Dont Tell NetflixDont Tell Netflix

by Emily Nagle

The Four Nations are returning to the big screen! Paramount and Nickelodeon have announced that three animated films based on “Avatar: The Last Airbender” are in the works.

At the Annecy International Animation Film Festival this morning, the animation divisions of both companies confirmed the news in a special presentation. Lauren Montgomery, a storyboard artist for the original series who also produced spinoff “The Legend of Korra”, is on board to direct the first film. Slated to produce the entire trilogy are series co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino, who exited the production of Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the series citing ‘creative differences. These films will be created by Nickelodeon Animation’s own Avatar Studios, which was established last year specifically to create projects in the “Avatar: The Last Airbender” canon.

“Avatar: The Last Airbender” premiered on Nickelodeon in 2005, and aired on the network until 2008. During its three-year run on the channel, it was critically acclaimed, receiving several awards for its writing, animation, and themes. Since becoming available on Netflix in spring 2020, the show has experienced a resurgence in popularity, with a whole new generation of fans growing fond of it. The show is set in a world of elemental magic in which people are divided into four nations with the ability to manipulate their respective elements, which are as follows: the Water Tribe, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads.

The reason for the show’s timelessness over a decade later? Series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko believe “Avatar’s” renaissance was due in part to nostalgia, but mainly thanks to the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and an uptick in racial violence. The show was renowned for exploring advanced concepts most children’s media at the time left untouched, including genocide, imperialism, and freedom of choice; these themes relate to current events.

In en email to The Washington Post, co-creator Michael DiMartino wrote of the show’s evergreen subject matter, “The major issues in the stories — genocide, totalitarianism, systemic injustice, abuse — sadly, these have been pervasive issues throughout history and continue to be. The show is a reflection of our world.”

While this will be Avatar Studios’ first foray into the feature film world, this isn’t the first time “Avatar: The Last Airbender” has been adapted into a feature film; in 2010, M. Night Shyamalan wrote and directed a live-action film based on the show’s first season, titled The Last Airbender. Despite its $150 million budget (at the time of its release, it was the most expensive film Shyamalan had ever made), the movie ended up bombing at the box office due to its poor acting, lackluster visuals, and plot holes. To this day, it is still regarded as one of the worst films of the 2010s, holding a 5% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

With the creative team from the original series on board for the upcoming films, the animated “Avatar: The Last Airbender film” trilogy is sure to take the critically acclaimed fantasy show to new, exciting territories.

Ramsey Naito, president of animation & development at Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation, said in a statement, “As original creators Mike and Bryan expand the ‘Avatar’ universe with us, we’re keeping it all in the family with Lauren bringing the same kind of expert, beautiful work she did on the original series to her new directing duties on the forthcoming theatrical.”

In the meantime, episodes of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” are available to watch with a Netflix or Paramount+ subscription, as well as individually purchased episodes on Prime Video, Vudu, or Apple TV+.

by Emily Nagle

Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for Weekend of June 3-5, 2022
5. The Bob’s Burgers Movie ($2.5 million)
4. The Bad Guys ($2.5 million)
3. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($5.2 million)
2. Top Gun: Maverick ($51.9 million)
1. Jurassic World Dominion ($145 million)

The long-awaited final installment in the “Jurassic World” film trilogy, “Jurassic World Dominion”, came roaring into theaters across the United States on Friday night, knocking “Top Gun: Maverick” down to number two. It accrued nearly 40% of its total opening weekend gross on its opening day, when it racked up $59.6 million. Despite becoming the 8th highest grossing film of 2022 – it’s already grossed $392.5 million worldwide! – it was met with mixed to negative reviews from critics, who found the film to have a lackluster screenplay compared to its predecessors. Some critics are even dubbing it the worst installment in the entire “Jurassic Park” film series, having received a 30% on Rotten Tomatoes and 37% on Metacritic.

Even after getting dethroned from the top 5, “Top Gun: Maverick” is continuing full speed ahead in the worldwide box office. To date, it has grossed $748 million worldwide, making it the third top grossing film for 2022. It’s less than 40 million behind “The Batman“, so it may very well soar to number two soon!

by Emily Nagle

Ready your proton packs: An animated series based on the “Ghostbusters” franchise is coming to Netflix!

