Screenshot: My Father’s Dragon/Netflix
It has been more than a dozen years since Disney released a traditionally animated feature film, having taken audience indifference to middling mid-aughts efforts like Home on the Range and Brother Bear as a sign that computer-generated animation was the wave of the box office future. Whether they were right about that or not—the massive U.S. grosses of the likes of Moana and Frozen suggest they were—I still miss old-school Disney cartoons. Luckily, smaller, independent studios have emerged to fill a void in the market.
Cartoon Saloon is the studio behind the films The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, The Breadwinner, and Wolfwalkers, all four of them deservedly nominated for Best Animated Feature Oscars. If you ask me, they’re doing Disney better than Disney, and are on the most consistent run in animation filmmaking since the early days of Pixar—and the streak looks to continue with their next film, My Father’s Dragon, arriving on Netflix on Nov. 11.
My Father’s Dragon | Official Trailer | Netflix
Based on a classic children’s books by Ruth Stiles Gannett, the film follows a young boy who travels to an enchanted island filled with strange talking animals and befriends the titular winged beast; together, the two must save the island from a mysterious force causing it to sink into the sea. The animation unquestionably follows the Cartoon Saloon house style that made their previous films such singularly gorgeous affairs, while nodding to the art from the books (credited to the author’s mother, Ruth Chrisman Gannett).
Netflix’s other big film release for November is The Wonder (Nov. 16). Florence Pugh trades the 1950s trappings of Don’t Worry Darling for the period costumes of 1860s Ireland for this adaptation of the novel by Emma Donoghue (Room). The film follows a young nurse (Pugh) sent to a rural Irish village to care for a young girl who has gone months without eating with no apparent ill effects. Directed by Sebastián Lelio, whose 2017 film A Fantastic Woman won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, this one is among the streamer’s crop of 2022 awards bait; it has already screened at several film festivals, generating awards buzz for Pugh.
The Wonder | Official Trailer | Netflix
Less likely to be nominated for anything, and more likely to be watched by way more people, is Christmas With You (Nov. 17), in which a pop star (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) works with a fan to try to write a holiday hit song; we can probably imagine where this is going. I’m also intrigued by Slumberland (Nov. 18), a loose adaptation of the fantasy adventure comic strip Nemo in Slumberland from Francis Lawrence, the director of I Am Legend and two of the Hunger Games films. This update follows a girl (Marlo Barkley) who teams with an outlaw (Jason Mamoa) to track down her father in a magical land, said father being Nemo, whose comic strip adventures are treated as prologue.
Slumberland | Official Trailer | Netflix
On the TV side, Netflix will premiere a Tim Burton-produced update of The Addams Family (Nov. 23) that plops the macabre teen of the title into a contemporary high school. Fans of the cultish German sci-fi series The Dark will want to watch out for 1899 (Nov. 17), a new show from the same creative team that follows the passengers on a turn-of-the-century sailing ship that is redirected into stranger waters. Plus: The last season of Dead to Me (Nov. 17), more Cuphead (Nov. 18), and some holiday-themed Great British Baking Show hijinks (Nov. 18).
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Here’s everything else coming to (and leaving) Netflix in November.
What’s coming to Netflix in November 2022
Coming Soon (date TBA)
The Last Dolphin King — Netflix DocumentaryArriving Nov. 1
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Stutz — Netflix DocumentaryTeletubbies — Netflix FamilyArriving Nov. 15
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The BoxtrollsBlood, Sex & Royalty — Netflix DocumentaryChristmas on Mistletoe Farm — Netflix FilmLesson Plan — Netflix FilmThe Swimmers — Netflix FilmTaco Chronicles: Cross the Border — Netflix DocumentaryThe Unbroken Voice — Netflix SeriesWednesday — Netflix SeriesWho’s a Good Boy? — Netflix FilmArriving Nov. 24
First Love — Netflix SeriesThe Noel Diary — Netflix FilmSouthpawThe VanishingTyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage CounselorArriving Nov. 25
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The Creature Cases: Season 2 — Netflix FamilyCrime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields — Netflix DocumentaryRomesh Ranganathan: The Cynic — Netflix ComedyArriving Nov. 30
A Man of Action — Netflix FilmMy Name Is Vendetta — Netflix FilmThe Lost Patient — Netflix FilmSnack vs. Chef — Netflix SeriesTake Your Pills: Xanax — Netflix DocumentaryWhat’s leaving Netflix in November 2022
Leaving Nov. 1
From Dusk Till Dawn: Seasons 1-3Mossad 101: Seasons 1-2Leaving Nov. 11
If Anything Happens I Love YouLeaving Nov. 13
Leaving Nov. 14
America’s Next Top Model: Seasons 21-22Survivor: Season 16: MicronesiaSurvivor: Season 37: David vs. GoliathLeaving Nov. 15
SuffragetteThe Green InfernoLeaving Nov. 18
Donald Glover: WeirdoGoosebumps: Seasons 1-4Goosebumps: SpecialsLeaving Nov. 30
Bridget Jones’s BabyCluelessThe Color PurpleHancockHe’s Just Not That Into YouInk Master: Seasons 3-4Knight Rider 2000Knight Rider: Seasons 1-4Stargate SG-1: Seasons 1-10
