News Shorts: Muhammad Ali Enters The WWE Books As Hall Of Famer For 2024, Dora The Movie 2 Is Reportedly In Development By Paramount Alongside A New Animated Feature Film Based On The Super Mario Movie

Muhammad Ali is now an inductee

As reported by Variety, Muhammad Ali will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2024.

One of the most iconic figures in sports history, the three-time World Heavyweight Boxing Champion and Olympic gold medalist was known around the world for his charisma, his confidence, and his ability to back it up inside the ropes.

Known simply as “The Greatest”, Ali’s influence transcended sports as his work as an activist, artist, and personality established him as one of the most renowned figures in the entire world.

Second Dora movie in the works 

According to Insider Daniel Richtman on Patreon, Paramount is developing ‘Dora The Movie 2,’ titled ‘Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado.’ Isabela Merced and the rest of the cast will not be returning, as the film will feature a whole new cast.

The production is set to begin this fall, with a scheduled release date in 2025. However, the director has not yet been announced.

Recently, Nickelodeon released a new trailer for the CG-animated series ‘Dora,’ comprising 26 11-minute episodes, all of which will be available on Paramount+ on April 12, 2024. The plot follows, “With all-new CG animation and imaginative character-driven storylines, the upcoming DORA series follows everyone’s favorite bilingual explorer, Dora (Diana Zermeño), and her best monkey friend, Boots (Asher Colton Spence), as they embark on epic adventures in a fantastical rainforest. 

New Mario film is hitting theaters

The Super Mario Bros. Movie was a huge hit for Nintendo, raking in over $1 billion at the box office, so producing a follow-up movie was an easy decision to make. In a new video, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto and Illumination Entertainment’s Chris Meledandri shared that the next movie is in development, with a release date set for April 3rd, 2026.

Meledandri says Illumination Studios Paris, which worked on the first film, is storyboarding the movie under the direction, once again, of Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic. He added that animation is starting soon. And after the movie’s April 3rd release in the US “and many other markets globally,” it will come to “select territories” throughout the rest of the month.

Miyamoto says that the movie will “have a bright and fun story” that expands on the world established in the first movie.

Regular Nick Shorts: ALVINNN!!! And The Chipmunks Wraps Production On Nickelodeon, Classic 80s Game Monster In My Pocket Is Being Transformed Into A Live-Action Series And Toyline RoboForce Is Getting An Animated Series

ALVINNN!!! And The Chipmunks comes to a close

ALVINNN!!! and The Chipmunks has reportedly ended production. In a recent interview with Billboard, Ross Bagdasarian Jr., the son of the creator of Alvin and The Chipmunks, revealed that production on ALVINNN!!! and The Chipmunks officially finished "last year."

ALVINNN!!! and The Chipmunks is currently in its fifth season on Nickelodeon channels globally, with the show being renewed for seasons six and seven in 2019. It's currently unknown whether these seasons got produced before the cancelation.

Alvin and the Chipmunks was created by Bagdasarian Jr.’s father, Ross Bagdasarian Sr., in 1958 as a children’s music act. The Alvin Show began in 1961, featuring the three animated singing chipmunks — Alvin, Simon and Theodore — with sped-up voices to give them their trademark high-pitched sound. Several iterations of TV shows and films followed, including an Alvin and the Chipmunks movie in 2007 and three sequels. The current series is produced by Bagdasarian Productions - run by Bagdasarian Jr. and his wife, Janice Karman - in collaboration with Mikros Animation IP (previously Technicolor Animation Productions).

Monster In My Pocket is being revived

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook Studios and Altar Rock Pictures have teamed up to develop a live-action series adaptation.

The two companies are currently meeting with writers to turn the collection of over 200 pocket-sized, collectible monsters, drawn from global myths and legend, into a series.

The brand was launched in 1989 by former Mattel execs Joe Morrison and John Weems, and have sold over 500M units globally. It has been turned into an ABC animated TV special, comic books and a Nintendo game.

RoboForce: The Animated Series is in development

The Nacelle Company has partnered with Seven Bucks Productions, the studio helmed by Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia, to co-produce RoboForce: The Animated Series. 

Nacelle announced its intention to finance the development and production of RoboForce, which is based on an ’80s toy line from the now-defunct Ideal Toy Company. Nacelle acquired the brand from Toyfinity in 2021, and released a small line of adult-targeted collectibles last year (pictured) that are selling well online and in specialty retailers across North America, Japan, Europe and Australia. 

RoboForce: The Animated Series follows lead bot Maxx 89 as he tries to reassemble the heroic crew and battle against a rogue entity infecting the Earth’s robots with code that turns them against humans. 

