''Hypergalactic'' is an upcoming animated

adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...

directed and co-written by David N. Weiss (in his directorial debut). The film stars

Adam DeVine Adam Patrick DeVine (born November 7, 1983) is an American comedian, actor, producer and screenwriter. He is one of the stars and co-creators of the Comedy Central comedy television series '' Workaholics'' and '' Adam DeVine's House Party''. H ...

, Elsie Fisher, J. K. Simmons, and Sam Richardson. It was produced by

Toei Animation is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including '' Sally the Witch'', '' GeGeGe no Kitarō'', '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Slu ...

and is loosely based on ''

Journey to the West ''Journey to the West'' () is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is regarded as one of the Classic Chinese Novels, great Chinese novels, and has been described as arguably the ...

''.

Premise

A teenage girl (Fisher) alongside her younger brother in a not-so-distant future adventure, after liberating the protector of Earth Okhan (DeVine), hope that he can reunite them with their missing parents.

Cast

as Okhan * Elsie Fisher * J. K. Simmons * Sam Richardson

Production

During TIFFCOM at the 2018

Tokyo International Film Festival The is a film festival established in 1985. The event was held biennially from 1985 to 1991 and annually thereafter. According to the FIAPF, it is one of Asia's competitive film festivals and the second largest film festival in Asia behind the ...

on October 24,

and

Bona Film Group Bona Film Group Company Limited (, formerly known as Beijing Polybona Film Distribution Co. Ltd. (保利博纳电影发行有限公司) ), also known as Polybona Films or the Bona Film Group, is a Chinese production company and distributor of fi ...

alongside

Sammy Sammy is a nickname, frequently for people named Samuel or Samantha, and also an English spelling of the Arabic name Sami. People Music * Sammy Adams (born 1987), American rapper and songwriter *Sammy Cahn (1913-1993), American songwriter *Sammy ...

and

Marza Animation Planet is a Japan-based CGI animation studio dedicated to making full-length feature films and video game cutscenes. Their extensive résumé includes CGI add-ins for television series and video games. Their head office is located on the 18th floor o ...

initially announced the project, tentatively titled ''The Monkey Prince'' with John A. Davis initially set to direct the film from a screenplay by J. David Stem and David N. Weiss, based on an original story by Naoto Oshima with Oshima and Takao Noguchi handling character designs with Chuck Williams serving as a producer. The film will be initially produced in English before being adapted into Mandarin for the Chinese market and has received co-production approval from Chinese authorities. In order to produce the film, Tenh Animation Magic was established two weeks prior with investments from Toei, Sola Entertainment and Galaxy Graphics.

Sanzigen is a Japanese animation studio specializing in CGI animation. The studio was founded in 2003, later becoming formally incorporated in 2006 by former employees of Gonzo, and has contributed to various anime series and films. Its name is derived ...

was responsible for the film's production hub with the film being scheduled to be released in 2020, in time for that year's

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

prior to its postponement to 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. After being sat on development hell for six years, Toei Animation announced on February 2024, that the film, now titled ''Hypergalactic'' was in post-production with Weiss now being hired to direct the film (replacing A. Davis), alongside co-writing the screenplay with Oshima and Sola Entertainment founder Joseph Chou from their original story with the latter two replacing Stem and Bona, Sammy and Marza dropping out from the project. The studio is calling the film as their biggest CGI project to date.

, Elsie Fisher, J. K. Simmons, and Sam Richardson joined the film's voice cast, with Devine voicing the protagonist, the protector of Earth Okhan. Toei's Yoshi Ikezawa (replacing Chuck Williams) serves as the film's producer while Kozo Morishita, Katsuhiro Takagi, and Tim Kwok serve as executive producers with Charades handling international sales. Main production was handled by Tenh Animation Magic in Tokyo led by Sam Salek as visual effects supervisor. Music was conducted by up-and-coming Canadian music duo Chen Brothers with orchestral recording performed in Bratislava early 2024. The color and finish service is provided by The Picture Shop Vancouver under the veteran colorist Claudio Sepulveda. Post-production had begun by February after nearly two years of production at Tenh Animation Magic in Tokyo.

Release

Initially scheduled to be released in 2020, ''Hypergalactic'' is scheduled to be released in the United States in 2025.

References

External links

* {{Toei Animation films 2020s 2025 American animated films 2025 adventure films 2025 anime films 2020s English-language films 2025 computer-animated films American animated adventure films Japanese animated films Japanese computer-animated films Toei Animation films English-language adventure films Upcoming films