Animated Trek theatrical movie?

[Adventerprise]

Was an animated Star Trek theatrical films ever considered?

Which crew would you like to see in a cartoon movie? One advantage, of course, is being able to replace voice actors or feature versions of characters at various ages without having to worry about whether the actor looks like them.

Maybe the fourth Kelvin film could be animated; they need not set it significantly later after Beyond that way.

 

[Unionized Elf]

Adult animation outside of comedies isn't really a thing in North America.

 

[Mudd]

Adult animation outside of comedies isn't really a thing in North America.

Spiderverse.

 

[Firebird]

DC Animation has been going strong for a long time as well.

 

[Uncle Sock]

I don’t really need an animated version of something that already exists in live action—but a Lower Decks movie? That would send me into orbit.

 

[Mudd]

Animation of the sort used in the Spiderverse films would be creatively liberating for the Trek format.

 

[V'Lias]

Animation of the sort used in the Spiderverse films would be creatively liberating for the Trek format.

I agree. While I personally don't really like the animation style they used in those movies, it would give them a lot of room to work with. I was surprised by how much it costs compared to the recent live action movies though! It's definitely cheaper than live action, but I was guessing it might be a bigger gap. It would be interesting to know the budget breakdown for writing, animation, and actors in live action vs animated.

Animated:
Into the Spider-Verse - $90 million
Across the Spider-Verse - $100 million

Live Action:
Homecoming - $175 million
Far From Home - $160 million
No Way Home - $200 million

*all budget numbers pulled from IMDB

 

[Adventerprise]

Animation of the sort used in the Spiderverse films would be creatively liberating for the Trek format.

How so (aside from never having been done before in Trek, that is)

 

[XCV330]

Adult animation outside of comedies isn't really a thing in North America.

It's been profitable before. Heavy Metal did well enough. It probably benefited from the era, people who bought the magazine and knew going in that it wasn't going to be a kid's film.

War of the Rohirrim lost money but that wasn't really the point with the movie, which didn't even get much attention or marketing. It was low risk and kept the franchise rights alive for the studio. But it does bring up that serious animated movies tend to lose money. I suspect that's because they aren't marketed or the studios don't know how to do so. Titan AE was a good sci-fi movie that happened to be animated. It wasn't a kids movie and definitely not a comedy so hardly anyone went to see it.

 

[FredH]

Not that anyone’s suggested it, but animation would make sense if they wanted to start doing “classic TOS” movies — evergreen stories nominally set during the five-year mission. This could be a way to switch over to a sort of “James Bond” model, where each one is the current episode but there’s little or no overall “saga”. I doubt there’s much call for it, but it’s an option.

 

[tomalak301]

Can we get a Lower Decks movie? That would be cool.

 

[Adventerprise]

Or a LEGO Star Trek movie.

 

[Christmas Canon Spock]

Or a LEGO Star Trek movie.

Plus a LEGO Trek game!

 

[Quinton]

I'm not much for animated renditions of live-action IP (nor live-action renditions of animated IP). But Lower Decks is cool, and I'd take a movie.