Netflix Animation Panel Report: New Annecy Slate Details

What they showed us beyond the official press release

A week or so ago, I and a theater full of movie journos were invited to Netflix HQ for a presentation of their animation slate and Annecy reveals. Yesterday, at the Annecy festival, they made the big title announcements, but we saw clips and more.

What follows is my account of what I saw.

CHARLIE VS. THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (TBD 2027)

Why, as a society and entertainment industry, are we incapable of making the proper, canonical sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory into a movie? Mel Stuart didn’t want to, and bitter Roald Dahl likely wouldn’t have let him, but John August and Tim Burton also had no interest. Now Netflix has all the rights to Dahl’s works, and they’re still making a sequel that isn’t The Great Glass Elevator.

You could have had Wonka in space. Instead, we’re getting the animated Charlie Versus the Chocolate Factory, in which Wonka has spent time in prison for turning Violet Beauregarde into a blueberry, and Charlie is a pickpocket in a hoodie, with his own gang. Wonka is voiced by Taika Waititi, and is drawn to look like him, too, so this isn’t a direct sequel to any previous movie, at least. It’s also set in modern day London.

In a bit of unfinished footage, we got a sense of the plot: Charlie’s family is getting evicted, Wonka is getting released from prison, and there’s a short window of time for Charlie and friends to break into the Wonka factory and steal a valuable candy. Once inside, however, they are awed and charmed by what they see, including all the familiar sights and sounds, designed on a much larger scale and scope than they could be in live-action.

Charlie tries to bargain with Wonka, offering his services for something in exchange for his friends coming out safe and sound. Wonka replies, “I can do safe or sound. Both is pushing it.”

Later, they get into the glass elevator, as Wonka asks, “Which floor?” Charlie hesitates, looking at all the buttons, and goes, “Uhhhhh...” “Great choice!” says Wonka, who hits a button labeled ”Uhh” as the elevator blasts off into high G-forces.

The design isn’t quite Quentin Blake, but it’s close enough that the caricature style of Wonka and his factory look familiar. We’re side-stepping the whole Oompa-Loompa race or height issue, however, by making them tiny head-as-torso creatures who look like pineapples. Since it’s not live-action, this isn’t as big of an issue, but to those who want to make a big deal of real actors with dwarfism not being cast, have at it. Go yell at Peter Dinklage again.

Waititi, who has worn out his welcome with a lot of people, seems like a solid choice in this case. Both in Free Guy and the lousy Time Bandits reboot, he played characters who think they know everything but have very human foibles. That looks like it’ll work best for Wonka, relatively speaking, especially since he isn’t the director. My guess is Wonka and Charlie become friends again, but they have to escape a hostile factory that’s been turned against them. Sounds more like a video game premise than the sequel I’m looking for, but I am curious to see a truly epic-scale animated Wonka factory in action. I’m sure Netflix is counting on that.

STEPS (Nov. 20)

Steps is a new take on Cinderella, and it’s sure to trigger many of the same dumbasses who couldn’t stand Rachel Zegler being Snow White, since it’s the story from the point of view of the stepsisters, who are now Asian, with Cinderella their “perfect” white stepsister. Lilith, voiced by Ali Wong, is the lead, while Margo, the fat stepsister, is voiced by Stephanie Hsu. Cinderella, perfectly cast for this version, is Amanda Seyfried.

Where the narrative departs is in Lilith stealing a magic wand and accidentally turning Margo into a frog – a cute frog in a little tutu, of course. This breaks the fairy tale – it’s not clear how, but I assume it’s something like on the old show Voyagers, where history goes wrong and the heroes have to put it right.

This is one of two major Netflix animated features to star Hsu, which does seem to be developing some favorite actors of their own.

In the first clip, we were shown a four-way split screen of every separate stage of animation, in which Lilitih, who has not been invited to the ball, sees Cinderella’s dress. After first standing behind it to see how she’ll look, she promptly puts it on, dances with the dress dummy, and generally imagines herself as a princess. When Margo suddenly interrupts, she yells “Don’t look at me!”

Another clip seems to be either ;part of a trailer or the introduction of the movie, which begins with a book of fairy tales and a voice-over offering the traditional narrative. Lilith interrupts, calling the story “character assassination,” as she grabs “the camera” and talks directly to the audience, mentioning various aspects of the actual story, including “really hot trolls.”

“Oh, NOW I have your attention!” she notes, calling the viewer a “freak.”

Next, we see an action sequence, set at the ball after Margo has become a frog. Lilith and Margo run out of the palace, seeing the slipper on the stairs, and then the glass carriage. “Of course she found street parking!”

