The New Leo Trailer Gives Adam Sandler His Best Role Yet: An Old Lizard
Opera Man. Barry Egan. Billy Madison. Happy Gilmore. Dracula. Howard Ratner. Leo the Lizard??
If that last name doesn't sound familiar to you, it might very soon. As you can likely tell from the names preceding it, Adam Sandler has portrayed an impressively large number of memorable characters on-screen throughout his career. Although he's most well-known for his comedies (resulting in his being lauded when he takes on a dramatic project such as "Punch Drunk Love" or "Uncut Gems"), even a cursory glance at Sandler's resumé reveals his impressive range of projects in a variety of genres and mediums.
One of those mediums is animation, as best seen in "Eight Crazy Nights" or his successful "Hotel Transylvania" franchise. This November, Sandler hopes Leo the Lizard will become his newest triumph within the medium, when "Leo" premieres on Netflix. "Leo" isn't a mere voice acting gig for Sandler, either; he's a co-writer of the film along with Paul Sado and Robert Smigel, and his old "Saturday Night Liv"e cohort Smigel co-directs with Robert Marianetti and David Wachtenheim, the three of whom were primarily responsible for "SNL's" old "TV Funhouse" segments.
While voicing a lizard gives Sandler license to do another one of his signature funny voices (which the film's trailer ably demonstrates), "Leo" holds some promise to be a little deeper and more heartfelt than the average animated comedy aimed at kids, as the titular 74-year-old lizard learns he's nearing the end of his life and wishes to impart some of his wisdom to a younger generation.
Check out the Leo trailer here
In "Leo," the lizard isn't looking to mentor his fellow reptiles — in fact, the turtle he shares an elementary school terrarium with, Squirtle (voiced by Bill Burr) isn't exactly his best pal. Instead, Leo hopes to help out the human children he encounters when he's taken out of the terrarium and brought to human homes as part of a science study. As if that weren't enough pathos, Leo only comes to be a teacher figure to the kids by accident, as his initial goal is to spend his last year alive by escaping into the outside world and exploring all that he's missed by living most of his life inside a terrarium in a 5th-grade classroom.
Of course, the biggest comedic wrinkle within "Leo" isn't his fish out of water — er, lizard out of terrarium — encounters with things like a Roomba, but the fact that he can talk and humans can understand him. This appears to be a secret ability that reptiles keep from humans; does this apply to all animals? Are there "Toy Story" rules at play here? All we know from the trailer is that Leo shouts, "People can't know!!" before carrying on about his "moist" hands, so perhaps it's more of a guideline than a rule. Although "Leo" appears to be a generally charming all-ages affair, there seem to be some intriguing layers baked into the premise, and Sandler has continually proven that he contains depth as an artist and an actor.
We'll have to see if Sandler, Smigel, and their collaborators blend in as much heart as they do bug-eating when "Leo" premieres on Netflix on November 21, 2023.