By: Henry J. Fromage –

One big movie business deal that flew under my radar at least was the acquisition of Dreamworks Animation’s distribution rights by 20^th Century Fox.  Well, they’re pretty excited about it, announcing its plans all the way until 2016, which include twelve movies.  Twelve! So, let’s break this down.

So, first off we have the sequels, of course.  There will be not one, but two How to Train Your Dragon sequels, Kung Fu Panda 3, and a sequel/spin-off of sorts: The Penguins of Madagascar.  Likewise, for some reason the classic cartoon Mr. Peabody and Sherman is getting its own adaptation, which mercifully looks like it’ll be fully animated and not another CGI/live-action mix abomination.

Still waiting on that Super Chicken flick, though.

More exciting is the large slate of original properties.  We’ve already talked about Turbo (the NASCAR snail), The Croods (the cavemen movie from one of the How to Train Your Dragon directors),and Me and My Shadow (Bill Hader’s shadow has a mind of its own).  On top of that is B.O.O: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations, starring Seth Rogen, little kid voiced by Rihanna saving the world from aliens adaptation Happy Smekday!, and the Jason Schwartzman and Chloe Moretz-starring Trolls, which may or may not be written and directed by none other than Guillermo del Toro.

So, get ready for a whimsical, family-friendly night at the cinema

Most intriguing to me, though, is Mumbai Musical.  This is a true-blue musical adaptation of the epic Indian narrative the Ramayana, which if you’ve ever read, has some pretty quality action and lots of badass monkeys.  Apparently the film will be from their perspective, and with A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire) providing the music and Stephen Schwartz (Wicked) handling lyrics, I’m all kinds of down.

So, think Jungle Book, but the monkeys get swords.