DreamWorks Animation and Universal Announce Two New Films for 2021: “Spirit” and “The Bad Guys”

DreamWorks Animation and Universal Announce Two New Films for 2021: “Spirit” and “The Bad Guys”

October 7th, 2019

Jerry Beck

DreamWorks Animation and Universal Pictures today announced two new films for 2021: On Friday, May 14th, 2021, Universal Pictures will releasean an untitled Spirit Riding Free theatrical feature. On Friday, September 17th, 2021, Universal Pictures will release DreamWorks Animation’s The Bad Guys. Spooky Jack, previously dated for September 17th, 2021, is now unset. It will be rescheduled for a later release.

THE BAD GUYS

After a lifetime of pulling legendary heists, five notorious bad guys—Mr. Wolf, Mr. Snake, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Shark and Ms. Tarantula—attempt their most challenging job yet…going good. Nobody has ever failed so hard at trying to be good as The Bad Guys, an all-new animated feature film from DreamWorks Animation.

Based on the bestselling Scholastic blockbuster book series by Aaron Blabey, which has more than 8.2 million copies in print worldwide, The Bad Guys is directed by Pierre Perifel (director, DWA award-winning short Bilby; animator, the Kung Fu Panda films), making his feature-directing debut, from a script by Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder, Get Hard) and Hilary Winston (NBC’s Community and ABC’s Happy Endings). The film is produced by Damon Ross (co-producer, Nacho Libre) and Rebecca Huntley (co-producer Abominable, associate producer, The Boss Baby). The executive producers are Blabey, Cohen, Patrick Hughes and Jeff Berg.

UNTITLED SPIRIT RIDING FREE FILM

An epic adventure about the unbreakable bond between a girl and a wild stallion, Spirit Riding Free is the next film in the popular motion-picture and animated television series franchise from DreamWorks Animation.

When headstrong Lucky Prescott is forced to move from her big city home to a small frontier town, she becomes a complete fish-out-of-water. But her life is changed forever when she makes new friends and forms an inseparable bond with a wild mustang named Spirit. When Spirit’s herd is captured by rustlers, the girls and their horses must undertake the adventure of a lifetime to save them.

DreamWorks Animation Television’s Netflix original series, on which the film is based, was itself inspired by the 2002 Oscar-nominated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, narrated by Oscar-winner Matt Damon. The Emmy-winning series launched in May 2017 and currently, 52 episodes are available on the platform, with more episodes and content scheduled for this fall and 2020.

This new theatrical film is directed by Elaine Bogan (director, Tales of Arcadia: Trollhunters and 3 Below, Dragons: Race to the Edge) and is produced by Karen Foster (co-producer, How To Train Your Dragon). Ennio Torresan (head of story, Abominable and The Boss Baby) serves as co-director.

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Jerry Beck

Writer, cartoon producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. A former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney; currently on the faculty at both CalArts in Valencia and Woodbury University in Burbank, California.