Abominable is an upcoming animated movie from DreamWorks Animation and Pearl Studio. Jill Culton (
Open Season) and Todd Wilderman are attached as directors. Chloe Bennet (
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) will play the lead role. As well as Bennet, the voice cast also includes: Albert Tsai, Tenzing Norgay Trainor, Eddie Izzard, Sarah Paulson, Tsai Chin and Michelle Wong.
The two aformentioned directors recently participated in an interview with
CinemaBlend in which they discussed Bennet's protagonist character: Yi. Wilderman first explained that Yi and her voice actress are essentially one and the same. Yi is a teenage girl who lives in Shanghai with her mother and grandma. Bennet similarly spent her teenage years in China with her grandmother.
“It’s kind of her in a lot of ways," the co-director said before talking about how they didn't want the character of Yi to be realistic and therefore flawed.
"We didn’t want to hold our heroine up on a pedestal and make sure she’s perfect. We wanted to show her flaws, that she was funny, she could be wrong, make mistakes and be the butt of the joke. I think Chloe really embraced that and was able to bring a realness to Yi."
Culton, the film's other director, explained that she didn't want the film to be Abominable to be a typical female-driven animated film - which usually revolve around fairy tales of princesses in search of their one true love. Instead, Yi is a realistic and modern tomboy. The director also talked about what inspired Yi's relationship with, the film's namesake, her yeti companion:
A lot of my inspiration came from my love of central relationships like E.T. and Black Stallion and it was important for me to have a kickass tomboy girl in there because I was a tomboy growing up and I felt like I only had princess movies to watch and there was nothing for me. I’ve also had giant dogs in my life, like Great Danes, I have two Bloodhounds right now that weigh 100 pounds each and I’ve grown up around animals, so that non-verbal relationship you have with them was very important to me and something I could relate to.
DreamWorks Animation and Pearl Studio’s co-production Abominable takes audiences on an epic 2,000-mile adventure from the streets of Shanghai to the breathtaking Himalayan snowscapes.
When teenage Yi (Chloe Bennet, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) encounters a young Yeti on the roof of her apartment building in Shanghai, she and her mischievous friends, Jin (Tenzing Norgay Trainor) and Peng (Albert Tsai), name him “Everest” and embark on an epic quest to reunite the magical creature with his family at the highest point on Earth.
But the trio of friends will have to stay one-step ahead of Burnish (Eddie Izzard), a wealthy man intent on capturing a Yeti, and zoologist Dr. Zara (Sarah Paulson) to help Everest get home.
Abominable is set to release in theatres on September 27th, 2019.