Last year spoiled us: 2023 finally delivered Nimona, the first Miyazaki movie in a decade, thwips Across the Spider-Verse, and shocking, often poignant anime series — to say nothing of Scavengers Reign or Unicorn: Warriors Eternal. But with a new year comes new animated diversions, and 2024 has plenty. Superhero mayhem, a long-awaited anime series, and a Charlie Kaufman–directed kids’ movie are on their way, and that gets us only as far as February. Later in the year, we’ll get Inside Out 2, yet another Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles entry, and an early Christmas gift called The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Did we mention a bunch of other titles still don’t have release dates and could — theoretically, at least — drop as early as January? Make way for the most exciting upcoming animated films and series of 2024.
January
Solo Leveling
Crunchyroll, January 6
One of the most-hyped action anime of 2024, Solo Leveling is based on the Korean web novel and manhwa of the same name by the artists Chugong and Dubu. In its world, bounty hunters with unnatural strength face the forces of evil found in gates that straddle the human world and the magic world — their bounties often seemingly ripped straight out of a Legend of Zelda art book. The story follows Sung Jinwoo, a hunter with the lowest rank in the bunch, as he tries to level up his skills and make his way in this violent world.
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths
VOD, January 9
Multiversal superhero shenanigans may sound old hat these days, but in a way, this is the story that started them all. Crisis on Infinite Earths adapts the DC Comics saga of the same name, the granddaddy of caped crossovers and one of the most important brand resets of all time. For this adaptation, Warner Bros. Animation is stretching the story out across three films, the first of which drops in January.
In the Know With Lauren Caspian
Peacock, January 25
A new animated series from King of the Hill and Beavis and Butt-head creator Mike Judge, set in the world of public radio, would be a convincing enough pitch in its own right. But In the Know With Lauren Caspian isn’t just any animated series; it’s in super-detailed stop-motion, grotesque and fascinating, looking like something in between Anomalisa and The Shivering Truth (which its animation studio, ShadowMachine, also made). Zach Woods voices the titular Lauren, the (male) host of a radio interview show, which brings us to the second-most exciting thing about the show: He interviews real celebrities, who appear in a Zoom window on his computer monitor, Space Ghost Coast to Coast style. —Rebecca Alter
Masters of the Universe: Revolution
Netflix, January 25
He-Man and his nemesis, Skeletor, return to the small screen in this latest trip to the Masters of the Universe, uh, universe. Kevin Smith is producing, and Powerhouse Animation, which handled the art for Netflix’s acclaimed Castlevania series, are behind the animation, but the stacked voice cast is probably the most exciting thing the five-episode miniseries has going for it. Diedrich Bader, Melissa Benoist, Liam Cunningham, Keith David, Mark Hamill, Lena Headey, and William Shatner star among other genre and fantasy veterans. In the new series, He-Man (Bader) faces the warlords Hordak (David) and Skeletor (Hamill), who has apparently been cyborg’d into a robotic version of himself.
February
Orion and the Dark
Netflix, February 2
Charlie Kaufman returns to Netflix, where he last made the morbid and idiosyncratic I’m Thinking of Ending Things, with a kids’ movie. Based on the children’s book, Orion and the Dark is about one boy’s relatable fear of the dark. In this film, the Dark can best be described as a burly dementor — equal parts ghostly and cuddly. He speaks with the voice of Paul Walter Hauser, and, like the Ghost of Christmas Past, he is committed to showing Orion that the unknown is nothing to be afraid of.
The Tiger’s Apprentice
Paramount+, February 2
The Tiger’s Apprentice, a film based on Laurence Yep’s action-adventure novel, has been in the works for more than 15 years, and we’re finally getting an animated version on Paramount+ directed by Raman Hui, Paul Watling, and Yong Duk Jhun. The story is a standard enough hero’s journey: Kid learns he’s part of an ancient line of empowered beings, the Guardians, who draw strength from the Chinese zodiac. His life changes when a mythical tiger named Hu takes him under his claw to go up against Loo, an evil creature that threatens humanity. Henry Golding, Lucy Liu, Brandon Soo Hoo, Bowen Yang, Sandra Oh, and Michelle Yeoh lend their voices.
