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Giant Red Panda Express
The April Animation Must-Have List
A Personal History with Global Appeal: In February, Danish director Jonah Poher Rasmussen’s Flee set a new precedent for the recognition of animated films, scoring an Oscar nomination hat trick with nods in the Animated, Documentary and International Feature categories. Critics and festival juries around the world have raved about this powerful true story of an Afghan refugee confronting his trauma and identity, which in the English-language version stars Riz Ahmed and Nicolaj Coster-Waldau. The Blu-ray release includes a New York Film Festival Q&A with the director. Available March 1. (Decal/NEON, $15)
Ode to the Stage Spectacular: Soar on wire riggings of animated fancy with Illumination’s latest blockbuster, Sing 2. Directed again by Garth Jennings, the sequel follows Buster (Matthew McConaughey) and his troupe to a Vegas-y entertainment mecca, where they must convince a reclusive rock star (Bono) to join their ambitious new show. The all-star cast and soundtrack of wall-to-wall hits is overshadowed only by the sparkling CG animation, rendering a menagerie of animals in elaborate stage numbers or surprisingly subtle, emotional moments. Available March 29. (Universal, DVD $35 | BD $40 | 4K $50)
Romanian Retro: Mircea Toia and Călin Cazan’s wildly surreal sci-fi adventure Delta Space Mission (1984) is ready to thrill a new generation of audiences Stateside, thanks to a new 4K polish from Deaf Crocodile Films. Set in the year 3084, this blacklight poster-hued adventure follows an alien journalist named Alma who becomes the unwitting love interest of the AI running a state-of-the-art spacecraft — with disastrous results. A Heavy Metal-style mash-up of modern art, Eurodisco and Saturday morning cartoons, the Blu-ray release includes a new interview with Cazan, an essay by comicker/film historian Stephen Bissette and two (even rarer) cartoons from the DSM shorts series. Available March 29. (Grasshopper Films, $30) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: 85th Anniversary Edition
Disney Movie Club Exclusive, with new featurette 10 Ways Snow White Changed Animation Forever. (March 22 | DMC | $25)
Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san: Complete Series
Honestly, I am a little offended that no one told me about this slice-of-life comedy among the manga shelves sooner. (March 29 | Discotek | $40)
Supersized Creativity:
Awkward adolescence never looked so good as in the fluffy, luminous new Pixar feature from Oscar winner Domee Shi (Bao). The Art of Turning Red delves into the making of this deeply personal pic, which is both a terrifyingly relatable reflection of coming-of-age and an ode to the camaraderie and particular joys of growing up in the ‘90s. The 160-page hardcover is stuffed with character designs, storyboards, colorscripts, exclusive interviews and a dizzying array of inspirational eye candy. Studio head Pete Docter penned the foreword. (Chronicle Books | $43) Oceans of History: As a great illustrated man once said, “I yam what I yam,” and author Fred M. Grandinetti certainly yam one of the biggest Popeye connoisseurs on deck. His latest book, Popeye the Sailor: The 1960s TV Cartoons, picks up the story of E.C. Segar’s beloved character as the popularity of his theatrical shorts translated into TV superstardom with King Features and Paramount Cartoon Studios. This 230-page history covers the iconic animators who brought the 220 toons to life, characters, voice artists, spinoffs and more, including an episode guide organized by producer. What else would you expect from the co-founder of the Official Popeye Fan Club?! (BearManor Media | ebook $10, paperback $25)
Celebrate your favorite Disney earworm of the year with this fun, retro horror-style Vintage Bruno T-Shirt, inspired by Encanto. (TeePublic | 10 color options | $20)
Blast off with the new two-issue comic-book event, Radio Spaceman — a standalone steampunk space adventure from Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and Black Cloud artist Greg Hinkle. Monsters! Mystery! Excessive gear wheels! In space! (March 2 & April 6 | Dark Horse | $4 each)
— Mercedes Milligan
April Animation Planner
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Charlotte
1Sony/Marvel’s Morbius takes a bite out of the box office this weekend, starring Jared Leto as the Living Vampire.
3Poland’s Animocje received a record number of entries for 2022 — nearly three times as many as previous editions — so this year’s festival in the picturesque city of
Bydgoszcz is sure to be stellar. [animocje.com]
Morbius
4Cannes’ longrunning spring content market
MIPTV MIPTV
returns with a revamped three-day format. [miptv.com]
6Indie animation booster GLAS presents its five-day festival online this year. [glasanimation.com]
7Cardiff Animation Festival
presents 102 shorts in competition in the Welsh capital (Apr. 7-10) and online (Apr. 7-24). [cardiffanimation.com] 8 The Blue Blur races back to theaters in Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 — this time with Knuckles and Tails along for the hyperspeed hybrid adventure.
Sci-fi anime Tiger & Bunny returns to Netflix with the first 13 episodes of a sequel series. Meanwhile, Keith Knight hybrid comedy Woke S2 hits Hulu.
Tiger & Bunny
15 WB returns to the Wizarding World for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
22 Aaron Blabey’s best-selling critter crime caper The Bad Guys hits screens in a stylish adaptation by DreamWorks Animation, the feature directing debut of Pierre Perrifel.
The Bad Guys
On the indie ticket, Good Deed presents a limited U.S. release for artist biopic Charlotte, starring Kiera Knightley.
28 A strange apocalypse turns Tokyo into a gravitational playground in Netflix original anime movie Bubble, from Tetsuro Araki and WIT Studio.
Bubble
Bill Plympton Ron Clements
30 Happy birthday to the King of Indie Animation, Bill Plympton, and Disney director Ron Clements (on the 25th)! April also marks the birth anniversaries of late animation icons Walter Lantz (27th), Norman McLaren (11th), Frédéric Back (8th), Oliver Postgate (12th), Yasuhiro Takemoto (5th), Jack Stokes (2nd) and Iwao Takamoto (29th), to name a few.
