Netflix's 'Swapped': Jordan & Temple in Animated Body-Swap Comedy
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- "Swapped" is a Netflix animated body-swap comedy directed by Nathan Greno, whose other major credit is co-directing Disney's "Tangled," and it features voice performances by Michael B. Jordan and Juno Temple.
- Michael B. Jordan voices Ollie, a Pookoo (sea otter-like creature), and Juno Temple voices Ivy, a Javan (kākāpō-like bird); the two end up in each other's bodies after touching a "magic glowing lavender pod that turns you into whatever animal you last said out loud."
- Tracy Morgan voices Boogle, a purple-blue grouper-like fish with a multicolored seaweed back, and Variety argues the character "gives the film a spark" and deserves his own sequel.
- The film's world includes surreal hybrids—tree wolves with leafy red branches, a fire-wolf villain, and giant moving tree-beasts called the Dzo—with Variety calling the landscape "visually ravishing" and a world that "lingers in the mind's eye."
- Variety frames the plot as "an ecological parable of rival animal groups learning to work together," noting the Pookoo and Javan are "jostling for resources" after the Javan began consuming the Pookoo's staple piplet bean pods.
- Greno's film is described as "tailored to an extremely young audience" and "a woodland fairy tale for seven-year-olds," with Variety judging the story "simple to a fault" but "actually rather touching."
Why it matters: Netflix gets a visually ambitious family-animated feature from a director with Pixar-tier Disney pedigree (Greno co-directed "Tangled"), aimed squarely at the under-10 demo. For the streamer's animation pipeline, a Morgan scene-stealer with sequel potential and a distinctive creature world give "Swapped" merchandising and franchise hooks beyond the body-swap gimmick that Variety says is thin.
