December Animation Preview: JJK, SpongeBob, and David lead the holiday charge!

It's hard to believe this year is already coming to an end, and even harder to believe how absolutely packed December is with animated releases. I thought this was going to be a shorter-than-usual preview post, but then I kept discovering more and more movies that are making their way to screens big and small. Check it out:

In Theaters

With special IMAX showings on December 3 and then a wider release on December 5, GKIDS gets the ball rolling with JUJUTSU KAISEN: Execution, the second theatrical release of the year for the popular anime series. This one is serving as a sort of compilation film and a season bridge. It'll present a truncated version of the Shibuya Incident, which is the bulk of the show's second season, a massive showdown on Halloween night in Shibuya (mostly in the labyrinthine train station...yes, Ive been lost in there before) that brings together a huge swath of the show's cast. Then, fans will get an early peek at the first two episodes of the show's much-anticipated third season, which starts airing in January.

JUJUTSU KAISEN: Execution

Also on December 5, the delightfully weird animated documentary Endless Cookie makes its way to theaters. The film is qualified for the Oscars, and it would make for a really fun left-field nominee, though that's not super likely. The film, which I reviewed out of AFI FEST, is about family, and place, and the stories we tell. Seth Scriver loves the way his brother Peter (credited as a co-director on the film) tells stories so much, that he decides to make an animated documentary about those very stories. The film ended up taking more than a decade to make, and there's clearly so much care and love put into it. And yes, it is super weird. Definitely worth checking out.

Endless Cookie

A favorite of mine from last year, and one I was delighted to see on the Oscar-eligible list, is the triptych documentary Black Butterflies, which follows the impact of climate change on the lives of three women from different parts of the world. It's an extremely affecting movie, and one that uses animation to bring these stories to vivid life. It almost doesn't even feel like a documentary, the storytelling is so naturally and perfectly delivered.  The film is yet another December 5 release.

Black Butterflies

On December 10, Dalibor Barić's AI-slop feature Dream On / Dream Off opens in theaters (at least here in LA, at the Noho Laemmle). Read my review and stay away.

For its Oscar-qualifying run, Sony Pictures Classics will release Mamoru Hosoda's latest, the Hamlet-inspired Scarlet, in IMAX on December 12. I saw this one at Animation is Film and found myself quite taken with it -- I couldn't stop thinking about it for days. It's a very strange movie, not as accessible (or, frankly, as good) as most of Hosoda's work, but it's still fascinating and pretty emotional. It follows the eponymous princess as she ventures through a sort of purgatory alongside a modern day nurse(/my boyfriend) in a quest for vengeance. With its unique blend of a traditional anime aesthetic with borderline photo-real CGI and a deliberate pace, this surely won't be for everyone, but it's cool to see one of our animation masters continuing to branch out and experiment.

Scarlet

Dalibor Barić's other, actual movie, the delightfully bizarre All Operators are Currently Unavailable, makes its bow (also at the Noho Laemmle) on December 17. The Oscar-eligible feature follows a washed-up screenwriter who gets roped into moving to a hotel resort where he's tasked with writing lines for the three thousand people there to play out day by day. But his reality gradually becomes more surreal, and it seems he might also be a character reading someone else's lines. The film is so ambitious in its narrative scope, aesthetics, and themes. I hope Barić sticks to making movies like this going forward. We need more movies like this, not AI junk.

December 19 brings us arguably the biggest animated movie of the month, the fantastically funny The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants, which I saw at its world premiere at AFI FEST. The film feels like a real throwback to the beloved show's glory days, with a breakneck comedic pace, a funny story, and some sweet moments. The film follows SpongeBob on a quest to prove himself as a "Big Guy" (is the song stuck in your head now?), which leads him to join Flying Dutchman's crew, to great comedic results. It's a lot of fun.

The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants

Also on December 19, we get David, an animated take on the classic Bible hero, and one that feels as polished as any offering from a Hollywood studio. My review will be up in a couple days, but I was really impressed by the film's animation and music, and a little less so by its storytelling. It's a rousing faith-based tale with catchy musical numbers and great character designs. In a lot of ways, it feels like the spiritual successor to The Prince of Egypt, even if it doesn't quite reach those heights. I still quite enjoyed it!

David

At Home

Viva Kids has had a really packed year, and they found time for one more release with Finnick 2, which gets a digital release on December 5. I need to catch up on the first Finnick (which came out in 2022) before this one releases, but the gist is that it's about this magical creature who looks like a big, fluffy muppet, who loses his power of invisibility and must go on a quest to get it back. Looks fun! (Weirdly, when I just went to look up more about the film...it looks like it's already available on Amazon? Well.)

Finnick 2

Awards hopeful Little Amélie or the Character of Rain makes its digital debut on December 9. The film, about a little girl whose eyes are opened to the wonders of the world around her, thanks in large part to her family's Japanese housekeeper, is maybe the single most beautiful movie of the year. You can check out my review here.

I've seen a few tweets claiming that the Mexican stop-motion animated film I Am Frankelda is coming to HBO Max worldwide on December 12. It's definitely hitting the service in Latin America on that date, but the rest of the world...TBD. While the film was clearly made with a lot of care, it unfortunately didn't do much for me when I reviewed it earlier this year. The story is convoluted and bloated, and the animation is sometimes too busy to really be legible. But I think it'll probably play better for others than it did for me.

I Am Frankelda

Earlier this year, I really enjoyed Butch Hartman's The Greatest Thing Ever: A Garden Cartoon Movie. The bright animation, cute voice-acting, and fun sense of humor made it an enjoyable watch, even if I'm not the target audience (i.e., a child in a Christian home). Now, Lenny the lion and Lucy the lamb are back for a holiday movie, The Christmas King! A Garden Cartoon Holiday Movie! (They need to work on shorter titles, methinks.) The film follows Lenny and Lucy rushing to get the first snowflake of the season to the Christmas King before it melts. I'm sure they'll learn some lessons along the way. The film gets a digital release on December 11 from Angel Studios.

Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires lands on HBO MAX on December 22. I haven't yet caught up on the reimagining of the iconic hero, and with this date so close, I'll probably just wait to catch it until then. The film courted some controversy and I never heard much about how it actually turned out, but I'll be back with a review when I finally catch it.

On December 24, the highest-grossing animated movie of all time, Ne Zha II, makes its way to HBO Max. If you haven't had a chance to see it yet, you owe it to yourself to check it out. It's a gorgeous, thrilling, massive adventure of a movie, with incredible action and a lot of heart. There's a reason it was such a sensation. I'm still so confounded as to why it wasn't submitted for Oscar eligibility.

Ne Zha II

On December 27, the long-running Australian comedy web-series SMG4 comes to an end with The Final SMG4 Movie. I have to be honest -- I had never heard of this show until I saw this movie get announced. Which is crazy, because it seems like it could be up my alley. The show started in 2011 and is a send-up of various gaming franchises, particularly Nintendo's Mario series. I think I'll dip in and check out the finale movie and see what the vibe is. Maybe catch a few episodes beforehand. We'll see.