Recap: 'Bob's Burgers' Movie / 'Trolls 2' Moves / New 'Star' Trailer

Now in development is a film based on the hit FOX animated series Bob's Burgers. Running a good six years already, Bob's Burgers has been showered with praise, called one of the better adult-oriented American TV cartoons out there. It's also a FOX cartoon that's still running too, after all these years, that doesn't happen to be a Seth MacFarlane-related show. Now they'll be hitting the big screen on July 17, 2020.

It's kind of cool to see more movies based on 2D animated TV shows coming about: We have this, the upcoming Loud House movie, Sponge out of Water and SpongeBob's third movie, and the My Little Pony movie. Yes, even Teen Titans Go! Of course, it's what we have to settle for here in mainstream American animation when it comes to animated features that aren't composed of three-dee digital puppets and sets.

Interestingly, this is - to my knowledge - the first American adult cartoon to get the big screen treatment since 2007's The Simpsons Movie. Also a film based on a FOX animated series. I'm sure Fox Animation will be pressing for more, too, because a Family Guy movie has yet to happen. Thing is, FOX doesn't have too many hit animated shows outside of The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, and Seth's stuff. Lots of stuff they've tried to launch (notably through the short-lived ADHD block) haven't really spawned successful shows.

Perhaps, if Bob's Burgers does well enough (I want to say the bar is... South Park and Beavis & Butt-head numbers), it'll get others to join in. The only Adult Swim cartoon to get a feature was Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and the film adaptation was given a limited release in spring 2017. Folks who've helped make shows for Adult Swim are currently making features, in the recent years we've seen Anomalisa and Nerdland. In the pipeline are features like The Adventures of Drunky, a film about Michael Jackson's pet chimpanzee Bubbles, and a few more.

Strangely enough, not too many TV networks invest much in adult-oriented animation. Comedy Central has South Park, that got a movie nearly 20 years ago, I wonder if another one will be a possibility. A good number of their non-South Park cartoons never recaptured that success, and only a few other shows are still going. Netflix is launching some more, and even have a movie not based on any show - America: The Motion Picture - in development.

It all brings me back to Bob's Burgers. It's really no surprise that it's getting a movie. The show reminds me of The Simpsons more so than Family Guy, an adult cartoon that's not trying to out-edge itself every five seconds or be as shocking as possible, but rather a show wrapped around its own sense of humor and such. No different from creator Loren Bouchard's Home Movies. I think most "adult" animation on TV here in America simply falls flat because it's all about that edge, and less about anything else. There's little in the whole "haha, cartoon characters doing inappropriate things!" schtick. It's only novel for people who think cartoons/animated works are only for kids, anyways.

Bouchard says...

Here's to Bob's Burgers, the movie itself, adult-oriented animation, and 2D!

Speaking of animated movies aiming for the beginning of the next decade...

Fox better look out. Valentine's Day weekend is when they are planning to release the Blue Sky adaptation of Nimona, an irreverent fantasy/sci-fi adventure whose source material may not be all that well-known to the general public.

Universal and DreamWorks now intend to open Trolls 2 on that very weekend, moving it up from its previous release date: April 10, 2020.

Yes, yes, I know, it's an older image.

While this distances it from an untitled live-action Disney movie, a DC movie, and an untitled Sony Animation picture... The new date pits it against Nimona, and also puts it close to Paramount/Nickelodeon's Loud House movie.

Obviously, Nimona is going to move. Trolls may not have been a firecracker at the domestic box office or worldwide, the sequel is likely to equal the original's gross. Nimona, should it ever keep its date, would need one hell of a marketing campaign. The Nimona comic wasn't quite a kid-friendly thing, but according to reports, Blue Sky's adaptation will keep things "PG." So yes, I think one of those movies is moving.

As for Loud House... Well, a few weeks back I talked about how maybe releasing animated films closer to each other might not be a bad thing...

Sony Pictures Animation's next is almost right around the corner, and a new trailer is out...

I don't think it looks very good.

I tried to be fair when the first teaser came out, but this trailer makes it look so stupid. Take out all the baby Jesus elements, it's just another wacky animals comedy for kids. We have a dove doing ka-ra-tay (hi-yah!), twerking, and looking for people to crap on. We have pretty goofy camels and other animals doing slapstick and this and that. Ya know, with a $19 million budget, they really could've made something special. A halfway-decent animated Biblical movie, an experimental one even! What is this? The kids' version of those rather divisive Christian movies that come and go every few years?

Plus, that cast... Stacked, isn't it? I feel the trailers are much more interested in doling their names out than actually presenting what the movie itself has.

I don't have anything against Sony Pictures Animation, either. They're a studio that's more than capable of producing great works. Like I've said before, Surf's Up and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs are high-bar, the former was a pretty unique feature in its own right. This year, there was a Smurf reboot, The Emoji Movie, now this. Maybe The Star will turn out to be a bit of alright, and surprise us all, but... I'm sure not getting that out of the newest trailer. Peter Rabbit looks meh, Hotel Transylvania 3 may be better than its predecessors... Me? I'm just ready for Sony Animation's Spider-Man movie, which isn't even out until next Christmas.

That said, I think the movie will do just fine. It'll be leggy because it's a Christmas movie, and should co-exist with Coco. Again, not like Sony's expecting a blockbuster tentpole out of this, and that's for the better. Keep showing the industry that not every animated movie is meant to be a franchise-starting behemoth, and maybe we'll start seeing even more small films, which may lead to small films actually taking advantage of lower budgets.

Wishful thinking? Perhaps, but I'm keeping my eye on all this.