Toon In: Animation Highlights for March 2024, from Marvel’s X-Men ‘97 to The Casagrandes Movie
Photos Courtesy of Disney+, Peacock, and Netflix TV Lists animation
Welcome to the ink, paint, and pixel corner of Paste TV, where we’re highlighting some of the best premium animation projects on streaming or direct-to-video aimed for teens and adults. This monthly column not only provides an overview of the new animated series to check out, but we’ve also collected some of the finest creators and voice talents in the medium to give updates, or introductions, to their series.
Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate (March 1)
Long ago in 2010, DreamWorks Animation had a big hit with the alien supervillain comedy Megamind, featuring the voice work of Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, and Brad Pitt. Yet, unlike other early 2000s successes from the studio that went franchise, like How To Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda, a Megamind sequel never happened. However, Peacock has ushered in a new wave of DreamWorks projects, including a Megamind sequel and a series which continue the adventures of the cerulean super-brained former villain.
Both drop on the streamer March 1st, with Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate written by the 2010 film’s screenwriters, Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons, and directed by veteran animation director, Eric Fogel (Celebrity Deathmatch, Daria). While the series, Megamind Rules! is executive produced by the trio.
Simons tells Paste that they started on potential sequel ideas 15-years ago while they were making the original, but a sequel never coalesced. “There was always loose talk and chatter, but it didn’t really start seriously until about seven years ago. And even that was a little off and on.”
When the order finally came, Simons says there was a lot of discussion on what form that should take. “Eventually, that led to a movie following up the original film that springboards into the ongoing series, Megamind Rules!” he details.
Creating a CG animation sequel more than a decade later is both a blessing and a curse. While computer animation quality and costs have improved by leaps and bounds since 2010, it’s still a big ask to match theatrical animation standards for a smaller screen budget. As Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate takes place just a few days after the original film, Fogel says he wanted the visual to feel “fairly seamless” for audiences.
“I knew it would be a challenge on the TV budget, so I was rightfully nervous about it,” Fogel admits. “But with the technology improving so much, I feel like we really did approximate the look of our original film. Of course, having those original assets available was super helpful and we couldn’t have done it otherwise. Although, we did have to reskin and retexture everything because the technology had changed so much. There are a lot more polygons now than there were in 2010,” he chuckles.
The story follows a newly reformed Megamind (now voiced by Keith Ferguson) adjusting to a world where he helps people in Metro City, and isn’t the cause of all its problems. He’s getting help staying on the straight and narrow from reporter Roxanne Ritchi (Laura Post) and his BFF/sidekick, Minion… renamed to ‘Ol Chum (Josh Brener).
Yes, another thing that happens when a sequel doesn’t move forward is that new IP, like Illumination’s Despicable Me (which also opened in 2010) found their yellow minions turned into superstars. A decade of sitting dormant meant Megamind’s Minion was a problem. Simons says they used it as an opportunity to have fun with a name change.
“It’s a wink to the audience, gives a salute to the competition, a respectful salute, and also takes Minion, now Chum, to the next place, which is ultimately what the film is about,” Simons says with a smile.
The movie also adds a new kid-centric character in Keiko Morita (Maya Aoki Tuttle), a social media maven who chases Megamind around documenting his new hero work in town, while counseling him on his reoriented moral compass. Simons says she’s a way to refamiliarize audiences with Megamind’s story, and help bring in brand new eyes.
“Also, for our young audience, she’s a character to identify with,” Simons explains. “We remember as kids, Robin [of Batman] was the one we liked because you can imagine there’s that wish fulfillment of helping the superhero. But at the same time, we didn’t just want her to be cute and for exposition. Keiko has this wonderful journey through the movie and the series, that we don’t want to say too much about. She knows a lot, but she has something to learn just like Megamind, And just like we all do.”
Megamind Rules! (March 1)
Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate ends on a cliffhanger that rolls straight into the eight-episode series, Megamind Rules! Executive producers and creative overseers Alan Schoolcraft, Brent Simons, Eric Fogel charted the continuation of the story, and the carry-over of the visual style.
“We realized what a TV series gives us is this opportunity you don’t get to see in the movies,” Simons tells Paste. “What happens after you save the day? What happens after the origin story and you’re a hero? Well, it’s not all parades. It’s a day-to-day challenge. Especially for somebody like Megamind, who used to be a villain and is very childlike. It’s a learning process. And that’s ultimately what the show is. There’s endless potential for conflict and comedy just in that [setup].”
