Netflix Animated Films 2023–2024: First Look!

After Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio won Best Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film, Netflix has released a list of animated movies that are coming up this year or next year. Netflix has announced nine animated films that you really must see over the next 18 months in their blog.

Highlights include the announcements of an ensemble voice cast for the summer 2023 release of NIMONA as well as two new feature films, SAVING BIKINI BOTTOM: THE SANDY CHEEKS MOVIE and IN YOUR DREAMS, both of which will be released in 2024. Netflix features animated films for everyone in any movie mood, whether your family wants to laugh along with their favorite characters or is prepared to go on a fantasy adventure in an exciting new world.

“The animated movies that make up this formidable roster dropping in 2023 and 2024 don’t belong to any single genre — these films include everything from an epic high-tech medieval adventure to a chicken-led prison break. Get ready for a very animated year. You can check out the full list below.” the announcement said.

Nimona

Nimona is a naughty teen who also happens to be a shape-shifting beast that a knight in a future medieval world has promised to destroy. Nimona is the only one who can help the knight establish his innocence after he is falsely accused of committing a crime.

Director: Troy Quane and Nick Bruno

“Nimona is about a shapeshifting monster who befriends the disgraced Knight sworn to destroy her,” directors Bruno and Quane tell Tudum. “While the film itself is an amazing adventure comedy that we are sure everyone will love, what we love most about it, is that at its heart, it’s a story about acceptance. A movie about being seen for who you truly are and how even the most unlikely friendships can help you survive the toughest battles. A love letter to all those who’ve ever felt that universal feeling of being misunderstood or like an outsider trying to fit in.”

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Monkey King

A charming monkey and his magical fighting stick battle 100 demons, an oddball Dragon King, and the monkey’s greatest enemy of all: his own ego in the action-packed family comedy The Monkey King. Along the journey, he is confronted by a young village girl who questions his egocentricity and demonstrates to him how even the smallest stone may have a significant impact on the globe.
Anthony Stacchi is the filmmaker.

“Early in my animation career, I had the opportunity to work in Asia and became a huge fan of Asian cinema, Hong Kong kung fu films, and especially the films of Stephen Chow,” director Anthony Stacchi tells Tudum. “It has been a long-time dream of mine to work on a Monkey King film, and bring this unique character and fantastic story to a global audience.”

Leo

In this coming-of-age animated musical comedy about the final year of elementary school, as seen through the eyes of a class pet, actor and comedian Adam Sandler (Hotel Transylvania, The Wedding Singer) delivers characteristic laughs. Leo, a jaded 74-year-old lizard, and Bill Burr’s turtle, his terrarium mate, have spent decades being confined to the same Florida classroom. When he finds he only has a year to live, he intends go to experience life outside of his small town, but he ends up becoming entangled in the issues of his worried pupils, including an improbably cruel replacement teacher. It turns out to be the most unusual but rewarding bucket list ever.

Robert Marianetti, Robert Smigel, and David Wachtenheim are the directors.

“We’ve collaborated on many crazy projects, going back to the SNL TV Funhouse cartoons, but Leo is a little different,” directors Marianatti, Smigel and Wachtenheim tell Tudum. “It’s silly and funny, but, aside from the central character being a very old class pet, our story is also about honest emotions and situations that every kid (and parent) experiences in elementary school. People of all ages will relate to it. And so will talking lizards!”

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is the eagerly awaited follow-up to the beloved and highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time, Chicken Run. It comes from the multiple Academy and BAFTA award-winning Aardman (Creature Comforts, Wallace & Gromit, and Shaun the Sheep) and Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated director Sam Fell (ParaNorman and Flushed Away). After achieving a life-saving escape from Tweedy’s farm, Ginger has, at last, discovered her ideal – a tranquil island haven for the entire flock, away from the perils of the outside world. Ginger’s happy ending appears to be complete when she and Rocky give birth to a daughter they call Molly. However, the entire chicken species is now exposed to a new, terrible threat back on the mainland.
Sam Fell is the director.

“Chicken Run was such a brilliantly crafted movie; radiating warmth and humor from the heart of a high-stakes drama,” Fell tells Tudum. “I was really excited to bring these classic characters and their world back to life… and get to dream up some new twists to their story. They’re as fresh and funny as the day they were born and the underlying themes of freedom and community are more relevant than ever.” 

In Your Dreams

A flawless family? Getting along siblings? In your dreams, for sure. In this humorous fantasy tale, Stevie and her brother Elliot magically enter the realm of dreams on a quest to meet the Sandman, who will grant them their greatest wish—saving their parents’ union.

Due to their complete differences, the kids make an odd team to explore the craziness of their own minds. They learn from their experiences that they can overcome anything as long as they have each other, even their scariest nightmares.
Director: Erik Benson and Alex Woo

Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie

Sandy Cheeks and SpongeBob SquarePants travel to Texas to defend the town from a wicked scheme after Bikini Bottom and all of its residents are abruptly scooped out of the water in Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie.

Liza Johnson is the director.

That Christmas

Simon Otto, a renowned character animator and veteran story artist (Love, Death & Robots, the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy), makes his feature film directorial debut with Locksmith Animation’s endearing film, which is based on the popular series of children’s books by BAFTA winner and Academy Award nominee Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually, Yesterday).

A string of interconnected stories of love and loneliness, family and friends, Santa Claus making a tremendous error, as well as a huge number of turkeys, are told after that Christmas. Producers include Adam Tandy (The Thick of It, Detectorists) and Nicole P. Hearon (Moana, Frozen).
Simon Otto is the director.

Thelma the Unicorn

Thelma is a sideshow pony with aspirations of becoming a famous singer. Thelma becomes a unicorn in an unexpected turn of fate that is pink and glitter-filled, catapulting her to sudden fame across the globe. However, this newfound fame has a price.

Thelma the Unicorn, from directors Lynn Wang (Unikitty!) and Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite), is a heartwarming, eccentric, and entertaining trip.
The directors are Lynn Wang and Jared Hess.

Ultraman

The plot of the Netflix series Ultraman, which is based on the well-known Japanese character, follows baseball legend Ken Sato as he travels back to his native Japan to assume the role of the superhero Ultraman, who defends the planet.

When he is made to raise the children of his greatest enemy, he quickly discovers more than he anticipated. In order to overcome his ego and learn what it truly means to be an Ultraman, Ken must embark on a hero’s journey while juggling fatherhood, his estranged father, and the unrelenting Kaiju Defence Force.
Shannon Tindle is the director.
John Aoshima is a co-director.

While the dates of these movies are not yet told, we look forward to watching them ahead for sure!