Bugs Bunny Is Hosting This Year’s Annecy Animation Festival

The Annecy Animation Festival, which you can think of as an E3 for cartoons, is held in France every year…but this time, they’ve landed an emcee to be envious of. Bugs Bunny himself will be hosting the presentation, and he’s brought ALL his corporate-related friends…

Pretty cool, right? (Also, how many thought Bugs was about to say the animators weren’t available because they were on strike? I’ve seen too many of those Umbert Actually videos.) The 15-second spot was created by Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe, directed by Grant Orchard (Hey Duggee) and executive produced by Ben Bocquelet (The Amazing World of Gumball). Eric Bauza provided Bugs’ voice.

Annecy has also announced who will be attending and what they’ll be showing off. Warner Bros Animation, obviously, will have a presence and will present the following panels…

• Creating Creativity: Celebrating 25 Years of Cartoon Network Studios – Creators Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter’s Laboratory), Craig McCracken (The Powerpuff Girls), Pendleton Ward (Adventure Time), Rebecca Sugar (Steven Universe), J.G. Quintel (Regular Show), and Adam Muto (Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake) will discuss the history, future, and enduring legacy of CNS.
• Get Jiro: Work in Progress Session – From WBA and based on the DC/Vertigo graphic novel, Get Jiro is set in a not-too-distant future Los Angeles where master chefs rule the town and people literally kill for a seat at the best restaurants. The creative team will explore the creative and production process of bringing the graphic novel to life.
• Bat-Fam: Making-Of Session – Following the events of Merry Little Batman, Bat-Fam follows Batman, Alfred, and young Damian Wayne. The creative team will share a behind-the-scenes look into the artistic development and production of the series.
• Studio Spotlight – WBA, CNS, and HBSE will showcase their slate of current and upcoming film and series projects. Industry insights, news, and exclusive first looks will be shared.
• Adult Animation at Warner Bros. Discovery – Studio Focus – Adult Swim and WBA spotlight their strategy and efforts in the adult animation space. Michael Ouweleen and Peter Girardi will preview current and upcoming projects.

Disney refuses to be upstaged, and they’ll counter with a sneak peek of Zootopia 2 and an advance screening of the first episodes of Disney+’s upcoming series Eyes OF Wakanda. One of the shorts from the third season of Star Wars Visions will also make its debut here, and they’ll round things out with a Simpsons panel and a look at Pixar’s upcoming slate of films including Elio, Hoppers, and Toy Story 5.

Dreamworks will showing off The Bad Guys 2 and, potentially, the first bits of information regarding The Wild Robot 2. Sony Animation plans to show off something called Goat from directors Tyree Dillihay and Adam Rosette, rumored to be some kind of animal sports movie. Before you ask, there are no announced plans to reveal anything new about Beyond The Spider-Verse.

Netflix will have a lot to show off, including an advance peek at the CGI fantasy feature In Your Dreams, about two siblings who are on a mission to explore the world of dreams and find the Sandman so that they can be granted their wish (a perfect family). The aforementioned Fixed will be shown there (probably to an adults-only auditorium). We may get some early looks at the second season of Blue-Eye Samurai and Netflix’s Splinter Cell and Magic: The Gathering cartoons.

Those who fear Netflix has given up on adult animated comedies will be placated by Long Story Short, an upcoming series from Bojack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg. But perhaps the biggest news is that Netflix finally plans to remove the curtain from their long-in-development Stranger Things cartoon, which they’re now calling Stranger Things: Tales From ’85. We still know next to nothing, but that little subtitle does answer the question of whether it’s going to be set mid-series or after it. (self-plug: I had the same idea; check out my long-running and wonderful ST fan comic in the Toonzone forums, which is also set in ’85).

In summary, the week of June 8-15 is going to be incredibly exhausting for anyone who has to report on it. The Annecy International Animation Festival starts in two months.