Fogel says the movie sequel also lays the creative groundwork for stories in the series that dig into minor characters, and areas of the city left unexplored. “We saw an opportunity in Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate as a follow up to be like, Megamind has just saved Metro City. Well, what’s Metro City? Through the course of the film, we introduce the people of Metro City, and we introduce these other characters and establish this makeshift family that Megamind finds, so that springboards into the series.”
And Fogel says Megamind Rules! doesn’t skimp on the action either. “My approach to every episode was that each one is like a mini movie,” he explains. “You definitely want to service the relationships. But you also want to have the big set pieces. Each episode delivers in maintaining that cinematic quality that we set up in the movie, which I think it’s gonna be really entertaining.”
Invincible Season 2, Part 2 (March 14)
The trials of the Grayson family continue with four more episodes in the second half of Prime Video’s Invincible Season 2. As bloody, brutal and complex as ever, Mark/Invincible (Steven Yeun) will pick up his problematic father’s mantle of protection for Earth with the impending threat of the Viltrum Empire. Meanwhile, Nolan (J.K. Simmons) is facing execution for the weakness of not wiping out his Earth family. And we’ll get a lot more of that mad portal man, Angstrom Levy (Sterling K. Brown), who has it out for Invincible. Less of a satire about superheroes like Prime Video’s live-action The Boys, Robert Kirkman’s adaptation of his comic book series is more like watching a hard-R superhero comic book show that goes deep with its mythology and doesn’t pull any punches in telling an adult story.
Marvel Animation’s X-Men ’97 (March 20)
One of the most beloved adaptations of the Marvel Comics X-Men universe remains FOX’s X-Men: The Animated Series that debuted in 1992 and ran for five seasons. Featuring complex characterizations of Professor X and his mutants, the series went on to inspire many comic book and animation artists, and even Marvel Studios executives. So when Marvel Studios launched its own Marvel Studios Animation arm for projects like What If…? and I Am Groot, they also ordered a continuation of that beloved animated series, titled X-Men ’97.
The first of a two-season order debuts March 20th, with 10 episodes that will drop weekly on Disney+. Featuring many returning voice cast members from the original series and consultation from OG showrunners Eric and Julia Lewald, X-Men ’97 will contemporize the mutant’s stories for 2024, yet stay close to the narrative style and look of X-Men: The Animated Series.
Taking on the Supervising Producer and Supervising Director role for X-Men ’97 is veteran animation director and storyboard artist Jake Castorena (The Death of Superman, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). He tells Paste his love for X-Men: The Animated Series goes back to his kiddom when he scored the Pizza Hut exclusive X-Men Night of the Sentinels VHS episodes, which then led him to the comics and the Konami X-Men game.
Now, he’s a grown up guiding the revival of the series with showrunner Beau DeMayo, directors Emi Yonemura and Chase Conley, and the Marvel Studios Animation team. Citing two things he believes got him the gig, one was his understanding of the phrase “fresh but familiar” in regards to this continuation and “spiritual successor” to the ‘90s series. And the second was his intention to utilize combinations of mutant powers and abilities in ways never seen before, without breaking canon. As an example, he cites the show’s trailer.
“When Gambit is igniting Wolverine’s claws with his kinetic energy, that’s actually something that wasn’t scripted,” he shares. “I boarded that in my pitch to try to get the job. I was just having fun. And then sure enough, Beau had a beat that wasn’t working and we put it in.”
Once hired, Castorena says a primary challenge was to figure out what makes X-Men: The Animated Series the animated series in the audience’s minds. “What makes us feel that nostalgia?” their team pondered. “What is the show that we remember versus how do we also keep it relevant today?”
At the same time, he says so many in the industry are pushing forward animated superhero storytelling from the Spider-Verse to Mutant Mayhem, and they didn’t want X-Men ’97 to not be ambitious in its own way. “We have to be relevant and, for lack of a better word, compete with what’s going on out there in keeping the audience’s interest,” he says. “But at the same time, you should be able to go watch the OG show and then go right into our show, because that’s been embedded in the script and in the formula, from our showrunner Beau, from day one.”
