Sony Animation‘s rep certainly jumped a few notches with the release of the critically acclaimed (and just damned fun) superhero caper Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse but being discontented with resting on their laurels, they’ve announced more of the films and shows which will be added to the release schedule over the coming year.
Speaking on Wednesday at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in Annecy, France, Sony Animation’s president Kristine Belson shared exclusive visuals from the studio’s next major theatrical releases which includes Angry Birds Movie 2 which releases later this year, in addition to 2020’s The Mitchells vs. The Machines, produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and Vivo, Sony Animation’s first-ever musical.
The studio also announced an international partnership in the creation of a prestige series from producer Aron Warner (Shrek, The Book of Life) in which Sony will collaborate with a wide range of animation creators from around the world, conjuring a series of films and shows which will have global distribution.
Warner’s first production in the series is titled Wish Dragon, which is described as a tale of friendship set in contemporary Shanghai, is in collaboration with Sony, Beijing Sparkle Roll Media, Tencent and Base Media. It will see a Chinese release in 2020.
Below are detailed looks at the three alternative shows in development, Hungry Ghosts, Superbago and The Boondocks, and Genndy Tartakovsky’s features Black Knight and Fixed.
Hungry Ghosts is based on the Dark Horse Graphic Novel by the late Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose. Hungry Ghosts will be an anthology of frightening, hilarious, twisted, and culinary-inspired ghost stories. Each episode will range in tone and will look completely different from the last, taking advantage of various forms of animation to best fit each story.
Superbago, a collaboration with Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, and previously developed as a feature film at Sony Animation, will be a half-hour comedy that blends claymation and live-action, and follows the adventures of two dimwitted animated heroes travelling in a very real Winnebago around the actual United States of America.
The return of The Boondocks, a co-production with Sony Pictures Television, is a complete re-imagining of the beloved and wildly rebellious animated satire for this modern era, and chronicles the adventures of the Freeman family against the evil local government tyrant Uncle Ruckus, who rules fictional Woodcrest County, Maryland with an iron fist.
Tartakovsky’s Black Knight is an original, action-adventure epic that tells the story of a highly skilled and faithful knight who, after failing to protect his king, must transform himself into the Black Knight to save the kingdom.
Fixed, the studio’s first R-rated comedy, directed by Tartakovsky is the story of an average, all-around good dog who is in love with the show dog next door, and what happens when he learns that he is going to get neutered in the morning. What does a dog do with his last night out with his besties?
Whoa! So there’s a LOT going on at Sony and it’s incredible to see some really left-field projects in development; it’s almost as though the company (who have often been drawn into contest with their Disney equivalents) have decided to go the auteur-animation route in a lot of ways.
Which of these seems like something that you’d be interested in seeing, dear Wasteoids? Do you think Sony are paving a new path with unique material or is this just the way in which the animation world is heading these days?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!