boat as those animated DIARY OF A WIMPY KID movies and NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: KAMUNRAH RISES AGAIN, which were - in live-action form - Fox movie franchises, but were Disney-branded in animation.

Sooo... Yeah... Even though Disney owns a crap-ton of studios... Their theatrical animation output will seemingly be limited to Disney Animation and Pixar 95% of the time, with an occasional ICE AGE 6 or BLUEY movie. No plans, as of now it seems, for Marvel Studios animated movies or even any STAR WARS animated features. Lucasfilm making a new, not-STAR WARS animated movie? Nah, they won't even do a live-action one at that. Where that all goes, I do not know... But it's a night and day difference from the animated output of theirs in the '90s and '00s.

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Literally flew right by my radar.

The next ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE is not going to be released by Sony/Columbia, it'll instead be a Paramount release. In theaters, no less. It's penciled in for January 29, 2027, nearly eight years after the previous movie in the franchise. Thorup van Orman is back to write it, under director John Rice.

Soooo, the Paramount animated movie runway as of now...

07/18/2025: SMURFS

12/19/2025: THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS

01/20/2026: THE LEGEND OF AANG: THE LAST AIRBENDER

07/31/2026: PAW PATROL: THE DINO MOVIE

10/06/2026: UNTITLED TMNT: MUTANT MAYHEM SEQUEL

01/29/2027: THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE 3

In addition to a bunch of recently-announced movies with no release dates/frames.

DROPZ, MUTTNIK, ONCE UPON A MOTORCYCLE DUDE, SWAN LAKE, at least two more 2D animated LAST AIRBENDER movies, and former DreamWorks picture YOKAI SAMBA.

And there are a few other Paramount animated movies announced over the past 5 or so years - like SUPERWORLD and REAL PIGEONS FIGHT CRIME - that we've heard nothing about that could make a surprise appearance some time in the future. Who knows? If I had my way, TRANSFORMERS ONE's sequel would be in the hopper like right now, but alas. Director Josh Cooley supposedly has something else in the Transformers verse in some form of development, so we'll see about that.

Plus, you have the pending merger of Skydance and Paramount, set to be completed in a few months. And as we all know, Skydance Animation has several films in the works, like Brad Bird's RAY GUNN and Nathan Greno's POOKOO. As far as I know, they're still set for Netflix, where SPELLBOUND debuted, but that may change and they may get upped to theaters. I'd love to see the new Brad Bird animated sci-fi noir movie, one he had been trying to get off the ground since the mid '90s, on the big screen, for sure.

Again, we'll see how it all plays out. Paramount has been up and down w/ theatrical animated movies for a while, with plenty of slates and game plans that just never panned out. Plus movies that ran into various dilemmas, and lost money even.

They keep falling back on the tried and true of SpongeBob and Nickelodeon stuff, well-established franchises, etc. Their past three more original, more untested ideas didn't see a traditional theatrical release. MONSTER ON A HILL adaptation RUMBLE skipped theaters after being meant for such a release for years. A trailer ran in early 2020, I remember seeing that in front of SONIC THE HEDGEHOG. COVID resulted in it being delayed a few times, eventually all the way to early 2022; I saw a RUMBLE trailer before ENCANTO in November 2021... Then not too long after that, it was announced that it wasn't going to theaters and instead it went straight to Paramount+. UNDER THE BOARDWALK lost its summer release date to PAWS OF FURY - which Paramount just randomly picked up out of nowhere. Thus, BOARDWALK had had a tiny theatrical release somewhere, then got a home video release thereafter. Weird rollout. THE TIGER'S APPRENTICE, meant to debut theatrically in early 2024, also skipped theaters for Paramount+. CEO Brian Robbins had made some weird remarks about these kinds of movies around the time as well, which drew a lot of criticism.

I'd like to see them eventually get it together, lol. I love MUTANT MAYHEM and TRANSFORMERS ONE, great reinventions of arguably oft-visited wells, but I'd like to see some relatively newer stuff too.