Tim here. Team Experience is in the midst of unrolling our We Can’t Wait list, and Nathaniel has already devoted some attention to some of the more intriguing potential blockbusters that missed out on our top 15. And so now it falls to me as the Film Experience’s resident animation guy to draw your attention to some of the animated features set to show up in 2015. None of the big names here - I assume you’ll be able to find the new Pixar films without my help - this is all about some of the little titles that might otherwise slip between the cracks.
When Marnie Was There
The 20th, and perhaps the last theatrical film produced by Studio Ghibli, is about a lonely young woman sent to the country for her health, who befriends one of the locals, Marnie. But as the two spend time together, it becomes clear that something slightly paranormal is going on.
The film didn’t make too much of an impact in Japan, where its underwhelming box office directly contributed to the decision to (temporarily? Oh please let it be temporary) shutter Ghibli as an active production company. And in fairness, there’s not much about it that seems to promise a top-tier project by the studio’s exalted standards, or even to match director Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s charming, slight Secret World of Arietty. So it might be best to keep one’s expectations a bit tamped down.
Still, an event as momentous as the Last Studio Ghibli Film can’t go by unnoticed, and it’s surely worth the effort it will take to see this one in a theater. Which we’ll be able to do in the United States starting on June 5, thanks to distributor GKIDS, the patron saints of releasing interesting animated features in North America.
Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet
A passion project for producer Salma Hayek, this anthological adaptation of Gibran’s internationally bestselling 1923 poetry collection gathers a murderer’s row of animation superstars. The whole project is being overseen by Roger Allers, co-director of The Lion King; some of the individual segments are directed by the Tomm Moore, of the recent Oscar nominee Song of the Sea; Nina Paley, who created the brilliant and under-seen Sita Sings the Blues; indie animation icon Bill Plympton; and the Brizzi brothers, terrific storyboard artists responsible for some of the best sequences in Disney’s Tarzan and Fantasia 2000.
None of this means, of course, that the end result will be any good - anthology films are noted for being hit-and-miss, even when they load up on top-tier directorial talent - and it’s hard to see how the idea-driven book is going to translate into a movie. But it’s impossible not to be curious to see what all those disparate stylists working towards a united end are going to whip up.
The film has no set release date yet, but it has been picked up by - naturally enough - GKIDS.
The Little Prince
Mark Osborne directs an all-star voice cast - Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Jeff Bridges, Bencio Del Toro, and that’s just a sampling - in a new adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s ever-classic children’s book. Although one which needs to be loaded up with caveats: the trailers (like this one, or this one) promise a very schizophrenic experience that’s one part mixed-media version of the book, two parts generic-looking CGI characters having dry Life Lessons inspired by a work of literature.
How much of this is the ad campaign hedging its bets, and how much is the actual movie is difficult to determine, but for right now, it’s comforting to assume that we’re going to get more of the faux-claymation, less of the canned sentiment. Osborne is, anyway, a reliable talent: he co-directed Kung Fu Panda, and before that made his name with the astounding (if outlandishly bleak), Oscar-nominated short More. So he’s earned a little benefit of the doubt, anyway.
It’s opening October 7 in France and Belgium; there’s no set U.S. date yet, but Paramount has so far confirmed it as a 2015 release.
And, of course, there's always the titles that will come out and surprise us all that nobody's even heard of yet. Can you think of anything I missed?