What other live-action movie franchises should embrace animation?

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Transformers One. Illumination’s potential upcoming Barbie movie. The upcoming Lord of the Rings anime movie. Live-action sagas engaging in animated offshoots are very much a thing in the world of modern cinema. Shockingly, it’s worked out quite well thus far. Rather than being cynical cash-grabs, Mutant Mayhem and Transformers One lent heart and visual imagination to previously creatively stagnant sagas. I wouldn’t hesitate to call the two Spider-Verse movies among the best feature films made in the last ten years. Heck, going back to pre-Spider-Verse days, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and The LEGO Batman Movie are still the best Batman movies ever. Lower-budget animated reworkings of worlds previously confined to live-action appear to be a trend Hollywood is keen to embrace.

If digital 3D, celebrity voice casts in animated movies, and Adam DeVine’s career has shown us anything, Hollywood loves to just duplicate prior successes. Transformers One is just one of many inevitable attempts from Hollywood in the coming years to make Spider-Verse's lightning strike twice. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In fact, there are modern movie sagas that would be ripe for animated offshoots.

Here’s the thing: this wouldn’t work for any film franchise. These animated offshoots have so far thrived taking fictional worlds with rich untapped potential. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, for instance, was the seventh theatrically released movie focusing on Spider-Man. However, it was the very first one to physically incorporate Miles Morales, not to mention other comic book characters like Spider-Gwen. Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin had never challenged Spidey on the big screen before. Certainly, Marc Webb’s Amazing Spider-Man movies had no room for Spider-Ham. Meanwhile, Mutant Mayhem featured a plethora of supporting Ninja Turtles characters previously unexplored in film form.

Doing this approach on, say, the Harry Potter or Twilight universes wouldn’t quite work. Those respective movie adaptations have already utilized every corner of their respective source materials. Animated offshoots, so far at least, work best when they exploit animation's limitless possibilities to lean into every nook and cranny of classic comics and cartoons. This isn’t a virtue because of hollow fan service. Instead, it offers something new compared to prior cinematic incarnations. You’re not just exploring the Peter Parker and Harry Osborne dynamic again. Nor are you having another plucky live-action twenty-something accidentally encounter a friendly Autobot. Think of how The LEGO Batman Movie, for instance, offered up a welcome contrast to the gritty reality of Zack Snyder's Batman with a vision of the character dominated with colors and weirdo supporting characters. The zippier aesthetic of family-friendly animation allowed key Batman players like Robin and Barbara Gordon/Batgirl to finally come to the screen, not to mention gave villains Killer Croc iconic comedic moments. You can do anything in animation and the best of these animated off-shoots lean into that reality.

In that regard, the X-Men would be a prime candidate for this process. Granted, this one’s a bit of an obvious pick given. After all, the animated TV program X-Men ’97 became a phenomenon earlier this year. Still, stories told like X-Men: The Animated Series is not the only animated aesthetic merry mutants could thrive in. Imagine a feature hewing closer to stop-motion animation tendencies! Or something with scragglier animation evocative of the 60s/70s Xerox animated Disney features or Ralph Bashki’s directorial efforts.

Better yet, within animation, you could really revel in the heightened superpowers defining this corner of the Marvel universe. Previous big-screen incarnations of these characters mocked “yellow spandex” and avoided going too preposterous with these characters. That means countless facets of X-Men lore, including the Savage Land, Dazzler, and their cosmic exploits, have remained unadapted over 20+ years of X-Men movies. Heck, characters like Storm, Jubilee, Nightcrawler, and others have barely made a dent on the big screen. After all, previous live-action movies focused largely on Wolverine, Deadpool, and Xavier. The roster of enthralling X-Men mutants that haven’t been properly seen on-screen alone suggests endless possibilities for an animated feature adaptation of these characters.

Perhaps animation could also relaunch the Friday the 13th movie series. Jason and his trusty machete have been removed from the big screen for 15 years. An endless army of screenwriters and litigators have tried to tackle the story and rights issues plaguing this saga. Maybe going the animated route could give this saga a fresh start. Plus, it would help Friday the 13th stand out in the crowded theatrical horror marketplace. It's not 1985 anymore. Announcing a new Friday movie isn't enough to get people to show up in droves to the theater.

Jason is already so much bigger in life. Throughout his existence, stupid grounded reality has often foiled plans to really take the saga into strange unexpected directions. Key example: Jason Takes Manhattan was originally a much more lavish affair involving Jason crashing various Manhattan landmarks. Budgetary restrictions severely limited where Jason could go to cause grisly carnage. That wouldn’t have been an issue in animation. Jason could’ve decapitated the Statue of Liberty and it wouldn’t have increased the budget one penny.

Why not, then, use animation to really go stylized with his presence and kills in a newly concocted movie? Heck, Jason X was already teetering into the realm of cartoony mayhem. Delivering a fully animated Friday the 13th installment would simply commit fully to the franchise's recurring preposterous tendencies. Plus, these animated offshoots of live-action sagas can’t all be PG projects. Someone’s got to do an adult-skewing incarnation of this concept. Jason would be perfect for this.

Meanwhile, the world of Men in Black could sustain more stories easily. However, undertaking another costly live-action movie isn't likely after Men in Black: International's ho-hum box office. What about a cheaper animated movie? The various alien designs could really proper with live-action's limitations erased. Plus, the feature could take a cue from Spider-Verse and use different animation styles to realize aliens from various planets. An animated Edgar the Bug, for instance, would have a drastically different animation style than an animated Boris the Animal. That could be a lot of fun and restore some vibrancy to this weary saga.

Speaking of sci-fi sagas in the box office doldrums, how about using animation to realize a new Star Trek adventure? Star Trek: The Animated Series established early on in the saga’s lifespan that the Enterprise crew could exist in animation. Modern hit Star Trek: Lower Decks demonstrated animated Star Trek exploits can secure popularity on par with live-action counterparts. Introducing a new starship crew in an animated Star Trek movie wouldn’t just follow in the footsteps of these memorable Star Trek properties. It’d also offer audiences something immediately new compared to the last 40+ years of Star Trek cinema.

Heck, animation offshoots could even salvage sagas that initially flopped at the box office. Disney would never do it, but how about continuing John Carter’s universe in animated form? I know I’m one of only six fans of that 2012 film (Dejah Thoris is one of the best Disney princesses, I said it!). Still, wouldn’t it be grand to return to Barsoom through the visually vibrant medium of animation? Perhaps Creech could ride again in a Monster Trucks follow-up that puts that land squid in an adventure as animated as she was back in her 2017 film debut. Heck, if the Wachowski's have some good ideas for such a project, an animated continuation of 2008's Speed Racer would be quite appealing!

These and other possibilities certainly sound rife with potential. However, it’s worth reminding studio executives and casual readers alike that animation shouldn’t just house continuations of familiar intellectual property. We need original stories in all mediums of cinematic expression, animation included. The vibrant visual risks of Mutant Mayhem and the Spider-Verse movies should inspire further original titles built on audacious imagery, like The Mitchells vs. The Machines. The groundbreaking animation techniques of these titles shouldn’t just get Disney, Warner Bros., Sony, or any other studio’s executives salivating over the prospect of finally getting to make, say, animated Mortal Instruments or King Arthur: Legend of the Sword sequels.

Exploiting a familiar brand name did not turn the Spider-Verse movies into pop culture sensations. Telling emotionally rich storytelling through captivating animation is what turned those features into masterpieces. It’s easy to imagine titles like that duology and Mutant Mayhem inspiring producers of other live-action franchises to take thrilling creative risks on animated reboots. Goodness knows the James Bond saga, for example, could make something special if the producers committed to a highly stylized animated offshoot. However, do not let the legacy of these mesmerizing movies solely inspire more franchise fare. Instead, let them crystallize what’s been true for over a century: animation can tell any kind of story imaginable.