On Wednesday, as part of their virtual “Geeked Week” event, the streaming king announced that Sony Pictures, along with Ghostbusters: Afterlife co-writers Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan, are creating an animated series based on the franchise. The untitled show would be the third “Ghostbusters” series, having been preceded by “The Real Ghostbusters”, which aired from 1986 to 1991, and the short-lived “Extreme Ghostbusters,” which aired in 1997.

Details of the show’s plot have not been released yet, but the official Ghostbusters Twitter account teased that the series would explore “an unexplored era of the Ghostbusters Canon”. Who knows what kinds of supernatural adventures the show will take viewers along for!

The announcement came on the 38th annual Ghostbusters Day, celebrating the anniversary of the film’s premiere on June 8, 1984. Ghostbusters stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis as a team of parapsychologists-turned-ghost-catchers based in New York City, and was so financially successful that it sparked a franchise expanding beyond just films, branching out to include games, music, apparel, and even haunted attractions.

Netflix’s “Geeked Week” ends on Friday, June 10. The event is happening on all of Netflix’s social media platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Twitch, and Facebook. To read more about the event, as well as view the showcases from each day, check Netflix’s “About Netflix” site!

by Emily Nagle

When “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” was served up to theaters on Memorial Day weekend, it made history as Disney’s first 2D feature-length film in over a decade, with their last animated feature being “Winnie the Pooh” back in 2011. Although the latter was produced by Disney’s own animation studios, while “Bob’s Burgers” is a product of their 20th Century Animation subsidiary, it’s still a breath of fresh air seeing a 2D film in theaters. Traditional animation used to be the standard, but now, in the age of Pixar and Dreamworks, fully 2D productions are hard to come by in movie theaters.

In an interview with The Illuminerdi back in April, series creator Loren Bouchard revealed the reasoning behind the film’s 2D visual style, explaining that he wanted it to feel like part of the series. He also mentioned how CGI has slowly become the unspoken norm for animated features.

“It’s not 3D. We didn’t change how we do the show,” Bouchard told interviewers. “It’s just a 2D movie, a lovingly made 2D movie, but just with more artists and more time and more care on each background, on each character…It looks to us, hopefully it does to the audience too, like some of the classic 2D movies. Which they’re not making that many of these days. So, we’re very aware that we’re part of a great tradition of filmmaking and we hope that the audience comes and sees that as something worthwhile. And that not everything has to be a CG movie. No offense to CG movies, you’re lovely. I watch you too.”

Bouchard is right – the animation creates a nostalgic feel reminiscent of films from the early 2000s. It reminds me the most of The Simpsons Movie, another summer blockbuster based on a popular adult cartoon. Just like “Bob’s Burgers”, it’s animated in a hand-drawn style to stay true to the long-running Fox animated series, even during scenes that appear 3D (including this impressive scene of an angry mob accosting the Simpsons’ home, which pans through the crowd to show over 300 distinct characters from the franchise!). The characters look the same as they do in the show, except slightly more detailed, with the addition of more shadows and enhanced lighting. When projected onto the big screen, the end result is stunning, eye-popping animation.

When creating a film based on preexisting properties, studios face a unique dilemma: what medium will they use to tell their story? Groening and Bouchard both elected to stick with traditional animation for their films in order to stay true to the series. Sticking to what people know is the usual approach animated franchises take when they make their foray into the feature film world. People cherish familiarity, and see the feature film as a slightly longer story with the characters they know and love.

For example, let’s go back to a title I mentioned earlier: Winnie the Pooh. Having been created entirely with hand-drawn animation, this sweet summer film ended up resonating with viewers young and old. The gentle, storybook-esque animation complements a tender story featuring one of the most well-known fictional characters of the last century. This made it hit home not just for kids, but also for their parents, who knew the Hundred Acre Wood friends from their own childhoods.

Some franchises have gone the opposite route, experimenting with a new medium for their trip to the big screen. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water is an example of this; while the franchise’s first feature film over a decade prior used only traditional animation, this time the creative team dipped their toe into the CGI realm. The first half of the film features the Bikini Bottom gang in their usual 2D style, but when the gaggle of sea creatures makes their way out of the ocean, they are depicted in a CGI style as they navigate a live-action environment.

