Animation Studios are popping up like daisies, and as a result there are more animated movies
being release in 2016 than, well, it looks like EVER. And today you're going to get a
look at all of 'em! Yes welcome to Beyond The Trailer's Animation 2016 round-up, which
is sponsored by Lynda.com - an online school where you can study many different things,
including animation! Now as if there isn't enough competition in the animation industry
in Hollywood, South Korea is getting into the mix as well! They had a surprise hit in
2014 with The Nut Job, and now they're back with the sequel again distributed by Open
Road Films. Psy helped to promote the first film and even had an animated avatar of himself
appear in the closing credits, so will this sequel feature another K-Pop star? Then there's
the hotly anticipated Kung Fu Panda 3, but while Po might be able to stand up to many
enemies he's apparently no match for Kylo Ren. Yes, this was supposed to be a holiday
2015 release but had to get out of the way of Star Wars The Force Awakens. And while
its new January release date might seem sketchy, don't forget that The LEGO Movie and SpongeBob
Squarepants 2 both found a lot of success in, well, February. Hopefully the introduction
of Po's father, voiced by Bryan Cranston will help, and here's hoping he doesn't die in
the first act. Plus this is the first movie to come out of Dreamworks' new chinese division,
Oriental Dreamworks, which is located in Shanghai. China has helped a lot of Hollywood movies
lately at the box office, and surely Dreamworks hopes that with Kung Fu Panda 3 now a local
film, it will get an even bigger boost. Next, after sitting out 2015, Disney Animation returns
with their first of two pictures for the year, Zootopia! Jason Bateman and Ginnifer Goodwin
provide the main voices. The Mouse House's animators are super jazzed about this film,
but so far haven't been able to spread Zootopia-mania to the masses. Disney Animation used to find
a lot of success with animal movies, but will Arrested Development animal-style seem like
big screen fare to moviegoers, and their wallets? Next Paramount Animation's Monster Trucks
must be top secret, because we have to yet to hear anything about it! This is another
live action-CGI hybrid, yet hopefully it features more live action than Paramount Animation's
first movie, SpongeBob 2. They lured director Chris Wedge away from the animation studio
he co-founded, Blue Sky Studios, so let's hope Monster Trucks was worth the betrayal!
It's reported to star Jane Levy, Lucas Till, Amy Ryan, Rob Lowe and Danny Glover. Then
are you ready for The Angry Birds to fly into a new medium?! After conquering your digital
device and your television, now they take on the big screen with their very own movie!
And Rovio Entertainment is very aggressively moving into the film industry, hiring Marvel
Studios exec producer David Maisel to head up their film division. Angry Birds features
the voices of a bunch of former and current SNL stars, plus Peter Dinklage, Danny McBride
and Keegan Michael Key. But if those birds think pigs are bad, wait until they go up
against movie critics... Next, Pixar hopes to continue their comeback that kicked off
with Inside Out, with Finding Dory! This Finding Nemo sequel is so hotly anticipated that it
might as well be another Toy Story movie! In fact, Finding Nemo is Pixar's second most
successful film after Toy Story 3. And now that Ellen Degeneres has become a huge star
in her own right, expect a tsunami of publicity and media coverage for this early summer release.
But Illumination Entertainment looks like it will once again be stiff competition with
Pixar, and all animation studios, as they release The Secret Life of Pets the very next
month! Illumination has yet to build a second franchise as successful as their Despicable
Me movies, but Pets seems promising. It's debut trailer has done boffo traffic online
and it has the Minions release date. Now before we get to the second half of the animated
movies hitting theaters in 2016, I'd like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, Lynda.com,
who is offering a FREE ten day trial to Beyond The Trailer viewers! Just go to Lynda.com/BTT
to sign up, and you can take one of their many 3D animation courses, or study other
areas like web design, education and business - all taught by experts! Again, just go to
Lynda.com/BTT - that's L - Y - N - D - A dot com slash BTT - to take a look around, and
sign up for that free ten day trial. Then get this, Ice Age is back! Apparently while
the real woolly mammoth and friends weren't so invincible, their franchise is! Ice Age
Collision Course, their FIFTH movie, will see all your favorite characters - and their
voice actors - return. And while you might think the franchise that originally built
Blue Sky Studios should be labeled extinct at this point, keep in mind that with each
new movie they make more and more money at the box office - thanks almost entirely to
the overseas audience. Next, for those of you who think animation is too family friendly,
then Seth Rogen has got the movie for you! This very adult animated comedy is about a
bunch of sausages that fall out of a shopping cart and must return to their aisle in the
grocery store before the Fourth of July sale - because apparently they WANT to be eaten?
Rogen as his regular partners in crime provide the voices, with Salma Hayek voicing a taco
and Kristen Wiig a...hot dog bun. Get it?! Ironically, it seems this adult animated movie
will feature juvenile humor. Then on the opposite side of the spectrum we have Laika's next
stop motion masterpiece, Kubo and the Two Strings. Laika had a bit of a misfire with
ParaNorman and The Boxtrolls, so hopefully they've got another Coraline on their hands
here this Japanese folktale. They could run into some real bad PR though considering the
voice cast for this Japanese story is entirely white. And in September we have two animated
movies very tentatively set for the same release date, the 23rd. One is Storks over at Warner
Bros, written by Jason Segel's writing partner and sometime director Nick Stoller and set
to be directed by former Pixar animator Doug Sweetland. Then Sony Animation has a hold
on this date as well for an untitled project. Then for Thanksgiving, instead of Dreamworks
and Disney breaking bread they'll be both be trying to break box office records. At
the beginning of the month we have Trolls, where Dreamworks Animation hopes those weird
little nudists will have a second comeback after resurfacing in the 90s. But to help
with what looks like a hard sell, fan-favorites Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick will sing
their hearts out as our two leads. As for Thanksgiving weekend itself, that will see
the debut of Disney Animation's newest princess, Moana. Originally set for 2017, the film was
moved up to capitalize on Frozen mania. Dwayne Johnson will voice the Hawaiian demigod Maui,
but the voice of Moana has yet to be cast. Looks like Moana will be more like Frozen
than Disney would hope, as Frozen also struggled to come together until the very last minute.
But it, uh, definitely worked out. Then finally, speaking of putting a hold on release dates,
Illumination Entertainment has a hold on December 21st. Could it be that animated Grinch adaptation
they've been working on...? If so, odds are that for Christmas 2016 Illumination will
be getting a ridiculous amount of cash. And those are the animated movies set for 2016!
Crazy crowded, right? Which movies will you see in theaters, and which will you wait to
stream on the small screen? Write your thoughts down below. I'm Grace Randolph and this has
been a movie byte! And you can learn about other upcoming films, right now!