DC Studios Announces Animated Robin Movie 'Dynamic Duo' Starring Dick Grayson And Jason Todd
It’s their superhero movie. We’re lining up to see the movie all about them.
The Robins are coming home to roost in animation. While a Robin of unknown determination very well may lead a Teen Titans while Damian Wayne teams up with dad for Brave and the Bold in the DC Universe, DC Studios has announced their first theatrical animated film under current branding, Dynamic Duo starring Dick Grayson and Jason Todd about their earliest days.
DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn was “over the moon excited” to reveal the greenlight by them and Warner Bros. Pictures Animation. It is the first feature film from New Orleans animation studio Swaybox, and utilizes a mix of animation, puppetry, and CGI. It is written by Matt Aldrich, and produced with Matt Reeves’ 6th & Idaho company.
The film is the studio’s first formally announced project that isn’t in the new DC Universe, but entirely its own. Basically, the first new Elseworld that didn’t already exist when the studio revealed a heavier enforcement of the label on TV and film projects. And just like the also-Reeves-produced animated Caped Crusader isn’t in The Batman’s world, neither is this. Frankly I believe it’s easier just to say “This is a DC Universe project, and these are everything else”, but that’s not quite to get into here. Dynamic Duo is about Grayson and Todd’s early days as orphan thieves who call themselves the Dynamic Duo. Notice they’re both called Robins, though they’ve seemingly never quite shared the mantle together before. When they graduate from being Robin, Grayson typically becomes Nightwing while Todd becomes Red Robin…or Red Hood in more anti-hero circumstances.
Swaybox was founded by husband-and-wife creators Arthur Mintz and Theresa Andersson, who serve as co-CEOs, and producing partners since 2009. Mintz will be directing the picture. They utilize a technology known as “Momo animation,” described as a cross between CGI animation, practical elements of stop-motion, and live-action real-time performance. It results in long-form storytelling called “visually breathtaking”, “dynamically expressive” and “more human”. Mintz is a graduate of Columbia University who was hired by animation legend Joe Ranft to work in the James and the Giant Peach storyboard department. With experience directing several award-winning puppet theater productions, Mintz was one of the contributing writers of Moonbot Studios’ Emmy-winning Netflix series Lost Ollie. Andersson immigrated from Sweden to New Orleans when she was 18 in pursuit of a music career. She became globally known as a performer and composer by touring her innovative one-woman looping show inspired by a one-man puppet show, collaborating with Mintz. She has performed on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
“I have wanted to make a film with Arthur and Swaybox for many years, and for that film to be Dynamic Duo, an incredibly special and unique Batman and Robin story for families, is a dream,” Reeves said. Responding to a fan’s own amazement regarding the movie’s foundation on Threads, Gunn told “I couldn’t be more wowed by what Swaybox is doing. That plus Matthew’s magnificent script made this an easy LET’S GO.”
Source: Deadline, James Gunn on Threads