Netflix Releases Looks At Upcoming Animated Fare, Including 'Nimona' And 'Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget', Confirming Sandy-Starring 'SpongeBob' Movie

Other films spotlighted include 'Thelma the Unicorn', 'Leo' and 'In Your Dreams'

Netflix is not at CinemaCon, after all they’re not really in the business of theatrical distribution. However that didn’t stop their upcoming animated slate from getting a bit of spotlight on Tuesday. A total of nine films announced wholesale or get new looks, including Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie; and In Your Dreams for the former, and Nimona, That Christmas, Thelma the Unicorn, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, The Monkey King, Leo, and Ultraman for the latter

Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie, coming in 2024, was originally announced in 2021 and continues Nickelodeon’s relationship with Netflix even in the age of Paramount+, following The Loud House Movie and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie, plus the Rocko’s Modern Life and Invader Zim specials. The service is also home to three Nicktoons. This is not the formal fourth SpongeBob movie, that’s set for a theatrical release the year after, in 2025. Directed by Liza Johnson, Bikini Bottom’s denizens are suddenly scooped out of the ocean for a villainous plot, and Sandy Cheeks and SpongeBob SquarePants, voiced once again by Carolyn Lawrence and Tom Kenny, must journey to Texas to save the town. The ensemble voice cast welcomes Wanda Sykes and Johnny Knoxville, in his second SpongeBob role.

The second film, In Your Dreams is a comedy adventure about Stevie and her brother Elliot, who as total opposites struggle to get along magically travel into the world of dreams. Their mission? Find The Sandman who will grant them their ultimate wish to save their parents’ marriage. It’s directed by Alex Woo and co-directed by Erik Benson, hailing from Kuku Studios.

In even more great news, Nimona has doubled the amount of available images from the film with this latest look. Based on the comic series of the same name by ND Stevenson, the film was infamously scrapped by Disney in closing Blue Sky Studios in April 2021, and rescued by Annapurna Pictures with animation moved to DNEG Animation last year. Starring Chloe Grace Moretz as Nimona with Eugene Lee Yang as Ambrosius Goldenloin and Riz Ahmed as Ballister Boldheart, the new looks came with the announcement of the supporting cast, including Frances Conroy, Lorraine Toussaint, RuPaul Charles, Indya Moore, Julio Torres and Saturday Night Live alums Beck Bennett and Sarah Sherman.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget from Aardman Animation is coming this fall, directed by Flushed Away’s Sam Fell. Ginger & Rocky are happy and have a daughter named Molly, but a new threat emerges on the mainland to the whole of chicken-kind. So this time, they must break in. The film’s voice cast includes Thandiwe Newton as Ginger, Zachary Levi as Rocky, Bella Ramsay as Molly, as well as Imelda Staunton, David Bradley, and Nick Mohammed.

Then there’s That Christmas, set for Christmas 2024 from How To Train Your Dragon trilogy’s head of character animation Simon Otto and based on Oscar-nominated writer Richard Curtis’s children’s books. It comes from Locksmith Animation, which debuted with 2021’s Ron’s Gone Wrong. Thelma the Unicorn, also coming next year directed by Lynn Wang and Jared Hess is the story of a pony with dreams of music stardom. A new version of Journey to the West, The Monkey King will release this summer, from director Anthony Stacchi of The Boxtrolls and stars Jimmy O. Yang, Bowen Yang and Jo Koy.

Finally, Adam Sandler’s second Netflix film this year is his first animated overall, Leo, which was also one of the few animated films featured in Netflix’s sizzle reel for 2023. Sandler voices the title character, a 74-year-old class pet lizard. He is joined by Bill Burr, Cecily Strong, Jason Alexander and Stephanie Hsu. And coming in 2024 is an Ultraman movie (yes the Japanese toku hero with the animated series on the streamer) from Lost Ollie’s Shannon Tindle.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter