Tag: family film

Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe: Angry Birds Movie 3: Holiday Flock Returns Dec 23

Ten years after the first film turned a mobile game into a $352 million box office surprise, the birds are coming home for the holidays. Paramount Pictures has released the first trailer for The Angry Birds Movie 3, and the film lands in theaters on December 23, 2026. Seven years after the second installment, Red and the flock are back with the biggest adventure of the franchise, and the timing could not be better.

Red’s toughest challenge yet: fatherhood

The trailer teases what Paramount describes as Red’s toughest challenge yet. Not the pigs. Not a new villain. Fatherhood. Jason Sudeikis returns to voice the famously short-tempered bird, and the idea of Red navigating family life while once again finding himself in the middle of a mission to save the world is the kind of premise that writes its own jokes.

It’s also a smart evolution. The first film was about Red learning to belong. The second was about the flock learning to work with their enemies. A third film about Red learning to be a father completes a genuine character arc, the kind most animated franchises never bother with. When a third installment has something real to say about its lead, it’s usually a sign the filmmakers still care.

The flock expands

The returning cast is the good kind of familiar: Sudeikis, Josh Gad, and Danny McBride are all back, the comic engine that powered the first two films. But the new ensemble is where things get interesting. Emma Myers, Rachel Bloom, Walker Scobell, Marcello Hernández, Tim Robinson, Anna Cathcart, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Nikki Glaser, Sam Richardson, James Austin Johnson, Lily James, and Keke Palmer join the flock.

That’s a genuinely exciting mix. Bloom’s musical-comedy brilliance. Hernández’s breakout energy. Robinson’s deadpan chaos. Palmer’s star power. And yes, MrBeast and Salish Matter join the voice cast too, marking a real crossover between YouTube culture and mainstream Hollywood animation. It’s a shrewd move. The kids who grew up watching MrBeast are exactly the audience that will drag their parents to a Christmas animated film, and their parents will recognize every other name on that list.

John Rice directs from a screenplay by Thurop Van Orman, with producers John Cohen, Dan Chuba, Carla Connor, and Namit Malhotra. Rice and Van Orman are animation veterans, and the franchise has always been at its best when it trusted its artists to be funny first and faithful to the game second.

Why the holiday slot matters

Paramount moved the film up from its original January 29, 2027 date to December 23, 2026. That’s not a small adjustment. That’s a studio deciding its animated sequel deserves the holiday corridor, one of the most competitive and lucrative windows of the year. You don’t move a film into Christmas week unless you believe it can hold its own.

The history supports the confidence. The 2016 original, released by Sony Pictures, earned more than $352 million worldwide against a reported $73 million production budget, despite mixed reviews. The 2019 sequel is widely considered the better film. The franchise has a proven audience, a proven formula, and now a proven holiday slot. Christmas week is where family films become traditions, and Paramount is clearly aiming for exactly that.

The holiday season’s family anchor

Look at the December corridor and The Angry Birds Movie 3 stands out as the pure family play. It’s the film parents can take a five-year-old and a fifteen-year-old to and have everyone laughing. The franchise’s secret weapon has always been its layered comedy: slapstick for the kids, sly references for the adults, and just enough heart to make the whole thing stick.

It’s part of a holiday season that’s shaping up to be one of the strongest in years. Our recent coverage of Paramount’s Christmas slate, including the upcoming Ebenezer with Johnny Depp, shows the studio going all-in on holiday moviegoing. And with Warner Bros.’ animated ambitions arriving in November, the family audience will already be in theaters and ready for more.

The verdict: a holiday win in the making

The Angry Birds Movie 3 isn’t trying to reinvent animation. It’s trying to do something harder: deliver a genuinely funny, genuinely warm holiday movie that earns its spot in the Christmas rotation. With Red facing fatherhood, a voice cast that blends comedy royalty with new energy, and a studio confident enough to plant it in the year’s biggest family window, this one looks like a gift.

December 23. The flock is back. Don’t be surprised if this becomes the movie your family quotes all year.

Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe: The Cat in the Hat 2026: Bill Hader’s Animated Debut

There’s a special kind of bravery in taking on Dr. Seuss. The last time Hollywood gave the Cat a big-screen showcase, in 2003, the result was… let’s say memorable for the wrong reasons. Twenty-three years later, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation is trying again, and this time the signs are genuinely promising. The Cat in the Hat arrives in theaters and IMAX on November 6, and it has everything the 2003 version didn’t: a fresh story, a brilliant comic lead, and an animation studio making its feature debut with everything to prove.

A brand-new story

Forget the rainy day and the fish in the pot. This is a wholly original adventure. The Cat, voiced by Bill Hader in his animated feature debut, takes on his toughest assignment yet for the I.I.I.I., the Institute for the Institution of Imagination and Inspiration, LLC. His mission: cheer up Gabby and Sebastian, a pair of siblings struggling with a move to a new town.

The twist is pure character comedy. The Cat is known for taking things too far, and this could be his last chance to prove himself. Or lose his magical hat. It’s a setup that gives the story real stakes beyond the chaos. The Cat isn’t just making mischief. He has something to lose. That’s the difference between a gag reel and a movie, and it’s a promising foundation.

The film is loosely based on the 1957 book but stands on its own, directed by Erica Rivinoja and Alessandro Carloni from their own screenplay, with a story by Caroline Williams. Carloni’s animation pedigree is the real deal, and Rivinoja has one of the sharpest comedy voices in the business. This is not a committee product. It’s a filmmaker-driven film, and you can feel it in the premise alone.

Bill Hader was born for this

Let’s talk about the casting, because it’s inspired. Bill Hader has spent his career as one of the great comic shape-shifters of his generation, from his SNL years to the dramatic depths of Barry. He has never headlined an animated feature. That feels like an oversight the industry is finally correcting.

The Cat needs a very specific instrument: someone who can be anarchic and warm at the same time, someone who can sell mischief as joy rather than menace. Hader’s entire career is that tightrope. He can do unhinged. He can do tender. Often in the same scene. Giving him this role is like handing a Stradivarius to someone who has been playing air violin for years.

The ensemble around him is stacked: Matt Berry, Quinta Brunson, Xochitl Gomez, with Giancarlo Esposito and America Ferrera, plus Tituss Burgess, Bowen Yang, Paula Pell, and Tiago Martinez. Berry’s velvet absurdism, Brunson’s precision timing, Gomez’s rising-star energy. This is a voice cast that was assembled by people who understand comedy, not by a marketing department checking boxes.

The animation studio’s big moment

This is the first full-length feature from Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, the relaunched banner, with animation by DNEG. That’s a lot of pressure, and pressure can be a gift. First features have a way of swinging for the fences because there’s no franchise playbook to follow yet. The early trailers suggest a visual style that honors Seuss’s curves and chaos while pushing into something more cinematic, and the IMAX release confirms the studio’s ambitions.

The music signals the same confidence. Lorne Balfe scores the film, and the original song “CATastrophe” comes from Hilary Duff, released October 2 as the film’s big musical calling card. When a studio leads its marketing with an original song instead of hiding behind the IP, it usually means they believe in what they’ve made.

Why this could actually work

The 2003 film failed because it mistook Seuss for a license to be weird at children. The new film understands something deeper: Seuss was always about the emotional lives of kids. A move to a new town. The feeling that everything familiar is gone. A chaotic stranger who shows you that chaos can be a kind of love. That’s the book’s actual subject, and it’s the film’s too.

Warner Bros. is distributing worldwide, with international release beginning November 4 and North American theaters and IMAX on November 6. The holiday corridor is kind to family films, and there is very little direct competition in the animated space that weekend. The studio has given this film room to breathe, which is exactly what a new franchise needs.

It’s also worth noting where this sits in the current family slate. Our recent reviews of Universal’s upcoming Other Mommy and Paramount’s Street Fighter reboot show a holiday season packed with spectacle. The Cat in the Hat is the family-friendly anchor of that season, and it’s aiming for the widest audience of all: everyone.

The verdict: the Cat’s redemption arc

Every few years, a film arrives with the quiet job of fixing a past mistake. The Cat in the Hat has that job, and it looks ready for it. A great comic lead in his animated debut. A story with actual heart under the mayhem. An animation studio with everything to prove. A holiday release date with the wind at its back.

November 6. Bring the kids. Bring your inner kid too. The Cat is back, and this time he brought the good stuff.