Leo is a 2023 American animated musical comedy film. It was recently released by Netflix to generally positive reviews.
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- Leo is a 2023 American animated musical comedy film.
- The film was directed by Robert Marianetti, Robert Smigel and David Wachtenheim.
- It’s Marianetti and Wachtenheim’s feature directorial debuts.
- It was written by Smigel, Adam Sandler, and Paul Sado.
- It was produced by Sandler and Mireille Soria.
- The second animated feature from Sandler’s production company Happy Madison Productions, it stars him in the titular voice role, alongside Bill Burr, Cecily Strong, Jason Alexander, Sadie Sandler, Sunny Sandler, Rob Schneider, Jo Koy, Allison Strong, Jackie Sandler, Heidi Gardner, Robert Smigel, and Nick Swardson.
- It tells the story of a tuatara longing for the wild and worried about dying who is taken home by different students per the assignment of a strict substitute teacher.
- Leo was released by Netflix on November 21, 2023.
- It generally gained positive reviews
- On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 78% of 50 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.5/10.
- Metacritic which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 65 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating “generally favorable” reviews.
- In May 2016, it was reported that Adam Sandler would produce (under Happy Madison Productions), write and star in an animated film project.
- At that time STX Entertainment was attached.
- Leo was animated by Netflix Animation’s Animal Logic.
- The film’s score was composed by Geoff Zanelli.
- Leo had a preview at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 14, 2023.
- Leo lasts 102 minutes.
- Adam Sandler’s involvement in this film stopped him from being able to voice Drac the Vampire one last time in the last of the four Hotel Transylvania films.
- Leo and Squirtle are both named after 1990s already existing work-based pop culture cartoon characters.
- Leo is named after Leonardo the turtle from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987).
- Squirtle is named after the creature from Pokémon (1997).
- Much like in the first three Hotel Transylvania films, Adam Sandler’s daughter Sadie Sandler also has a role on this film, as does his other daughter Sunny Sandler this time around.
- Adam Sandler’s first animated film outside the Hotel Transylvania franchise since Eight Crazy Nights (2002), twenty-one years prior.
- It’s also his first animated film that’s not produced by Columbia Pictures and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing.
- Adam Sandler’s wife Jackie, provides the voice for Jada’s mom.
- However, at 1:40 the audience see Coles mom, her animation is clearly based on Jackie.
- Adam Sandler’s 2nd film doing voice over in (both live action and fully animated) to not also have a character that is played by Kevin James.
