First Teaser Trailer Released For Adult Animation 'Tangles'

Independent and international animated features often screen at festivals long before their domestic release. Doing so allows them to build up hype and awards buzz. By the time they arrive in your local picturehouse they already have quite the weight of expectation behind them. One film taking this approach this year is Leah Nelson's Tangles. The 2D animated film world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Caméra d'Or and the Queer Palm. After the screening, it received a seven-minute standing ovation from the crowd. It later screened at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Cristal for Best Feature. Its North American debut was at the Toronto International Film Festival, and it subsequently also screened at Chicago International Film Festival, San Sebastian International Film Festival, Deauville Film Festival and Animation Is Film. Now, the film's first trailer has been released.

The film's monochrome, hand-drawn style is taken from the graphic novel that inspired it. Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me is written and illustrated by Sarah Leavitt and is based on the author's own experiences of her mother's Alzheimer's disease. The film is directed by Leah Nelson and is written by Nelson, Leavitt and Trev Renney. It is produced by Vicky Patel, Steve Barnett, Alan Powell, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Lauren Miller Rogen.  The film is a co-production between Monarch Media, Lylas Pictures and Rogen and Goldberg's Point Grey Pictures, with animation produced by Canadian studio Giant Ant. US distribution is by IFC.

Both in the book and the film it features Sarah, a young woman who has to return to her conservative hometown to care for her mother, who has developed Alzheimer's. She soon discovers that she has to face the reality of this cruel disease and embrace her eccentric family to become the daughter they all need. 

Tangles boasts a decidedly impressive voice-cast. Abbi Jacobson (who impressed in voice work in Disenchantment and Long Story Short) voices Sarah and Seinfeld/Veep legend Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Midge, her mum. Bryan Cranston harks back to his early, pre-Breaking Bad days as an anime/Power Rangers voice actor, as Sarah's Dad, Rob. The cast also includes Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman, Wanda Sykes, Bowen Yang, Samira Wiley and Beanie Feldstein.

Seth Rogen's involvement here, as both actor and producer, may at first seem surprising. As an actor, he's better known for crude comedy and as a producer, he's better known for producing shows such as the ultra-violent The Boys and Preacher. But over more recent years, Point Grey Pictures has become more involved in animation with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and the upcoming Darkwing Duck revival. Perhaps more relevantly, he is also a passionate campaigner and fundraiser for the fight against Alzheimer's, having personally experienced what its like to see a loved one go through that. Patel and Miller Rogen (who happens to be married to Seth, as well as an actor, director and writer in her own right) are also passionate campaigners.

The film promises to go to some pretty dark places, but the trailer is surprisingly light-hearted. Expect plenty of humour (as well as black comedy) to lighten the mood a little, but there's really only one way for the story to go. Be warned: if you do have a history with Alzheimer's in your own life, this is probably going to be a tough watch.

IFC will release Tangles in the United States on limited release on January 15, with a wide release following January 22. With the film already in the conversation for the 2020 Oscar for Best Animated Feature, expect an earlier awards-qualifying run in New York or LA, before the year is out.

Check out the first teaser trailer, below.