Abominable

Abominable is a 2019 animated adventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation and Pearl Studio, written and directed by Jill Culton and co-directed by Todd Wilderman. It stars the voices of Chloe Bennet, Albert Tsai, Tenzing Norgay Trainor, Eddie Izzard, Sarah Paulson, and Tsai Chin. The film follows a teenage girl named Yi (Bennet) who encounters a young Yeti on the roof of her apartment building in Shanghai, names him Everest and embarks on an epic quest to reunite the magical creature with his family at the highest point on Earth along with her mischievous friends Jin (Trainor) and Peng (Tsai), but the trio of friends will have to stay one-step ahead of Burnish (Izzard), a wealthy man intent on capturing a Yeti, and zoologist Dr. Zara (Paulson) to help Everest get home. The film was announced in 2010 as Everest. By 2016, Culton passed on the project after being replaced by Tim Johnson and Todd Wilderman but eventually rejoined in February 2018. DreamWorks announced in December 2016 that the film would be released on September 2019, with Pearl Studio producing the film. The cast were announced between March and June 2018. In May 2018, DreamWorks changed the title to Abominable. The music in the film was scored by Rupert Gregson-Williams. Abominable premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2019, and was released by Universal Pictures in the United States on September 27 while Pearl Studio distributed the film in China. The film received generally positive reviews from critics for its animation and grossed over $188 million worldwide on a production budget of $75 million. In Southeast Asia, Abominable has garnered controversy for a scene involving a map of the region with the nine-dash line, a contested demarcation line used by China to lay claim over a portion of the South China Sea. Due to this, the film has been banned in several countries involved in territorial disputes with China over the South China Sea—namely, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia.