The panel of adult animation projectors between Warner Bros. Animation and adult Swim at Annecy Animation Festival summed up a number of titles in overlapping between the two studios, including the Anderson Entertainment “Hit Squad” collaboration.
The presentation was led by Peter Girardi, executive vice-president of alternative programming at Warner Bros. Animation and president of adult swimming Michael Ouweleen.
The highest point of the session, however, turned on the discussion of “Heist Safari”, an animated action comedy of the director Genndy Tartakovsky, who also attended the festival with his first feature film, “Fixed”, the animated film Sony Pictures acquired by Netflix.
Tartavoksky launched “Heist Safari” live during the edition of the festival last year in Ouweleen. During this spotlight panel, the pair threw a little more light on the new series of the creator of “Samurai Jack”, adding some details of the series, which follows three frogs, all the brothers, while they try to steal a bank.
Ouweleen recalled the event hall last year, and jokingly jokingly a “hostage situation” while the two optionized the title in a swimming for adult swimming in Annecy 2024, so to avoid huts of the crowd, he said.
Ouweleen has shown an animatic that Tartakovsky had done himself, something he called exciting for his rarity. A rapid introduction video of Tartakovsky briefly showed other elements of the series, including the Mafioso hippopotamia, while describing the show as a turn of the criminal films of Quentin Tarantino or Guy Ritchie.
The animate itself has shown how Tartakovsky’s personality and preference for a strong visual narration will get into these references. Developed after its work on season 3 “Primal”, the series of boards of directors of the first episode of the show presented the Frog Brothers who run a mouse of the bank of bank bench before being able to go to the safety button. The sequence, for which Ouweleen underlined the influences of Tex Avery, is a gust of cinetic visual comedy, supported by aggressive Edm music.
The frogs shake against the obstacles in which they crash, because their faces are reflected in wandering bullets; Later, a giraffe acts like a mermaid, before a match cut reveals that their head and neck are through the solar roof of a police cruiser.
The rough drawings return to the prospect of the mouse, the frogs missing violent and increasingly comical to stop it. The end of the short sequence also shows that the show is capable of being as violent as stupid – one of the frogs finally shoots its target, and Tartakovsky emphasizes the size of the ball hole left in the mouse of the director of the bank.
Even in this rather dark conclusion, the comic sensitivities of the animator shine, in the old school “X replaces the eyes of the mouse in death. It is a promising first overview, showing an embrace of the classic elements of the genre of burglaries by following the consequences of happy trigger during flight, but also how classic caricature can transform this experience.
The preview of the “Heist Safari” strengthens the candidacy of Tartakovsky, if there had never been a competition, as the most prominent animation personality of Annecy-Mifa 2025.
Earlier this week, he presented his first feature film, “Fixed”, part of the tartakovsky agreement with the animation of Sony Pictures and acquired by Netflix, if present in the Sony and Netflix panels. Pic was well received by Peter Debruge de Variety. Tartakovsky has also proven a leading figure in the panel of the 25th anniversary of Cartoon Network Studios.
“Heist Safari” marks the last announcement of adult swimming slate this Thursday in Annecy.
In his adjustment of the Annecy studio, President Michael Ouweleen revealed “The Elephant”, a very innovative animation special produced by Titmouse uniting the talents of Pendleton Ward (“Adventure Time”), Rebecca Sugar (“Steven Universe”), Ian Jones-Quartey (Ok Ko! “And Patrick Mchale (” Over the Garden Wall “).
Adult Swim also confirmed the official renewal of the high anime and “ninja kamui” fans for not one but two additional seasons.
John Hopewell contributed to this article.
