Sabrina The Teenage Witch (2024 Animated Film)

Sabrina The Teenage Witch is a 2024 animated movie produced by DreamWorks Animation and Archie Comics and distributed by NBCUniversal. The film is solely based on the comic book series of the same name and premiered at the Annecy Film Festival on June,14th,2024, July,12th,2024 in North America, and July,19th,2024 Worldwide. This is also the sixth film based on the comic book series after Sabrina the Teenage Witch in 1996, Sabrina in Rome in 1998, Sabrina Down Under in 1999, Sabrina Friends Forever in 2002 and Sabrina: Being Wicked Rules in 2009.

The movie is directed by The Bad Guys(2022) director Pierre Perifel and produced by Christopher Miller and Phil Lord and stars Miranda Cosgrove as Sabrina Spellman, Josh Peck as Harvey Kinkle, Keke Palmer as Chole Flan, Josh Brener as Salem Saberhagen, Sherry Miller as Hilda Spellman and Charlene Fernetz as Zelda Spellman, Ben Shwartz as Seth and Xochitl Gomez as Katie La More. Miller and Ferenets both reprised their roles from the 1996 live action movie.

The film was critically acclaimed by critics

Plot
Set in the year 2024, Sabrina, who lives with her guardians Hilda and Zelda in Riverdale in Bronx, New York, is offically 16 years, which means that she's a witch but doesn't notice til the day after her birthday. The day after her 16th birthday, her friends, Chole and Harvey notice something off about her, after she comes home that day, she finds out that she is a witch, after news that Seth and Katie La More, Sabrina's arch rival, Sabrina uses her new powers so Seth starts to notice her, but not to cast a love spell.

After that, Sabrina uses her powers for a wide source of things, including perfect test scores, Making Harvey faster, help her win a track race and for Seth to take her out to the School Dance. After a little while, Katie starts to notice that Sabrina is a witch and tries to hunt her down, Harvey and Chloe try to warn her, but doesn't listen. Sabrina tries to turn Katie into a poodle but is unsuccessful and thus, is too late for an entire army track her. The ultimate battle between Sabrina and the army, with Harvey, Chloe and Seth. The pair is successful and Katie is later taken into custody. After that, Harvey reveals that he actually has a crush on Sabrina and Sabrina later admits that she has a crush of him, thus the two start dating and go out to the dance together.

Cast
Miranda Cosgrove as Sabrina Spellman, a 16 year old witch and Harvey's Crush, later Girlfriend, also serves as Executive Producer

Josh Peck as Harvey Kinkle, A 16 year old mortal who is friends with Sabrina and Chloe, and later Sabrina's Boyfriend, also serves as Executive Producer

Keke Palmer as Chloe Flan, A 16 year old mortal who is Best Friends with Sabrina and Harvey

Ben Schwartz as Seth, A 16 year old mortal who is Sabrina's former Dance Date

Xochitl Gomez as Katie La More, Sabrina's arch nemesis

Josh Brener as Salem Saberhagen, a 500 year old witch who is permanently stuck in a cat as punishment for trying to take over the world

Sherry Miller as Hilda Spellman, Sabrina's Aunt

Charlene Fernetz as Zelda Spellman. Sabrina's Aunt

Roger Craig Smith as Salem Saberhagen (human form), Archie Andrews(post credits appearance)

