Upcoming Features of 2013
2012 has been an interesting year for animation: we’ve had 3 stop motion films, a Pixar film, lots of great shorts and a Genndy Tartakosky’s directoral debut grace our screens.
2012 may still have a little bit of life in it, with critics and animators alike looking forward to the release of ‘Rise of the Guardians’ and ‘Wreck it Ralph’. But here at Skwigly we are looking ahead to 2013 to see what we will be clambering to see in our cinemas (as well as which art books will be weighing down our book shelves)
What are you looking forward to? Why not let us know in the comments section below?
Escape from Planet Earth
14th Feb
Directed by Callan Brunker
Rainmaker Entertainment
This original story (written and directed by Callan Brunker) centers around Gary from the Blue Planet, who is forced to come to Earth (a notoriously dangerous place) to save his show boating, widely admired brother Scorch. Scorch travels to earth after receiving a distress call from area 51 but the call turns out to be a trap. Gary’s plan to be the hero isn’t as successful as he might have hoped, and he is caught himself – only to be teamed up with some of the Universe’s weirdest creatures in the area 51 prison.
Callan Brunker, the film’s creator, hasn’t directed before but has worked as part of the art department on Despicable Me and Horton hears a Who!
As well as this being Callan Brunkers first original story, this will also be Rainmaker studio’s first big budget feature, yet the company isn’t a stranger to venturing out. The studio was behind the first ever CG television series ‘Reboot’ and have also created a short called ‘Luna’ that is doing extremely well on the festival circuit.
This film may not sound like it has a strong backing but the trailer and art work are really impressive as well as having a strong cast with actors such as Jessica Alba, Sarah Jessica Parker, James Gandolfini and Brendan Fraser.
This Canadian studio looks like it is ready to storm the cinemas.
The Croods
22nd March
Directed by Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco
Dreamworks Animation Studio
Originally proposed by Aardman as a stop motion film in 2005 and co-written by Monty Python’s John Cleese and Kirk De Micco, the rights for the film transferred to Dreamworks when Aardman left their partnership with the studio in 2007.
The film tells the story of Grug (voiced by Nicholas Cage) who has to survive in a volcanic world (or the ‘Croodacious’ period) while also looking after his family. This proves to be harder than expected when an earthquake forces him to take his family out into the world and find a new home. Things become even more complicated when Grug’s independent daughter Eep (voiced by Emma Stone) falls for a Nomad (voiced by Ryan Reynolds). This is a story that focuses on leaving behind old traditions and finding new ones.
The director of this film, Chris Sanders is probably best known for directing Disney’s ‘Lilo and Stitch’ as well as helming Dreamworks’ crowd pleasing ‘How to Train your Dragon’. He took over The Croods in 2008, and it was announced in 2009 that the original writer Kirk DeMicco (who wrote and directed ‘Space Chimps’ and wrote ‘Racing Stripes’) was back on the project and co-directing.
This will be the first Dreamworks film released in conjunction with 20th Century Fox as part of their five film distribution deal.
Epic
24th May,
Blue Sky Studios
Directed by Chris Wedge
Epic is based on the book ‘Leaf Man and the Brave Good Bugs’ by William Joyce, who also wrote ‘Rise of the Guardians’ and ‘Meet the Robinsons’. It will be directed Chris Wedge, who has a long standing working relationship with the author, having been producer and designer on the 2005 film ‘Robots’.
It is alleged that Fox lost faith in the project and gave Wedge permission to find another studio to produce the film – he managed to interest Pixar, but before it could be made official Fox changed their minds. It was officially green lit in 2009, having initially been pitched in 2006.
The film follows the story of teenage Mary Katherine (Amands Seyfried), who finds herself transported deep into the forest and into the world of the doodle bugs. She finds herself in the middle of a battle of good and evil which forces her and a team of mismatched heroes to work together to save their world. It also stars Beyonce Knowles,Colin Farrell and Johnny Knoxville.
Despicable Me 2
28th June
Universal Pictures
Directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud
You may have seen ‘the minions’ popping up on your cinema screens recently in honour of the sequel to Despicable Me, which will grace our screens in the summer of 2013. Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud will reprise their directorial roles from the original.
There isn’t too much information on the plot as of yet, but the original cast (including Steve Carell, Miranda Cosgrove and Russell Brand) are returning to reprise their roles, Al Pacino is joining the cast as Gru’s arch nemesis and Steve Coogan is playing a character who is yet to be named.
