27 Animated Features To Look For in 2015
Whether you prefer your animated features from mega-budget Hollywood studios or more modest foreign fare, the upcoming slate of animated features in 2015 promises something for everyone. Here are 27 animated features that will be released in 2015:
Strange Magic (1/23/15)
Inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, this madcap fairy tale musical uses popular music to tell the tale of a cast of goblins, elves, fairies and imps and their battle over a powerful potion.
Director: Gary Rydstrom
Production Company: Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm Animation Singapore
Distributor: Touchstone Pictures
Technique: CG
Voice Cast: Alan Cumming, Evan Rachel Wood, Kristin Chenoweth, Maya Rudolph, and Alfred Molina
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2/6/15)
In this sequel to the 2004 movie adaptation of the popular television series, Spongebob and his friends travel to the surface world on a quest to save Bikini Bottom from the evil pirate, Burger Beard.
Director: Paul Tibbitt
Production Company: Paramount Animation/Nickelodeon Movies
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Technique: Hand-drawn/CG/Live Action
Voice Cast: Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Antonio Banderas
Official Website
Home (3/27/15)
Based on Adam Rex’s novel The True Meaning of Smekday, a teenage girl named Tip goes on the run with a banished alien named Oh after his race, the Boov, invade the planet Earth.
Director: Tim Johnson
Production Company: DreamWorks Animation
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Technique: CG
Voice Cast: Rihanna, Jim Parsons, Steve Martin, Jennifer Lopez
Official Website
Underdogs (4/10/15)
Known as Metegol in Latin America and The Unbeatables in the U.K., a team of foosball players come to life to help a shy young man win his hometown back from a megalomaniacal soccer superstar with an axe to grind.
Director: Juan José Campanella
Production Company: 100 Bares, Plural-Jempsa and Catmandu Branded Entertainment
Distributor: The Weinstein Company
Technique: CG
Voice Cast: Ariana Grande, Nicholas Hoult, Matthew Morrison, Katie Holmes
Official Website
Monster Trucks (5/29/15)
An original live-action/CG film based on the popularity of monster trucks directed by Chris Wedge.
Director: Chris Wedge
Production Company: Paramount Animation
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Technique: CG/Live Action
Voice Cast: Jane Levy, Lucas Till, Amy Ryan, Rob Lowe and Danny Glover
Inside Out (6/19/15)
The emotions of a young girl, Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness, help guide her through life after she relocates to a new city and school.
Director: Pete Docter
Production Company: Pixar
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios
Technique: CG
Voice Cast: Amy Poehler, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Bill Hader
Official Website
Minions (7/10/15)
In a prequel to the Despicable Me films, the Minions leave their isolated home in hopes to find a new master at a villain convention.
Director: Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda
Production Company: Illumination Entertainment
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Technique: CG
Voice Cast: Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Alison Janney
Official Website
Hotel Transylvania 2 (9/25/15)
The generations continue to clash in this sequel to the 2012 animated movie as Count Dracula’s father Vlad, an old school vampire, pays a visit to his human-free hotel for monsters.
Director: Genndy Tartakovsky
Production Company: Sony Pictures Animation
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Technique: CG
Voice Cast: Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Steve Buscemi, Mel Brooks
Peanuts (11/6/15)
Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang make their CGI feature debut in this adaptation of Charles Schulz’s classic comic strip.
Director: Steve Martino
Production Company: Blue Sky Studios
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Technique: CG
Voice Cast: Noah Schnapp, Hadley Miller, Mariel Sheets, Alex Garfin
Official Website
The Good Dinosaur (11/25/15)
In a world where dinosaurs never became extinct, a teenage Apatosaurus named Arlo goes on a quest to help his peaceful community, adopting a human boy named Spot along the way.
Director: Peter Sohn
Production Company: Pixar
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios
Technique: CG
Voice Cast: Lucas Neff, John Lithgow, Frances McDormand, Neil Patrick Harris
Kung Fu Panda 3 (12/23/15)
Po’s “legendary adventures of awesomeness” continue in this third installment of the popular animated martial arts franchise.
Director: Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Production Company: Dreamworks Animation
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Technique: CG
Voice Cast: Jack Black, Rebel Wilson, Dustin Hoffman, Bryan Cranston
Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet (Release Date TBA)
Inspired by the beloved classic, Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a young, mischievous girl and an imprisoned poet.
Director: Roger Allers (supervising director), Michal Socha, Gaëtan Brizzi, Paul Brizzi, Joan C. Gratz, Mohammed Saeed Harib, Tomm Moore, Nina Paley, Bill Plympton, Joann Sfar (sequence directors)
Production Company: Bardel Entertainment
Distributor: Unknown
Technique: Mixed-media (CGI/Hand-drawn)
Voice cast: Salma Hayek, Liam Neeson, John Krasinski, Alfred Molina, Quvenzhane Wallis, Frank Langella
Official Website
Storks (Release Date TBA)
The first feature film for animation director Doug Sweetland (Presto), it is created and written by Nicholas Stoller.
