The trend of celebrity actors voicing animated characters continues with announcements for two wildly different upcoming films, Foxy Trotter and White Fang.
Foxy Trotter is set to be the first animated movie financed and produced by Bold Films, and will star Natalie Portman both as a voice actress and producer. The titular character rides a motorcycle and photographs rock n’ roll stars in the early 1970s, with the goal of capturing that perfect shot. Portman voices Foxy’s best friend Ronnie, who is seduced and offered as a sacrifice by Foxy’s evil archrival Gunter, who plans on destroying the universe.
“Foxy Trotter is a wild mix of Barbarella meets Sausage Party meets Easy Rider,” explained Chris Pryonski of animation studio Titmouse. So that suggests part sexy fantasy adventure, part raunchy comedy, and part road trip drama? It’s definitely an interesting mash-up, which will in no doubt be assisted by Portman’s star power.
“We are thrilled to launch this inventive, sexy, psychedelic, hilarious, female-oriented animated film with such a glowingly talented star and producer like Natalie Portman,” said producer Michel Litvak of Bold Films.
Foxy Trotter will be directed by Chris Pryonski of Titmouse, with the script written by Jess Rotter, Michael Reich, Jessica Hundley, and Mike Pinkney. Portman will produce alongside Bold Films’ Litvak and Gary Michael Walters, Titmouse’s Chris and Shannon Pryonski and Ben Kalina, as well as Reich and Rotter.
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Parks and Recreation alumni Rashida Jones and Nick Offerman joined the voice cast of the upcoming animated film White Fang. The movie is based on the 1906 book of the same name by Jack London, in which a wolf-dog born in the wild is torn between living freely or in domestication with humans. Jones and Offerman will voice the human couple Maggie and Weedon Scott, who try to domesticate the canine.
White Fang is directed by Oscar winner Alexandre Espirages, and produced by Big Beach in the U.S., Superprod in France, and Bidibul Productions in Luxembourg. The screenplay was written by Dominique Monfery (animation director on Illumination’s The Secret Life of Pets) and Serge Frydman. Marc Turtletaub and Peter Saraf of Big Beach will produce in the U.S., Clément Calvet and Jérémie Fajner (both behind Oscar-nominated Song of the Sea) will produce at Superprod in France, and Lilian Eche and Christel Henon at Bidibul in Luxembourg.
The film is set for a March 2018 release in France, and is being presented at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, California in early November. No other international dates have been announced.
Via Variety, Deadline, and Animation Magazine.
