Amphibia (film)

Amphibia is a 2027 fantasy adventure film produced and directed by Ruben Fleischer, written by Zak Penn and Meg LeFauve, and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. Based on the 2019 Disney Channel animated series of the same name by Matt Braly, the story follows Anne Boonchuy, a Thai American girl, who, after stumbling across a mysterious music box with her friends Sasha and Marcy, finds herself in a world of frogs and must find a way to save Sasha and Marcy and get back home. Lana Condor, Florence Pugh, and Peyton Elizabeth Lee all play their live action roles, with voice and motion capture performances by Jacob Tremblay, Aubrey Plaza, Sam Neill, Charlie Hunnam, Emma Stone, and Ron Perlman.

Fleischer, Penn, LeFauve, and producers Guillermo del Toro and Brigham Taylor envisioned the film as a retelling of Matt Braly's original series, with the film adapting seasons 1 and 2, and it's sequel focusing on the 3rd season. Principal photography began in 2025, with most of it filming in Los Angeles. The film required extensive use of computer-generated imagery to portray the frogs and settings.

It premiered in May 2027 at the El Capitan Theatre before it's United States premiere in June 2027.

Plot
Many years ago, the kingdom of Amphibia once lived in harmony, with three leaders watching over the empire. One of them was King Andreas, who was the main leader of Amphibia. He built a magical music box that could transfer them to different worlds, one of them being Earth. A few years ago though, a thief stolen the music box from the king without any evidence on who or what they were. The empire fell into chaos shortly after, as species began to revolt against the king and his followers. Andreas locked himself along with his followers when things got so heated. 15 years later though, in Earth, a 16 year girl named Anne arrives at St. James High School with her bike.

(work in progress)

Cast

 * Lana Condor as Anne Boonchuy
 * Jacob Tremblay as Sprig Plantar
 * Aubrey Plaza as Polly Plantar
 * Sam Neill as Hopediah "Hop Pop" Plantar
 * Florence Pugh as Sasha Waybright
 * Charlie Hunnam as Captain Grime
 * Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Marcy Wu
 * Emma Stone as General Yunan
 * Ron Perlman as King Andreas

Development
After the critical success of the live action adaptation of Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers, producer Brigham Taylor pitched a live action adaptation of Amphibia, to Walt Disney Pictures CFO Christine M. McCarthy, with Inside Out writer Meg LeFauve on board to write the script. Bailey was hesitant to make a movie like this at first, but approval from series creator Matt Braly decided to go and greenlight the film. McCarthy then brought over producer Guillermo del Toro, who had been trying to develop movies for Disney for years now. When del Toro read the script, he immediately signed on the film, as it had a similar tone to del Toro's Trollhunter series. The director's seat was the only one empty by the time del Toro and Nina Jacobson became producers. A lot of directors who had directed several Disney properties in the past, were included. Some directors the studio suggested were Kenneth Branagh, Josh Boone, Robert Rodriguez, Thor Freudenthal, Ava DuVernay, Simon Kinberg, Craig Gillespie, and David Lowery. Eventually, Zombieland and Venom director Ruben Fleischer was brought over to direct.

Writing
LaFauve made a lot of changes that differentiated from the original TV show. For example, Wartwood, a small town where the Plantar family lives, was changed into a more larger place for the characters to walk around. Wally was also cut from the script, replacing her with Ms. Sandy, who is a double agent for Captain Grime. Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz made additional uncredited rewrites.

Actor Lana Condor was the first one to audition for Anne. Fleischer liked her performance, so the actor was cast on the spot in one take. Jacob Tremblay and Aubrey Plaza were other actors that Ruben liked, having seeing Tremblay in Wonder and Plaza in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Because of this, they were both cast as Sprig and Polly, respectively. Russell Crowe and Michael Keaton were heavy contenders of the role of Captain Grime, but it went to Charlie Hunnam, a collaborator of del Toro. Many young actresses were also considered the role of both Sasha and Marcy. Sasha, for example, had Anya Taylor-Joy and Bella Thorne in mind, and Marcy was considered to be played by Jing Tian. It was also decided that Marcy would be portrayed a little older than she was in the TV show.

According to Bailey, who would serve as an executive producer in the movie, he wanted a more distinct approach to the cast, claiming that "it would appear to girls who are having trouble in their lives."

Filming and visual effects
Principal photography took place entirely on sound stages at L.A. Center Studios in downtown Los Angeles. The frogs were created entirely in computer animation, with the assistance of footage of real animal movement, the actors recording their lines, and performance capture for reference. The production team underwent a thorough process to realistically convey the animals' speaking, while still making them perceptually believable to the audience. Fleischer, with the help of Jon Favreau researched earlier films featuring anthropomorphic animals, including Walt Disney's animated features, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi, as well as modern films such as Babe and adopted certain techniques from those films into Amphibia.

Jim Henson's Creature Shop was brought in to provide animal puppet figures for the human characters to act against, although none appear in the finished film. The animal puppets were performed by Artie Esposito, Sean Johnson, Allan Trautman, and April Warren. Fleischer utilized motion capture with certain actors, expressing a desire to avoid overusing the technology in order to prevent evoking an uncanny valley effect.

The Moving Picture Company (MPC) and Weta Digital created the film's visual effects. MPC developed new software for animating muscular structure in the frogs. Around 1,000 remote jungle locations in India, Mexico, and Thailand were photographed and used as a reference in post-production. Weta was responsible for animating the Anne vs. Andreas sequence. Del Toro expressed desire in wanting the film's 3D shots to imbue the abilities of the multiplane camera system utilized in Disney's earlier animated films.