Animated movies and theme parks have a deeply connected history, but the new animated movie that's about a theme park is something entirely new. Wonder Park is the new movie from the studio behind Sherlock Gnomes and it follows a young girl in her discovery of a disused theme park in the middle of nowhere. The first trailer is now here to give us a look at the magical park known as Wonderland. Check it out.
The trailer itself only gives the basics. We see a girl walking in the woods when she comes upon a roller coaster car hidden among some trees. She rides the car all the way to a massive theme park that looks closed down, but with a little bit of magic, it comes to life again. Instead of seeing people in mascot costumes, it seems that the mascot characters are quite real. Our heroine has a lot of fun with them going on the various rides. It looks like an entertaining little movie, though exactly what the conflict of the story is, is still being left to the imagination.
While the trailer for Wonder Park doesn't give us much, the official plot synopsis does go into a bit more detail. The young girl's name is June, and the Wonderland theme park is actually the product of her own imagination. It's something she apparently had dreamed up when she was even younger but had mostly forgotten about until she discovers that it somehow has become a real place.
Theme parks and animated films go hand-in-hand, though it is a bit surprising that we're not seeing Disney create an animated movie about a theme park, as they have actual parks to pull from. There has been a project at Disney, called Magic Kingdom, which is supposed to be a live-action film about the titular park and the characters that live inside it, but we haven't heard much about in recent days. Jon Favreau, who had been previously attached has been busy with the new version of The Lion King.
While this trailer is little more than a teaser, Wonder Park certainly has potential. It looks light and fluffy and fun, the sort of thing that kids could absolutely love, and there's nothing here that implies that there won't be something for their parents to also enjoy. With plenty of time before this film's release, we'll certainly be learning a lot more in the coming months.
The voice cast for Wonder Park includes Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Garner, Jeffrey Tambor, Kenan Thompson, Ken Jeong, Mila Kunis, and John Oliver. It will arrive in theaters in March of 2019.
