Canadian animation company ICON Creative Studio has signed Owen Wilson (Cars, Wedding Crashers) to voice “Charlie” in the CG superhero adventure Charlie the Wonderdog. After 30 years’ working in CG animation with such clients as Disney+, Disney Jr., Netflix, Sony, Warner Bros., Pixar and more, ICON is nearing post-production for this star-powered CG-animated feature, with release slated for Q2 of 2025.
Charlie the Wonderdog‘s director & producer Shea Wageman (Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, Monsters at Work, Rocket Club Across the Cosmos), President of ICON Creative Studio, and producer Carson Loveday (Monsters at Work, Young Jedi Adventures), closed the deal with Wilson’s team ahead of the 2024 American Film Market (AFM).
Known for his roles in hit comedies like Wedding Crashers and Zoolander, and as Lightning McQueen in Cars, Wilson joins the cast alongside Canadian voice-over actor Tabitha St. Germain (My Little Pony, The Care Bears, Monsters High), Ruairi McDonald (The Man in the High Castle), Dawson Littman (CoComelon Lane) and Zac Bennett-McPhee.
“It’s been a wonderful journey developing this project in house and having so many of our talented animators contributing daily to the film’s gags that are going to be giving the film so many laugh-out-loud moments and Owen’s hilarious performance had us in stiches,” said Wageman.
Loveday added, “With Owen Wilson’s amazing performance we have a true, four-quadrant animated feature with Charlie the Wonderdog that will be both funny and heartfelt.”
Beverly Hills-based worldwide sales agent Cinema Management Group (CMG) brought Charlie the Wonderdog to AFM 2023, and has since secured 17 international pre-sales over the past 12 months to territories including France, Germany, Spain, Benelux, Portugal, Turkey, Poland, Ukraine, Baltics, Czech and Slovak Republics, Romania, Former Yugoslavia, the Middle East, Israel, Taiwan, Philippines and Vietnam.
“We’re really thrilled that Owen Wilson has come on board to voice Charlie,” added Edward Noeltner, President of CMG. “Audiences love Wilson because he always brings such a great, distinctive performance to every role and he knocked it out of the ballpark with his performance of Charlie!”
Synopsis: The superhero adventure follows a studious nine-year old named Danny and his favorite canine in the whole world — his dog, Charlie. When Charlie gets kidnapped by a group of pesky aliens, he fortunately returns home with unknown superpowers. In unbelievable shock Danny finds his family pet has turned into a real-live Superhero! All is fun and games until Puddy, the sinister cat next door, and his unlikely canine side-kick Cookie, arrange a diabolical plan to pollute the human food chain and destroy humanity. Danny and Charlie must act fast and figure out how to use Charlie the Wonderdog’s superhero powers to save the world!
The new feature film is slated alongside ICON’s recent projects produced in partnership with Pixar / Disney+ (Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, Ariel, Monsters at Work), Nickelodeon (Transformers: EarthSpark) and Netflix (Action Pack, Super Monsters), with recent Emmy wins for Monsters at Work and eight Emmy wins for Disney’s Elena of Avalor.
