How sad is it that in the waning months of 2009 – the end of the first decade of the 21st century! – the first thing that comes to mind when I hear that a studio is developing a cartoon based on evolution is the inevitable backlash and protest. It’s well past the year 2000 and there are still knuckledraggers out there who don’t believe in evolution. It’s frightening.
But kudos to Fox for developing a CGI toon that sort of addresses evolution. The studio has optioned the video game Spore in which you create creatures that adapt and evolve over time. The film will be written by Greg Erb and Jason Ormenland, the guys who wrote the new Disney 2D movie The Princess and the Frog (which is already attracting controversy of its own; in this case it’s racial) and will be directed by Chris Wedge, the guy who turned Ice Age into a major franchise for the studio.
I don’t know that Spore obviously lends itself to a narrative, but maybe there’s something in there that will work as a movie. It definitely will have the room to have amazing visuals. And then there’s going to be the sideshow of religious numbnuts denying science they simply don’t understand and making a delirious stink. I can’t wait.