Logo for Larrikins.
Larrikins is a cancelled animated film from DreamWorks Animation. It were to be directed by Tim Minchin and Alessandro Carloni, written by Harry Cripps, rigged by Peter De Seve, Gabriele Pennacchioli, Dave Weatherly, Alexis Wanneroy, Scott Lemmer, and Arjun Gedam, and to be produced by Christina Steinberg. It was originally set to be released on February 16, 2018, before its cancellation was announced on March 5, 2017. Had been released, it would have been the first DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by Universal Pictures, whose parent company NBCUniversal acquired DWA in 2016.
Plot[]
When an uptight bilby named Perry gets kicked out of the sheltered life of his family burrow, he ventures out and finds himself launched on a musical adventure across the mystical Australian outback. On the way, he must battle an evil army of monsters known as the Syvalionilas, or "Syvas" for short, and win the heart of his one true love.
Cast[]
- Dee Bradley Baker as Perry the Bilby
- Hugh Jackman as Red the Red Kangaroo
- Josh Lawson as Andrew the Cane Toad
- Margot Robbie as a Dingo clan leader
- Naomi Watts as Dorset
- Rose Byrne as Skinny the Frilled Lizard
- TBA as Sonny the Frilled Lizard
- TBA as Rocky the Frilled Lizard
- Ben Mendelsohn as Howard the Crocodile
- TBA as Dorky the Crocodile
- Jacki Weaver as Doris the elderly Rabbit
- TBA as a red Fish
- TBA as Kylie the baby Bird
- TBA as Auntie the Crow
- TBA as a Great-White Shark
- Damon Herriman as Jake the Rabbit
- Ewen Leslie as Hotspur the White-Bellied Sea Eagle
- TBA as a Sugar Glider
Why It Was Cancelled[]
- According to most sources, the film itself just wasn't working out creatively and technically wasn’t what test audiences thought it would be; eventually they thought the film wasn’t matching with their “creative differences.”
- On March 5, 2020, Tim Minchin opened up about the true reason behind the film's cancellation while chatting to Richard Herring on his podcast; stating that after Universal acquired DreamWorks Animation they cancelled the film and used it as a write-off on their taxes since they had no faith in it performing as well as their more established Intellectual Properties.[1]
Result[]
- The film was shelved permanently.
- There were no DreamWorks Animation films released in 2018.
- How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World became the first DreamWorks film distributed by Universal Pictures.
Trivia[]
- DreamWorks Animation released a short film called Bilby which features characters from the cancelled movie.
- The film however would’ve served as a slight inspiration for Netflix's December 2021 Australian-American animated film called Back to the Outback, which Minchin and Cripps were also involved in.
- It would of been DreamWorks’ third musical, the only two others being The Road To El Dorado and Trolls.
- It would of been the first DreamWorks film to be released in February.
Did You Know?[]
- In March 2020, it was revealed that studios like Animal Logic and Netflix were interested in buying the rights to the film in order to revive production, but Universal made it completely non-viable for purchase to avoid looking foolish had Larrikins gone on to make money.
- On December 21st, 2018 Bilby was uploaded to DreamWorks' official YouTube channel, but was deleted sometime afterward likely due to copyright. However it was released as a bonus feature on the Blu Ray release of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.
Gallery[]
Warning: There is too many images to be sustained on this page, so we will avoid to post all of them here and to non-transfer them anywhere to not clog up this wiki in a unintentional way. We do not want it to crash and lack space.
To see the full gallery full of screenshots, concept art, designs, renders, backgrounds, and preps for Larrikins, see Larrikins/Gallery on the DreamWorks Animation Wiki.
Videos[]
