Fat Dancing Productions takes its name from the USC graduate film that launched David N. Weiss's career - "The Man Tho Loved Fat Dancing." Praised by the LA Times as "uncommonly mature" and "charming," the film's spirit of faith, comedy, and personal storytelling continues to infuse Weiss's work today.
Fat Dancing Productions takes its name from the USC graduate film that launched David N. Weiss's career - "The Man Tho Loved Fat Dancing." Praised by the LA Times as "uncommonly mature" and "charming," the film's spirit of faith, comedy, and personal storytelling continues to infuse Weiss's work today.
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“Monkey Quest,” Toei Animation’s ambitious new production sneak peeked Monday at Annecy, was born from a simple question, says producer Yoshi Ikezawa.
“[Producer] Joseph Chou and I asked: How can Japanese anime reach the same level of mainstream awareness and emotional connection that major U.S. animated films have achieved with global audiences?”
For Ikezawa and Chou, the true strength of anime lies in its distinctive characters. “Anime has an incredible ability to create characters that audiences carry with them for many years,” Ikezawa told Variety before the Work-in-Progress unveil of “Monkey Quest” at Annecy.
For this, they approached Naoto Oshima, the original character designer of the iconic video game character Sonic the Hedgehog. “He began developing a concept inspired by the legend of ‘Journey to the West’ and he brought us the original story idea and characters” that Oshima hoped “could carry the spirit and energy of anime, while also becoming a global family adventure,” Ikezawa recalls.
The film, currently in post-production, follows the 12-year-old girl Elle and her 1-year-old brother Adam as they meet Okon (voiced by Adam Devine), a monkey with tremendous power as a legendary guardian of Earth. They face off against the villainous Vex (voiced by J.K. Simmons) in a quest which takes them across wildly different landscapes and even peers into a dimension beyond our own.
“The original idea [from Joseph Chou] was essentially ‘Journey to the West’ in space,” says director and screenwriter David N. Weiss, “and that became the foundation for everything we did.” Weiss continues, “I read multiple translations of the novel and was struck not just by the adventure but by the humor, satire, and emotional depth that have made the story beloved for centuries.”
Co-director Stephanie Ma Stine (“Kung Fu Panda 4”) calls the figure of Sun Wukong and his stories “evergreen” – but she’s not surprised by this longevity. “In every culture and time period, there has been a keen fondness for the trickster character,” she explains. Weiss adds that plenty of creative license was taken but the team enacted these changes while trying to stay true to what he calls the spirit of transformation and redemption at the heart of the original myth.
Development and pre-production began in the U.S. The original plan was to bring the production to Japan and bring aboard Japanese animators at that point, Ikezawa says.
The increasing global interest in anime shifted these plans somewhat, however. “As the project developed, we realized that many of the best animators and artists from around the world had grown up loving Japanese anime,” Ikezawa adds. “They did not see anime as something foreign to them, they saw it as part of their own creative language.”
From this point the project became more global, expanding beyond even the U.S. and Japan as the team widened to animators from other countries. “The Japanese side brought the history, craft and discipline of anime production. The U.S. side brought a strong sense of story structure, character emotion and global family entertainment. And the international artists brought their own passion and point of view. That is what made the project feel alive to us.”
“I grew up watching Toei cartoons – my favorite was ‘Sailor Moon,'” Stine says. “To be part of this history, even as a small drop in the ocean, means more than I can convey in a short amount of time.”
Weiss highlighted how much trust they felt from Toei during production, saying that “notes always came with a gentle hand.” He adds, “In many ways, it reminded me of the special culture Sherry Lansing fostered during my years at Paramount: a feeling that the studio genuinely wanted you to succeed.” Stine concurs with Weiss on the sense of support from producers Yoshi Ikezawa and Tim Kwok. “They also fed us really well, which is always much appreciated,” she quips.