They escape, with the horse initially prancing slowly and elegantly, but finally hauling ass when they;re pursued by villain Roderick, a stern looking fellow who runs like the T-1000 from Terminator 2, and leaps over rooftops like a parkour guy, remaining prim and stiff at all times.

Cinderella, hidden in the back seat, reveals herself. Frog Margo complains that she doesn’t have a little seat belt. There’s a crack in the carriage glass, which Lilith fully breaks as Roderick attacks. The carriage shatters, but its roof breaks off upside down like a toboggan, which they ride down the downhill streets, finally falling into water.

Roderick yells, “Enjoy your swim, for it will be your last! I will find you!”

“I hate this kingdom!” yells Lilith.

So basically this looks like a Shrek-style fractured fairy tale – at the same time I watched this, Disney dropped a poster for Hexed, which superficially looks like it could be the same movie. I like that Netflix, with its global audience, is just kind of doing multiculturalism regardless of what anyone in the U.S. Says – Taika as indigenous New Zealnd Willy Wonka and Asian Cinderella step-family are not exactly true to the original stories, but these are telling new ones.

IN WAVES (DEC. 11)

In Waves, which I previously reviewed, is about Asian-American high-school seniors. At the showcase, they showed the clip of AJ and Kristen’s first text conversation after she gives him a surf lesson. It culminates in him surprising her by coming over, and their first kiss, followed by dramatic rainfall. It’s sweet, and doesn’t foreshadow the tragic plot.

ALLEY CATS (Aug 7)

Presumably to show they’re not all wokesters or whatever, the next video we got was of Ricky Gervais, acting reluctant to address journalists who won’t be any help to him. “Give me a five-star review and I’ll repost it to millions of people,” he said, before segueing into his new animated series Alley Cats.

As you’d expect, it’s about Cockney cats who say “fuck” a lot, and it’s fairly basic 2D animation. It’s the sort of show where one cat says “What did you do last night?” and another says “I fucked a rat.”

There are also little hints of Gervais’ atheist philosophy, though, like a scene where his cat says, with heart and sincerity, to another, “Life is a gift, and you’re a cat. Do you know how good that is?”

Then there’s one of those gags about every cat planning to attack a human at once, but they don’t know to jump on the count of three, or after the “three” – kind of a cliché at this point.

So it’s basically exactly what you’d expect from a Ricky Gervais show about swearing cats. Made me a laugh a time or two for the most juvenile reasons. I’ll give it a shot, probably, unless he’s decided to load it with trans jokes (no evidence of that so far, but he is who he is). The Netflix rep called the cast an “Avengers of British comedy” before rattling off names I don’t recognize at all. Per imdb, that’s Kerry Godliman, Diane Morgan, Tom Basden, Tony Way, Jo Hartley, David Earle, Andrew Brooke, and Natalie Cassidy.

GHOSTBUSTERS: NIGHT SHIFT (TBD 2027)

Ghostbusters: Night Shift is going to be a big deal. This animated series, produced by Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan, is going to be considered canon to the movies, and set in 1994 – a Stallone Judge Dredd poster is part of the set dressing -- after the original Ghostbusters break up. The goal is to be not just for kids, but genuinely scary in its horror. The animation is pretty state of the art, with a super-realistic New York City (“This is the New York that SMELLS!”) and CG characters who look like the ‘90s alternative nation. Names will come later, but it’s a team of six that include a goth, a punk, a kid, a scientist...and a Terror Dog puppy, who sets things on fire when he pisses on them.

The show will follow the same rules and logic of the live-action films – no cartoon physics unless they are supernatural in nature. Ray’s Occult Books is seen in one background, so Dan Aykroyd can presumably show up as much as anyone wants him to. The fire house is boarded up, but the kids break into it – their ghost-fighting gear is made of reused and recycled parts in dangerous combinations. Like Kylo Ren’s lightsaber, the proton streams look more jagged, sparky, and angry.

The new signature vehicle is a “gently used” van, dubbed the Ecto-94. Think the TMNT Turtle Van, but really trashed looking, with a spinning turret on top.

Ghosts shown include a variety that includes the monstrous types seen in the Real Ghostbusters cartoons, to translucent humans, floating phantoms, and demon things. Plus a ticket-taking kaiju ghost made of trains...

That leads into a clip. The punk ‘buster, whose name seems to be Travis, is on a glowing train, approaching a possessed girl named Zoe, whom I think is the girl on the team. She starts speaking in a deep voice like a demon, talking about a spirit that is calling – Travis, in Bill Murray style, just wisecracks, saying they can let the call go to voicemail.

A ghostly ticket taker shows up demanding”Tickets please!” Travis tries to leave with Zoe, but every direction he turns, the ticket taker shows up in front of him. As he gets more and more threatening, the train is cut open by proton streams, and we see the other busters – plus the fact that the train is one of many ghostly carriages floating in the sky.

