DreamWorks Animation Schedules Chris Sanders-Directed 'The Wild Robot'
Dating it only took two months, but announcement to release is going to be less than a year
Just as Walt Disney Studios releases the current list of everything they’re releasing in 2024 without a Walt Disney Animation Studios release, even in its typical November slot, DreamWorks Animation has pegged The Wild Robot as its third release for the year.
Just announced in October, the adaptation of Peter Brown’s #1 New York Times bestseller has been scheduled for September 20, 2024. It joins February’s Orion and the Dark and March’s Kung Fu Panda 4, though the former is being released exclusively on Netflix. It follows ROZZUM unit 7134 or “Roz”, a futuristic robot that comes ashore to a deserted island, kickstarting “a tale of survival and discovery begins befriending a close-knit group of misfit animals, who slowly become family. Soon enough, she also becomes the unexpected protector of an orphaned gosling, whom she names Brightbill. Together they struggle to survive the harsh environment, succeeding with the help of the animals. They find themselves defending the island from a robotic invasion by Roz’s manufacturer, looking to bring her back to civilization by any means necessary.
The film is being directed by Chris Sanders, the three-time Oscar-nominated writer-director whose career began at Disney, working on Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and Mulan before directing Lilo & Stitch with partner Dean DeBlois. They would move to DreamWorks after his removal from what eventually became Bolt, and direct How to Train Your Dragon, with Sanders also directing The Croods with Kirk DeMicco.
The Wild Robot is produced by company veteran Jeff Hermann, while the book series began in 2016 and has since bloomed into a trilogy with followups The Wild Robot Escapes and The Wild Robot Protects. Deadline has characterized mid to late September as fruitful for animation thanks to films like Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie this year, 2016’s Storks and 2018’s Smallfoot from Warner Animation Group, or even DreamWorks’s own Abominable released the following year, with at least the latter three successful on a similar scale.
Source: Deadline
You need time to get things right- that's what the suits don't understand. If you look at Walt Disney's personal filmography, there are gaps of at least three years between most of the animated feature film releases. That's because he did NOT want to be associated with badly produced crap.