Roundups 101: Disney Animation Television Unveils Upcoming Series Kiff, First Look At HBO Max Upcoming Series Velma And Chris Pratt Is Super Mario In Explosive Sneak Peek

Kiff currently in production, slated for 2023

Kimiko Glenn (“Orange Is the New Black”) and H. Michael Croner (“Craig of the Creek”) have been cast as voice-over co-stars in Disney Branded Television’s upcoming animated series “Kiff,” which will premiere in 2023 on the Disney Channel.

“Set in a world where animals and magical oddballs tackle day-to-day life alongside one another, the series follows Kiff and Barry as they navigate school, relationships and their often eccentric community,” according to the show’s longline. Music will also play a role in the series, with a new original song in every episode.

Besides Heavens and Smal, the show’s creative team includes co-producer and story editor Kent Osborne (“Phineas and Ferb” “Adventure Time”), who will serve as co-producer and story editor, and Winnie Chaffee (“Captain Planet and the Planeteers”) as producer. “Kiff” is produced by Titmouse in association with Disney Channel.

Velma is getting an origin story

There's been a lot of chat about Scooby Doo's Velma Dinkley lately, largely because the release of Amazon Prime's Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!(opens in a new tab) revealed that the character is gay. Fans rejoiced, and so did Google.

So there's more than enough intrigue to fuel HBO Max's Velma, an entirely separate work that intends to play out as an origin story for Velma and the rest of the gang. The adult animated series will not feature the beloved, mystery-loving dog Scooby.

The titular character is voiced by Mindy Kaling, whose sass and signature charm do wonders for the role, at least from what the teaser suggests. Kaling co-created he series alongside Charlie Grandy.

Nintendo is launching another feature film

Start gearing up your (animated) engines, because another film based on Nintendo’s Super Mario video game franchise is coming out soon. The movie, which is officially titled The Super Mario Bros. Movie, is an animated project with a voice cast made up of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Plans for the next Mario film started way back in 2016, but production didn’t officially kick off until 2020. This is the third feature film adaption of the video game franchise. The first was the 1986 anime film, Super Mario Bros: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! That was followed by the 1993 live-action film Super Mario Bros., which starred Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper, and Samantha Mathis.

The Super Mario film will be released in theaters on April 7, 2023 in the United States. The movie was previously scheduled to come out December 21, 2022, but it was delayed by a few months.

 

Roundups #76: The Boys Spinoff Gets Official Title, The Little Mermaid Preschool Series Is Rumoured To Be In Development And Nintendo To Launch Animation Studio

Gen Z is currently underway on Amazon Prime Video

Get your superhero suits ready and head on down to Vought International because Amazon’s college-based spinoff of “The Boys” has an official title: “Gen V.”

The title is a clever reference to today’s youthful Gen Z and the show’s super power-giving chemical known as compound V. Cast members announced the title in a new video shared on social media.

Set at America’s only college exclusively for young-adult superheroes (owned and operated by Vought International, of course), “Gen V” is “an irreverent, R-rated series that explores the lives of hormonal, competitive Supes as they put their physical, sexual and moral boundaries to the test, competing for the best contracts in the best cities,” per Prime Video. It’s part college show, part “Hunger Games” with the same raunchy satirical tone of “The Boys.”

 

The Little Mermaid is preschool

According to some new trademarks that have been listed, Disney Junior is also working on a new project, called “Ariel”, which is likely to be a new version of “The Little Mermaid” for pre-school ages.

There are a number of trademarks being applied for, including for entertainment services; education services; distribution services and production services.  In addition to trademarks for a large number of merchandise items, clothing, footwear and headwear.  In addition to paper products and non-medicated cosmetics.

Disney hasn’t officially announced that it is developing a new pre-school series, “Disney Junior Ariel”, but with the new live-action film and it being over 30 years since the original animated film was released, these trademark listings do indicate that Disney is planning a major new campaign of merchandise and entertainment services.

 

Nintendo becomes an animation studio

Nintendo has announced the acquisition of Dynamo Pictures, an animation studio in Tokyo that collaborated on several animated Pikmin shorts that premiered on the Nintendo 3DS. Renamed Nintendo Pictures, the studio will continue to work on the “development of visual content utilizing Nintendo IP,” according to the company’s press release.

“Nintendo has decided to acquire 100 percent of the outstanding shares (excluding treasury shares) of Dynamo Pictures and make it a wholly owned subsidiary to strengthen the planning and production structure of visual content in the Nintendo group.”

They have a working relationship with Illumination, the studio behind the popular Minions franchise. The animated Chris Pratt-led Super Mario Bros. movie spawned from that partnership will release in 2023, barring any future delays.