Fans of Roald Dahl’s The Twits got to meet the delightfully despicable stars of the book’s first-ever screen adaptation today, in a first-look image unveiled by Netflix. Animated by BAFTA, Emmy and Annie Award-winning studio Jellyfish Pictures (The Boss Baby, The Bad Guys), the film is due to release in 2025.
The Twits is written and directed by Academy Award nominee Phil Johnston (Ralph Breaks the Internet, Wreck-It Ralph, Zootopia), and will be the first animated feature in Netflix’s lineup of Dahl adaptations, which kicks off with Wes Anderson’s live-action short The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and will be followed by an animated Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Netflix acquired the Roald Dahl Story Company in September 2021.
Synopsis: Mr. and Mrs. Twit are the meanest, smelliest, nastiest people in the world who also happen to own and operate the most disgusting, most dangerous, most idiotic amusement park in the world, Twitlandia. But when the Twits rise to power in their town, two brave orphans and a family of magical animals are forced to become as tricky as the Twits in order to save the city.
A hysterically funny, wild ride of a film (chock-full of the Twits’ beloved tricks–from the Wormy Spaghetti to the Dreaded Shrinks), The Twits is also a story for our times, about the never-ending battle between cruelty and empathy.
“I’ve always been attracted to reprehensible characters,” says Johnston. “I don’t know what this says about me, and I really don’t want to look into it. Point is, The Twits was my favorite book when I was a kid. I love the Twits and their terrible tricks. I love that they lack self-awareness and personal hygiene and any inkling of human decency. And I love this movie because it reminds us that twits like the Twits, whose default emotions are anger and vengeance, can’t be allowed to win in our world.”
Netflix’s The Twits is being co-directed by Katie Shanahan (Centaurworld) and Todd Demong (head of story, The Addams Family), written by Johnston and Meg Favreau, produced by Jonston and Maggie Malone with Daisy West as co-producer.