There’s nothing wrong with taking a mixed-media approach; it keeps viewers on their toes, and can put a new spin on the franchise. It certainly worked for Sponge Out of Water; critics praised the CGI, and personally, I got a kick out of seeing these cartoon characters in a completely different visual style. They didn’t look creepy (I’m looking at you, Sonic the Hedgehog). Instead, the 3D look added a whole new texture to the characters.

Despite this, a switched-up visual style is not always received well by audiences; many viewers found the computer-animated depictions of Timmy’s fairy godparents for one of Nickelodeon’s earlier projects, A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!, to be lazy, appearing out of place against the live-action backdrop (however, it is a made-for-TV movie, so the team had less resources and budget). With that being said, the end product for a switched-up animation style really depends on how it’s executed.

So, what does the success of “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” mean for the future of animation? While it hasn’t broken the box office like “Top Gun: Maverick“, this movie is a big deal because it proves that 2D animation still has so much room for creativity, especially on the big screen. My hope is that other studios will go back to their roots, and give traditional animation another shot. CGI is improving rapidly, and has brought some incredible stories to life, but there’s something special about traditional animation. Every single detail, from shadows to textures, is placed there deliberately by a person, rather than being automatically generated by a computer. And that’s pretty incredible to think about.

by Emily Nagle

“The Bob’s Burgers Movie” is fresh off the grill and playing at theaters around the United States. Based on Fox’s animated series that premiered in early 2011, this musical comedy follows the Belcher family’s fight to save their burger joint after a giant sinkhole opens right outside the door of the restaurant, and they have to pay off a loan in one week. Meanwhile, the kids end up uncovering a murder mystery.

I’ve been watching “Bob’s Burgers” since it first aired on television more than 10 years ago, and it has a special place in my heart. Having grown up watching it, “Bob’s Burgers” always stood out to me against the sea of adult animated shows, deriving comedy from witty dialogue and thought-out character development, rather than shock value. Instead of being this crazy, over-the-top show, it’s just the story of an ordinary family running a humble burger restaurant in a seaside town. We’re dragged along for the misadventures of Bob (H. Jon Benjamin), Linda (John Roberts), and their kids: socially awkward Tina (Dan Mintz), enthusiastic Gene (Eugene Mirman), and mischievous Louise (Kristen Schaal).

“The Bob’s Burgers Movie” kicks off strong, and you’ll fall in love within the first 5 minutes! Summer is just around the corner, and the Belchers express their hopes and dreams for the season in the catchy, upbeat musical number “Sunny Side Up Summer”. The polished animation style was the first aspect to rope me in. It’s hard to believe the whole film is animated in 2D, because the animation has so much depth! It’s clear the animators took time to make it feel like you’re right there with the Belchers on Ocean Avenue. The little things are what left a lasting impression on me, like a shots where it panned through the wall of Linda and Bob’s bedroom into the hallway of their apartment, where Louise has been overhearing their conversation. There’s shots like that in the show, but in the movie they’re so smooth to the point where they feel 3D.

Another one of the film’s strong points is its soundtrack. “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” is a musical comedy, and features several original songs to progress the film’s plot. My only complaint was that I wish there were more songs! “Sunny Side Up Summer” is the first song, and arguably the best one because it introduces the whole family, with each character having their own verse that fits their personality. In fact, I think I’ll go so far to say that if there’s someone in the theater who has never watched “Bob’s Burgers”, then this song adequately sets the stage, establishing all the characters’ unique personalities.

This film’s plot has a particular focus on Louise. Anyone who’s seen “Bob’s Burgers” knows this precocious nine-year-old can be manipulative and aggressive towards others, exploiting people to her advantage. In the movie, Louise’s primary motivation for solving the mystery is to prove herself to her peers after they call her a baby for not wanting to lose her signature bunny hat on the playground. Toward the end, we receive an emotional backstory behind why she’s never been seen without her hat in the show’s entire 11-year history: Linda made the hat for Louise after she bravely completed her first day of preschool, and it reminds Bob of his mother, who frequently sported a knitted pink hat.

