Netflix lines up a bunch of high-profile animated projects

By Sam Barsanti | November 6, 2018 | 8:07pm

Aux Features Film

When the future is uncertain and a little scary, it can be nice to relax in the low-stakes, comforting glow of a nice cartoon, which is a philosophy that Netflix seems to have embraced—if the announcement of its latest batch of original shows and movies is anything to go by. As reported by Variety, the streaming service has lined up some high-profile animated projects that will hopefully be entertaining for kids of all ages, no matter how the mid-term elections today shake out. On the movie side, there’s a “2D animated” feature from Oscar-nominated Secret Of The Kells director Nora Twomey called My Father’s Dragon and an adaptation of Lois Lowry’s The Willoughbys from Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 director Kris Pearn. That one will have a bunch of famous people doing the voices, including Ricky Gervais, Maya Rudolph, Will Forte, Martin Short, Alessia Cara, and Jane Krakowski.

On TV, the big winner is Kid Cosmic, a new series from Powerpuff Girls creator Craig McCracken, that will center around a young boy “encounters some cosmic stones” and becomes a superhero. Apparently, though, the show will be more about the boy struggling with his new powers and learning the disappointing reality of being a superhero than it will be a “typical wish-fulfillment story.” The Book Of Life’s Jorge Gutierrez is also creating an animated miniseries called Maya And The Three that he says is like a “Mexican Lord Of The Rings” with an “awesome female hero.”