In a brief interview in Variety discussing animation strategy, the new pic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and her own career arc, Nickelodeon Animation & Paramount Animation President Ramsey Naito clarified a statement made by Brian Robbins about the future of original animation at the studio which caused some uproar in the toon community.
In a cover story for the trade, Robbins was quoted saying, “We’re not going to release an expensive original animated movie and just pray people will come.” Filmmakers like Guillermo del Toro and Christopher Miller — evangelists of the ‘animation is cinema’ message — took to social media to decry the implied abandonment of non-IP films.
Noting that Robbins was “one of the creators who really helped define the [Nickelodeon] brand” and his instatement as CEO of Paramount was a major factor in her decision to join the studio, Naito clarified that Paramount/Nickelodeon is not cutting original concepts out of its animated feature slate.
Acknowledging that “we [at Paramount] have to be careful about the concepts we decide to embrace for theatrical and make sure they are big and juicy and that there’s hooks in them,” Naito explained:
“We are absolutely committed to making original animated films and are in development on a handful of projects. Brian and I believe we are nothing without fresh voices, faces and narratives and it’s our responsibility to add new perspectives, modern characters, and vernacular to our culture of storytelling. Originals speak authentically to today’s audience, must be handled with care, and make their own mark in our legacy library… and hopefully stand the test of time. That said, we’re not a one-size-fits-all kind of studio and our budgets are designed to support the scope of our storytelling.”
For those curious about Nick’s mega-IP, SpongeBob SquarePants, Naito also shared that the SpongeBob Universe will continue to expand with more spinoff series and a raft of movies in the works for both Paramount+ streaming and theatrical release. Paramount/Nickelodeon has Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie directed by animation newcomer Liza Johnson (Elvis & Nixon, The Last of Us, A Series of Unfortunate Events [2019]) slated for 2024, and The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants helmed by veteran animator/SpongeBob comics story writer Derek Drymon (Hotel Transylvania: Transformania).
“The next one is going to be set in the deep sea, somewhere the series has never gone before. And the plan is that, like Avatar 2 or Wakanda Forever, we’re going to be immersed in this extraordinary underwater world,” Naito revealed.
You can ready Naito’s full interview here.
