Take a look at Car­toon Saloon’s new ani­mat­ed fea­ture My Father’s Dragon

In a world with Hayao Miyaza­ki large­ly inac­tive and Amer­i­can ani­ma­tion for the most part in the toi­let, the wily and won­der­ful cre­ations from Ireland’s pre­mier pro­duc­tion house Car­toon Saloon have risen to the top of the house­hold-name main­stream. Their loose tril­o­gy of Wolfwalk­ers, The Secret of Kells, and Song of the Sea pro­pelled the inde­pen­dent upstarts to glob­al recog­ni­tion, but their next film has more in com­mon with their oth­er (yet no less well-fet­ed) fea­ture, The Bread­win­ner.

That film’s direc­tor Nora Twom­ey will take the helm on the lat­est Car­toon Saloon joint, an adap­ta­tion of the children’s book My Father’s Drag­on. A press release from Net­flix, in their first-time part­ner­ship with the ani­ma­tion pow­er­house, announced that Twom­ey will move for­ward with a script from Inside Out scribe Meg LeFauve.

Ruth Stiles Gannett’s orig­i­nal book fol­lows a boy by the unfor­tu­nate name of Elmer, who’s hav­ing trou­ble adjust­ing to city life after he and his moth­er move to a home in an unfa­mil­iar urban set­ting. Reject­ing these changes, he runs away from home as only kids can and sets a course to Wild Island, a won­drous land of beasts and enchant­ment where a spe­cial drag­on wait for Elmer to res­cue him and become best friends.

An expect­ed­ly stacked sta­ble of vocal tal­ent will help bring this sto­ry to the screen, with Jacob Trem­blay lend­ing his pipes to the role of Elmer. He’ll be joined by a mas­sive ensem­ble includ­ing Ian McShane, Whoopi Gold­berg, Rita Moreno, Gol­shifteh Fara­hani, Alan Cum­ming, Judy Greer, Chris O’Dowd, Yara Shahi­di, Jack­ie Ear­le Haley, Mary Kay Place, and Dianne Wiest.

With the out­put of Car­toon Saloon, the aes­thet­ic – cozy and wild, mys­ti­cal and home­spun, child­like yet sophis­ti­cat­ed – is a main part of the draw, and Twomey’s involve­ment is an encour­ag­ing sign. The Bread­win­ner earned her an Acad­e­my Award nom­i­na­tion for her gor­geous ren­der­ing of Kab­ul under Tal­iban rule, and her impuls­es toward fan­ta­sy should run even freer in this more sweet­ly inno­cent project. A sched­ule for release has yet to be set for My Father’s Drag­on, but ani­ma­tion enthu­si­asts should be sure to keep an eye on this one.