Monsters University
12th July
Pixar
Directed by Dan Scanlon
Monsters University will be the long awaited prequel to Monsters Inc and is set to be directed by Dan Scanlon. Although he directed the Pixar short ‘Mater and the Ghostlight’ this will be his first time directing a feature film.
The film was first talked about in 2005, when Michael Eisner and Steve Jobs signed a distribution deal with Disney. The film was set to be made by another company called Circle 7, but when Disney’s CEO was replaced by Rober Iger, Pixar renegotiated their sequel rights and announced in 2010 they would be producing the follow up to Monsters Inc themselves.
The original voice cast of John Goodman, Billy Crystal and Steve Buscemi return to give us a glimpse into University life in Monstropolis and show us how Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan met. Despite being the best of buddies in the first installment of Monster Inc, Mike and James’ friendship gets off to a rocky start.
The website that accompanies the film is set up to resemble a University enrollment page and allows people to tour the campus, as well as meet the faculty and buy University merchandise.
The Smurfs 2
31st July
Sony Pictures Animation
Directed by Raja Gosnell
Those little blue critters are returning to cinemas in 2013 after taking more than $500 million dollars in the box office in 2011. Gargamel seeks revenge by creating ‘Hackus’ and ‘Vexy’: two evil Smurf-like creatures that he names ‘Naughties’. Unfortunately they don’t have the powers he was hoping, so he steals Smurgette in a bid to use her magic to alter his creations. The film is set in Paris and uses the same mix of live action and animation as the original.
Katy Perry and Jonathan Winters return to voice the Smurfs and are joined by Christina Ricci and J.B. Smoove as the ‘Naughties’. The live action cast sees Hank Azaria reprise his role as Gargamel along with Modern Family’s Sofia Vergara who plays Odile.
Both director Raja Gosnell and producer Jorden Kerner signed up to the project in 2011 and it’s opening day will be two years and two days after it’s predecessor. Smurfs 3 is already being talked about but that wont be in our cinemas until 2015.
Turbo
18th Oct
Dreamworks
Directed by David Soren
Turbo is an original idea written and directed by David Soren, who has also worked as head of story on ‘Shrek’ and ‘Shark’s Tale’. It’s a story that centers around a snail named Turbo (voiced by Ryan Reynolds). Turbo’s mission in life is to break out of the drab, slow, day-to-day safety of his world, which is full of other careful and cautious snails and become the world’s fastest snail.
Due to a fluke accident, Turbo gets the chance to enter the Indianapolis 500 and with the help of a host of characters (voiced by Bill Hader, Samual L. Jackson and Paul Giamatti), Turbo tries to achieve his dream and avoid being the underdog.
Turbo is a unique project for Dreamworks, because it has already partnered with the Indy Racing League. The Racing League worked closely with Dreamworks to make sure all of the sets and details of the races are as close to the real versions as possible. The idea has already been lined up as a franchise that Dreamworks can adapt and use for future television shows. The show is due to be released after the film leaves the cinema next year.
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs: Revenge of the Leftovers
25th October
Sony Pictures Animation
Directed by Cody Cameron
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was a surprise hit in 2009. The unknown directors; Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, came from directing the animated TV series Clone High and went on to earn $243 million worldwide at the box office.
This summer, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs returns with new director Cody Cameron and an original story that is titled ‘Revenge of the Leftovers,’ but do not fear – Cody Cameron was the story artist on the first film and has also worked on a number of films such as ‘Surf’s Up’, ‘Madagascar’ and ‘Shrek Forever After.’
This film is set to continue from where the first film left off. After Flint Lockwood and his friends have stopped the food making satellite (or as its officially called, the ‘FLDSMDFR Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator’) they leave their town to live happily ever after. But they are soon forced to return when the food making satellite starts working again – and this time it is mutating the left over food into evil creatures (all of which have a food/animal related pun which I’m sure will provide quite a few giggles).
The original voice cast, including Bill Hader, Anna Faris and Neil Patrick Harris return to reprise their roles and are also joined by Terry Crews and ‘Flight of the Conchords’ Kristen Schaal who will be playing characters yet to be disclosed.
Frozen
27th Nov
Walt Disney Studios
Director: Chris Buck
Frozen is Disney’s animation for the 2013 Christmas season; directed by Chris Buck who has worked on films such as ‘Surf’s Up’ and Disney’s ‘Tarzan’. It is being produced by John Lasseter (who surely needs no introduction) and Peter del Vecho (Producer on ‘Chicken Little’ and ‘Princess and the Frog’).