Director: Doug Sweetland
Production Company: Warner Brothers
Distributor: Warner Brothers
Technique: CG
Ratchet & Clank (Release Date TBA)
A futuristic mechanic and a diminutive robot attempt to save the Solana Galaxy from Chairman Drek and the Blarg in this origin story film adaptation of the game franchise of the same name.
Director: Kevin Munroe, Jerrica Cleland
Production Company: Rainmaker Entertainment, Blockade Entertainment, Insomniac Games
Distributor: Cinema Management Group
Technique: CG
Voice Cast: James Arnold Taylor, David Kaye, Jim Ward
Psycho-Pass: The Movie (1/9/15) (Japan)
Police officer Akane Tsunemori goes to the coastal town of Shambala Float to investigate a recent attack of a terrorist group called SEAUn.
Director: Naoyoshi Shiotani
Production Company: Production I.G.
Distributor: Funimation
Technique: Hand-drawn
Beyond the Boundary (Spring 2015) (Japan)
The film version of a television series adapted from the manga of the same name, high school alien-human hybrid, Akihito Kanbara helps Mirai, an isolated girl gain the confidence to fight supernatural creatures called the Youmu.
Director: Taichi Ishidate
Production Company: Kyoto Animation
Technique: Hand-drawn
Official Website
Doraemon: Nobita’s Space Hero Record of Space Heroes (3/7/15) (Japan)
Doraemon & Co. fight monsters in space in this latest installment of the Doraemon franchise.
Director: Yoshihiro Osugi
Production Company: Shin-Ei Animation
Distributor: Toho
Technique: Hand-drawn
Official Website
El Americano: The Movie ( March 2015) (Mexico)
A carefree parrot ventures to Hollywood and enlists the aid of his favorite hero in order to help his father and protect his circus family from the threat of Martin Kingfisher and his henchmen.
Director: Ricardo Arnaiz, Mike Kunkel
Production Company: Animex Producciones, Olmos Productions, Phil Roman Entertainment
Distributor: FilmSharks International
Technique: CG
Voice Cast: Rico Rodriguez, Kate del Castillo, Edward James Olmos, Cheech Marin
Official Website
Shaun the Sheep Movie (4/24/15) (UK)
After Shaun’s mischief forces the farmer to leave the farm, Shaun and his flock journey into the big city to bring him home.
Director: Richard Starzak, Mark Burton
Production Company: Aardman Animations
Distributor: StudioCanal
Technique: Stop Motion
Voice Cast: Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes
Official Website
Capture the Flag (Summer) (Spain)
A ruthless billionaire’s plans to rewrite the history of the Apollo XI astronauts is put in peril when a headstrong surfer pre-teen and his friends travel to the moon to stop him.
Director: Enrique Gato
Production Company: Lightbox Entertainment, Los Rockets AIE
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Technique: CG
Top Cat Begins (8/7/15) (Mexico)
Mexico-based Ánima Estudios describes this as a “companion piece” to their 2011 traditionally animated Top Cat: The Movie.
Director: Andrés Couturier
Production Company: Ánima Estudios
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures Mexico
Technique: CG
Le Petit Prince (10/7/15) (France)
(The Little Prince)
A contemporary girl discovers Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s 1943 classic The Little Prince through a reclusive elderly neighbor.
Director: Mark Osborne
Production Company: Onyx Films
Distributor: Paramount France
Technique: CG/Stop Motion
Voice Cast: Riley Osborne, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams, James Franco
Official Website
Big Fish & Chinese Flowering Crabapple (11/11/15) (China)
This film became China’s most successful crowdfunding project to date when Director Liang Xuan raised 1.58 million yuan on the Chinese crowdfunding site Demohour.
Director: Liang Xuan
Production Company: B&T
Technique: Hand-drawn
Official Website
Sheep and Wolves (Russia) (Release Date TBA)
A responsibility shirking young wolf wakes up one morning as a ram with a flock of sheep to protect in this body swap comedy.
Director: Neil Landau
Production Company: Wizart Animation
Distributor: Rialto Distribution
Technique: CG
Official Website
Robodog (Germany) (Release Date TBA)
KC, an overzealous robotic dog, and Marshall, a curmudgeonly flesh and blood canine go on an adventure of a lifetime where they learn the true nature of friendship.
Director: Henry F. Anderson III
Production Company: Marza Animation Planet
Distributor: Timeless Films
Technique: CG
Voice Cast: Chris Colfer, Ron Perlman
Official Website
Malá z Rybárny (Czech Republic) (Release Date TBA)
(Little from the Fish Shop)
The daughter of displaced Sea King falls in love with a handsome, confident young man.
Director: Jan Balej
Distributor: Miracle Film
Technique: Puppet/Digital
Official Website
Miss Hokusai (Japan) (Release Date TBA)
Based on Hinako Sugiura’s original manga Sarusuberi, the daughter of a master painter is overshadowed by her larger-than-life father, to whose work she would often contribute.
Director: Keiichi Hara
Production Company: Production I.G.
Technique: Hand-Drawn
