With her time on Modern Family drawing to a close Golden Globe-nominated Colombian actress Sofia Vergara is lining up new projects and one of them will see her voice a “wicked coral snake” in the animated adventure film Koati.
Koati, named after the raccoon-like creatures found in Central and South America (the real animal is spelled with a “c”), follows three animal friends (a coati, butterfly, and glass frog) as they traverse the Amazon rainforest to stop Vergara’s evil snake character. Vergara is executive producing the animated comedy which is written by Ligiah Villalobos and being directed by Rodrigo Pérez Castro. Castro is a Mexican-Canadian filmmaker who previously worked as a story artist for animated features like The Book of Life, Ferdinand and Rio 2.
When asked about the project Vergara elaborated on the fact that Koati will showcase “the magical realism of the Latin American jungles.” Casting is still underway to find the rest of the voice actors.
Koati certainly has promise, especially if it retains the 2D animation style Timeless Films CEO Ralph Kamp mentioned. Hand-drawn animation has taken a severe backslide in the wake of CGI, so Koati could stand out in comparison to the works of Pixar and Dreamworks on that fact alone. The film sounds like a solid adventure in the vein of Castro’s previous feature, Rio 2, and in the wake of Coco, a movie that heavily played up its Latin American setting, winning the Best Animated Feature, the emphasis on magical realism and showcasing a different element of Latin America sounds intriguing. Vergara has done voice work in the past, most notably The Smurfs and Happy Feet Two, so it should be fun to hear her play a villain.
There’s no set release date or any additional information on when Koati will hit theaters.