Will Smith as Coach

Benedict Cumberbatch as Mr.Llyod, Sabrina's Algebra Teacher

Robert Downey Jr. as Mr.Sams, Sabrina's English Teacher

Andrew Garfield as Mr.Nathan, Sabrina's History Teacher

Jimmy Fallon as Mr.Mikes, Sabrina's Science Teacher

Kristen Wigg as Mrs.Bernard, Sabrina's French Teacher

Eva Longoria as Ms.Elena, Sabrina's Spanish Teacher

Savannah Guthrie as Herself

Craig Melvin as Himself

James Marsden as NYPD Officer

JK Simmons as NYPD Chief

Seth Rogan and Keegan Michael Key as FBI Agents

Production
The Idea for a Sabrina animated Adventure dates back to early 2008 when director Disney's latest animated feature at the time Bolt co-Director Chris Williams expressed interest of bringing the Sabrina the Teenage Witch comic book series to live, it was revealed that Williams was so into the idea that he made sure it was going to happen. On January,16th,2009, it was announced that a CG Animated Reboot Film was in the works at Walt Disney Animation Studios with animation work begin a week later. On July,2nd,2009, it was announced that Disney was currently in the talks with Chole Grace Moretz for her to voice Sabrina Spellman in the movie and with Nick Jonas, who had his own Disney Channel show at the time to voice Harvey Hinkle. On June,4th,2010, the official cast of the planned reboot by Disney was announced with an official release date of November,2nd,2012, which that date was taken by Wreck-It-Ralph, With Moretz and Jonas playing their respective roles. On September,24th,2010, at Destination D, official artwork for the movie was shared. On January,4th,2011, the Movie was delayed to November,20th,2013, which the date was eventually taken by Frozen. Not much had been said about the movie, until Febuary,21st,2012, when it was announced that the film had been delayed to July,11th,2014 before eventually being removed from the release schedule. On July,2nd,2016, the movie had been given a new release date for July,13th,2018, before eventually being scrapped on January, 21st,2017, Chris Williams said in a Twitter Post, "This is truly upsetting, our team has been working on this movie since the beginning of 2008 and now 9 years of hard work had been shelved like that, I feel the sorrow for all the fans out there." a few months later, on July,18th,2017, it was announced that the rights to the movie was up for sale by Disney. The top bidders were Paramount Animation, Warner Animation Group, Universal Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation. On July,2nd,2018, it was announced that Universal Pictures has won the bid and acquired the rights to the film. A few months following the acquisition, on October,17th,2018, it was announced that the movie was in redevelopment at DreamWorks Animation, and stated that, "We are working up a new story for the Sabrina Animated Movie that will be just as amazing as the original, we look forward to take this journey throughout the next few years to make sure it's awesome.", On July,26th,2019, it was announced that Pierre Preifel will direct the movie along with the Bad Guys, On January,24th,2020, it was announced that Phil Lord and Chris Miller will be producing it, as well as an release date for October,28th,2022. Chris Williams responded to this announcement with this "Looks like all the work didn't go to waste after all, Congratulations to Mr.Preifel as well as Mr.Lord and Mr.Miller, I'm sure they will do an amazing job" Not much has been said throughout the rest of 2020 following the announcement. On September,3rd,2021, the films release date was pushed back to October,27th,2023. On December,21st,2021, The official cast, as well as announcing that Josh Peck and Miranda Cosgrove (Voices of Harvey and Sabrina) will serve as executive producers. on April,19th,2022, The film was delayed to December,20th,2024 before being pushed up to July,12th,2024 on August,1st,2022. On July,12th,2023, one year before the film's release, DreamWorks officially revealed the new character models for the movie, which was praised by fans, but some has criticized the designs of Sabrina and Chloe for being "too hot". On October,31st,2023, Christopher Lord and Phil Miller announced that the film development was "nearing completion" as well as announced that Chloe Flan would be apart of the LGBTQ+ Community in the movie, with her being bisexual, which received mixed reactions. Development on the film was concluded on April,28th,2024.

Marketing
The movie received a massive amount of promotions, some include McDonalds Happy Meal toys,  Dolls from Mattel, Paris 2024, Funko Pops etc. Plushies were sold at Universal Studios Theme Parks Worldwide, Including Universal Studios Hollywood, as well as keychains, boosters, posters, backpacks and more. On February,11th,2024,same day as Super Bowl 58, The first official trailer was released, becoming #1 on trending in under 24 hours. On April Fools Day 2024, Universal pranked viewers into thinking that the second official trailer has been released, only to be Rick Rolled By Salem, the real second trailer was released on May,8th,2024. During Olympic Trials in 2024, DreamWorks collaborated with the planning committee of Paris 2024 and made an animation which featured Sabrina, Harvey, Chloe, and Salem doing Olympic Sports and aired during commercial breaks on NBC. In addition, Archie Comics collaborated with DreamWorks and made a limited edition comic book series surrounding the movie called "Sabrina The Teenage Witch: The Official Movie Comic", which had 6 comic books. Pre-Orders for the Comic opened on April,12th,2024 and sold out in under 10 minutes. The series was released on July,5th,2024. Sega also made a video simulation game called Sabrina: The Simulator Game and was released on the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Pro, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S on June,14th,2024. Kraft also collaborated with Universal to release Limited Edition Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Shapes. Commercials promoting the Mac and Cheese were remakes of a commercial released back in 2009. In the Nintendo Game, Splatoon 3, there was a Splatfest that ran from June,28th,2024-June,30th,2024, the Splatfest Theme was Team Sabrina vs Team Chloe vs Team Harvey, Team Sabrina won the Splatfest won in nearly all versions of the game.

Box Office
The film was a box office success, grossing over $600 million dollars at the US Box Office and grossed another $500 million worldwide. In total, it grossed over $1.1 billion dollars, which became the highest grossing DreamWorks movie of all time, as well as the highest grossing animated film of 2024, and the 3rd highest grossing film of 2024. On its fourth week in theaters, it officially passed the $1 billion dollar mark, a new record for Universal.

Critical Response
It received an 94% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 336 reviews, which made it the second highest reviewed movie 0f 2024, only to be behind Avatar 3. Many reviews on the site states that " It was like Christopher Miller and Phil Lord took everything the had from Spider Man: Into The Spider Verse and made a new form of it, this film truly deserves the title of the Into the Spider Verse  of DreamWorks" others said that " It has a better coming of age story than Turning Red". On Metacritic, The film received a 88 out of 100, which indicated "universal acclaim" The film was TIME's "best film of 2024". The film received an "A+" on CinemaScore. As well as a 9.2/10 on IMDb and a 5/5 on Common Sense Media, which gave it Common Sense Media's best Animated Movie of 2024. It was also second place on Cahiers du Cinema best 2024 films, with first place being Avatar 3.

