The life of a popular comedic director is a long and winding road. TakeNicholas Stoller, the talented populist filmmaker behind such gems asForgetting Sarah Marshal,Get Him to the Greek, and, most importantly,The Five-Year Engagement, who has also co-written the latestMuppetsfilms. When he’s not directing some of the very best big-studio comedies of the last two decades, Stoller also pens total, inexcusable dreck likeSex Tapeand that miserableFun with Dick and Janeremake. Now, Stoller is going into full-on animation withStorks, an animated comedy about the fantastical, famed baby delivery service, which he wrote and co-directed alongsideDoug Sweetland, the man behind the charming animated shortPresto. You can take a gander at the trailer for the animated comedy, featuring an eagle voiced byKelsey Grammer and absolutely zero storks, right below, with no sign of fellow cast membersAndy Samberg,Jordan Peele, andKeegan-Michael Key.
This isn’t the first time that a conjurer of distinctly adult comedies has moved into the animated realm.Noah Baumbach, who had an excellent 2015 withWhile We’re YoungandMistress America, one of his very best films to date, famously penned the thirdMadagascarfilm, andWes Andersonturned in arguably the best film of his career when he turned to stop-motion animation to createFantastic Mr. Fox. In other words, this is a smart move for the director of the giddily crassNeighbors, who has now opened himself up to one of the most lucrative and creatively inclined avenues of modern filmmaking. In theory,Storkscould touch on everything from the dangerous ignorance proliferated by lack of mandated sex education to the dated mechanics of age-old businesses in need of an update, but first and foremost, it looks like a decently designed bit of animated fun. We’ll have to wait until September 23rd, 2016 to see what exactly Stoller has in plan for his first foray into the animated realm, but anything that gives forum to the man behindThe Five-Year Engagementhas my undivided attention.
