By Chris Kavan - 12/19/18 at 06:55 PM CT
This is the last bulletin of the year, people, so get your party hats on and let's go wild! Okay, not too wild, because the final two movies worthy of talking about are both clearly in the family category. We have another Disneynature offering, this time taking on the dapper black-and-white Antarctic birds and, speaking of cold-weather fun, the other film is an animated arctic tale about taking down an evil genius with plenty of big names voicing the quirky cast of animals. So, yay, for families and great holiday fun. We'll see how things turn out next year - when the next bulletin will come out.
Disneynature has pretty much become a staple of the Earth Day release period. They aren't missing a beat in 2019, when they will release Penguins. Much like previous entries - Chimpanzee, Bears, Born in China and African Cats (to name a few), Penguins will follow a particular specimen, this time an Adélie penguin dubbed "Steve" on a journey from youth to adulthood, navigating an Antarctica journey full of humor and danger. Making friends, finding a mate, raising a family - and, of course, avoiding being eaten by various predators - all in a lifetime's worth of growing up a penguin. No narrator has been announced yet, so I can't say what smooth-sounding celebrity is going to be a part of this family-friendly journey. Disneynature films don't tend to break the bank when it comes to box office returns, but tends to do well enough to obviously continue the series following various animals around the globe. Penguins have proven pretty popular, so I think this had a good chance of being one of the higher-grossing films. Rated G.
Continuing the family fun, the other cool offering is Arctic Justice. (aka Arctic Dogs) which follows Swifty (Jeremy Renner) an arctic fox who works in the mailroom of the Arctic Blast Delivery Service - but who really wants to be a Top Dog - a husky assigned to the important delivery service. Tired of waiting, he decides to make a delivery on his own only to wind up at the base of one Otto Von Walrus (John Cleese) a blubbery evil genius who has a plan to melt the polar ice caps and bring about his own new world order. But Swifty isn't alone and recruit the polar bear PB (Alec Baldwin), Lemmy the albatross (James Franco), two conspiracy theorist otters, Bertha and Leopold (Heidi Klum and Omar Sy) and a worldly fox Jade (Heidi Klum again). The rest of the cast includes some big names - Anjelica Huston, Michael Madsen, Laurie Holden and Aaron Woodley help round out the cast. This one is a bit of ways out, so I don't have a lot more to say other than I best this will do well with the families out there. Rated PG for some mild action and rude humor.
That is it for your wide release films for the rest of 2018. The Ratings Board (and myself) will be back next year for more thrills, chills, spills and fill(er)s - until then I guess check out the full list of movies below:
ARCTIC JUSTICE
Rated PG for some mild action and rude humor.
BACKDRAFT 2
Rated R for language, some violence and disturbing images.
GIANT LITTLE ONES
Rated R for sexual content, language and some drug/alcohol use – all involving teens.
IN LIKE FLYNN
Rated R for some violence, drug use and a brief sexual reference.
LYING AND STEALING
Rated R for language, some sexual content/nudity, violence and drug use.
PENGUINS
Rated G
RADIOACTIVE
Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, disturbing images, brief nudity and a scene of sensuality.
THIS ONE'S FOR THE LADIES
Rated NC-17 for some explicit sexual images.
TROOP ZERO
Rated PG for thematic elements, language, and smoking throughout.
UNBRIDLED
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic content including some disturbing images.
WE DIE YOUNG
Rated R for violence, language and some drug material.
WINE COUNTRY
Rated R for crude sexual content, language and some drug material.