Spring
Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Nickelodeon, TBA April
The heroes in a half-shell are back again. If 2023’s excellent Mutant Mayhem film weren’t enough, the TMNT are heading back to Nickelodeon and Paramount+ for their fifth animated series. This 2-D-animated entry is a direct spinoff of Mutant Mayhem, and the same production company behind the movie, Point Grey Pictures, is behind the show. But we have no details yet on its casting or art style beyond the reveal of a charmingly retro-chic logo.
The Garfield Movie
Theaters, May 24
Almost exactly 20 years after the release of Garfield: The Movie, we’re getting The Garfield Movie. Unlike the Bill Murray dud — which Murray infamously assumed had been written by Joel Coen and not another screenwriter named Joel Cohen before he saw how bad it was — this one is fully animated instead of a hodgepodge of live action and CGI.
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie
Streaming TBA, Q2
Let’s just hope this one doesn’t get shitcanned by Warner Bros. Discovery. We haven’t had a proper Looney Tunes movie in more than a decade, since Looney Tunes: Back in Action (I don’t count the ad for LeBron James that is Space Jam: A New Legacy), and with Coyote vs. Acme going kablooey, we have only this one to look forward to in 2024. It’s animated in a 2-D style, evoking both the classic theatrical shorts and the newer Looney Tunes Cartoons series (creator Peter Browngardt is directing the film), and promises to be a buddy comedy between Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, who have to thwart an alien plot to take over the world.
Summer
Inside Out 2
Theaters, June 14
Inside Out is one of the best films Pixar has ever made — its examination of emotions a beautiful visualization of a universal human experience. It’s kinda perfect, so the sequel’s got us kinda nervous, especially after hearing that Disney cheaped out on voice actors not named Amy Poehler; Mindy Kaling and Bill Hader aren’t returning over a pay dispute. Nonetheless, Inside Out 2 still has time to surprise us, especially as a new emotion, Anxiety (Maya Hawke), joins the party in teenage Riley’s head.
Fall
Dragon Ball Daima
Streaming TBA, October
Dragon Ball Z purists may quibble with the teaser we’ve seen for Dragon Ball Daima, the latest announced series in the franchise, but we think it’s going to work beautifully. A mysterious new threat chibi-fies Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, and the rest of the Z-Fighter gang into child versions of themselves — a plot decision that brings Goku in particular back to the nostalgic bite-size frame of his original Dragon Ball days. It’s a fitting way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the manga that started it all.
Spider-Man: Freshman Year
Disney+, November 2
It’s not really likely that we’ll get Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse in 2024, given the insanity of making Across the Spider-Verse and 2023’s Hollywood strikes, but if all goes well, we should get this show — a series that promises to focus on Spidey’s early years as a crime-fighter. It doesn’t take place in the MCU (yes, it’ll be another universe for you to keep track of), but it does seem to be inspired by Tom Holland’s take, and actors like Charlie Cox, who plays Daredevil, will cross over into the animated series.
Winter
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
Theaters, December 13
We’ve been excited for this movie ever since it was announced in the height of the pandemic. To me, it’s far more enticing a premise than Amazon’s Rings of Power series: The War of the Rohirrim is an anime film, directed by Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Eden of the East), about the pivotal battle at Helm’s Deep between an ancient king of Rohan and a horde of Dunlendings, a race of barbarian men in Middle-earth. Brian Cox stars as Helm Hammerhand, the namesake for the gigantic horn Gimli blew in The Two Towers, and Miranda Otto, who played Eowyn in that film, narrates. It promises to be violent, unrelenting, and highly referential to Peter Jackson’s film trilogy.
