Netflix Drops Official Trailer for ‘The Twits,’ Bringing Roald Dahl’s Terrible Twosome to Animated Life

Once upon a time, there were two terrible Twits…

In the new official trailer released today, audiences are introduced to Netflix’s animated adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Twits — an uproarious adventure that makes the despicable characters bigger and badder than ever. Written, directed and produced by Phil Johnston (Ralph Breaks the Internet; Zootopia, Wreck-It Ralph) and featuring new music by David Byrne and Hayley Williams, the CG feature premieres October 17.

“I still can’t quite believe that I spent the last few years collaborating with David Byrne, a musical hero of mine since I was 13,” Johnston told TUDUM. “From the first demo he sent me, on which the featured instrument was a 100-year-old banjolele, I knew I was going to love the songs he wrote. Throughout the process, my collaboration with David has been incredibly fun and surprisingly easy, probably because I’ve been stealing from him for so long. When David and I started talking about an end credit song, the first potential collaborator David brought up was Hayley Williams. The first word I said was ‘yes.’ Followed by ‘please.’ I still can’t quite believe that two of my favorite songwriters wrote a song together for The Twits. The saying, ‘never meet your heroes’ simply does not apply here. I met two of them, and boy howdy, it’s been a dream come true.”

Synopsis: The Twits tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Twit, the meanest, smelliest, nastiest people in the world who also happen to own and operate the most disgusting, most dangerous, most idiotic amusement park in the world, Twitlandia. But when the Twits rise to power in their town, two brave children and a family of magical Muggle-Wumps, are forced to become as tricky as the Twits in order to save the city. A hysterically funny, wild ride of a film (chock-full of the Twits’ beloved tricks — from the Wormy Spaghetti to the Dreaded Shrinks), The Twits is also a story for our times, about the never-ending battle between cruelty and empathy.

The voice cast is led by Margo Martindale (The Americans, The Sticky), Johnny Vegas (Benidorm, Bleak House), Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Never Have I Ever, Freakier Friday) and Ryan Lopez (Primos, Phineas and Ferb) with Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) and Natalie Portman (Black Swan, Fountain of Youth), Timothy Simons (Nobody Wants This, Veep), Nicole Byer (Long Story Short, Why Won’t You Date Me?), Jason Mantzoukas (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Big Mouth), Alan Tudyk (Andor, Superman), Mark Proksch (What We Do in the Shadows, Better Call Saul), Rebecca Wisocky (Ghosts, Devious Maids) and Charlie Berens (Green and Gold).

Johnston was joined at the helm by co-directors Katie Shanahan (Centaurworld) and Todd Demong (head of story, The Addams Family 2019), working with the screenplay by Meg Favreau (The Ladder, Hot Dog Steering Wheel) and Johnston. The animation was produced as one of the last projects by Jellyfish Pictures (The Boss Baby, The Bad Guys).

“On behalf of the massive gaggle of weirdos who made this movie, we can’t wait for the world to meet our strange, ugly baby,” Johnston added.

Read more about the making of The Twits in Animation Magazine‘s feature story here.