NicThic announces Banjo feature film

After months of speculation, NicThic Productons has officially confirmed that it is moving forward with a full-length animated feature film of Banjo the Woodpile Cat, based on the 1979 short of the same name by Don Bluth. Fox's Island directors D.A. Nichols and Abbey Thickson have signed on to direct the film, with Audel LaRoque, Erica Rivinoja, Mike Reiss, and Douglas Langdale writing the script.

The original short, directed by Don Bluth, and produced by Bluth, Gary Goldman, and John Pomeroy, was first made in November 1979. The original short was considered to become a feature-length film, which included a villain named Rocko. Due to the darker elements not strengthening the storyline, the filmmakers kept it as a short.

The idea of a feature-length film was later brought to Nichols and Thickson's attention in January 2009 while they were working on Pinkalicious. During a discussion, Nichols said, "Me and Abbey have been huge fans of Don Bluth's projects, and there was one that has been left out from them all."

"Banjo needs some more attention, so it would be really cool to see him come back to the big screen." said Thickson.

Nichols added, "We really want the film to transcend generations among all the Bluth fans out there."

A new storyline was made by Nichols, who developed Thickson's concept into it before pitching it to NicThic, which was described by him as "a modernized version of Rabbit's Night Out".