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Bugs, Daffy, and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang are about to tread the boards: Warner Bros. Animation will create Bye Bye Bunny: A Looney Tunes Musical for HBO Max and Cartoon Network.

The original animated family movie event will feature original song and dance numbers and new orchestrations from the Warner Bros. library of movie musicals. Here’s the logline: “After starring in a long-running Looney Tunes Broadway smash production, an exhausted Bugs Bunny decides it’s time to trade in sold-out shows for life as a regular rabbit. Ever the spotlight opportunist, Daffy Duck attempts to step into the lead role, but his star ambitions are quickly sidetracked when he is kidnapped by an obsessive fan who has more sinister plans for her favorite stage duck. With his ticket to Broadway retirement in danger, Bugs sets off on a rescue mission to find Daffy and, with the...

Bugs, Daffy, and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang will be back in a Broadway-set “Bye Bye Bunny: A Looney Tunes Musical,” the first-ever Looney Tunes Original animated movie musical, which is produced by Warner Bros. Animation.

Envisaged as a family event, “Bye Bye Bunny” will screen on HBO Max and Cartoon Network.

The announcement brought to a climax a mega studio focus on Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios Hanna -Barbera Studios Europe held at France’s Annecy Festival where the three studios presented an early look at some of their latest and greatest projects coming soon.

With a screenplay and lyrics by Emmy Award winner Ariel Dumas, a head writer on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and huge Looney Tunes fan, “Bye Bye Bunny” shows Warner Bros. Animation pursuing one of its main mandates: Drawing upon the studio’s voluminous library vault in animation and then...

China has dated a trio of studio movies for the early part of November, just as MGM/Eon/Universal’s No Time To Die bows today and with Warner Bros/Legendary’s Dune having opened last weekend. Notably, Disney’s Jungle Cruise will sail into the massive market on November 12. Before that, Paramount’s Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins rolls in on November 5 along with Sony Pictures Animation’s Vivo. The studios’ official Weibo accounts shared the dates.

The latter film, a musical directed by Kirk DeMicco, co-directed by Brandon Jeffords and with new songs written and performed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, has been available on Netflix since August 6 after the streamer licensed all global rights, sans China, from Sony. It’s carrying an early 6.5 on reviews site Douban.

Snake Eyes, likewise, is already available online elsewhere and has an early 4.3 on Douban. The Henry Golding-starrer began offshore rollout in...

After a year-long delay due to the pandemic, the Animation Is Film festival returns this year for its fourth edition, taking place Oct. 22-24. The festival will be held, as it traditionally has been, at the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood and will feature a competition lineup of the best animation films of the year, as well as other special events.

“If you look at the lineup, you’ll see that there are titles … that have played at Sundance and Cannes and Annecy, and the festival is an opportunity for everyone to see these films,” says Matt Kaszanek, director, Animation Is Film. “We’re really happy with the lineup we were able to put together this year in the strange times of 2021, so we’re really excited for the program and we hope everyone else is too.”

The festival kicks off with the North American premiere of the Netflix feature “The Summit of the Gods,...

The fourth edition of the Animation Is Film festival (Aif) returns in-person October 22-24 to the Tcl Chinese 6 in Hollywood, and will kick off opening night with the North American premiere of Netflix’s “The Summit of the Gods,” the breathtaking French 2D feature from director Patrick Imbert (“The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales”), who will do an in-person Q&a.

“The Summit of the Gods” (opening November 24 in select theaters and streaming November 30) is adapted from the popular manga and concerns a Japanese adventure photographer and mountain climber obsessed with finding a legendary climber obsessed with scaling Mount Everest.

Other highlights include the West Coast premieres of GKids’ “Belle” on October 23 and Neon’s award-winning “Flee” on October 24. “Belle” is the musical fantasy 2D reworking of “Beauty and the Beast” from Oscar-nominated anime master Mamoru Hosoda (“Mirai”), who will do an in-person Q&a. “Flee” (December 3) is the...

Lin-Manuel Miranda in the animated musical “Vivo” plays an adorable-looking kinkajou, or a “honey bear” native to the rain forest. And he’s been tasked with delivering a song and a love letter to a music superstar played by Gloria Estefan.

This first trailer for “Vivo” comes from Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation, and the film features new songs from the “Hamilton” creator as the kinkajou also named Vivo as he travels across the world. He teams up with an energetic tween girl to help him get to Estefan’s character and deliver a song that will change the world and help reconnect two former partners.

“Vivo” also stars in its voice cast Zoe Saldaña, Juan de Marcos, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael Rooker, Nicole Byer and newcomer Ynairaly Simo as Vivo’s plucky young travel companion.

Kirk DeMicco (“The Croods”) directs “Vivo,” which is co-directed by Brandon Jeffords and written...

Move over Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda has a new starring role.

Netflix has released the first trailer for “Vivo,” a colorful, animated musical with original songs written by Miranda.

The musical adventure follows a kinkajou (a rainforest “honey bear”) named Vivo, voiced by Miranda. Vivo spends his days playing music to the crowds in a lively Havana square with his beloved owner Andrés. Though they may not speak the same language, Vivo and Andrés are the perfect duo through their common love of music. But, tragedy strikes when Andrés receives a letter from his old partner, famous musician Marta Sandoval (Gloria Estefan), inviting him to attend her farewell concert in Miami. It soon becomes up to Vivo to deliver a message to Marta for Andrés in the form of song. To get to the distant land of Miami, Vivo enlists the help of Gabi (newcomer Ynairaly Simo) — an energetic teen...

“Vivo,” an animated movie that boasts new music from “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, is coming to Netflix.

The family friendly film was initially scheduled to release in theaters on June 4. But Sony Pictures, the studio that originally backed “Vivo,” has instead offloaded the project to Netflix. It’s unclear when it will debut on the streaming service.

Sony Pictures will retain all rights in China, along with home entertainment and linear television rights everywhere else, following periods of exclusivity on Netflix.

Netflix recently signed a lucrative deal with Sony, which gives the streamer exclusive U.S. rights to the studio’s theatrical releases in the first pay TV window. In addition, Netflix has a first-look deal with Sony’s offerings. However, the pact doesn’t commence until 2022 so it doesn’t include the sale of “Vivo.”

“Vivo” was directed by “The Croods” filmmaker Kirk DeMicco and co-directed by Brandon Jeffords.

Exclusive: Netflix has licensed all global rights, sans China, to Sony Pictures Animation’s Vivo. The movie, directed by Oscar nominee Kirk DeMicco (The Croods) and co-directed by Brandon Jeffords (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2) with new songs written and performed by Tony-winning Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, was recently scheduled for a theatrical release on June 4. The new drop date on Netflix is still to be determined.

I understand this is a similar deal to Netflix’s pickup of Sony’s Kevin Hart movie Fatherhood whereby Netflix gets the first window, which is streaming, and Sony will retain home entertainment and linear TV rights to all other territories, including China theatrical, after the pic’s exclusive run on the streamer.

Note the recent licensing of Sony’s Vivo by Netflix is outside the streamer’s new multi-year $1 billion deal with the Culver City studio. That deal commences in 2022, as previously reported,...