Chris O’Dowd joins cast of Irish studio Cartoon Saloon’s Netflix film My Fathers Dragon

Chris O'Dowd, Whoopie Goldberg and Alan Cumming are among the all-star cast who will be voicing characters for Cartoon Saloon’s next animated project for Netflix, My Father's Dragon.

Since its first full length feature in 2009, Kilkenny studio Cartoon Saloon has proved itself to be one of the foremost animation studios in the world. Their first four feature length works The Secret of Kells (2009), The Song of the Sea (2014), The Breadwinner (2017), and Wolfwalkers(2020) all received Academy Award nominations for Best Animated Feature.

My Father’s Dragon is based on the Newbery Honour book of the same name by Ruth Stiles Gannett.

An official synopsis of the film’s plot reads: "Struggling to cope after a move to the city with his mother, Elmer runs away in search of Wild Island and a young dragon who waits to be rescued. Elmer's adventures introduce him to ferocious beasts, a mysterious island and the friendship of a lifetime."

"Our actors, animators, and artists at Cartoon Saloon have worked together to craft this film, inspired by Ruth Stiles Gannett’s amazing book," says the film's Oscar nominated director and Cartoon Saloon co-founder Nora Twomey.

"We were drawn together by a desire to tell a very special tale of friendship, adventure, and true bravery. I fell in love with storytelling as a child and Netflix excels at celebrating all kinds of stories, through different styles and distinct voices. This has given me the opportunity to look through a beautiful lens and I am excited to share what I see with our audience around the world."

The film's screenplay was penned by Inside Out and Captain Marvel screenwriter Meg LeFauve.

The films cast includes Jacob Tremblay, Gaten Matarazzo, Golshifteh Farahani, Dianne Wiest, Rita Moreno, Chris O’Dowd, Judy Greer, Alan Cumming, Yara Shahidi, Jackie Earle Haley, Mary Kay Place, Leighton Meester, Spence Moore II, Adam Brody, Charlyne Yi, Maggie Lincoln, Jack Smith, Whoopi Goldberg, and Ian McShane.

My Fathers Dragon is just one of several upcoming animated projects for Netflix including Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion animated Pinocchio and Aardman Studio’s claymation sequel Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.

In other news, Netflix stock fell by 26% on Wednesday after the company announced that it had an overall loss of subscribers for the first time in over a decade. Rising inflation, the war in Ukraine, and growing competition were all said to have contributed to the 200,000 subscriber loss.