Paramount Adds an Untapped Superhero IP to Its Animation Lineup

When we think of the driving forces of animated cinema, names like Guillermo del Toro, Hayao Miyazaki, Makoto Shinkai, and the Spider-Verse franchise all immediately come to mind, and for good reason.

But, we’d be remiss to ignore the contributions that Paramount Animation has made to the medium: Beyond its involvement in legacy titles such as 2004’s SpongeBob SquarePants movie and 2011’s Rango, the studio recently gifted us the delightful artistic feat that is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem whilst cooking up what will hopefully be a franchise’s much-needed boon in Transformers One. And let’s not forget about that time they took us all seriously when we told them what we thought of Sonic’s original design for Sonic the Hedgehog.

And now, per Deadline, Paramount Animation will play host to the latest superhero IP bound for the film treatment with Superworld. Not to be confused with the tabletop RPG, Superworld is based on the children’s book series of the same name written and illustrated by Yarrow and Carrie Cheney, a married couple who collectively boast a number of high-profile credits on such Illumination hits as The Grinch, The Lorax, Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2, and The Secret Life of Pets.

The first book in the Superworld series—set in a world where, you guessed it, everyone is super—kicks off with a mysterious villain seizing control of the eponymous superhero planet via a weapon known as the Super Stone. It soon falls to Noah, the only kid without superpowers, to free the world from the villain’s control by snatching the Super Stone from his grasp—a theft job he’ll need the help of his superpowered friends to pull off.

Basically, Paramount Animation just greenlit a film adaptation for an animated, superpower-centric Ocean’s Eleven. Will it be helpful for pivoting away from the mindset that animation is for children? No, probably not. But, if done right, might it be helpful for underscoring the value of children’s media? Yes, absolutely, superhero fatigue be damned.

(featured image: Penguin Random House)