Even more animated movies and shows that could (or should, or might) come out in 2024
10 Lives
Theaters, TBA
Like It’s a Wonderful Life but with a spoiled house cat named Beckett (Mo Gilligan) in the George Bailey role, 10 Lives imagines what that cat might do once his time runs out. Disney animation veteran Christopher Jenkins, who last directed the Netflix original Duck Duck Goose, directs the self-centered hero on a path to redemption as he comes to understand how much he means to his kindhearted human, Rose (Simone Ashley), and how much he values her in turn. This one premieres at Sundance.
Marvel’s X-Men ’97
Disney+, TBA Early 2024
Hopefully we don’t have to wait too long to see this superhero classic reanimated. X-Men ’97 has been in the works for years: It’s a revival of the classic ’90s X-Men: The Animated Series that was known for its emphasis on character dynamics, relatively faithful adaptations of comic-book story lines, long-running serialized arcs, and stylized 2-D animated action. The revival brings back several returning cast members and reportedly picks up right where the original series left off with some updates and modernizations to the art, of course. It was originally scheduled for release in late 2023, so we’re looking forward to getting an exact date on the books.
Common Side Effects
Adult Swim, TBA
Director-writer Joe Bennett helped create one of the best new animated series in recent memory in Scavengers Reign, so this show that teams him up with Veep producer Steve Hely and King of the Hill masterminds Mike Judge and Greg Daniels is super-exciting. Unsurprisingly, Common Side Effects is a comedy that “delves into the complex reactions to the revelations of the mysterious elixir of life,” according to its announcement at last year’s Annecy Festival.
Ultraman: Rising
Netflix, TBA
Imagine taking down a giant monster and then learning you’ve got to parent its (also pretty huge!) newborn baby. That’s the premise of Ultraman: Rising, a new 3DCG animated film that will formally introduce the classic tokusatsu hero to plenty of new fans in the States. It’s directed by Shannon Tindle (Lost Ollie, Kubo and the Two Strings) and John Aoshima (DuckTales, Maya and the Three) and looks like a lot of fun, and if nothing else, we already know there will be plenty of kaiju action. What we don’t yet know is exactly when it will drop.
Uzumaki
Adult Swim, TBA
If it feels like Toonami and Adult Swim have been hyping Uzumaki — its adaptation of Junji Ito’s dark fantasy-horror manga — for forever, that’s because they have. The project was first announced in 2019 and was last teased for a 2023 release at San Diego Comic-Con. Executive producer Jason DeMarco has made it clear that the animators at work on it are just trying to faithfully reproduce the look of Ito’s psychedelic black-and-white manga illustrations in motion. (The company line has been “Coming out when it’s ready.”) To be fair, the early teasers look stunning. Here’s hoping we get it in 2024.
Rick and Morty: The Anime
Adult Swim, TBA
You read that right: Rick and Morty’s getting an anime — and the music for the first look that Adult Swim released is delightfully poppy. The original show’s sci-fi setting, already kaleidoscopic color palette, and multiversal digressions make it uniquely suited to an anime adaptation after all. Is this the Rick and Morty we know, anime-fied? Are they a separate, anime universe’s Rick and Morty? We’re not yet sure, nor do we really want to know before we watch it. What we do know is that it’ll be ten episodes long and that director Takashi Sano (Tower of God, Psycho-Pass) speaks with great reverence for the original series.
Spellbound
Netflix, TBA
In Spellbound, the king of Lumbria is plagued by a magic curse that turns its king (Javier Bardem) and queen (Nicole Kidman) into hulking monsters. In order to save them and the kingdom itself, a plucky young princess named Ellian (Rachel Zegler) must go on a quest to reverse the spell. Produced by Skydance Animation, director Vicky Jenson (Shrek) and writer Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast) have teamed up to deliver the animated feature to Netflix sometime in 2024.
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