You’ve heard of Captain America and Captain Marvel – heck, you’re probably even familiar with Captain Fantastic thanks to Viggo Mortensen – but what about Captain Underpants?
Due to screen in front of Lionsgate’s Power Rangers movie this coming weekend – for those in the States and Canada, at least – we now have our first look at David Soren’s (Turbo) animated pic in action. Hatched as a collaboration between DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox, Captain Underpants plucks Dav Pilkey’s wonderfully wacky cast of characters and catapults them onto the big screen in style.
Ed Helms, best known for his roles in The Office and The Hangover franchise, lends his voice to the title role, and is flanked by an all-star cast comprised of Kevin Hart (Jumanji), Thomas Middleditch, Nick Kroll as the villainous Professor Poopypants and Jordan Peele, the creative mind behind horror hit Get Out, as nerdy tattletale Melvin Sneedly.
As today’s trailer attests, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is shaping up to be a fun-filled adventure for the whole family, one in which “two mischievous kids hypnotize their mean elementary school principal and turn him into their comic book creation, the kind-hearted and elastic-banded Captain Underpants.” Since its inception in ’97, Dav Pilkey’s novel series has not only collected a smattering of prestigious awards, it’s also inspired a string of spinoff stories, too, and with more than 70 million books sold worldwide in the Captain Underpants series, it’s small wonder why it took Hollywood so long to stand up and take notice of Pilkey’s zany franchise.
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie blasts into theaters across the U.S. and the UK on June 2nd and July 28th, respectively.