Watching this fearless little girl grapple with insecurity adds a layer of humanity, and makes her more relatable to viewers like myself. Who doesn’t remember being a kid, and feeling tempted to feed into peer pressure just so they can fit in?

I wouldn’t say you have to be super familiar with “Bob’s Burgers” to enjoy this movie. It’s a fun musical murder mystery, and a love letter to traditional animation. “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” has the clever humor of the series, and boasts stunning visuals and catchy songs. This summer blockbuster is sure to satisfy audiences across the world!

by Emily Nagle

For the first time in three decades, Disney’s iconic crime-fighting chipmunks are back! Disney+ exclusive film “Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers” picks up on Chip and Dale years after the cancellation of their television show, when the duo has parted ways after a falling-out. But when an old costar goes missing, it’s up to Chip and Dale to reunite and uncover the mystery behind his disappearance.

When I first heard Disney was making a revival of the “Rescue Rangers” cartoon, the first question that came to my mind was who the target audience would be. Considering the cartoon aired over thirty years ago, I wasn’t sure if the film would be targeted at the adults who grew up watching the show, or if it would be for children, which reboots sometimes do to refresh their franchise and introduce it to a new generation.

The plot of “Rescue Rangers” turns out to be one that is sure to appeal to both kids and adults. Set in a world cohabited by humans and cartoon characters, we learn the origin story of how Chip and Dale became so inseparable. As soon as they meet in elementary school, they become best friends and grow up to star in the popular “Rescue Rangers” series. When Dale accepts an offer to get his own show, him and Chip have a falling-out, leading to the cancellation of both shows.

In the present day, the duo has gone drastically different directions in life: Chip (John Mulaney) has moved on from his Hollywood era, having settled down in the suburbs as an insurance salesman, while fun-loving, adventurous Dale (Andy Samberg) continues to live in the glory days, making a living tabling at fan conventions (he also appears photorealistic, having had “CGI surgery”). Both of them get contacted by their old costar Monterey Jack (Eric Bana), who warns of a toon trafficking operation where characters get kidnapped, have their appearance altered, and get shipped overseas to film bootleg versions of their properties. Later that night, Monty gets kidnapped, and Chip and Dale begin an investigation.

The idea of a toon trafficking operation is a clever storyline; this movie could’ve gone the murder mystery route like lots of other films, but instead it puts a creative spin on the crime genre. Not to mention, this situation is a comical explanation for the abundance of laughably bad animated knock-offs on the market (especially those based on Disney films). It reminds me a bit of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but with a unique Disney spin.

“Rescue Rangers” is filled with lots of little riffs on animation, and the best part is all those jokes are turned into important parts of the story! For example, one of the first places Chip and Dale’s investigation leads them to is a sketchy area of town called the Uncanny Valley, which – you guessed it – is populated by shady characters who look freakishly human, but not. The leader of this gang of criminals is a middle-aged, washed-up Peter Pan, who now goes by Sweet Pete (fittingly played by Bojack Horseman’s voice actor, Will Arnett). There’s also his partner in crime Jimmy (Da’Vone McDonald), a CGI polar bear who looks a lot like one of the Coca-Cola bears.

“Rescue Rangers” has that layer of self-awareness. For that reason, it stands out from other reboots. You can tell the writing team had a blast coming up with this story. It’s a tribute to the animation medium, and features cameos of cartoon characters from various properties (some of which don’t belong to Disney), serving as fun Easter eggs for viewers: notable guests include McGruff the Crime Dog, Doc McStuffins, a live-action Pumbaa, and my personal favorite, Randy Marsh from South Park. A favorite cameo among viewers was “Ugly Sonic” – poking fun at the controversial original design for the speedy blue protagonist in the first “Sonic the Hedgehog” film – who is seen tabling at a convention with Dale at the beginning of the film, and later helps the FBI arrest Sweet Pete and his gang of criminals.

I recommend “Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers” to anyone who grew up watching the show back in the 80s, or animation fans. You don’t need to have seen the original “Rescue Rangers” show in order to appreciate this film; personally, I never watched the show, but I ended up loving this movie for how witty and fun it is.