Perhaps the most striking design idea in “Monkey Quest” was the decision to blend 2D and 3D animation, often using layers of hand-drawn 2D animation over the top of 3D CG animation. The studio Sanzigen was responsible for this part of production, reserved for when the film touched upon the ‘ethereal’ dimension from which Okon originates.
Character designer and co-director Takao Noguchi spoke to the philosophy behind the character looks at the core of both methodologies. “The focus was on clear, recognizable silhouettes,” he says. “On this project, we also incorporated kanji-inspired forms and symbolic design elements connected to each character’s role, which helped make the cast feel more unique and expressive.”
“Monkey Quest” appears to be a celebration and exploration of this newfound closeness in these different methods, a hybridized team making hybridized art.
Set in a near-future world, a fearless teenage girl and her brother, desperate to find their missing parents, awaken Okon, Earth's long-forgotten protector with extraordinary power. As this unlikely trio embarks on a high-stakes, surprise-filled journey, they must learn to trust one another and discover what it truly means to be a family.
Category: WIP – Feature films
Country of production: Japan, USA
Publics: Family
Genres: Humor
Techniques: 2D Computer, 3D Computer
Direction: David N. Weiss
Co-Direction: Stephanie Ma Stine, Takao Noguchi
Production: Toei Animation
International sales: Charades
Script: J. David Stem, David N. Weiss
Now accepting applications for the live online course on Animation Scriptwriting.
Dates: 22 OCT 2026 – 3 DEC 2026
Duration: 6 WEEKS
TUESDAYS & THURSDAYS
5 PM PT / 8 PM ET
Delve into storytelling essentials. Build a solid foundation in narrative structure, character development, and visual storytelling.
Learn directly from Emmy-nominated David N. Weiss, who wrote for Shrek 2, Jimmy Neutron, The Smurfs, and Rugrats. Gain real industry insights on portfolio development to get your foot in the door.
You are an aspiring animation writer. You'll learn how to create engaging stories, understand what studios and networks want in scripts, and pick up practical tips for pitching and writing for TV, film, or branded content.
You are a professional working in an animation studio. Perfect for pros like storyboard artists and animators who want to sharpen their storytelling and scriptwriting skills — nail character development and story structure, pitch projects, and take your career to the next level.
You want to shift into animation as a screenwriter or freelancer. The course opens doors to the market by teaching you storytelling tricks that set animation apart. You'll create a pitch that grabs attention and learn how to network and land gigs in this specific industry.
Across 12 dynamic classes, you'll explore story structure, genre, dialogue, character design, visual thinking, and more — all enhanced by hands-on workshops and practical, career-focused assignments. You'll gain the tools to build a strong portfolio of scripts and pitches, navigate studio structures, and network with key industry players. Develop your own unique film or TV concept, culminating in a final pitch to bring your vision to life.
With Japan's animation industry recording its highest-ever market value — JPY3.8 trillion ($23.7 billion), according to the Assn. of Japanese Animations — Toei Animation is in Cannes this week to make the case that the next chapter of anime's global story is one of co-creation, not just export. The timing is not incidental: Japan's government Intellectual Property Promotion Plan sets an explicit target of growing content-related overseas revenue from JPY4.7 trillion ($29.3 billion) in 2022 to JPY20 trillion ($124.9 billion) by 2033, with anime at the center of that ambition.
The studio established a Global Strategy and Content Creation department last year, a formal expression of a direction it had been moving toward for some time. “The era when anime was something made only by Japanese people is over,” says Asama Yosuke, general manager at Toei Animation. “From now on, we aim to create entertainment works rooted in local cultures together with creators from around the world.”
The clearest evidence of that approach is “Monkey Quest,” a family film that has assembled an international creative team in Tokyo. Producer Ikezawa Yoshi says the project's makeup evolved organically. “What happened naturally was that many animators, designers and creators from around the world — people who had grown up with anime — wanted to come to Tokyo and work with us on the film.”