Many News Outlets like New York Times, The Guardian, which gave the movie 5 out of 5 stars, CBS, CNN gave the movie glowing reviews, The New York Time described it as, " It's a very simple math equation, you take 2 awesome animated movies from Sony and DreamWorks, the the stunning animation style from Into The Spider Verse and The Bad Guys and make a very new story with new character and new conflicts and you get a masterpiece.

Release
The film experienced many delays like Avatar 3, it was originally going to be released on November,2nd,2012, before being pushed back to November,20th,2013, July,11th,2014, and July,13th,2018 before eventually being scrapped by Disney in 2017. In 2020, the DreamWorks version was announced to be released on October,28th,2022, however, it experienced 2 delays later, for October,27th,2023 and December,20th,2024 before eventually landing on the release date of July,12th,2024 in North America. It was released on Blu-RayAugust,30th,2024 and on DVD and Digital and on Peacock September,3rd,2024,The movie was re released into theaters on November,22nd,2024 with a musical half hour holiday special "Sabrina: A Holly Jolly Witchmas"

Future
On October.29th,2023, it was announced, along with an movie centered around Archie Andrews, which came out of September,4th,2026 to positive reviews, that Producers Christopher Miller and Phil Lord are open about doing a TV Series and Sequels if the movie does turn out successful. When the $1 billion dollars was hit during the films fourth week in theaters, director Pierre Perifel revealed that he would wanted to go ahead with Miller and Lord's idea, noting that the movie is making big bucks at the box office. Those plans were announced to officially go ahead on September,28th,2024, with Canadian Animation Company, Atomic Cartoons on board. on April,29th,2025, it was announced that the TV Series was to be named "Sabrina: The Animated Series", and would serve as a reboot to the 1999 series of the same name, as well as giving it a release window of 2026. at the San Diego Comic Con, it was announced that the series would take place after the events of the movie, shutting down all rumors that it would feature Sabrina and friends in Middle School, like the original series, and confirmed that it will heavily focus on serious issues pre-teens and teenagers face, like cyber-bullying, racism, suicide and acceptance, which was widely applauded by teenagers and adults alike, as well as US Politicians from both major parties, and from around the world, mainly because of DreamWorks "steeping out of there comfort zone", during the announcement, it was also announced that a spinoff series centered around Harvey was also in the work, also scheduled for 2026. on October,31st,2025, it was announced that the sequel to the movie, at the time titled "Sabrina 2" would be released on July,14th,2028, same day as the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Trivia

 * Both Ben Schwartz and Miranda Cosgrove had to do simultaneous recording, for Cosgrove's case, she was recording For Despicable Me 4 while recording for the movie while, for Ben Schwartz case, He was doing recording for Sonic The Hedgehog 3
 * The NBC Station shown in the movie (WNBC-TV) is the Station for New York City and Long Island
 * Noting that The film takes place in 2024, It confirms that Sabrina, Harvey, Chloe, and Seth were all born in 2008
 * The School Sabrina and Her Friends attend, which is the John F. Kennedy High School Campus, is a real High School, located in the real Riverdale, Bronx, New York
 * Throughout the film, Harvey is seen wearing a New York Mets Shirt, This is an in-joke that proves that Not everyone in the Bronx is a Yankees Fan
 * During the Dance seen, Sabrina wears a black dress that is similar to a black dress she wore in an episode of the 1999 series, Sabrina: The Animated Series
 * The character designs of the movie for Sabrina, Harvey, Chloe, Salem, Zelda and Hilda are based on their Sabrina: The Animated Series, while the designs for Seth and Katie La More are based on their 1996 designs from the live action movie
 * This is the 15th movie to be based on a book series by DreamWorks
 * In the credits scene, It has some pretty cultural easter eggs to some of the actors famous roles, which includes Sabrina making a video for a blog, which is a reference to iCarly, which starred Miranda Cosgrove, Harvey making a similar look on face from the famous, "Drake, Where's the door?" meme from the TV Show, Drake and Josh, which Josh Peck was one of the main characters, Chloe at a spelling bee, which is a reference to Akeelah and the Bee, which starred Kiki Palmer, Seth in a Sonic suit, which references the Sonic the Hedgehog Movies where Ben Schwartz plays Sonic, Katie babysitting which refers to The Babysitters Club which starred Xochitl Gomes, Salem in a Ninja Costume, which refers to Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which starred Josh Brener and more
 * During an interview, Ben Schwartz said that this move feels like "a slice of home", that is because he grew up in Riverdale, The Bronx, New York, the setting of the movie