Introduction
Hey, hey, fellow adventures! Blaziker is back for another animated movie adventure, and it’s time we tackle four more animated movies in our adventure!
The first movie, All You Need is Kill, centres on two crew members researching on an alien flower stuck in a constant time loop as their time resets with every death they suffer at the hands of the flower, and they must work together to find a way to destroy the flower and break the endless time loop. Studio 4C does not need any introduction, as they are responsible for many experimental and interesting animated movies for a long time, including ChaO this year. Will this be yet another bullseye from them?
The second movie, Heidi: Rescue of the Lynx, takes the popular Swiss children’s book series written by Johanna Spyri and brings it to the big screen where Heidi and her grandfather saves a lynx family and their village from a greedy businessman. Look, I was not planning to see this movie, as what I had discussed with planning to move away from covering too many family-friendly foreign CG animated movies, especially considering this is yet another German animated movie that I have negative perception on, but considering some of my friends had watched and had a positive response to this movie, I knew I had to give this movie a chance. Will this movie manage to move me?
The third movie, Iggy the Eagle, is a Polish animated movie about a young eagle living in a world where birds lost their ability to fly dreaming of flying, who discovered an ancient book that could unlock this potential that could make his dreams of flying a reality. Of the 12 animated movies I covered in the 12 of my most anticipated animated movies of 2026, Iggy the Eagle is the final movie I highlighted in the article, which is ironic given this is now the second movie on that list I am covering. This was a movie I had been waiting for the past three years, so the question is: was this worth the wait?
The fourth and final movie, Swapped (formerly known as Pookoo), is the newest Skydance Animation movie about two animals who found their bodies swapped with each other by accident, and must set aside their differences with each other to find a plant that could reserve their body swapping. I got to be honest, I have doubts about this coming to this movie, as while Skydance Animation’s previous animated movie Spellbound was decent at least, there were a lot of issues behind the scenes, especially with the emergence of an article of alleged rumours depicting the abhorrent conditions at Skydance Animation (which hasn’t been proven yet, although knowing who’s in charge, it is a huge possibility). With this movie, will Swapped brings forth the downfall of Skydance Animation?
With that, let’s get onto our adventure!
All You Need is Kill
Key Information
- Director: Kenichiro Akimoto
- Animation Studio: Studio 4C
- Country of Origin: Japan
- Rating: NC16
- Release date: 9 January 2026 (in Japan)
Trailer
The Review
After suffering through The Land of Sometimes, my least favourite animated movie of 2026 so far, I needed a palette cleanser to wash off that toot berry aftertaste, but thankfully, Studio 4C once again came to my rescue with an intense video game-style thriller that provides me with a well-needed energy boost.
I will admit that this movie is not all that perfect. There are a few moments where the pacing slows down a bit too much, especially once the two main characters meet for the first time. Additionally, the violent time loop-style story might not be for everyone, as not everyone might be able to follow along with having to reset after every death in this movie. With that said, those are what I would call nitpicks, but at the end of the day, I enjoyed the overall experience. The writing is thrilling and is filled with good character development. You follow Rita (Ai Mikami) and Keiji (Natsuki Hanae) as they attempt to break away from the time loop they are stuck in. With every death comes a story or character development moment that helps moviegoers to understand the movie without overloading them with too much information, which is well-appreciated, especially with the ending that rewards moviegoers for their patience.
Just like with every other Studio 4C movie, the animation is spectacular. With every Studio 4C movie, the styling of each of their movies differs significantly from each other despite utilising the same fluid hand-drawn animation style that they are very well known for. It’s a colourful and exciting spectacle that flows super well, resulting in a dynamic animation style with deliberate imperfections that fit the movie’s brutal story well, but what did you expect from one of the more innovative animation studios in Japan? Between this and ChaO, Studio 4C knew what they were doing in terms of the animation.
The soundtrack is great to listen to, and helps to energise the moviegoers with every action sequence within the movie. As for my level of enjoyment, considering I did not like The Land of Sometimes one bit, what I saw in All You Need is Kill is a way better executed animated movie with a good story, great characters and animation, and the works. This is an animated movie that delivers in what it was trying to aim, and I respect the level of craftsmanship Studio 4C put into this movie.
Overall, All You Need is Kill delivers on its brutal time loop story with its great execution of said concept, and goes to show that you just need a bit of a thrill to be motivated to continue covering more interesting animated movies. Compared to The Land of Sometimes, this is a literal hell-to-heaven experience and worth seeing.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Heidi: Rescue of the Lynx
Key Information
- Director: Toby Schwarz
- Animation Studio: Studio 100 Animation, 3 Doubles Producciones and Studio Isar Animation
- Country of Origin: Germany, Spain, Belgium, France and Spain
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 26 June 2025 (in Germany)
Trailer
The Review
Considering my long-standing harsh view over how mediocre the German animation industry is for me, Germany is somehow going on a decently long streak of good enough animated movies that I found to be watchable. First, it was my biggest guilty pleasure of 2025 with Grand Prix of Europe, then recently with Tafiti: Across the Desert, and now, Heidi: Rescue of the Lynx is decent.