This will be the second film Disney have based on the work of Hans Christian Andersen, the first being ‘The Little Mermaid’ – although it sounds like this film is only very loosely based on ‘The Snow Queen’.
Not a lot is known about this film, although it is expected to be a CG musical fantasy comedy based on the few pieces of concept art that have been released and the casting of Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel. Idina Menzel is best known for her award winning West End/ Broadway performances as Elpheba in Wicked, and Kristen Bell also has Broadway experience and has performed many singing roles for television specials.
You would be forgiven for worrying the second you hear ‘Musical’ and ‘animation’ mentioned in the same synopsis, but this is a cliché that director Chris Buck is keen to move away from. To make sure the songs are of a high caliber the composers for the film are Robert Lopez and his wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez who have written music for productions such as Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon.
The story is based around Anna (Kristen Bell), a young mountain climber who is estranged from her sister; the Snow Queen Elsa (Idina Menzel). When Anna discovers that she has been cursed by the Snow Queen, she must navigate her way through the icy realm of her sister.
To help her with her challenge she meets a one antlered reindeer, a clumsy snowman and a thrill seeking huntsman (Kristoff) who together help her battle against an army of fearless frozen warriors.
This film has fought to get to this stage in production. It was scrapped in 2002 and it wasn’t announced until 2012 that Disney would be aiming to release it Nov 2013.
Mr Peabody and Sherman
29th November
Director Rob Minkoff
Dreamworks Animation and Bullwinkle studios
Mr Peabody and Sherman might be recognisable to you animators out there, as they have been featured as a segment in the American television show Rocky and Bullwinkle since the 1960’s. For this film the famous 2D characters will be getting a Dreamworks CG make over.
The film is directed by Rob Minkoff (director of the award winning Lion King), who took on the project in 2007. The initial cast for the project included Robert Downey Jr to play Mr Peabody but this was later changed in favour of Ty Burrell (otherwise known as Phil from Modern Family). The production will also feature ‘The Amazing Spider-man’s Max Charles as Sherman (Peabody’s pet boy) and ‘The West Wing’s Allison Janney as Mrs Grunion.
The film will follow Mr Peabody and Sherman as they try to repair the space-time continuum, which is in trouble. After Mr Peabody uses his genius to build a time machine, past events start to be altered – with disastrous consequences. It’s up to Mr Peabody and Sherman to right the past before irreversible damage is done.
Hell & Back
release date: TBD
Director Tom Gianas & Ross Shuman
ShadowMachine studios
Hell & Back is a stop motion feature from ShadowMachine studios; best known as the creators of Robot Chicken.
It is unknown at the moment if the film will get a theatrical release, but the cast includes Mila Kunis, Danny Mcbride and Susan Sarandon so it promises to be an exciting project which we will hopefully see in our cinemas. With the writers Hugh Sterbokov and Zeb Wells (who are both veteran writers for Robot Chicken) and the directors Tom Gianas and Ross Shuman (who both have backgrounds with the studio and also many years working as part of the ‘Saturday Night Live’ team) it promises to have the unique and quirky style that fans of the studio are use to.
The synopsis for the film centers around two friends who have to team up to save another friend, who’s been dragged to hell. That old chestnut.
Dorothy of Oz
Release date: TBD
Director Daniel St.Pierre, Will Finn
Prana Studios
Based on the book by Roger S. Baum (grandson of L Frank Baum), Dorothy of Oz is the continuation of the original book ‘The Wizard of Oz’. The story starts where the original left off , with Dorothy Gale (voiced by Lea Michele) returning to Kansas to find her home devastated. The red shoes are put back on, with the hope that she can find some help and safety back in Oz,but once back things are even worse. All of her friends are in trouble and Oz itself has been taken over by an evil Jester (voiced by Martin Short) who’s mission is to turn any one important into china dolls.
The cast (including Dan Aykroyd as Scarecrow, Jim Belushi as the Cowedly Lion and Kelsey Grammer as the Tin Man) are in trouble and Dorothy’s help once again so she enlists some new friends (including a marshmallow man, a tug boat and the Princess of the china dolls) to save the day
Directors Will Finn and Daniel St. Pierre have worked together before as part of the art department on films such as the Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.