(Image courtesy of The Tracking Board)
Yesterday, we told you about how Nickelodeon might be planning to revive a number of classic shows from its 90’s library. But as it turns out, Viacom (Nickelodeon’s parent company) may have bigger aspirations for the properties beyond the small screen.
As originally reported by The Tracking Board before being picked up everywhere else, Paramount Pictures is in the early stages of developing a ‘massive’ live-action/animated hybrid crossover film where iconic characters from many of your favorite 90’s Nick shows (Hey Arnold, Rugrats, Rocko’s Modern Life, Ren and Stempy, etc.) will come together for what is being billed as an Avengers/Justice League-style team-up story, with the film titled (appropriately enough) Nicktoons.
Mary Parent, an established producer for Paramount who had a helping hand in driving The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water to critical and commercial success, will lead the charge on this film as she and Cale Boyter will produce via her Disruption Entertainment banner. Nickelodeon Movies will also produce, while Elizabeth Raposo will oversee the project for Paramount.
The studio is currently in talks with a number of different writers as they look for someone who can tackle a story of this size and with that many characters, who all come from beloved properties. Story-wise, Nicktoons draws influence from films like The LEGO Movie, Wreck-it Ralph, Space Jam, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but in terms of its general tone, the film will follow a model similar to The Lego Movie, employing a self-referential bent in its humor.
It is currently unknown as to whether or not the ‘animated’ portion of the film will be CG or not, but sources close to the project tell The Tracking Board that the studio does not intend to ‘update’ the classic characters for a modern audiences (which is what Nickelodeon plans to do with its TV reboots), but rather they want to do a fun adventure romp (again, not too dissimilar to The LEGO Movie) that takes a new approach to reintroducing these characters to new audiences while pleasing old fans.
Yep, it definitely looks to be every bit as insane, trippy, and off-the-wall as it sounds on paper. But then, The LEGO Movie was also insane, trippy, and off-the-wall and became an unexpected hit for Warner Bros. With the right writer and the right director, that approach might also pay off for Paramount.
Now, only time will tell if either this film or the planned TV reboots will prove effective in exposing newer audiences to classic Nick properties.
What do you think? Any thoughts on Nicktoons? In a post-Lego Movie environment, do you think this film will work at all?
Edited by: Kelly Conley