“This is what happens when you try to care, Travis!” says Travis to himself, as the trains reform into a giant kaiju/ghost megazord with huge pincer hands made of carriages. It grabs Travis and holds him upside down, as he says he likes the ghost’s eyes, and finally, slightly less cool, “Okay, OKAY! I like the mustache, all right?”

Creepiness and Venkman-style humor are definitely in effect here. If they can keep it looking as expensive as it does, there’s a chance this could be the best Ghostbusters iteration since the original movie. Aside from the nature of the Ghostbusters themselves, the only real nostalgia play here seems to be the Terror Pup – that plus the van also inspires thoughts of Scooby-Doo. If they really are going for scary, it makes sense to have one light-hearted character for some basic bad puppy laughs.

The anime sub-presentation didn’t reveal much, except a look at The One Piece reboot, which...looks like One Piece. The characters look exactly as drawn, and some of the quick clips looked like stuff I saw in the live-action version. CG adds depth to the animation, but otherwise, it looks pretty much like the manga.

RAY GUNN (Dec 18)

The main event of the presentation was a first look at Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn, a dream project he’s had since the ‘80s, described as The Maltese Falcon meets Buck Rogers. Sam Rockwell plays Ray, the last human private detective, and Scarlet Johansson is Venus Nova, a pop star whose life is in danger.

We begin with a faux-analog TV screen with the Skydance logo in resolution lines. A Peter Gunn-ish theme kicks up, and there’s a transition into the massive city in which the action takes place. It’s a bit Fifth Element, and a LOT Coruscant from the Star Wars prequels, with multi-level skyscrapers and rows of flying cars – though these flying cars mostly look like ‘50s cars. Elevated trains have propellers. It’s the future as imagined by the past, and the city is full of aliens.

Notable among the aliens are one-eyed green men, who look like they have Kang or Kodos from The Simpsons as their head. Eyera (Tom Waits) is a janitor of this species, and he gets into an elevator that blasts off like a projectile, with G-forces and all, as it heads to the 780^th floor. Inside is a hallway that resembles the Bradbury building in Los Angeles, and others of that era.

Full hologram commercials occasionally pop up or remain constant, and can be walked through. Evera goes through one into an office, and inside, he lets Ray out of the trash can he’s been pushing, that ray’s been hiding in. They search the office and find a secret compartment in the desk. It contains hidden receipts for...something. Bird specifically chose this clip so it wouldn’t reveal any of the larger plot, which he said was hard to do since the story keeps building on itself.

Eyera’s eye flashes, like he’s taking pics of the documents with his eye. Then he and Ray have to hide, as two other would-be burglars cut the glass and break in from outside – purple aliens wearing jetpacks.

Then these two have to hide as well, as a big fat lady enters the office. She’s an alien too – think a younger version of Roz from Monsters Inc. She finds the purple guys, and gets into a three-way Mexican standoff with them. A pop-up hologram ad surprise them, and they all start shooting. She smashes one into the door behind which ray is hiding. She recognizes him. He says her name – it sounded like “Bonzeen.”

They try to make nice, but then he attempts to shoot her in the arm. His gun is out of charge, but the attempt makes her mad. Eyera pulls a gun and she knocks him out. Ray then freezes her face with the office air conditioner, one Eyera had previously noted was extra-cold.

A spybot, kind of like Darth Maul’s pal in that new cartoon, has been in the room this whole time and steals the receipt file, flying away. Ray and Eyera have room to escape, but before they leave, ray feels obliged to break the ice on Bonzeen’s face, so she can breathe – this leads to him comically hitting her a few times until it actually cracks.

End of clip. Overall impression is that this looks and plays like a retro-sci-fi Incredibles. That ay be a redundant think to say because the Incredibles is sci-fi, but I’m talking full-on, Metropolis-level sci-fi in a future city. Brad Bird’s Futurama, let’s say. The action is cartoony slapstick; the aesthetic Star Wars prequely with Blade Runner touches. For all Bird’s talk about wanting to make animation for other ages than children, it looks like something the whole family will enjoy.

Afterward, Bird talked a little bit about the project – he first dreamed it up when he heard the B-52’s song “Planet Claire” and thought it was the Peter Gunn theme, which got him mashing the two up in his mind to think of “Ray Gunn.” He rejects the notion that animation veterans he studied under had, that “If you can do it in live-action, don;t do it in animation” – especially since you can do nearly anything in live-action now. He likes animation’s ability to use caricature to get to the essence of a character quickly, and calls animation for adults “rarer than I’d like it to be.”

Ray Gunn over the years had been rejected by WB and by Pixar. It’s finally coming to Netflix this year.

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