Toei Animation, the Japanese animation company, known currently for its anime adaptation of One Piece, will be collaborating with American screenwriter David N. Weiss in the upcoming CGI film Hypergalactic.
Weiss has written for animation in the past on projects such as Shrek 2, The Smurfs and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and will be collaborating with Sonic The Hedgehog game designer Naoto Oshima and animation producer Joseph Chou, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Currently, the project is in post-production and will be the biggest CGI project to date for the Toei.
Voice actors in the project have also been confirmed. Starring in the film will be comedian Adam DeVine, who has done voice acting on projects such as Netflix’s Green Eggs and Ham; Elsie Fisher, who voices Agnes in the first two Despicable Me films; Sam Richardson, who has voiced in multiple HBO animated shows such as Clone High and Velma; and J.K. Simmons, who recently voiced in the second season of Prime Videos Invincible.
The film will follow a teenage girl, voiced by Fisher, and her brother after liberating a protector of Earth named Ohkan, voiced by DeVine. While the siblings are hoping that Ohkan can reunite them with their parents, the three characters will begin to learn more about the meaning of family.
Yoshi Ikezawa, a producer at Toei Animation says that this new film is a combination of Japanese anime aesthetic animation with a more Western story driven flow. He is also looking forward to the ability to share this kind of film animation with those in international audiences.
With Toei Animation’s long history with animation and their recent films, such as One Piece Film: Red and The First Slam Dunk, grossing hundreds of millions of dollars internationally, it is hard to see this new film failing with audiences.