Subtly and research became key for the team in developing how they directed and storyboarded for the series. Castorena says that because it’s set in ‘97, they looked at the films of that year to draw visual inspiration. “What was hot at the time and considered a renaissance movie? What were the lenses being used?” he says of the questions asked. “Everything’s hand drawn here, but we have to hand draw and mimic lenses,” he explains. “So, I rely on our directors a lot to evoke that into the boards with their teams. Like when do we shoot with a compressed lens? When do we shoot with a wide lens?”
He continues, “Our mission statement for visuals was, when it comes to the staging and blocking of dialogue scenes with emotional weight, we lean heavily into the ’90s of it. We lean heavily into the OG show, and cut to those emotional close-ups. Get nice and gritty with expressions and let what the characters are going through come through because drama, drama, drama, right?”
“But when it comes to the action, that’s when we can go, what I like to say, ‘hog nasty, wild,’” he laughs. “That’s where we get to have fun. Not to say we don’t bring all the bells and whistles, but there is a certain amount of flourish and modernization that we have to be wary of. If you put too much icing on a cake, it’s bad for everybody, right? We’re working really hard to make sure we hit that very, very tight sandbox. But we get a lot of opportunities to think outside the box, while thinking inside of that box.”
When asked if fans should expect contained seasons of storytelling, Castorena teases, “What I can say is, I believe wholeheartedly audiences will be satisfied with how the story may, or may not, wrap up. Just like comics, there’s always threads. There’s always somebody’s cousin from another future just showing up,” he jokes. “You never know who’s connected to what, or how it’s gonna go. But what I will say is audiences should walk away from Season 1 very satisfied. And I would be remiss if I didn’t say that they should be looking forward to Season 2.”
The Casagrandes Movie (March 22)
In 2022, Nickelodeon’s The Loud House spinoff series, The Casagrandes, finished its three-season run. The middle grade series centered on the Santiago family—11-year old tomboy Ronnie Anne, her older brother and her mom—moving to Great Lakes City to live with their extended Casagrandes family of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins galore. Across 70 episodes, the series celebrated the small town family unit of Ronnie Anne’s big family, as she inched towards more of her own independence as a tween.
With Netflix’s The Casagrandes Movie, the voice cast and most of the series creatives (above and below the line), reunite to tell one last, epic-scaled story that sees Ronnie Anne turning 12 and, against her will, getting swept off to Mexico to bond with her mom and extended family in their ancestral town.
Producer Michael Rubiner (The Loud House) tells Paste that once the project was greenlit with director Miguel Puga, the idea that excited everyone was to tell a bigger story about Ronnie Anne and the Casagrandes.
“There was a desire to expand the world out of Great Lake City, which is where the series takes place, and to put them in a novel setting and obviously to make the stakes much bigger,” Rubiner says of their story aspirations. “We were always really interested in Ronnie’s Mexican heritage, so the idea of her going to Mexico and reconnecting with other generations of her family, and the roots of this Casagrandes family that came over from Mexico a couple generations ago, and going back to that town where they came from, seemed like a really rich area to explore. It also resonated with what we were trying to do in the series, too, which was to make a great, sweet, funny, Latino family comedy. But really get into the specificity of the Mexican American experience.”
“It also just seemed like a big, fun, exciting adventure that would give us a lot of new visual elements that we’ve never seen before in the series,” he continues. “To really blow it out in a big way.”
Rubiner says Puga and art director Miguel Gonzalez pushed the look of the movie with vibrant color palettes and Mesoamerican designs to introduce an ancient supernatural story about demigods that ends up paralleling Ronnie’s story in her visit to Mexico.
“They were super excited to enhance it visually and to give themselves the opportunity to branch out,” he details. “And it was certainly a new challenge for us to tell a story that big and have the supernatural elements too. How do you do that and still bring the audience along? That was a challenge and one we had to think about a lot. But I feel really happy with how it came together and I feel like it was successful.”
Tara Bennett is a Los Angeles-based writer covering film, television and pop culture for publications such as SFX Magazine, NBC Insider, SYFY Wire and more. She’s also written official books on Sons of Anarchy, Outlander, Fringe, The Story of Marvel Studios, Avatar: The Way of Water and the upcoming The Art of Ryan Meinerding. You can follow her on Twitter @TaraDBennett or Instagram @TaraDBen
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