Considering this was from one of the studios that produced one of my least favourite animated movies of 2024, with Giants of La Mancha/Storm Crashers, I find Heidi: Rescue of the Lynx to be a huge improvement. Sure, the English dub of the movie was not great (as do most English dubs of family-friendly foreign CG animated movies), the villain is uninteresting, and some of the risks it took did not land, but at the very least, the simplistic charm this movie provides won me over. Considering the original Heidi book series is so well-loved (to the point that Studio Ghibli legend Hayao Miyazaki worked on an anime adaptation of the Heidi books in his early days as an animator), I was worried that a weaker animation studio would be unable to adapt it well, but this movie did thanks to a decently executed story that nails the basic, good character development and overall chill vibes that made this movie worthwhile.
The animation is also pretty good, especially for German animation standards. In fact, I would dare say this is the best animation from a German animated movie I had covered (more so than Grand Prix of Europe which already has good and well-detailed animation for their standards), with solid detailing and texturing in its character and background designs, which resulted in some beautiful animation sequences at times, and good quality in the movement of its elements. Honestly, this is already solid enough and goes to show that yes, German animators can produce good-quality animation when push comes to shove.
The minor elements, while not memorable, are solid enough for German animated movie standards, and as for my level of enjoyment, while I enjoyed two more German animated movies more than this in Grand Prix of Europe, and Lissi and the Wild Emperor, Heidi: Rescue of the Lynx is a solid animated movie that is at least better than the typical low-quality German animated movie, which makes it one of the better German animated movies considering their usually low standards.
Overall, I am quite happy to see that with this, it seems we are now getting slightly better quality animated movies from one of the biggest animation industry black holes in the world, which is encouraging at least. Let’s hope Germany continues to produce better-quality animated movies in the future, and fast.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Iggy the Eagle
Key Information
- Director: Bartek Kedzierski
- Animation Studios: Horus Movie Animation, Orangeanimation
- Country of Origin: Poland
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 6 February 2026 (in Poland)
Trailer
The Review
I am gonna confess on something, and it is that I don’t think I can be as objective about how important this movie is for me, and that is ok, because personally, Iggy the Eagle is a very important animated movie for me to cover. It is also a movie that would be difficult for me to talk about without unintentionally going into spoiler territory, but I will try to because this movie was worth looking out for.
I had already highlighted why this is among my most anticipated animated movies of 2026, so as a recap, this was a movie that tackles important and relevant issues in 2026, it was love at first sight when I saw a preview of it at Cartoon Movie 2023 and this was a family-friendly animated movie that does things that you won’t find in most family-friendly animated movies, even when there are fantastic family-friendly animated movies such as Little Amelie and Arco last year. After seeing this movie, I can say Iggy the Eagle was worth waiting for.
For starters, Iggy the Eagle is a movie that felt simple at first with its concept at first, but once you get into the intricacies of the movie and its topics, you find that this movie is way more than it seems. It is a movie that tackles complex and important topics about overreliance on technology and the power of dreams and imagination, which most of the family audience can resonate with. I myself find simple pleasures in doing things outside of my computer and my mobile devices, like reading physical books and journalling my thoughts in my notebook using a physical pen, and this movie handles its complex topics very well. The movie alternates between the story and its imaginary sequences when needed, which helps in its near-perfect pacing. Sure, this movie has a short 80-minute runtime which limits its story development, but for what this movie presented, the writers packed as much of the story development as they can in a short runtime which is admirable, something that cannot be said for my least favourite animated movie of 2026 so far in The Land of Sometimes, which is 10 minutes longer but felt twice as long as Iggy’s runtime.
I also wanted to highlight the characters for a moment, as they are as important as the story. Iggy (Tymon Gliszczynshi) presents as an idealistic main character full of wonder and imagination who trusts his instinct despite being ostracised for his love of flying, and he develops a lot as the story progresses. Sure, he is not perfect, but that was clearly what the writers intended to show a more human side of him. His new classmate Ewa (Antonia Baduchowska) adds a level of needed complexity and development to the story with a couple of surprising character development moments from her that resulted in her becoming a great supporting character. Iggy’s imaginary brother, Felix (Kosma Press), is a well-needed contrast to Iggy, and Iggy’s parents, Leon (Piotr Adamczyk) and Julia (Agnieszka Dygant), who shared different beliefs on technology with each other, provide important nuggets of wisdom and contrast that brings the story forward, while each having well-liked personalities that the audience can resonate with. It also helped that the voice acting is on point too.
