‘Night Of The Animated Dead’: Release Date, Cast And More

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Before there wasThe Walking Deador any of its gazillion TV spin-offs, there wasNight of the Living Dead. Soon there will be a new animated version of George Romero’s classic, appropriately titledNight of the Animated Dead, and here’s everything we know about it.

Night of the Animated Dead Release Date and Where You Can Watch It

Night of the Animated Deadwill have its digital release onSeptember 21, 2021. For those who prefer physical media, you’ll be able to purchase it two weeks later onOctober 5when the Blu-ray and DVD combo becomes available. The combo pack should include a code allowing you to access a digital copy of the movie through Movies Anywhere.

Thepress releaseforNight of the Animated Deadexplains that the Movies Anywhere platform connects “participating digital retailers that include Amazon Prime Video, FandangoNOW, Google Play, iTunes, and Vudu.” These same retailers would be the place to go if you just want to rent or buy a digital copy of the movie.

Note that the rent option sometimes kicks in later for movies like this. The press release makes no mention of that part of things, but for the digital release and Blu-ray combo pack, it does list a USA price tag of $19.99. The DVD runs (or slow-walks, zombie-like) for $14.99. Pre-orders begin onAugust 10, 2021.

What is Night of the Animated Dead?

As its title implies,Night of the Animated Deadis an animated movie update ofNight of the Living Dead. Itoffers a new takeon an old story. Over the course of 70 minutes, it will feature new scenes not seen in the original 1968 black-and-white film. Technically, they should call itNight of the Reanimated Dead, not only because it involves reanimated corpses but because it’s reanimating Romero’s first film outside the official franchise he built.

Romeropassed awayin 2017. Because the movie’s distributor forgot to add a copyright notice to it, the originalNight of the Living Deaddwells in the public domain, meaning it’s not subject to the same intellectual property laws as other Hollywood IPs. Warner Bros. Animation, Hemisphere Entertainment, and The Long Game have taken that ball and run with it to produce this film, which Warner Brothers Entertainmentwill distribute.

Night of the Animated Dead Synopsis

The press release forNight of the Animated Deadbills it as a story where “siblings Barbara and Johnny visit their father’s grave in a remote cemetery in Pennsylvania,” and “are suddenly set upon by zombies.” Funny: that happens to us every time we visit remote cemeteries in Pennsylvania, too. We useNerf’s Zombie Repellant ammunition.

Barbara, on the other hand, “flees and takes refuge in an abandoned farmhouse along with stranded motorist Ben and four local survivors found hiding in the cellar.”

Night of the Animated Dead Director, Crew, and More

Night of the Animated Deadis directed byJason Axinnand produced byMichael J. Luisa,Ralph E. Portillo,Robert Feldman, andKevin Kasha. It is based on the original ’60s screenplay by Romero andJohn A. Russo, andDemente Animation Studioprovides animation services. According toIMDb,LightBenderhandles the film’s color.

Executive producers areRichard Potter,Thomas DeFeo, andJamie Elliott.

Night of the Animated Dead Cast

Here’s the official cast rundown via Warner Bros. Animation:

Night of the Animated Dead features the voice talents ofJosh Duhamel(Jupiter’s Legacy, Transformers), as Harry Cooper,Dulé Hill(The West Wing, Psych), as Ben,Katharine Isabelle(Ginger Snaps) as Barbara,James Roday Rodriguez(A Million Little Things, Psych) as Tom,Katee Sackhoff(The Mandalorian, Battlestar Galactica) as Judy,Will Sasso(MadTV) as Sheriff McClelland,Jimmi Simpson(Westworld) as Johnny andNancy Travis(Last Man Standing) as Helen Cooper."

As you can see, it’s somewhat star-studded. No trailer is available yet forNight of the Animated Dead, but we’ll keep you posted on that as we shamble along like hungry zombies toward thatSeptember 21release date.