The result, Ikezawa says, is a visual identity that sits between traditions: “It still has strong anime elements, but at the same time, its look is somewhat more international, reflecting how anime has been received and interpreted around the world.” The film targets family audiences and, in Ikezawa's framing, amounts to “creating a film with Western cultural values through the perspective of artists and animators who grew up with anime.”
That blending is deliberate and philosophically distinct from how Hollywood tends to approach global storytelling. “In Hollywood storytelling, especially in action films that travel globally more easily, there is often a tendency to remove as many specific cultural elements as possible,” Ikezawa says. “Our approach is somewhat different. We tend to build from those cultural values, embrace them and then tell those stories through anime.” The implication, he adds, is that a finished Toei co-production may not always wear its Japanese origins visibly — but the underlying grammar remains distinctly anime. “We believe that the anime aesthetic and the storytelling language of anime are already inherently Japanese.”
On what sets Toei apart from rivals also chasing international growth, Ikezawa draws a clear line. “We are not simply focused on exporting finished Japanese anime to the rest of the world. Our goal, wherever we work, is to tell stories that carry the cultural values of each region to the next generation. It is also about creating stories rooted in each culture together with regional partners, and then expressing them through the strengths of anime.”
For Asama, the priority markets are shaped less by size than by energy. “We are discovering fresh and exciting things in areas with younger populations, such as Asia, India and the Middle East,” he says. On talent development, his view is pragmatic: “Creators don't necessarily want to belong to a company — they want to create what they love. There is nothing better than having creators from around the world want to work on Toei Animation's projects and collaborate with us.”
On what success ultimately looks like, Ikezawa cuts through the industry language. “As producers, what means the most is when we see children, fans and audiences really enjoying our films — when you can actually see that excitement in their eyes. That is the moment when we feel the work has connected.”
The international segment of Japan's anime industry has reached JPY2.17 trillion ($13.5 billion) — up 26% year-on-year — and now accounts for 56.5% of the total market, having exceeded the domestic segment for the second consecutive year. Toei Animation, which has been producing animation for more than 70 years, is attending the Cannes Film Market as part of Japan's Country of Honor program.
Japanese anime giant Toei Animation (One Piece Film: Red, The First Slam Dunk) is teaming with Sonic the Hedgehog game designer Naoto Oshima, Shrek 2 and The Smurfs writer David N. Weiss and acclaimed animation producer Joseph Chou on the English-language animated feature Hypergalactic.
Adam Devine, Elsie Fisher, J.K. Simmons and Sam Richardson are among the voice cast attached to the production, which Toei is calling its biggest CGI project to date.
The plot follows an adventurous teenage girl (Fisher) and her baby brother in the not-so-distant future, after they liberate the forgotten protector of Earth, Ohkan (Devine), in the hopes that he can help reunite them with their missing parents. What begins as a rescue mission becomes a high-stakes adventure that tests the unlikely trio at every turn.
The project brings together an unusual mix of talent from both sides of the Pacific: Oshima's iconic character design sensibility, Weiss's decades of experience writing beloved family films for Hollywood studios, and Chou's track record producing ambitious international animation. The feature marks a major step in Toei's push toward global co-productions made with — not just for — worldwide audiences.
So you want to become a successful screenwriter? But how do you start? What do you need to do to make a living as a screenwriter? Today, you will learn how you can become a screenwriter and what you need to do from a guy who has worked, and has really been successful for decades, at being a professional screenwriter.
I'd like to introduce my friend and Hollywood screenwriter, David Nathan Weiss. David and I have been friends since we went to high school in the seventies together. David is by far, the most famous un-famous person I know. David is the screenwriter of All Dogs Go to Heaven and Rock-a-Doodle and co-writer of The Rugrats Movie, Shrek 2, Clockstoppers, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Rugrats in Paris, The Smurfs and its sequel, and Disenchanted with writing partner J. David Stem. He has also written for television shows such as Mission Hill, Cybill, and Roundhouse.
