Picture: animallogicentertainment.com and Imagine Entertainment
Just over two years ago, Netflix officially confirmed that it would be the home of The Shrinking of Treehorn, a new animated movie coming from Imagine Entertainment and Animal Logic from renowned director Ron Howard.
Sadly, sources have told us that the project is no longer moving forward, at least at Netflix, and all production has concluded.
Jeff Sneider for The Ankler was the first to report on the movie’s moving to Netflix in May 2022. Netflix officially confirmed the project shortly afterward on its news blog.
Our preview already documented the movie’s multiyear development history at that point. The film was first in the works at Imagine Entertainment and the Australian animation studio Animal Logic in 2019 as part of a deal between the two companies to “co-finance six animated films.” Paramount Pictures was confirmed to be the distributor attached to the movie.
The movie would be an adaptation of the Florence Parry Heide novel released in 1971 with Ron Howard directing and Rob Lieber behind the script.
The official logline, which resides on another Animal Logic website that remains active, gives us an idea of what we could’ve expected from the film’s story:
“New York City has never seemed so big as when its biggest family is shrunk to the size of action figures and must navigate its snow covered streets on Christmas Eve to find the cure. As the Treehorns journey past the iconic sites of New York City they will come to learn that the family that shrinks together, stays together.”
The Shrinking of Treehorn book cover
Shortly after the project was announced to be at Netflix, it was announced in July 2022 that the Australian-based studio would be acquired by Netflix entirely. The studio has since released The Magician’s Elephant and Leo, with the latter due to get a sequel in the near future.
The last we heard about the movie was in early 2023. We heard that work was continuing on the project and that Jon Favreau and Jada Pinkett Smith had been approached to lend their voices to the movie. Netflix declined to comment at the time.
Since then, everything has been quiet about what became of the film.
Numerous people attached to the movie, courtesy of LinkedIn profiles and other online portfolios, all look to have moved on to other projects by mid-2023. One document hosted on the AnimalLogic website published in April 2023 lists that the movie was due to be released in 2023, but that didn’t come to fruition.
While we’ve now heard that Netflix no longer intends to release the film, it’s unclear whether it could be shopped to other networks.
Earlier this year, Animal Logic published an update about its broader business on its website. It states, “Animal Logic and Netflix Animation began unifying their teams across Sydney, Los Angeles, and Vancouver to work on an exciting slate of animated projects. Watch this space for more information!”
Of course, projects announced to be in development at Netflix don’t always come to fruition. We maintain a document with well over 1,200 projects, and it’s not guaranteed that all will ever see the light of day. Projects fall apart, executives and creatives change, and sometimes, things just don’t work out.
Animated projects, which can often take many years of development and production, are frequently the subject of being canceled early on. We’ve documented many of those Netflix projects (at least the ones we know about) that won’t see the light of day in a dedicated post with highlights, including Ember, Cattywampus, Escape from Hat, I, Chihuahua, and many more.
Are you disappointed Netflix won’t be bringing you The Shrinking of Treehorn? Let us know in the comments.
