It appears that studios are going all-in with their intellectual properties, with a grand majority of 2024’s animated catalog comprising installments in different franchises. In March, DreamWorks will be kicking things into high gear with “Kung Fu Panda 4,” followed that summer by Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” and Illumination’s “Despicable Me 4,” with the Disney prequel “Mufasa: The Lion King” closing out the year in December.
Other franchises will also be seeing new animated entries, including “The Garfield Movie,” “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie,” and “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.” Aardman will be back with another stop-motion sequel, as an untitled “Wallace and Gromit” film is set to be released on Netflix. The streamer will also be unveiling a new Spongebob feature entitled “Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie” and the 3D animated film “Ultraman: Rising” based on the iconic tokusatsu superhero.
For those thirsting for some originality, a handful of movies are set to come out with some big names attached. After helming the “Hotel Transylvania” franchise for Sony, “Samurai Jack” and “Primal” creator Genndy Tartakovsky is directing the adult-animated comedy “Fixed” for the studio. Netflix and Dreamworks Animation have teamed up to create “Orion and the Dark,” with its screenplay helmed by famed writer Charlie Kaufman. Finally, animation fans can look forward next year to “The Triplets of Belleville” director Sylvain Chomet’s “The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol,” a biopic about French auteur filmmaker and writer Marcel Pagnol.
