‘Stray’ film will be a combination of “comedy” and “hopepunk”, says Annapurna

Annapurna Animation has announced that Stray is being adapted into animated film that will become “the first and greatest hopepunk movie that’s ever been made”.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, co-heads of animation Andrew Millstein and Robert Baird shared Stray is only the first of multiple adaptations in the works with Annapurna Animation.

As well as its “emotional” narrative and the “inherent comedy” of its two central characters, there was another straightforward reason why the studio picked Stray for its first video game adaptation.

“It is just wildly popular,” replied Millstein. “People engage in the game for a variety of reasons, and I think for us at Annapurna, working with different creative people, it’s a puzzle.”

“What is it about this game that is so popular? Then the question is, how do you adapt a game into longform storytelling that is incredibly respectful to the game itself and the audiences, but then also is film worthy?” he explained.

Baird elaborated that developer BlueTwelve Studios described Stray as an example of the “hopepunk” concept. While there are no humans in the game, the story is told through interactions between a lost cat and the robots that reside in a strange city.

“I love that term, hopepunk,” he continued. “I think, if we are going to do this adaptation justice, this is going to be the first and greatest hopepunk movie that’s ever been made.”

NME awarded Stray three out of five stars in its review, paying particular praise to the worldbuilding and art direction, though there were more than a handful of missed opportunities.

“I wish Stray could have been more experimental and less linear, and I hope BlueTwelve gets the chance to expand this clearly ripe world in a more thoughtful direction,” said Jordan Oloman.

In other gaming news, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom team might be thinking about building a new Hyrule for future Zelda games, as they “have done all [they] can do to create play in that world”.