Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has revealed that the streaming service has big plans for their future forays into animated family content.
"We want to beat Disney in family animation," Hastings told The Hollywood Reporter. "That's going to take a while. I mean, they are really good at it. We're both very focused on building out our animation group and, you know, it's a friendly competition." He continued, "We both want to do incredible stories for consumers and we want to be able to raise the bar in that area. We know that they will be a challenger and a competitor for the next 50 years."
In recent years, Netflix has stressed the importance of creating original animated family movies. "These are big theatrical scale animated features and big scale feature films that would be competitive with anything you'd see in the box office, and I think people really do value them," Netflix Co-Chief Executive Officer Ted Sarandos said in Feb.
Fully-animated films from Netflix include The Willoughby's as well as the Oscar-nominated Klaus. Upcoming animated titles from the streaming service include the Glen Keane directorial effort Over the Moon, the Harry Selick feature Wendell & Wild and Guillermo del Toro's stop-motion animated Pinocchio.