Skip to main content

Sony Pictures Animation: Alf is back, in movie form

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The last twenty years have been pretty rough for Alf. At the tail-end of the 1980s he was one of the biggest stars in America, alongside Arsenio Hall, Roseanne Barr and Dana Carvey’s impression of George Bush (though not Carvey himself). The character, an alien from the planet Melmac whose sarcasm was only matched by his insatiable hunger for domesticated cats, had the world on a string, even if he was just a puppet, but that all changed when his titular NBC sitcom ended its run in March of 1990.

Since then he’s found scant work. His last notable appearance was being namechecked in a 1995 episode of The Simpsons in which Bart sells his soul to Milhouse (who then trades the soul for Alf pogs). Normally the article would end here and we’d all chuckle over a shared rememberance of the days when The Simpsons was regularly hilarious, but thanks to Sony Pictures Animation there is so much more to discuss! Specifically, that the studio has signed a deal to revive Alf’s career by putting him in an upcoming feature film.

True to its name, the Hollywood Reporter reports:

Sony Pictures Animation has closed a deal to acquire rights to the classic 1980s sitcom ALF and will develop the property into a hybrid CG/live action feature.

Jordan Kerner, who produced SPA’s adaptation of 1980s Saturday morning cartoon staple The Smurfs and helped turn it into a hybrid blockbuster franchise, will produce the project with show creators Tom Patchett, a veteran of 1970s comedies, and puppeteer Paul Fusco.
 
Though this project is still in the very early stages the Hollywood Reporter believes that Fusco, who voiced Alf throughout the original NBC sitcom, will return to his most famous vocal role.
 
While we certainly hope that Fusco returns, the rest of this news is confusing us a bit. We’re not at all surprised to see a Hollywood studio attempting to cash in on a property from the 1980s — that’s pretty much what they do now — but what is “hybrid CG/live action feature” supposed to mean? We know what it would normally mean: Something akin to the recent Smurfs films in which Neil Patrick Harris stars alongside computer-generated, miniscule blue people, but how is that supposed to work with Alf? He’s a puppet, so either Sony Pictures Animation is planning to use CGI to create a new iteration of Alf, or the aforementioned puppet is the only part of this film that’s going to be in live-action, while the rest of the cast is created by computers. We don’t need to explain why that second option is baffling, but if SPA opts for the first route, doesn’t that detract from Alf’s inherent appeal? We loved him because he was a cynical jerk who just so happened to be as cuddly looking as one of Jim Henson’s famous creations. A CGI version of Alf would be shiny and easier to animate, but it loses a certain hypothetical tactile appeal intrinsic to the character’s success back in the 80s.
 
Plus, Alf spent a major part of his time in the original series attempting to stuff cats down his gullet. How is that supposed to work if he’s been generated by computers? Cats are hard enough to act with for flesh-and-blood humans, so we have to assume that a finicky feline must be a total nightmare for people tasked with animating a believable, fuzzy alien around their flailing, kitty rage.
 
Then again, it’s also possible that SPA plans to completely rework Alf canon to make the character more palatable to modern audiences. Maybe he’ll be given a hip new attitude and contemporary interests like “surfing” and “being radical to the extreme.” Kids are still into neon skateboards, right?

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Earnest Cavalli
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Earnest Cavalli has been writing about games, tech and digital culture since 2005 for outlets including Wired, Joystiq…
Nintendo and Sony team up for Legend of Zelda movie
Link in promo art for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

After the Super Mario Bros. live-action film bombed in 1993, Nintendo kept its top video game franchises away from Hollywood for decades. But with the runaway success of the animated film The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Nintendo will unleash its other top title upon movie audiences. Via The Hollywood Reporter, Nintendo and Sony Pictures are planning a live-action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda.

While Sony and Nintendo are rivals when it comes to gaming consoles, the two companies have apparently been making plans for the Zelda film for a long time. As part of the announcement, Nintendo and Sony revealed that Wes Ball, the director of The Maze Runner trilogy, is attached to direct Zelda. Ball's next movie, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, is slated to hit theaters on May 24, 2024.

Read more
One of 2023’s best-reviewed movies is now on Netflix. Here’s why you should watch it
The poster for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Just under five months after it hit theaters, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has finally made its streaming debut on Netflix. The heavily-anticipated follow-up to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse did not disappoint as it became one of the top hits of the summer. Given its overwhelmingly positive reception from fans, it should be among the most popular movies on Netflix within its first 24 hours.

Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson co-directed the film from a script by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Dave Callaham. Shameik Moore reprised his role as Miles Morales, with Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy, Brian Tyree Henry as Jeff Morales, Lauren Vélez as Rio Morales, Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker, Jason Schwartzman as The Spot, and Oscar Isaac as Miguel O'Hara.

Read more
When is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse streaming?
Miles Morales falls through a multiverse portal in "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse."

It took almost five years, but the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse finally arrived and was one of the top hits of the summer. And Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is everything you could hope for from a follow-up -- and more. It has a much bigger scale than the first film, with literally hundreds of Spider-Heroes, at least five distinct animated worlds, and a ton of heart that made this sequel a huge success.

The incredible visuals got people into theaters, but the characters are the reasons why moviegoers kept coming back to see it. Shameik Moore reprises his role as Miles Morales, a teenage Spider-Man who has a lot of questions about his future. Also returning from the first film is Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy, New Girl's Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker, and Causeway's Brian Tyree Henry and Luna Lauren Vélez as Miles' parents, Jefferson and Rio Morales, both of whom have much meatier roles in the sequel.

Read more