Regarding the animation, it is surprising that there are not a lot of animation studios that adopt an animation style similar to The Amazing World of Gumball, by incorporating hand-drawn 2D characters into a mixture of 3D CG and live-action backgrounds, but that was exactly what the animators did. Fun fact: A majority of the live action backgrounds were shot in Toronto, Canada based on a few production companies that worked on the filming of these backgrounds, which may be why I am certain a few Canadian moviegoers who plan to see this in the future would be surprised at this.
That aside, the animation style is quite unique and actually well done and textured. Sure, this style might feel slightly jarring at first, but once you get used to it, the animation is quite impressive despite this unique approach. That is not to mention the flying sequences in Iggy’s imagination, because the flying sequences of him flying together with Felix alone are worth seeing in theatres. Also, if you see the trailer, there are chicken zombies, and yes, they look as grotesque as you can get for zombie designs, and it is glorious. It takes a lot of nerve to pull off this hybrid animation style, but you can tell that even with the limited budget this movie potentially got, the animators utilised the budget to its absolute limit on how immersive and stunning the animation is.
The soundtrack is also quite simple but charming, just like the rest of the movie. Sometimes, you don’t need too much complexity in the store, especially when the movie is already complex enough, and the soundtrack is pretty good for what it is. As for my level of enjoyment, I honestly cared a damn lot about Iggy the Eagle, especially considering I covered a good number of family-friendly animated movies that disrespect its audience due to how poorly crafted the elements are; here in Iggy the Eagle, you can tell the writers, the animators and everyone else involved in the production of this movie thankfully cared a lot about it, because almost everything in this movie comes together to form a strong and cohesive package that not only treats its audience with so much respect, but showcases what a top-quality family-friendly animated movie could look like in the future: one that is not just well produced, but also provide endless wonder and creativity that even adults like myself can enjoy at the same time.
In conclusion, Iggy the Eagle is an animated movie worth waiting 3 years for, and one that I am very proud to share with. I hope you get a chance to see this movie in theatres, because it is such an imaginative and wonderful animated movie that is worth discovering.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Swapped
Key Information
- Director: Nathan Greno
- Animation Studio: Skydance Animation (with Skydance Animation Madrid)
- Country of Origin: United States, Spain
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 1 May 2026 (on Netflix)
Trailer
The Review
Given I already covered Luck and Spellbound, Skydance Animation’s first two animated movies prior to seeing this, but after covering Swapped… I am surprised that I liked this movie!
Let’s get the elephant in the room: Swapped is not perfect, as there are some parts of the story that need further development, and some animation shots felt slightly under-rendered and not well-shot. Plus, this environmental story is something we had seen before and is better executed compared to this, which is important when you considered that the creep who shall not be named is still in charge of running Skydance Animation, meaning that almost everyone working for the studio had to deal with his mismanagement and staff abuse on an almost daily basis.
However, in spite of these issues above, kudos have to go to Nathan Greno (who previously directed a well-loved Disney movie in Tangled) and his team for somehow pulling off this great movie against those unfavourable odds, as Swapped’s world-building is something to behold. This is a story rich full of character and thought, and its unexpected plot twist and the events after the plot twist further cement my overall impression of it. I personally enjoyed the characters, specifically the chemistry between Ollie (Michael B. Jordan) and Ivy (Juno Temple). It is something when I cared about the story in a Skydance Animation movie in spite of its issues.
The animation is also stunning, and while not perfect, the character and background designs are really something. They might utilise the same generic CG style that almost everyone is familiar with, but thankfully, the art style and animation sequence have a distinct personality that is well executed enough to stand out, especially compared to Skydance Animation’s other movies. It is already not easy for a mainstream animation studio like Skydance Animation to stand out, but they managed to do so in spite of the difficulty in producing that thanks to the creep that shall not be named.
The score is great with its naturalistic and India-inspired sounds that create a more natural atmosphere into the story, and as for my level of enjoyment, while there were still flaws within this movie, and there are other animated movies in 2026 that I enjoyed way more, considering my views of Skydance Animation in the past. In all honesty, the true reason was because of who is running the studio, and I have nothing against the studio’s animators who worked tirelessly to produce good quality animation despite the creep’s sheer mismanagement.
Overall, I am pleasantly surprised with what I saw with Swapped. Despite the involvement of the creep that shall not be named, Greno and his team put together a very competent and well-realised animated movie that gets the basics right while also standing out in its own way when compared to Luck and Spellbound. Hopefully, this bodes well for what looks set to be Skydance Animation’s pièce de résistance with Ray Gunn later this year, and the sooner the creep is kicked out of Skydance Animation, the better.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Conclusion
Well, that was a great adventure, with two amazing non-mainstream animated movies worth checking out, and the best movie from perhaps one of the worst-performing mainstream animation studios out there. It really is something when you learn something new, isn’t it?
Thank you so much for joining me on this adventure. Well, with the release of the films lineup for this year’s Annecy Film Festival, it’s time we run it back and cover some of the films showcasing at this year’s film festival to look out for (and probably a surprise or two in the article). I cannot wait to share what the surprise is, so until next time, see you on the next adventure!
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