B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations (partially found unreleased DreamWorks Animation film; 2015)

The logo for the film.

Status: Partially Found

B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations is an American CGI action comedy film made by DreamWorks Animation and directed by Tony Leondis (best known for directing the films Lilo & Stitch 2, Igor and The Emoji Movie). According to an official description on a piece of merchandise for the film, the film would have followed ghosts Jackson Moss and Watts, who both join the titular Bureau of Otherworldly Operations (after Jackson's life was taken after saving two children from a giant rolling cookie), which is an organization dedicated to protecting living humans from hauntings by evil ghosts known as "Haunters". While working in the B.O.O., the two uncover a plot from the agency's "Most Wanted Haunter" that plans to destroy the organization with his ghost army, under the alliance of "SKARE". The two must work together and face off against the haunter's army in order to save all of ghostkind and humankind.^[1]

While the film was initially set to be released on June 5th, 2015, DreamWorks decided to move the release date seven months back to November 2014 in order to avoid competition with Pixar's Inside Out, before ultimately removing it from the release schedule entirely in order to find a different release date.^[2] While the film was speculated to have been pushed back to a 2016 release date, it was ultimately never added back into Dreamworks' release schedule. While there has been no official announcement on the status of the film, the lack of information on it since 2015 (along with DreamWorks removing the official website for it in late 2019) strongly indicates that the film was quietly cancelled and will almost certainly never see the light of day.

Avaliable Footage

On September 10th, 2016, Nayoun Kim Charoenchai uploaded an animation reel on Vimeo, that showed 20 seconds of B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations footage.

On January 17th, 2017, former animation supervisor Alexis Wanneroy uploaded an animation reel on his Vimeo account that included footage from B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations. On January 29th, 2019, Wanneroy uploaded another animation reel on his Vimeo account that showed most of the same footage from the previous reel, with the only notable difference being a small clip that had an unfinished render, and another cancelled DreamWorks film titled Larrikins. On February 9th, 2019, Wanneroy uploaded a pre-production reel that showed more animation from both cancelled movies. In June of the same year, Twitter user Art of Lost and Cancelled Media uploaded a compilation video of clips taken from the two reels that showed footage from both movies.^[3] Wanneroy's combined animation reels contain 46 seconds of footage from B.O.O., with around 24 seconds of that footage appearing to be from final renders.

On February 15th, 2017, Jon Gutman uploaded a previs rough layout reel on Vimeo, which included 2 minutes of B.O.O. footage (though without audio, having been overdubbed with the score of the Pixar short film "The Blue Umbrella").

On September 15th, 2022, animator Sébastien Wojda uploaded an animation reel that was originally made in 2019. The reel included clips from various cancelled DreamWorks projects, including B.O.O., Larrikins, and Me and My Shadow. The reel contains exactly one minute of animation clips from B.O.O., none of which are final renders.

At unknown dates, animator Maciej Gliwa added a fully-rendered clip from B.O.O. on his personal portfolio website (although Maciej removed it sometime in January 2023), and Kirsh Bauman uploaded an animation demo reel solely dedicated to B.O.O., also on his own website.

On April 12th, 2024, Internet Archive user "Spectre Solaire" uploaded the entire PDFs of The Art of B.O.O., and B.O.O. 101, books that were intended to be released alongside the movie (and are somehow still remaining on the Amazon website, perpetually unavailable for purchase), which also features various stills of the feature in varying states of completion, including finalized, previs, and storyboards. The original Internet Archive links for "The Art of B.O.O" and "B.O.O 101" have since been taken down, although both have been uploaded as MEGA files.

Despite more footage and production material from B.O.O. finding its way online over the years, as of 2024, the total amount of footage found for this film is just over 6 minutes long, and exactly 95 seconds of that footage is shown to have final or near-final renders, which is clearly far from all the material made for the film. While B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations appears to have been cancelled fairly late in development (as indicated by multiple shots having final or near-final renders, along with the apparent production of merchandise for the film), it is unclear just how much of the film was complete before its cancellation.

Voice Cast

Seth Rogen - Jackson Moss
Melissa McCarthy - Alexandra Graham "Watts" Watson
Jennifer Coolidge - Carole Sue Nivens D'Onofrio
Octavia Spencer - Captain Gloria Book
Aubrey Plaza - Juliana Jett
Yul Vazquez - Raul Rivera
Benjamin Stockham - Henry Moss
Rashida Jones - Amy, Moss's ex-wife
Matt Bomer - Gary, Amy's newlywed
Bill Murray - Addison "Mr. Ekard" Drake
John Hoffman - Off-The-Rails Oscar
Tim Durkin - Wet Willie
Kenan Thompson - Gooball Greg
Ben Falcone - Smelvin
Damon Jones - Ronnie Pesterman
Rachel Pace - Twisting Sister Tina
Amanda Pace - Twisting Sister Tatum

Gallery

Merchandise

RP Mini Product. "Hauntlet Mini Flashlight"
A cover for an activity book for the film.
A promotional poster for the film.
B.O.O. branded beach towel, featuring renders of Henry, Smelvin, and Drake with his dog Lionel.
Front of tag for B.O.O. branded beach towel.
Back of tag for B.O.O. branded beach towel.