But as David tells me, “No one knows who the writers are.” Let's meet David and have him tell us his story.
MR: Let's say I'm a 20–30 year old guy. I really like writing, and I want to become a writer. What is the most basic thing I should do?
DW: Well, the most basic thing is you should be writing. You shouldn't say, “I want to be a writer.” You should say, “I'm writing right now. I'm writing a book. I'm writing a film. I'm writing a TV pilot.” You should be writing every day. ABW, “Always Be Writing.” You don't have to be getting paid to be a writer, that's a whole different thing. I think the way to get to being a professional writer is to start by just being a writer. It should be bursting out of you.
My writing partner, J. David Stem, is always quoting someone who said, you should only be doing this if you can't do anything else. Not that you're not able to do anything else. But that you just have to write. You can't not write. If you don't feel that inside, it isn't going to happen for you.
MR: When did you realize you were a professional paid writer?
DW: The real first shock to me was you have to know what to write. You have to think of everything! The idea, the structure, the story, characters, motivations. I start with questions. Whose story is it? What do they want? What's in their way? What is at stake? What's the theme? Then slowly we solve and build it out and find the structure and the characters and the dilemmas and the conflict.
My graduate film got me an agent, and the agent said, we can't sell you as a director unless you have a script, so start writing. So I wrote a script, and that script, as a sample, didn't get made, but another producer saw that script, liked the writing and hired me. That script also did not get made, but he sent it to Don Bluth, looking for financing. And Don said, “I'm not interested in doing live action movies, but I like the writing. Is the writer available?” And Don hired me to do a rewrite on a film that eventually became All Dogs Go to Heaven. And that was the first time that I went, “So, maybe I can write screenplays and get paid.”
You have to just keep trying and struggling. But, if nothing happens in seven years, I suggest you give up and go to your next passion. Because if you've got seven straight years and there's no affirmation, I think that's the universe sending you a message. For me, there was always affirmation.
MR: Is it critical to have an agent in order to become a professional?
DW: The famous chicken and the egg thing. An agent is very helpful, but you've got to get noticed somehow. That's the trick. It helps if you have what they call chutzpah. You've got to be willing to go out there and take some chances and annoy some people and say, “Would you read my script?” Go be an assistant somewhere. Go do an internship. You've got to get a foot in the door somehow.
And by the way, do not send your first script out to anybody. Send it first to friends who have written scripts. Take a class, get yourself a mentor. Get in a group of people who want to do what you're doing. Be in community. If you're in a silo and all you're hearing is your own voice, you need feedback.
MR: As a writer, you need to find your own voice. But most of the projects you work on are other people's voices. How do you balance that?
DW: I often say that I'm not an artist. I'm a craftsman. I'm an old fashioned showman. I want to put on a show. So the studio says, well, we've got these Rugrats on TV. How do we turn them into a movie? And I'll go, “I know what to do.” The Rugrats can't just suddenly go to the moon just because it's a big screen. But they also can't sit in the living room and wonder how the vacuum cleaner works. That's not a cinematic question. So I start with questions and solving problems. And it turns out that's a skill. I'm a good collaborator, I'm having a lovely career and a great time.
MR: What do people want to know when you go into a room for a job?
DW: They're going to ask you, “What's your take? How would you turn this into something we could make money out of?” They want you to solve their problem. They want you to get their movie greenlit. They're going to make you pitch their boss, and this pitch better blow the boss's socks off.
To sum up what David said: if you want to be a writer, then start writing every day. That will make you a writer. To be a paid professional writer, get into the film business somehow — be an intern, sweep up the set, join a writer's group — do whatever it takes to get in and meet people in the industry. And if you want to get your foot in the door, you gotta ask and not be afraid of rejection. Because in the film industry there hasn't been a single person in history who wasn't rejected many times.