Sly Cooper Movie Announced

The original Sly Cooper series of games (Thievius Raccoonus, Band of Thieves, Honor Among Thieves) is my favorite game series of all time. Not because they’re the best games I’ve played or anything, but because they’re the games that got me where I am today. Without the Sly Cooper games, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now, which is the best job I’ve ever had. I just thought you guys should know that as we go into this news about a Sly Cooper movie.

Kotaku is reporting that a movie based on the Sucker Punch franchise is currently in production and is scheduled for a 2016 release. The film is being written and directed by Kevin Munroe, best known for writing and directing TMNT from 2007, with animation being handled by Rainmaker Entertainment (they made Escape from Planet Earth) and Blockade Entertainment (I don’t know who the fuck these guys are). These two companies are also the ones working on the Ratchet & Clank movie that was announced almost a year ago and that we didn’t report on because we’re bad at our jobs.

From the description on the film’s Facebook page, it looks like the movie will be based on the first game in the series, with Sly and the gang fighting Clockwerk and (presumably) the Fiendish Five to get back the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus, an ancient text detailing all of the Cooper Clan’s master thieving techniques…

Sly Cooper is a kinetic and comedic heist film that tells the story of Sly Cooper, an orphaned raccoon thief, along with his childhood friends and partners in crime, Bentley Turtle and Murray Hippo. In the film, Sly learns of his birth family’s secret legacy; that he comes from a long line of talented and international thieves. Endowed with this knowledge, Sly and his friends are catapulted into a global adventure as they race to reassemble pieces of an ancient book holding The Cooper Clan’s family secrets before it can fall into the hands of Clockwerk – an evil Russian metallic owl bent on ending the Cooper family line. From romantic Parisian backdrops to the lush mountains of China, gritty film noir meets bright, colorful graphic novels in this origin story of the world’s greatest thief-turned-hero.

While it isn’t mentioned on the Facebook page or in the trailer, I’ve read that Carmelita Fox will be in the movie.

From the trailer it sounds like Bentley and Murray’s voice actors are reprising their roles for the film, but they got new blood for Sly. In the games Sly is voiced by Kevin Miller, but in the film he will be voiced by Ian James Corlett, best known for playing Goku in Dragon Ball Z. Maybe it’s because I’ve been away from the games for so long, seeing as how I sold my PS2 a long time ago and don’t own a PS3 to play the HD collection, but I don’t think the change is that bad. I actually think it’s pretty good. Don’t get me wrong, Kevin Miller will always be Sly Cooper and I have no idea why he won’t be coming back for this role, but Corlett sounds good as Sly. It’s different but it still feels like Sly, if you know what I mean.

But the thing that most people are getting all kerfuffled about is the art style. Rainmaker and Blockade have ditched the much loved cel-shaded graphic novel look of Sly in favor of something else. Personally, I’m iffy on it. Sly looks pretty good, but being able to see Bentley’s eyes with his glasses on is a little disconcerting to me and Murray looks fucking terrifying. It looks like they were trying to go for more realistic proportions with his face and it just doesn’t fit with the rest of the world. The animation itself looks really good, though.

While I’m hesitant to say that I’m looking forward to this movie, I can’t say I’m not looking forward to it. What little has been released has some promise to it, and it could turn out pretty good. Hopefully they change the look of Murray, though. Seriously, that shit is nightmare fuel.

Sly Cooper is scheduled for release in 2016.